Editing Multilingualism (section)

==Acquisition==
{{main|Language acquisition|Language education|Second-language acquisition|Simultaneous bilingualism#Bilingual acquisition}}
One view is that of the [[linguistics|linguist]] [[Noam Chomsky]] in what he calls the human [[language acquisition device]]—a mechanism that enables a learner to recreate correctly the rules and certain other characteristics of language used by surrounding speakers.<ref name="Santrock">Santrock, John W. (2008). Bilingualism and Second-Language Learning. ''A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development (4th ed.)'' (pp. 330–335). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.</ref> This device, according to Chomsky, wears out over time, and is not normally available by [[puberty]], which he uses to explain the poor results some adolescents and adults have when learning aspects of a [[second language]] (L2).

If language learning is a [[Cognition|cognitive process]], rather than a language acquisition device, as the school led by [[Stephen Krashen]] suggests, there would only be relative, not categorical, differences between the two types of language learning.

[[Rod Ellis]] quotes research finding that the earlier children learn a second language, the better off they are, in terms of [[pronunciation]].{{efn|See the [[critical period hypothesis]].}} European schools generally offer secondary language classes for their students early on, due to the interconnectedness among neighboring countries with different languages. Most European students now study at least two foreign languages, a process strongly encouraged by the [[European Union]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.euractiv.com/culture/eu-students-learn-foreign-languages-study/article-185818|title= Most EU students learn two foreign languages: Study |date=28 September 2009 |website=EurActiv |access-date=8 May 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113012757/http://www.euractiv.com/culture/eu-students-learn-foreign-languages-study/article-185818 |archive-date= Jan 13, 2012 }}</ref>

Based on the research in Ann Fathman's ''The Relationship Between Age and Second Language Productive Ability'',<ref>{{cite journal | last=Fathman | first=Ann | title=The Relationship Between Age and Second Language Productive Ability | journal=Language Learning | publisher=Wiley | volume=25 | issue=2 | year=1975 | issn=0023-8333 | doi=10.1111/j.1467-1770.1975.tb00244.x | pages=245–253}}</ref> there is a difference in the rate of learning of English morphology, syntax and phonology based upon differences in age, but the order of acquisition in second language learning does not change with age.

In [[second language]] class, students commonly face difficulties in thinking in the target language because they are influenced by their native language and cultural patterns. Robert B. Kaplan believes that in second language classes, foreign students' papers may seem out of focus because the foreign student employs rhetoric and sequences of thought that violate the expectations of the native reader.<ref name="Kaplan">{{cite journal |last1=Kaplan |first1=Robert B. |title=Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education |journal=Language Learning |date=1966 |volume=16 |issue=1–2 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-1770.1966.tb00804.x }}</ref> Foreign students who have mastered syntactic structures have still demonstrated an inability to compose adequate themes, term papers, theses, and dissertations. Robert B. Kaplan describes two key words that affect people when they learn a second language. [[Logic]] in the popular, rather than the logician's sense of the word, is the basis of rhetoric, evolved out of a culture; it is not universal. [[Rhetoric]], then, is not universal either, but varies from culture to culture and even from time to time within a given culture.<ref name="Kaplan" /> Language teachers know how to predict the differences between pronunciations or constructions in different languages, but they might be less clear about the differences between rhetoric, that is, in the way they use language to accomplish various purposes, particularly in writing.<ref name="Gadda">{{cite book |last1=Gadda |first1=George |chapter=Writing and Language Socialization Across Cultures: Some Implications for the classroom |pages=43–56 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780801312823/page/43/ |editor1-last=Peitzman |editor1-first=Faye |editor2-last=Gadda |editor2-first=George |title=With Different Eyes: Insights into Teaching Language Minority Students Across the Disciplines |date=1994 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-8013-1282-3 }}</ref>

People who learn multiple languages may also experience [[Language transfer|positive transfer]] – the process by which it becomes easier to learn additional languages if the [[grammar]] or [[vocabulary]] of the new language is similar to those of the languages already spoken. On the other hand, students may also experience negative transfer – interference from languages learned at an earlier stage of development while learning a new language later in life.<ref>{{cite web|last=Pavlenko|first=Aneta|title=Can a second language help you learn a third?|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201506/can-second-language-help-you-learn-third|website=Psychology Today: Life as a Bilingual|date=2 June 2015|access-date=7 September 2016|archive-date=26 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426210029/https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/life-bilingual/201506/can-second-language-help-you-learn-third|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Translanguaging#Teachers|Translanguaging]] also supports the acquisition of new languages. It helps the development of new languages by forming connections from one language to another. Second language acquisition results in a lexical deficit.<ref name="Bylund-2023">{{Cite journal |last1=Bylund |first1=Emanuel |last2=Antfolk |first2=Jan |last3=Abrahamsson |first3=Niclas |last4=Olstad |first4=Anne Marte Haug |last5=Norrman |first5=Gunnar |last6=Lehtonen |first6=Minna |date=2023-06-01 |title=Does bilingualism come with linguistic costs? A meta-analytic review of the bilingual lexical deficit |url=https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02136-7 |journal=Psychonomic Bulletin & Review |language=en |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=897–913 |doi=10.3758/s13423-022-02136-7 |issn=1531-5320 |pmc=10264296 |pmid=36327027}}</ref>{{Explain|date=October 2023}}

