Pearson, B. "Social Factors in Childhood Bilingualism in the United States." Applied Psycholinguistics (2007): 399-410. Print.
This particular source answers the research question on why (i.e. what is the purpose) people consider to become bilingual. Establishing the fact that roughly a quarter of all children in most developed countries are now bilingual, the authors suggested that there are five social factors that influence an individual, or in this case a child to become bilingual and they are: social input, language status, family language use, access to literacy, and community support and schooling. Collectively, these factors determine whether an individual will decide on learning a second language or not.
Duursma, E., et al. "The role of home literacy and language environment on bilinguals' English and Spanish Vocabulary Development." Applied Psycholinguistics (2007): 171-190. Print.
Bialystok, E. "Language Acquisition and Bilingualism: Consequences for a Multilingual Society." Applied Psycholinguistics (2007): 393-397. Print.
Language has numerous functions aside from a social tool. It is a medium by which various human interactions take place, social positions get determined, and educational opportunities get defined. It is also a cognitive tool as it is used to communicate various concepts and ideas, especially in scenarios where problem solving skills and use of logical systems are necessary. The objective of this study was to speculate and investigate on the potential consequences of a bilingual society. According to the author of this paper, children who grew up as bilinguals will have a dramatically different environment compared to their monolingual counterparts and the presence of those differences would definitely have a significant impact on his or her cognitive, social, and linguistic development.
Parker, S., L. Rubalcava and G. Teruel. "Schooling Inequality and Language Barriers." Economic Development and Cultural Change (2005): 71-94. Print.
Marsh, D. and P. Mehisto. "Approaching the economic, cognitive, and health benefits of Bilingualism: Fuel for CLIL." Language Arts and Disciplines (2011): 21-25. Print.
Mejia, A. "Bilingual Education in Colombia: Towards a Recognition of Languages, Cultures, and Identities." Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal (2006): 152-168. Print.
In this paper, the author argued that bilingual language preferences exist just like how individual language preferences exist. For example, there are those who prefer to keep their native language and not learn a second language because of personal bias among other possible reasons. In the same manner, there are those who would prefer certain language combinations when it comes to the decision of becoming a bilingual. For Mexicans, for example, most people would tend to want to learn English as a second language (i.e. producing a bilingual Spanish English speaker). This, according to Mejia, distorts the equality among language and cultures represented in a certain country and appear to be one of the pressures that hold back the full growth of bilingualism.
Works Cited
Bialystok, E. "Language Acquisition and Bilingualism: Consequences for a Multilingual Society." Applied Psycholinguistics (2007): 393-397. Print.
Duursma, E., et al. "The role of home literacy and language environment on bilinguals' English and Spanish Vocabulary Development." Applied Psycholinguistics (2007): 171-190. Print.
Marsh, D. and P. Mehisto. "Approaching the economic, cognitive, and health benefits of Bilingualism: Fuel for CLIL." Language Arts and Disciplines (2011): 21-25. Print.
Mejia, A. "Bilingual Education in Colombia: Towards a Recognition of Languages, Cultures, and Identities." Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal (2006): 152-168. Print.
Parker, S., L. Rubalcava and G. Teruel. "Schooling Inequality and Language Barriers." Economic Development and Cultural Change (2005): 71-94. Print.
Pearson, B. "Social Factors in Childhood Bilingualism in the United States." Applied Psycholinguistics (2007): 399-410. Print.
