Lusine MAI)ОYAN Yerevan State University

ON SOME PSYCHOLINGUISTIC AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF BILINGUALISM

Both sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics are relatively recent areas of study and they tend to overlap. Psycholinguistics is interested in when, how and why the individual or the community uses language. Sociolinguistics gives priority to the social context in which the native language or the foreign language is used. One way in which they overlap is in the selection of topics, among them bilingualism- a topic which has been studied from many perspectives. Different people use the term bilingualism in different ways. For some, it means an equal ability to communicate in two languages. For nl hers, bilingualism means the ability to communicate in two languages I >ul with the possibility of greater skills in one language. Below we would like to give definitions of bilingualism by some prominent linguists. “In ... cases where ... perfect foreign-language learning is not ICCOmpanied by loss of the native language, it results in bilingualism, hnlive-like control o f two languages” /Bloomfield, 1935: 55-56/. “The practice of alternatively using two languages will be called ... Kllngualism, and the persons involved bilingual” /Weinreich, 1953:5/. "Milingualism is the condition in which two living languages exist ulili' by side in a country, each spoken by one national group, representing I flllrly large proportion of the people” /Aucamp, 1926; Beziers; Van llvnbeke, 1968: 113/. As we can see these definitions are very vague and give rise to many ijMttMions. I bus, defining bilingualism is problematic, since individuals with VWS 1пц bilingual characteristics may be classified as bilingual. Plflllitions of bilingualism range from a minimal proficiency in two ■lyiliiftcS' to an advanced level of proficiency, which allows the speaker hi flinclion and appear as a native-like speaker of two languages. Some may describe themselves as bilingual but may mean only the Wllty to converse and communicate orally. Others may be proficient in

