Final Words of Wisdom

Let yourself be intrigued and inspired by the these words from the Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education by Colin Baker and Sylvia Prys Jones and published by Multilingual Matters (www.multilingualmatters.com)!

Language Purism
[Language] purism has little to do with the pragmatic, instrumental aspect of language or with effective communication. People can communicate just as adequately in a community where codeswitching from one language to another is the norm, or when people’s speech is peppered with foreign borrowings. When people borrow words from a neighboring language for new objects or concepts, or adopt foreign phrases or idioms that appear to have a particular communicative force, they are facilitating communication, not hindering it. (Pages 217-218).

Integrative and Instrumental Attitudes
Two groups of attitudes are located in second language learning. One group concerns a wish to identify with, or join another language group. Learners may want to identify with a different language community, or join in with a second language group’s cultural activities, or form new friendships. Other students with negative attitudes to language learning may reject the second language culture and its people. The more a student admires the second language people and its culture, wants to read its literature, visit a particular area on holiday or find employment that requires a second language, the more successful the student is likely to be in learning that language. This is termed an integrative language attitude.
The second type of language attitude is called an instrumental attitude. This refers to learning a second language for useful, utilitarian purposes. Learners may want to acquire a second language to find a job, further their career prospects, pass exams, help fulfill the demands of a job, or assist their children in a bilingual education program.

Research on instrumental and integrative attitudes tends to find that integrative attitudes have a greater likelihood of aiding proficiency in the second language. (Page 176).

Language Learning vs Language Awareness
There is an important difference between language learning and language awareness. The traditional aim of language learning has been for learners to acquire an accurate knowledge of language, with the accent on correct grammar, spelling and pronunciation of a standard form of the language. Irrespective of whether the language is a first language, a second language or a foreign language, the accent in the school curriculum has been on accuracy and conformity to a standardized norm.

In the 1970s, language teachers adopted a different view of language to that of accuracy. They saw language, not as a pattern or structure, but as having different purposes or functions. A funtional approach to the study of language emphasizes the importance of using appropriate communication in varying contexts. The language to be used depends on whom a person is speaking to, on what occasion, where, and particularly for what purpose. Differences in context require different uses of language. There is the language of the shop, of science lessons, of the street, and of story telling. Whether students were studying their first language or learning a second or foreign language, the emphasis was on using contextually appropriate language.

In conjunction with this, the idea that bilinguals use their languages in different contexts and domains (as in the concept of diglossia) became important. A child might use Gujarati at home, Arabic in the Mosque, English at school and learn French as foreign language. A bilingual’s languages have different purposes and functions and are used in different contexts. (Page 628).

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