===Receptive bilingualism===
{{Main|Passive speaker (language)}}
Receptive bilinguals are those who can understand a second language but who cannot speak it or whose abilities to speak it are inhibited by psychological barriers. Receptive bilingualism is frequently encountered among adult immigrants to the [[United States|U.S.]] who do not speak English as a native language but who have children who do speak English natively, usually in part because those children's education has been conducted in English; while the immigrant parents can understand both their native language and English, they speak only their native language to their children. If their children are likewise receptively bilingual but productively English-monolingual, throughout the conversation the parents will speak their native language and the children will speak English. If their children are productively bilingual, however, those children may answer in their parents' native language, in English, or in a combination of both languages, varying their choice of language depending on factors such as the communication's content, context or emotional intensity and the presence or absence of third-party speakers of one language or the other. The third alternative represents the phenomenon of "[[code-switching]]" in which the productively bilingual party to a communication switches languages in the course of that communication. Receptively bilingual persons, especially children, may rapidly achieve oral fluency by spending extended time in situations where they are required to speak the language that they theretofore understood only passively. Until both generations achieve oral fluency, not all definitions of bilingualism accurately characterize the family as a whole, but the linguistic differences between the family's generations often constitute little or no impairment to the family's functionality.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nakamura|first=Janice|date=2019-09-01|title=Receptive bilingual children's use of language in interaction|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349176664 |volume=18 |publisher=The Japanese Society for Language Sciences |journal=Studies in Language Sciences|pages=46–66|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122103522/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349176664_Receptive_bilingual_children's_use_of_language_in_interaction|archive-date=January 22, 2022|url-status=live}}</ref> Receptive bilingualism in one language as exhibited by a speaker of another language, or even as exhibited by most speakers of that language, is not the same as [[mutual intelligibility]] of languages; the latter is a property of a pair of ''languages'', namely a consequence of objectively high lexical and grammatical similarities between the languages themselves (e.g., Norwegian and Swedish), whereas the former is a property of one or more ''persons'' and is determined by subjective or intersubjective factors such as the respective languages' prevalence in the life history (including family upbringing, educational setting, and ambient culture) of the person or persons.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=spa |title=Ethnologue report for language code: spa |publisher=Ethnologue.com |access-date=2010-07-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418134038/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=spa |archive-date=18 April 2010 }}</ref>

===Order of acquisition===
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In [[sequential bilingualism]], learners receive literacy instruction in their native language until they acquire a "threshold" literacy proficiency. Some researchers use age three as the age when a child has basic communicative competence in their first language (Kessler, 1984).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hanen.org/web/Home/AboutHanen/NewsViews/OneLanguageorTwo/tabid/220/Default.aspx|title=One Language or Two? Home Language or Not? Some Answers to Questions about Bilingualism in Language-Delayed Children |last1=Weitzman|first1=Elaine |website=hanen.org|publisher=[[The Hanen Centre]]|access-date=8 May 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530230334/http://www.hanen.org/web/Home/AboutHanen/NewsViews/OneLanguageorTwo/tabid/220/Default.aspx|archive-date=30 May 2009}}</ref> Children may go through a process of sequential acquisition if they migrate at a young age to a country where a different language is spoken, or if the child exclusively speaks his or her heritage language at home until he or she is immersed in a school setting where instruction is offered in a different language.

In [[simultaneous bilingualism]], the native language and the community language are simultaneously taught. The advantage is literacy in two languages as the outcome. However, the teacher must be well-versed in both languages and also in techniques for teaching a second language.

The phases children go through during sequential acquisition are less linear than for simultaneous acquisition and can vary greatly among children. Sequential acquisition is a more complex and lengthier process, although there is no indication that non-language-delayed children end up less proficient than simultaneous bilinguals, so long as they receive adequate input in both languages.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gass|first=Susan M.|title=Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0805854985|language=english}}</ref>

A coordinate model posits that equal time should be spent in separate instruction of the native language and the community language. The native language class, however, focuses on basic literacy while the community language class focuses on listening and speaking skills. Being bilingual does not necessarily mean that one can speak, for example, English and French.

