Who's Afraid of Bilingualism?

H. BAETENS BEARDSMORE

Introduction

My reading of the literature on bilingualism and visits to different countries to lecture both formally and informally on the topic have led me to conclude that there is a deep-seated and widespread fear of bilingualism. Moreover, there is an all-pervading tendency to couple the notion of 'problems' to that of bilingualism, a connotation that never comes to mind in discussions on unilingualism. Even those positively inclined towards the phenomenon fall into this defensive position and subconsciously attribute it with a status that at best requires cautious nurturing and at worst remedial intervention. Such connotations arise from the assumption that unilingualism is the norm and that bilingualism represents some sort of deviation. Yet as Haugen (1972: 309) has stated, 'necessity is the mother of bilingualism'; the majority of people who manipulate two languages do so because to them it is a natural corollary to functioning efficiently as a human being, be it because of residence patterns, family circumstances, employment opportunities or intellectual needs. To the average bilingual his linguistic status is the norm, though he may well be made to feel that this is not so.

Given that something which is necessary and normal for many people is considered problematic and abnormal by many others requires us to examine what fears are expressed in order to dispel antagonisms. Although much research undertaken in the second half of this century has been positive both in approach and outcome yet it has failed to affect general opinions on bilingualism. Two reasons may explain this situation. First, the message from research is not getting across, partly because many of us implicitly accept the problematic connotation. Secondly, we are not sufficiently aware of the nature and extent of the fears evoked by bilingualism so that we do not know how to direct the research findings to the right adversaries. Hence we need to investigate the multiple levels of connotation so as to confront fears squarely, distinguish the rational from the unfounded, review the types of fears expressed and examine the evidence that surrounds them.

Two broad kinds of fears come to the fore, those that reflect societal preoccupations and those centring on the individual, though they are often intertwined. What is striking, however, is how few bilinguals share such fears, when compared with unilinguals. Grosjean (1982: 268) surveyed bilingual and trilingual individuals about the inconvenience of having more than one language and found that 52% of the bilinguals and 67% of the trilinguals simply replied 'no inconvenience' while not a single subject felt that there were no advantages. Further, many bilinguals feel that the apparent difference between them and unilinguals is a figment of the latters' imagination (Grosjean, 1982: 273).

Four groups of fears will be discussed here as representative of the most prevalent types encountered. Others may well come to mind but appear as less widespread or are less significant to the general debate. Two will be considered as individual in nature, namely parental and cultural fears, the two others as more societal, namely educational and politico-ideological fears, though the division is somewhat arbitrary. The discussion will focus on an analysis of the literature since the results of an enquiry designed to tap the prevalence of fears are not available at the time of going to print, though they will be presented orally as an annex to this paper.

Parental Fears

Here one must deal with a variety of apprehensions which may arise in parents who either (1) come from unilingual backgrounds and when confronted by bilingualism tend to transfer the difficulties of their own adult experience to what they suspect affects their children, or (2) although bilinguals themselves are isolated in a generally unilingually environment which pressurises them into worrying about bilingualism in their children. The very existence of the Bilingual Family Newsletter testifies to the presence of parental fears, with its regular series of readers' questions requiring advice and reassurance. De Jong's (1986) investigation into parents affected by bilingualism in their children revealed how friends, neighbours and teachers who know nothing about the subject instill worry in parents through bad advice. The folklore influence of non-specialist opinion was often decisive among parents who chose against bringing up their children bilingually when they were in a position to do so; such parents related horror stories of bilingual children who were disturbed, had problems with stuttering or were behind at school.

However, in my search for material I did not go by hearsay information and I myself have not come across any children with serious problems resulting from their bilingual home environment. (de Jong, 1986: 33)

Harding and Riley's (1986) report of 16 case studies came to the same conclusion, even in complex circumstances. Their comments on a French/Austrian couple who had lived in Brazil and France and brought up their children in Portugese, German and French, are revealing – 'the problems seem to be the parents' not the children's' (Harding & Riley, 1986: 33). I myself have never come across a child whose problems can unequivocally be attributed to bilingualism, though there are cases where bilingualism has compounded other difficulties, for example divorce by parents of mixed language backgrounds followed by remarriage with a partner using a new language leading to the introduction of a new lingua franca for family interactions.

Parents sometimes transfer their own difficulties in coping with a new language environment to their children, as illustrated by an English couple who withdrew their children from a French language school in Belgium when they appeared to make little progress in French after a few months. The parents, educators themselves, worried about their girls' withdrawal and silence in school which they attributed to lack of French; the parents themselves however, were critical of the new school's...