2009/06/04

Grosjean, F. (1989). Neurolinguists, beaware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. Brain and Language, 36, 3–15.

Presentation: Angela

Summary: Chris

This paper reviewed two views for bilingualism, including the monolingual view and the bilingual view. The former is also called the fraction view, which states that bilinguals have separate systems for two languages. The latter is also called the wholistic view, which proposes that bilinguals’ language system is an integrated one and cannot be decomposed. Grosjean pointed out several criticisms for the monolingual view. First of all, bilinguals should not be assessed by monolinguals’ standards. Second, bilinguals should not only be evaluated by language fluency. Instead, social communicative functions of bilingualism should be taken into consideration. Third, the two languages of bilingual speakers do not exist and function individually. Fourth, monolingual views should not treat the interaction of the two languages for a bilingual speaker as accidental or careless speech. Grosjean then proposed several comments on studies of bilingualism. First, communicative functions of language selection and language use should be emphasized. Second, researchers should pay more attention to what language mode the speaker is in. Third, even for bilinguals, variations of stability can still be found. That is, bilinguals may fluctuate their language competence according to the context. Finally, bilingual studies should put less emphasis on the comparison of bilinguals to monolinguals