Assessing the Effects of Bilingualism: A Background

D. KIMBROUGH OLLER and BARBARA ZURER PEARSON

Monolingualism, Multilingualism, Culture and Politics

Multilingualism is all around us. Even in the United States, where a single language is clearly predominant, there are hundreds of languages spoken, both indigenous ones that predate the arrival of Europeans, and a vast array of languages from around the world. Yet the United States may be atypical in its possession of a single language to which immigrant populations as well as surviving indigenous ones have tended to assimilate with remarkable rapidity (Grosjean, 1982). The nations of the world often do not have a single predominant language, and even when they do, there are often other strong pretenders to the title. In India, the world's second most populous nation, the five most widely spoken languages (Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, Marathi, and Tamil) all have more than 30 million speakers, but none of these languages is spoken by as much as a quarter of the population. In fact there are more than 200 languages in India, and it is typical for individuals, especially in urban areas, to speak several of them (Khubchandani, 1978; Southworth, 1980).

It is hard to estimate how many people worldwide are multilingual, although it is known that in practically every country in the world, people utilize more than one language in daily discourse. It is also hard to know whether the speaking of multiple languages was typical of prehistoric humans, but it is so common in modern times that it would be problematical to justify the assumption that the culturally pristine condition of our species is a monolingual one. The human organism is enormously adaptable, and multilingualism is one of the conspicuous signs of that gift.

The tendency of American institutions (whether officially or unofficially) to press everyone in the nation to speak English and to offer education in other languages only with reluctance (Hakuta, 1986) is viewed as a significant anomaly by many educated people from around the world, people who often view the fluent command of foreign languages as a requirement of a proper education. People around the world appear to experience a mixture of skepticism and envy in recognizing that Americans are often proudly monolingual. After all, English (especially American English) has swept the globe as the world's predominant lingua franca in both commercial and academic realms over the past few decades.

In the context of the obvious potency of American English as a medium of exchange that increasingly displays both social adaptability and prestige worldwide, it is surprising to witness the widespread, home-grown expressions of fear that the USA may be vulnerable to 'balkanization' due to the effects of many languages in our midst. The 'English-Only' movement (for commentary see Padilla et al., 1991) is merely the most recent of these expressions. Nor did official pressure to assert the dominance of English begin in reaction to the Bilingual Education Act of the Johnson Administration, a body of legislation designed, ironically, not to encourage bilingualism, but to hasten the accomplishment of the transition to English in children of non-English linguistic heritage. But since the late 1960s when the Johnson Administration's efforts began to take hold by establishing federally-sponsored bilingual programs of instruction for children with limited proficiency in English, there has emerged particular political pressure to reassert a reigning role for English.

The goal of the research in bilingualism to be reported in this volume is undeniably inspired in part by the political debate over the role of English and other languages in education in the USA. In the sometimes vicious disputation, there reside critical, though sometimes inexplicit questions of theoretical as well as practical interest.

(1) Does bilingualism, in and of itself, cause educational or cognitive harm to children?

(2) The first question can be turned on its head: does bilingualism, in and of itself, enrich children educationally or cognitively?

It may be that the answers to such questions depend in part upon the way we frame the questions, and upon what we view as desirable goals of education. The research upon which this volume is based began with the recognition that there are multiple ways to assess the effects of bilingualism. Oral skill in both languages is relevant to a comprehensive and evenhanded assessment. So are literacy and other academic capabilities in both languages. Yet very little research in the United States has addressed abilities in both languages of any bilingual group either in the oral realm or in literacy. The effects of knowing and being educated in more than one language may be different depending upon the age at which the learning of a second language is initiated, the type of educational approach that is used, and the social background of the learner (for discussion, see Meyer & Fienberg, 1992). Research has rarely been conducted to address such issues systematically and comprehensively....