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Bilingual Upbringing - of Children in the Home


Definitions:

Bilingualism: [from Latin bi- two, lingua tongue and -alism as in nationalism] The capability to make alternate (and sometimes mixed) use of two languages, in contrast to monolingualism or unilingualism and multilingualism. In the social context of languages like English, especially in England and the US, the traditional tendency has been to consider the possession and use of one language the norm. Bilingualism, however, is at least as common as monolingualism, about half the world's population (about 2.5bn people) is bilingual and kinds of bilingualism are probably present in every country in the world. The capability to function in two (or more) languages has been closely researched in recent years and is often discussed in terms of such categories, scales, and dichotomies as: (from the "Oxford Companion to the English Language)
Monolingualism: If someone is only capable of speaking and understanding one language, his mothertongue. Or to put it another way, if someone is not fitting in any of the categories of multilinguals.
Multilingual: using or able to use several languages
Multilingual: Similar to bilingualism, but with more then two languages.

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last update: Sep 23, 2002