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Synopsis :

At a seminar on bilingualism held at the Regional Language Centre (RELC), Professor Merrill Swain from the University of Toronto presents a paper on 'Cognitive and Socio Cultural Consequences of Being Bilingual' written by Professor Wallace Lambert from Canada's McGill University. In the paper, Professor Lambert notes that in the 1920s and 1930s, a pessimistic view prevailed on the effects of bilingualism. This changed in the 1960s. In 1962, investigations on the effects of bilingulism in a Canadian setting showed that bilingual children scored better in verbal and non verbal measures of intelligence. They had more flexibility of thought. This cognitive flexibility, creativity and divergent thought had their advantages. Immigrants in a new national setting were able to  overcome the erosion of their basic language. Early immersion programmes in Canada helped young people of Anglo Canadian descent to develop skills in French without affecting their learning of the basic language. As the majority of French Canadians perceive language as a way of life, political tensions have arisen in places like Quebec where French speaking people feel that their language is threatened by the widespread use of English. To address this, experts suggest that social planners and educationists must transform the subtractive pressures on ethno linguistic minorities so that they can profit from an additive form of bilingualism and biculturalism. Research on bilingualism also includes learning about the thinking processes of bilingual people, the age when one should start learning languages and the ability of children from mixed marriages to develop dual allegiance.