27 reading in two or more languages (or bi-literate). A person may be bilingual by virtue of having grown up learning and using two languages simultaneously (simultaneous bilingualism), or they may become bilingual by learning a second language sometime after their first language. This is known as sequential bilingualism. As mentioned above, there are two major patterns in bilingual language acquisition: simultaneous bilingualism and sequential bilingualism. In simultaneous bilingualism, the child acquires two languages at the same time before the age of 3 years. These children may mix words or parts of words from both languages in the first stage. For example, an Armenian child raised in Russia may mix the two languages and instead of saying ’ynkav’ (pbl/шф or 'upal ’ (упал) use the incorrect form 'upav' (упав) thus combining the two synonymous words in different languages into one word, or we may come across the form] 'kerelel em' (l]bpb[b[ bit). Unfortunately such mistakes are made not only by children but also by many adults. Mistakes connected with the category of number are quite common in our society, e.g. 'bu/ulj/ibbp’\ (naskiner), 'pjibubp' (jeanser), ‘w ^ fib b p ’ (achkiner), etc. The given examples illustrate a common type of linguistic interference, where the] word of one language is used in the grammatical form of the other] (‘носки’, ‘очки’ in Russian and ‘jeans’ in English are already plural] forms). There may be also phonetic mistakes, for example an Armenian] child brought up in Russia may find it difficult to pronounce such sounds] as 'p\ 'i j ', 'S’ ... and is likely to use 'n\ 'Ju\ instead. | Stage 2 occurs at 4 years and older when distinction betweenl the two languages takes place, and the child uses each language separately. Sequential bilingualism also occurs before the child is 31 years old, but the child can draw on the knowledge and experience! of the first language while acquiring the second language. Many outstanding linguists, such as E. M. Vereshchagin, Chi Osgood, S. Ervin, differentiate the following types of bilingualism: 1. mixed (when in the same speech situation the person used different languages) and not mixed (when the speaker uses onlyl one of the languages for each particular situation) ! 2. individual, group or social 3. coordinate and subordinate, when the second language id acquired on the bases of the structural characteristics of the firsJ 28 language (according to some linguists this is the result of the grammar-translational teaching method). 4. receptive - the person can only understand die foreign language (passive bilingualism)/Е. Haugen, 1958:4/, reproductive - he can only produce the foreign language and productive, when he can use it creatively /Arakelyan, 2007: 172/. Learning a language and becoming bilingual is also about learning and living in different societies and cultures. It is not just about acquiring a new language, but also about understanding another culture and developing another identity. In virtually every country in the world at the inception of the 21s1 century, linguistic minorities can be found. This situation is also true of Armenia. Armenian is the only official language of our country even though Russian is widely used, especially in education, and could be considered as de facto "second language". During the Soviet period Russian was very widespread in our country, l just as it was in all the republics of the former USSR) and the knowledge Armenians. The problems of Russian-Armenian bilingualism were of prime interest for the linguists of Armenia, as till 1990 the Russian language was widely applied alongside with the Armenian language. Almost ИГ» of the Armenian population was fluent in Russian /Esadjanyan, 1999/. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the linguistic situation in \imcnia changed a lot and Russian, although remaining quite common in him society, is yielding its place to English, and schools with a Russian I'M-, arc being displaced by those with an English bias. So the next stage ■ •I piesent-day development in Armenia requires study of English at all miIik utional institutions, beginning with the kindergarten and nursery and, ...... I'spondingly, in-depth research on the processes and peculiarities of I nglish-Armenian or Armenian-English bilingualism. The latter is of Hllnnst significance for Armenians because of globalization processes in i iimng nowadays. Itilingual education can be defined as an educational programme in wlili li two languages are used to provide instruction. I lie educationalists have developed some productive categories of ■ ■In. it ion programmes. 29 Immersion programmes promote additive bilingualism for majority language speakers. Although teaching is provided in the second language, the teacher knows and may use both languages. Submersion programmes are those where linguistic minorities are taught through the medium of the majority language with minimal or no support to enable learners to understand the language of instruction. Often the minority languages and cultures are not highly valued by the majority group. Maintenance programmes provide teaching in the first language in order to maintain the use of the home language and culture. These programmes are often allied to transitional bilingual education programmes where the learners gradually move towards the full use of the majority language. Transitional bilingual education programmes vary in the amount of first language instruction provided and the duration of die programme. Early exit programmes are where pupils move rapidly to major language only instruction, for example, within the first one or two years. Most bilingual education programmes have two goals; the acquisition of the language of the country and academic success; and the continuing development of the heritage language1 In recent years, researchers have been actively involved in studying bilingual acquisition and, although not all the research evidence is yet in, we now have a more detailed description of important aspects of bilingual development than previously. Concerning the question of how bilingualism affects language development, no final statements can be made. One extreme position, the balance theory, holds that each individual has only a certain amount of language learning ability and if it is divided between two languages, the knowledge of each language will be weaker. Some parents and child care professionals think that learning two languages in childhood is difficult and can result in delays in language development. But as the results of many research works show, children who have regular and rich exposure to both languages 0 11 a daily or weekly basis from parents and other caregivers exhibit the same milestones in language development and at roughly the same ages as monolingual children. It is important to remember that there are large individual differences in language acquisition — some children acquire their first words or use complex utterances much earlier than other children. Delay in the emergence of these milestones does not necessarily 30 mean that there is something seriously wrong; in most cases it simply means that the child has taken longer to reach this stage. The same kinds of differences are characteristic of bilingual children. The most successful second-language learners are the individuals, who can engage in frequent and ongoing linguistic and social interactions with native speakers. Another widely spread fallacy is that bilingual children have less exposure to each of their languages than monolingual children. As a result, they never master either language fully and, compared to monolingual children, they never become as proficient. In fact, bilingual children can acquire the same proficiency in all aspects of their two languages over time as monolingual children, even though they usually have less exposure to each language. Bilingual children acquire the same proficiency in the phonological and grammatical aspects of their two languages as monolingual children do in their one language, provided I hey are given regular and substantial exposure to each. Generally '.peaking, bilingual children's overall proficiency in each language 11-Meets the amount of time they spend in each. Parents can best ensure dial their children achieve full proficiency in both languages by providing Mih experiences with each and especially with the language that might Hhcrwise not get strong support in the extended community, i.e. the minority language. It is important in this regard that parents who do not Iм ак (he majority language of the community continue to use their unlive language so that they expose their child to varied and rich ways of tiilii|> language. It is also important for parents to maintain use of heritage liiiitMiages in the home because it is part of the family culture and an important part of the child's developing identity. It helps them feel unique Hiil connected to their families. \ specific bilingual situation should also be traced in Armenian I.iiihIk . living abroad, mainly in the USA. In great majority of such I h i i i i I u the mother tongue, Armenian, is spoken, while at school, mlli or university the students are immersed in English-language |ftv!rIran, Syria, Turkey, etc.) are individuals having acquired their ethnic and the majority's language to a rather "real "bilingual extent, i.e. they have good competences in both languages according to domains and linguistic settings. These Armenians use Armenian as means of in-group-communication in their Armenian linguistic community and as hearth-and-home variety, the other language might be used for basilectal functions as well as for mesolectal functions in non-Armenian and non-European/American but country of origin-in-group settings. This kind of bilingualism is also subject to language shift after emigration - only in a few cases can this bilingualism be maintained in the European/American majority. The problem of bilingual childrearing is of an utmost importance in the current linguistic situation of the Armenian Diaspora. As we know language is one of the main components of our culture and national identity and to retain it in the difficult situation of contemporary world, where everything and eveiyone seems to undergo globalization is a very hard task to handle.

