Response Task for Dimensions of Bilingualism
Task 1 20%
Using your own experience, which of the seven reasons for speakers of different languages to come into contact and, consequently, become bi- or multilingual (Wei, 2007, pp. 3-4) have youseen examples of in bilinguals in your life.For full credit, explain at least two reasons with personal examples.
Task 2 20%
Explain your language background and apply Wei’s (2007) terms to yourself. Use at least twoterms for full credit.
Specifically, where do you belong on the monolingual-bilingual-multilingual continuum?
You must use the terms from Wei’s Table 1 and explain how they refer to you. Cite Wei’s (2007) definitions.
Explain how you learned your language(s) and write about the extent of your proficiency in each.
Explain which language(s) you speak, read, write, and understand. Is the language you speak in school the same language you speak at home, at work, or with your friends?
Note: Make sure to provide a proper in-text citation to the chapter. We are switching to the APA style of citation in this class and I am providing models throughout my lecturesand tasks (see above and below for how to refer to Wei’s chapter in APA).
Example (delete before posting):
I’m a late bilingual (Wei, 2007) because I became bilingual in young adulthood. I’m also an unbalanced bilingual because when I write I use my languages for different reasons and with different audiences. At this point in my life, I write academically in one language only, that is in English. In the rest of the languages I speak, I write informally through texting and chatting. If I were to write academically in those other languages, I’d have to go through a period of transition and re-learning about the academic variety. In addition, I’m…. because….
Task 3 60%
Find the respective excerpt in the Grosjean interview (use time stamps indicated below), then listen to each excerpt and respond to the following:
Excerpt 1: 2:00-7:50
1. What kind of bilingual is Francois Grosjean? Use Wei’s (2007) terminology to describe him. Use at least four terms and give specifics to support your definitions.
Note: Grosjean is not a balanced bilingual (Wei, 2007). In fact, later in the interview he specifically comments about the year-long work he had to undertake to teach statistics in French. Also, listing Grosjean’s nationalities is irrelevant to this question.
Excerpt 2: 11:00-13:20
2.
(a) What “simple” truths or “things that need to be said” about bilingualism has Grosjean popularized in his books?List at least four for full credit.
Why do you think he needed to explain these “simple truths” to the general public?
(b) What “reasonable” and “sensible” definition of bilingualism does Grosjean adopt in his research? What do you think about his definition? How does it differ from your definition?
Excerpt 3: 14:00-21:30
3.
Grosjean mentions that he is mostly interested in the “run-of-the-mill” bilinguals. In his research, he proposes two crucial principles (at one point he calls them “bricks” in his talk) that explain the functioning of such “ordinary” bilinguals. What are those principles? Describe each principle in detail and with examples that Grosjean gives.
First “brick:
Principle
Description with an example (explain the statistics example):
and
Second “brick”:
Principle
Description with an example (explain Monolingual Mode vs. Bilingual Mode):
Task 4 10%
Reflect on the following:
A. In your opinion, what is the biggest misconception about bilingualism that “lay” people have?
Note: You are no longer a lay person – you’ve been introduced to quite a bit of research on bilingualism.
B. What is the most important thing about bilingualism that you have learned from this learning module? What questions do you have going forward?