Bilingualism Resistance and Receptivity Explained Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

This paper will discuss what affects the resistance or reception of bilingualism. This paper will begin by explaining what bilingualism is. This paper will also seek to explain how social psychology has been a factor in influencing the reception and resistance to bilingualism. This paper will also discuss literacy as another factor that determines the reception or resistance to bilingualism. This paper will discuss why literate people are more likely to be bilingual as opposed to their non literate counterparts. This paper will also discuss attitude as a factor in determining receptivity or resistance to bilingualism. This paper will discuss how positive and negative attitudes can affect bilingualism.

Discussion

“Bilingualism can be described as people in a community or individuals speaking two different languages. People who can speak different languages are called polyglots” (Cooper, 4). Bilingual people usually learn one language during their early stages in their lives.This is what is referred to as “mother tongue”. These people may later learn other languages through interaction with the native speakers. Second language acquisition is effective when one is still young and the ability to learn reduces as one gets older.

Experts say that literacy is vital for the acquisition of a second language. Literate people are more willing to learn other languages as compared to illiterate people. Literate people understand a new language more easily and therefore their reception of a different language is high.

Social psychology

Social psychology has been identified to be vital in the acquisation of bilingualism. “Social psychology allows us to understand how the social context affects perceptions, social attitudes drive acceptance, stereotypes can promote prejudice or acceptance, norms enforce views, and how social identity is inherent to bilingualism. Norms are a greater influence on bilingualism” (Cooper, p. 43). An individual’s ability to speak another language is influenced by the society’s stand on bilingualism as opposed to the feelings of a person. Social psychologists have experimented and proved that norms in a society determine behavior more than an individual’s personality.

Attitude

Another aspect that affects the reception of bilingualism is attitude. If there is a warm relationship between two different groups, there is likely to be accommodation in terms of linguistics. “Attitudes are evaluations that can be positive or negative at the cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels” (Cooper, p. 67). In the Scandinavian countries there is always encouragement for people to be proficient in two languages because the countries are very proximate to each other. In Canada, there are two official languages which are; English and French. However, the attitudes of the people have reigned and English enjoys a higher status than French. This discrimination has been brought about by these attitudes.

Conclusion

This paper has discussed what bilingualism is and also explained resistance and receptivity to bilingualism. This paper has discussed how literacy is vital in determining the resistance or receptivity to bilingualism. Most bilingual people are literate and thus they learn new languages faster. This paper has also discussed social psychology as another impact on receptivity or resistance to bilingualism. This paper has explained that an individual’s ability to speak another language is determined and influenced by the society. This paper has also discussed how attitudes determine if bilingualism is to be accepted or rejected by people. Positive and negative attitudes will determine whether people will be bilingual or not.

Works cited

Cooper, Robert. Language planning and social change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (1989).