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Essay / Bilingualism is a natural phenomenon worldwide
Bilingualism is a natural phenomenon worldwide. However, unintentionally, monolingualism has been used as a standard to characterize and define bilingualism and multilingualism in linguistic research. Such a conception has led to a “fractional,” “irregular,” and “distorted” view of bilingualism, which is quickly becoming outdated in light of multi-pronged and rapidly growing interdisciplinary research. Other central concepts such as individuals' linguistic attitudes, linguistic choices and consequences are discussed, which distinguish bilinguals from monolinguals. Language acquisition is as much an innate, biological phenomenon as it is social. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayPolitical bilingualism refers to a country's language policies. Unlike individual bilingualism, categories such as monolingual, bilingual and multilingual nations do not reflect the actual linguistic situation of a particular country (Edwards, 2004/2006; Romaine, 1989/1995). Hong Kong, for example, is officially recognized as a bilingual country. This means that Hong Kong promotes bilingualism as the language policy of the country as well as society as a whole. English and Chinese are the official languages. This in no way means that most Hong Kong speakers are bilingual. In fact, monolingual countries may reflect a high degree of bilingualism. Multilingual countries like South Africa, Switzerland, Finland and Canada often use one of two approaches – “Personality” and “Territorial” – to achieve bilingualism. The personality principle aims to preserve individual rights (Extra & Gorter, 2008) while the territorial principle guarantees bilingualism or multilingualism within a particular area to a varying degree, as in the case of Belgium. In India, where 23 languages are officially recognized, government language policies are very receptive to multilingualism. The “trilingual formula” constitutes the official language policy of the country (Annamalai, 2001). In addition to learning Hindi and English, the co-national languages, schoolchildren can learn a third language spoken within or outside their state. In my personal opinion, bilinguals can move between one or more linguistic models as needed to produce, understand, and process verbal messages in the most cost-effective and efficient manner. Bilingualism is a natural phenomenon throughout the world. However, unintentionally, monolingualism has been used as a standard to characterize and define bilingualism and multilingualism in linguistic research. Such a conception has led to a “fractional,” “irregular,” and “distorted” view of bilingualism, which is quickly becoming outdated in light of multi-pronged and rapidly growing interdisciplinary research. Other central concepts such as individuals' linguistic attitudes, linguistic choices and consequences are discussed, which distinguish bilinguals from monolinguals. Language acquisition is as much an innate, biological phenomenon as it is social..