Multilingualism and Language Choice in Domains

Experts know that multilingualism is not the so-called minority phenomenon as many people think it to be. Although it is difficult to provide the exact statistical data on the multilingual speakers and distribution of multilingualism in the world, sociolinguists and linguists estimate that there are roughly around 6000 languages in the world. The focus of this book chapter is to succinctly present the sociolinguistic aspects of language choice and use of multilingual speakers in various domains. Besides, concepts such as bilingualism and multilingualism and their dynamics in the field of sociolinguistics have been critically been reviewed and presented from the theoretical and empirical perspectives. Further, some of the relevant issues related to language choice and use in multilingual speech communities in different parts of the globe are reviewed and included. Furthermore, factors inducing multilingualism among different speech communities and individuals have been reviewed and finally, recent developments and dynamics toward the spread of multilingualism in various parts of the world are also presented in the chapter.

“What I want to do I do not do”: on bi- and multilingual repertoires and linguistic dislocation in a border town

Language problems and language barriers are challenges facing not only immigrants but also minorities and people in rural/semirural areas. This study examines individuals’ bi- and multilingual repertoires, language practices and attitudes in a Hokkien-speaking community in Kangar, a semirural town of northern Malaysia bordering Thailand. Through questionnaire surveys and interviews, we investigate how these notions can be used as a means to understand/reflect bilingualism and multilingualism and, more importantly, the potential disparity between what people want to do/say and what people eventually manage to do/say. While there is a shift in language practice from a local- and ancestral origin-induced pattern towards a more “global” and “pan-Chinese” paradigm, the findings also reveal the linguistic “dislocations” of the Hokkien-speaking community across ALL generations regardless of ethnicity. The language issues in the community reflect—and are likely to be reflections of—society at large. The vast contrast between individual/societal linguistic aspirations and the actual linguistic repertoire/communicative competence among the locals indicates the need to redress an absence of major efforts to close urban-rural/city-town/dominant-dominated social divides across the (language) education landscape at the national level.

The Impact of Media/Technology on Rural and Urban Children to be Bilingual/ Multilingual

This article will focus on the comparative study of the influence of media and technology on rural and urban children to be bilingual and multilingual. The study will also shed light on the importance of bilingualism and multilingualism. TV and YouTube are taken into account as tools of media and technology for implicit language learning. Children of 8-12 years are considered as samples of language learners. Data have been collected from a primary source through a questionnaire and interviews. The result of the research shows that there is a significant impact of watching different kinds of TV/YouTube programs (cartoons, movies, serials, reality shows) which are presented in foreign languages on children to be bilingual and multilingual though the results of the rural and urban area are significantly different. In the study, the researchers have found that children living in municipal area are more bilingual and multilingual compared to children living in rustic area.

LANGUAGE SITUATION IN DARGO: STATE, SPECIFICITY, STUDY ISSUES

The article is devoted to an overview of the linguistic situation in Dargo, namely to the problems of the state, specificity and study of the linguistic situation. The degree of study of the ethno-regional linguistic picture of the world is shown. Particular attention is paid to the development and functioning of bilingualism and multilingualism among the Dargins. Attention is also drawn to such a region-specific feature as Russian-Dargin bilingualism, as well as the functioning of dialectal linguistic forms and the importance of studying RussianDargin language contacts. The need to support the codified form of the Dargin language is noted.

Epistemology of Monolingual Bias

How did monolingual bias emerge and why does it persist? What exactly is language? Why and howdo language and languages develop? What do the terms ‘monolingual’, ‘bilingual’, and ‘multilingual’mean? What does “typical” language development entail? What constitutes “atypical” languagedevelopment? To answer these questions, this paper builds on the premise that language is a humancognitive skill for communication and that Western notions of language diversity, monolingualism,bilingualism, and multilingualism disseminate monolingual bias. Monolingual bias is then linked toconceptual issues on “typical” and “atypical” language development, as evidenced by extant researchand clinical practices. Ultimately, this paper explains why the notion of bilingualism in the Westernresearch literature is less relevant for some, if not most, of the world’s multilingual contexts,especially in the Philippines.