32 Most immigrant parents want their children to be aware of their native cultural heritage since they will be raised in a country other than their homeland. There are many different methods of raising a bilingual child. A veiy popular method is known as “One Parent, One Language” in which one parent speaks to the child exclusively in the minority language, while the other uses only the local or majority language. Another popular method is “minority language at home”—using the minority language exclusively within the family with the idea that the child will learn the majority language by living in the countiy. The majority language is almost always dominant and it takes some courage to insist on speaking a foreign language when no one else in the outside environment understands you, and especially if the child does not seem to need this language in his/her daily life. Many parents worry that their children will experience confusion due lo exposure to two languages. Some believe that language delay is the result of this confusion. Several advice publications (e.g., Eisenberg, Murkoff, Hathaway, 1989) suggest that confusion can be avoided by using the above mentioned one-parent, one-language approach to bilingual childrearing. The results of many observations indicate that young bilingual • luldren go through three stages: 1) One lexical system for both languages 2) Separate lexical systems but the same syntactic rules !) Differentiation of two languages in lexicon and syntax Namely, the child has one lexical system which includes words from I".ih languages in the first stage. In the second stage, the child itlMinguishes two different lexicons but applies the same syntactic rules In holli languages. In the third stage, the child has two linguistic codes •iiiil speaks two languages differentiated both in lexicon and in syntax. Al some stage, most bilingual children use sounds and words from Itnlli languages in the same utterances or conversations even though the |u'M|ilc talking with them are using only one language. They mix words Until language X when using language Y because they do not know the rt|i|>n ipriale word in language Y, e.g. Я хочу ршр. Thus the main reason lui i luldren mixing, their languages in these ways is because they lack •tullii u ni vocabulary in one or both languages to express themselves 33 entirely in each language. Bilingual children may also use syntactic patterns from their stronger language to bootstrap into the grammar of their less proficient language. For example an American-Armenian bilingual child used: Ьи Цшргрш! bdq/ipp instead of the more accepted syntactic pattern bu q/ipp hil IpupqnLif. Here the child preferred the English syntactic structure SVO (1 am reading a book) to the more commonly used structure of the Armenian language SOV . Some parents and early childhood educators are concerned when they hear this because they believe that it means that the child is confused and cannot separate the two languages. Research shows that this is not true. It is normal for children growing up in bilingual communities to mix their languages extensively because they are simply learning the patterns of communication that are common in their community. If most people in the children's wider community use only one language, then there is probably no reason to worry about how much parents or children mix; the children will eventually learn the monolingual patterns. In any case, mixing languages is a natural and normal aspect of early bilingual acquisition, even among proficient adult bilinguals. Parents should not try to stop their children from mixing. Bilingual children will naturally stop doing it. unless of course mixing is a frequent form of language use in the community. A growing number of parents view bilingualism as a laudable family goal. The reasons for this trend include a desire to maintain ties to the parents’ heritage language and culture, to provide children with academic and cognitive advantages, and to promote cross-cultural understanding and communication. Yet research indicates that success in raising children to be bilingual remains the exception in many cases, as most children eventually become major language dominant or even monolingual. This is due at least in part to the high status of the major language and the limited number of opportunities available for children to leam languages other than that. Research also indicates that parents' beliefs, attitudes, and interactions with their children are important in helping children become bilingual /De Houwer, 1998; Lanza, 1997/. To our great relief, in many Armenian colonies strong efforts are made to maintain the Armenian language by language courses and the so- called Saturday schools, which are founded to help the Armenian immigrant parents with the hard task of educating ethnic Armenian 34 children and maintaining their national identity and language. The Armenian Church is playing a very important role in this tight. The Armenian language is even more endangered in those situations, where Armenian is only restricted to family talk. Lacking opportunities for use, the ethnic language will lose its vitality and attractiveness for coming generations. This is a very serious problem for our compatriots living in countries other than Armenia; a problem that can be solved only in case of multi-sided efforts.

NOTES

1 Heritage language may also indicate a language that is no longer widely spoken but is the language of an earlier generation of settlers, such us Armenian in parts of Turkey, which continues to be taught and iipported through language teaching, cultural, and religious activities.

REFERENCES

I Bialystok E. Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. De Houwer A. Environmental Factors in Early Bilingual Development: Hie Role of Parental Beliefs and Attitudes // Bilingualism and migration. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1998. i I)um-Tragut J. Armenians in Austria. Austria: Institut fer Sprachwissenschaft Graz, 1996. I I isenberg A., Murkoff H.. Hathaway S. What to Expect the First Year. New York: Workman. 1989. *• Hoffman Ch. An Introduction to Bilingualism. Cambridge: < ambridge University Press, 1991. »* I Intnik N. Ethnic Minority Identity: A Social Psychological Perspective. < Mold: Clarendon Press, 1991. I I an/a E. Language Mixing in Infant Bilingualism. New York: < Kford University Press, 1997. N I'cirossyan G. Bilingualism and Language Planning in Armenia. Yerevan: YSU Press, 2002.

35 9. Patterson J.L. Relationship of Expressive Vocabulary to Frequency of Reading and Television Experience among Bilingual Toddlers // Applied Psycholinguistics, 2002. 10. Rivers W. M. Speaking in Many Tongues. Harvard University, 1976. 11. UniupbuiuQ Як

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Jl. М АДОЯН - О некоторых социолингвистических и психолипгвис- тических аспектах двуязычия. - У психолингвистов и социолингвистов разное представление о проблеме двуязычия. Некоторые ученые опреде­ ляют двуязычие как умение пользоваться двумя языками как равноценны­ ми, другие же рассматривают двуязычие как умение пользоваться двумя языками, при котором владение одним из языков преобладает над другим. В данной статье рассматривается проблема двуязычия в Армении и ар­ мянской диаспоре с точки зрения психолингвистики и социолингвистики.