LIFE WITH TWO LANGUAGES: An Introduction to Bilingualism

In this book François Grosjean discusses very interesting aspects about bilingualism such as Bilingualism in society, The bilingual Child, The bilingual person and The bilingual speech and community. The last chapter provides a very useful model of a text produced by a balanced bilingual, and discusses the biological process of language production in the mind of a bilingual person.
Source: Grojean, François. Life with two languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism, 11th Edition, Harvard University, USA, 2001.

The Bilingual Mental Lexicon: Interdisciplinary Approaches.

This book aims to investigate the usage of the bilingual lexicon by discussing the questions "How are words organized in the bilingual mind? How are they linked to concepts? How do bi- and multilinguals process words in their multiple languages?" Not only the mental processing of the lexicon is considered but also the audio-visual interaction and the importance of gestures in the communication.

Tutorials in bilingualism: psycholinguistic perspectives.

This book introduces the reader to the major discussions concerning bilingualism and its effects on the speaker's mind. Discussions as the social context involving being bilingual or monolingual, the growing interaction between speakers of different languages and the mental proccesses and cognition of bilinguals and monolinguals are the key topics.

Types of bilingualism

It is a text for people who are not specialists or familiar to the topic. The author makes a summary of theories such as the ones described by Jean Grosjean. The main topics presented in the text are Balanced Bilingualism, Semilingualism and Multilingualism. According to the author a balanced bilingual is “a person who possesses age-appropriate competence in two languages…that person would be as competent as a native speaker of the same age in both languages”. The author explains that children who are bilinguals may have more cognitive advantages in relation to others, for instance they dominate languages and use them according to the context. The author exposes a controversial issue to be discussed later through the questions: Can a person be called a balanced bilingual if he has abilities in two languages but only use one in most contexts? What if both languages are used though for different purposes, in different contexts? In order to answer those questions the author provides a list of social, historical and psychological aspects, which are only important to the reader as a first reading about the topic .

Psycholinguistics: The Key Concepts

The book is a manual for people who are not familiar to the topic “balanced bilinguals”. The author provides brief explanation about some key aspects of psycholinguistics such as bilingualism, and cognitive approaches. Besides the definitions there are also very updated examples to illustrate the concepts and some controversial aspects about them. The audience will meet many terms related to the topic Bilingualism: The origins and production; Categories and types of bilingualism; Costs and benefits. According to the author, an adult is considered balanced bilingual when he or she is considered a native speaker in two linguistic communities and had learnt both languages before puberty ( and had made an effort to maintain the two languages ). However the author establishes a comparison between balanced and dominant. According to the author balanced bilingualism is rare, and most of bilinguals may not be aware of which language is the dominant. By the end of the section the researcher exposes some aspect that may influence the creation of a dominant language for a bilingual.

Source: Field, John. Psycholinguistics: the Key Concepts, 1st edition, Routledge Press, London, UK, 2004.

Is language processing identical in monolinguals and early, balanced bilinguals?

This article is a study that presents its participants, method, stimuli and apparatus, procedure and results based on English monolinguals and early, balanced Spanish-English bilinguals. This study investigates language-processing differences between early, balanced, adult bilinguals and monolinguals. It analyzes the learning-processing according with speed and accuracy. Bilinguals and monolinguals are studied through phonological, lexical, and syntactic levels. This research provides valuable information about the differences between bilinguals and monolinguals in syntactic processing. It states that cross-linguistic influence may affect these groups differently. Bilinguals tend to communicate in one language at a time; when they do code switch, it does not typically take the form of alternating between languages on every sentence. This study also investigates a variety of language structures to determine the areas of the syntax that are susceptible to interference.

Source: Cassandra D. Foursha, Jennifer B. Austin, & Gretchen A. Van de Walle from Rutgers University

Bilinguismo e Bilinguidade

This article discuss the differences that bilinguism implicates. It focuses on definiton of bilinguism or multilinguism. The complex fact is that a bilingual speaker does not use the languages he speaks the same way, in the same contexts, and with the same frequency. It states that Sociolinguistics is responsible for identifying bilingual speakers as well as explain the different uses of languages and socio-cultural phenomena. The article also explores the degree of proficiency necessary to be considered "bilingual" and communicative and linguistics competences.

Source: Teses Abertas; Puc - Rio

Concreteness and Translation Ambiguity Effects: Exploring the Lexical Organization in the Bilingual Mental Lexicon

This article is about psycholinguistics in relation to conceptual representations. It states that for a bilingual speaker, languages are stored in a common lexical store. It also compares the difference between concrete and abstract words in relation to the conceptual representations, since abstract concepts are based on socially constructed knowledge. It describes the lexical representation in the monolingual mind as well as in bilingual minds, the types of bilinguals, types of organization in the bilingual minds, different models of mental representation for bilinguals and different kinds of translation in the conceptual and lexical levels.

Source: Universidad de las Americas Puebla; Escuela de Ciencias Sociales, Artes y Humanidades; Departamento de Lenguas.

Tesis apresentada por: Caroline Anne Payant