ABSTRACT

Bilingualism refers to the ability to speak two (or more) languages, either at the individual level or within a community. Bilingualism is a large and vibrant fi eld internationally; in the U.S. context, it has long centered on Spanish speakers in the Latino community. Bilingualism can develop simultaneously, as when two languages are acquired in infancy (simultaneous bilingualism), or sequentially (sequential bilingualism), as in the case of second language acquisition. In signifi cant respects, the fi eld of bilingualism emerged in response to the suggestion among researchers in related fi elds that bilingualism in and of itself is a source of diffi culty for Latino children’s cognitive and academic development, a notion now known to be false. (See Appel & Muysken, 1984; and Zentella, 1997, for additional general information.)

In a famous and oft -quoted defi nition of bilingualism, Haugen (1956) said that bilingualism began at the point where the speaker of one language could produce complete meaningful utterances in another language. While others have insisted that “true bilinguals” are equally capable of discussing any topic in either language (ambilingualism), a more common view is that, because bilinguals typically use their languages in diff erent domains of interaction, they should be expected to develop non-overlapping vocabularies. Indeed, Fishman, Cooper, and Ma (1971) have argued that this diglossia, or use of separate languages in distinct domains, has the eff ect of preserving bilingualism in communities where social and political forces may discourage it.