====Outcomes====
Research has found that the development of competence in the native language serves as a foundation of proficiency that can be transposed to the second language – the common underlying proficiency hypothesis.<ref>{{cite web |title=Developing Native Language Literacy in Language Minority Adults |url=https://www.ericdigests.org/1993/native.htm |website=ericdigests.org |access-date=24 February 2019 |language=en |archive-date=24 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190224062558/https://www.ericdigests.org/1993/native.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Trudell |first1=Barbara |title=Language choice, education and community identity |journal=International Journal of Educational Development |date=May 2005 |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=237–251 |doi=10.1016/j.ijedudev.2004.08.004 |url=http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/5099 |access-date=6 December 2019 |archive-date=19 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719163752/https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/5099 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}; cited in {{cite news |title=The perils of learning in English |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/02/23/the-perils-of-learning-in-english |access-date=24 February 2019 |date=21 February 2019 |quote=Research demonstrates that children learn more when they are taught in their mother tongue than they do when they are taught in any other language. In a study of children in the first three years in 12 schools in Cameroon, those taught in Kom did better than those taught in English in all subjects. Parents might say that the point is to prepare children for the workplace and that a grasp of English is more use than sums or history. Yet by year five, the children taught in Kom outperformed English-medium children even in English. Perhaps this is because they gain a better grasp of the mechanics of reading and writing when they are learning the skills in a language they understand. |archive-date=23 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223145929/https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/02/23/the-perils-of-learning-in-english |url-status=live }}</ref> Cummins' work sought to overcome the perception propagated in the 1960s that learning two languages made for two competing aims. The belief was that the two languages were mutually exclusive and that learning a second required unlearning elements and dynamics of the first to accommodate the second.<ref name="Hakuta-1990">{{cite book | last=Hakuta | first=Kenji | chapter=Language and cognition in bilingual children | chapter-url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED329635.pdf#page=46 | editor-last=Padilla | editor-first=Amado M. | editor-last2=Fairchild | editor-first2=Halford H. | editor-last3=Valadez | editor-first3=Concepcion M. | title=Bilingual education: issues and strategies | publisher=Sage Publications | publication-place=California | date=1990 | isbn=0-8039-3638-9 | oclc=20453990 | id={{ERIC|ED329635}} | pages=47–59 | access-date=12 June 2022 | archive-date=1 July 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701132127/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED329635.pdf#page=46 | url-status=live }}</ref> The evidence for this perspective relied on the fact that some errors in acquiring the second language were related to the rules of the first language.<ref name="Hakuta-1990"/>

Another new development that has influenced the linguistic argument for bilingual literacy is the length of time necessary to acquire a second language. Previously, children were believed to have the ability to learn a language within a year, but today, researchers believe that within and across academic settings, the period is closer to five years.<ref name="Collier-1992">{{cite journal | last=Collier | first=Virginia P. | title=A Synthesis of Studies Examining Long-Term Language Minority Student Data on Academic Achievement | journal=Bilingual Research Journal | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=16 | issue=1–2 | year=1992 | issn=1523-5882 | doi=10.1080/15235882.1992.10162633 | pages=187–212}}</ref><ref name="The-Ramírez-report">The Ramírez report:
*Ramírez J., S. Yuen, D. Ramey & D. Pasta. 1991. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uga1.32108043132136 Final Report: Longitudinal study of structured English immersion strategy, early-exit and late-exit bilingual education programs for language-minority children: Volume I] (prepared for the U.S. Department of Education). San Mateo, CA: Aguirre International. No. 300-87-0156.
*Ramírez, J., Pasta, D., Yuen, S., Ramey, D. & D. Billings. 1991. Final report: Longitudinal study of structured English immersion strategy, early-exit and late-exit bilingual education programs for language-minority children: Volume II (prepared for the U.S. Department of Education). San Mateo, CA: Aguirre International. No. 300-87-0156.</ref>{{Update inline|date=June 2022|reason=It says "today researchers believe...", but the citations are from the early 1990s, i.e. 30 years ago.|?=yes}}

An interesting outcome of studies during the early 1990s, however, confirmed that students who do complete bilingual instruction perform better academically.<ref name="Collier-1992"/><ref name="The-Ramírez-report"/> These students exhibit more [[cognitive flexibility]], including a better ability to analyze abstract visual patterns. Students who receive two-way bilingual immersion, a form of dual language education that brings together students from two different language backgrounds to learn in both languages,<ref>{{cite web | title=Two-Way Immersion Education: The Basics | url=https://www.cal.org/twi/toolkit/PI/Basics_Eng.pdf | access-date=2025-04-11}}</ref> will perform at an even higher level.{{cn|date=April 2025}} Examples of such programs include international and multi-national education schools.