The Later Development of Bilingualism

The Later Development of Bilingualism

(Chapter 6)

People may learn many languages and become bilinguals or in any moment of their lives. The later development bilingualism happens when a person learns a second language and becomes proficient on it, after he or she acquires a first language. It responds to the sequential acquisition of languages where a child or adult speaks a language and then becomes proficient in other language. Learning a second language implies ideological, cultural or international, and individual reasons. No language learner or language instruction is isolated, they are surrounding by individual psychology and an effective second language instruction.

Each bilingual speaker has different ways to learn, and these may be informal or formal. However, the reasons why people learn a second language respond to societal and personal factors. The societal reasons are conceptualized by people’s interaction with other individuals or with a group of people, promoting intercultural understanding, and providing information among them, through assimilation and subtractive language. In contrast, individual reasons are more related to the individuals by helping them to lead intercultural sensitivity and awareness, cognitive development, and for social, emotional and moral development.

Aging is a debated theme in second language acquisition. Age impacts on second language learning and in the success to gain language proficiency. The critical period hypothesis suggests; “younger children have biological cognitive advantages for language learning that close as they enter adolescence and adulthood” (Becker, 2017, p. 117). However, there are others who tend that older children and young adults have advantages that may help them learn a language efficiently and quickly than young children.

In fact, aging is an important factor for second language learning, however, there are many outcomes that have to be considered in order to find out the reasons of bilinguals second language proficiency. We have to understand that individual attitudes and motivation, provides us an explanation for success or failure to learn a second language.

Later development bilingualism has many outcomes that improve or fail bilingual proficiency. Learning a second language may enrich knowledge of a person, however, there are many situations that have to be observed to success. Interacting in a second language shapes our identity.  

Reference

Baker, C.,& Wright, W. E. (2017). Foundation of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Pennsylvania: Multilingual Matters.