The Effect of Bilingualism and Multilingualism on Academic Behavior

The phenomenon of bilingualism and the effect of it on general and academic purposes is not something that anyone could deny, in one aspect being able to participate and understand others and convey your massage to them is one thing and in another aspect, communicate effectively is other important element in effective relations. In this article researcher strongly claims that if bilinguals and monolinguals evaluate their success in business or in academic places, you could easily understand that the winners are bilinguals because of their ability to understand and create a positive and effective relation with others. They should be more successful in their business and communicate with all peoples around the world.

Zweisprachigkeit in den Literaturen Estlands

Bilingualism in the Literatures of Estonia. In a multilingual cultural space such as the (former and contemporary) Baltic region, bilingualism, both oral and written, has been rather normality than exception. This also finds an expression in the literatures of this region. In the following I will examine the phenomenon of bilingualism and multilingualism in the literatures of Estonia in history and today. First, I will examine the historical forms of bilingualism before the foundation of the Republic of Estonia, against the background of the complicated oral and written language relations throughout history. Then I explore their topicality in the interwar and Soviet periods, and today. I also ask about the motivation of the authors to change or mix languages in their work, whether to reach a wider audience or a new poetic quality. Examples are from the work of Paul Fleming, Reiner Brockmann, Jacob Johann Malm, August Kitzberg, Ivar Ivask, Jaan Kaplinski, Igor Kotjuh, Øyvind Rangøy and Veronika Kivisilla.

Functional MRI of Native and Non-native Speech Sound Production in Sequential German-English Bilinguals

Bilingualism and multilingualism are highly prevalent. Non-invasive brain imaging has been used to study the neural correlates of native and non-native speech and language production, mainly on the lexical and syntactic level. Here, we acquired continuous fast event-related FMRI during visually cued overt production of exclusively German and English vowels and syllables. We analyzed data from 13 university students, native speakers of German and sequential English bilinguals. The production of non-native English sounds was associated with increased activity of the left primary sensorimotor cortex, bilateral cerebellar hemispheres (lobule VI), left inferior frontal gyrus, and left anterior insula compared to native German sounds. The contrast German > English sounds was not statistically significant. Our results emphasize that the production of non-native speech requires additional neural resources already on a basic phonological level in sequential bilinguals.

Towards a coherent methodology for the documentation of small-scale multilingualism: Dealing with speech data

Purpose: To contribute to the establishment of a novel approach to language documentation that includes bilingual and multilingual speech data. This approach would open this domain of study to work by specialists of bilingualism and multilingualism. Approach: Within language documentation, the approach adopted in this paper exemplifies the “contemporary communicative ecology” mode of documentation. This radically differs from the “ancestral-code” mode of documentation that characterizes most language documentation corpora. Within the context of multilingualism studies, this paper advocates for the inclusion of a strong ethnographic component to research on multilingualism. Data and Analysis: The data presented comes from a context characterized by small-scale multilingualism, and the analyses provided are by and large focused on uncovering aspects of local metapragmatics. Conclusions: Conducting language documentation in contexts of small-scale multilingualism requires that the adequacy of a corpus is assessed with regard to sociolinguistic, rather than only structural linguistic, requirements. The notion of sociolinguistic adequacy is discussed in detail in analytical terms and illustrated through an example taken from ongoing research led by the authors. Originality: To date, there are no existing publications reviewing in the detail provided here how the documentation of multilingual speech in contexts of small-scale multilingualism should be structured. The contribution is highly original, in particular, for its theoretical grounding of the proposed approach. Significance/Implications: This article can serve as a reference for those interested in methodological and theoretical concerns relating to the practice of language documentation in contexts of small-scale multilingualism across the world. It may also help clarify ways for sociolinguists to engage more closely with work on language documentation, a domain that has thus far remained primarily informed by structural linguistic approaches.