Two Kinds of Bilingualism

Specifically, Lambert (1990) states that there are two kinds of bilingualism. The first is additive bilingualism in which an individual acquires proficiency in a second language with no loss in his or her first language; in other words, both languages are associated with prestige and respect much as are people in Quebec, Canada who speak both English and French.

The second kind of bilingualism is subtractive bilingualism where the new language replaces the first language. Lambert points out that in the United States and Canada, second language learning is often subtractive in the sense that linguistic minority groups are pressured to develop high-level skills in English at the expense of their first language. What needs to be seen with respect to subtractive bilingualism is that, often, what is also being suppressed beneath the first language are elements of the native speaker's culture.

In other words, their are sociocultural elements to second language acquisition. Sociocultural influence is also seen in the difference between knowing the varied elements of a language, (e.g. grammar, synta

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l countries. For example, Chau and Chung (1987) reported on a study which assessed the attitudes of Hong Kong educators towards the "communicative language teaching" method of teaching English as a foreign language. The authors reported that the results of their study indicated that teachers use the method sparingly because, while it contributed to more student participation and meaningful language use, the teachers felt that using it required too much preparation time. As illustrated in Chau and Chung's (1987) study, use of the communicative approach or a similar approach is not without problems. For example, Morrow and Schocker (1986) reported that in a good deal of the current language teaching using the communicative approach, the use of texts in the classroom is overly restricted. The authors state that this is true of both the types of texts used and the activities based on them. This point is illustrated by three conventional "communicative" uses of texts: using texts to practice processes of language use, using texts to serve as models, and using texts to focus on a theme. Morrow and Schocker also note that the chain of exercises used to structure the teaching/learning process (organizing information, implanting
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