Bilingualism
By Pawel Zielinski
The author raises the issue concerning bilingualism and bilingual. He presented a clear view and definition of bilingual that it is a person with a command of two languages and multilingual if the person can speak and understand more than two languages.
In connection with the author’s idea, this simply denotes about language acquisition and the problem may occur within upon learning. The question of whether mastering first, the first language at young age or in an adult stage before becoming proficient in using the second language. This issue is not new to me as a learner of the language because other linguists have their different views or theories in second language acquisition. Since, we are just learning the language it is better to be aware at least the correct grammar, vocabulary or the culture behind acquiring second language. Just a simple reaction to the idea of Spolsky as cited by the author, that two languages must be learn separately.
Practically, I admit that in learning second language we usually tend to use our mother tongue in learning. As a learner, it is better to master first the native tongue before learning other language because it is impossible for a learner to learn another set of languages if he or she is not able to write and speak his or her first language fluently.
Aside from that, the author claims that one can master a language even when not exposed to it since a very young age. He got it right because one good example in this situation, are the non –English speaking countries like Philippines in which most of us are just learning English language in school or by taking special courses. What makes unique if you start learning English at young stage, you can somehow easily adopt the accent but we must be reminded that it can be learned through practice.
Above all, there is still a question whether a bilingual person needs to master or not the languages he or she acquired. As a learner, since the ultimate goal of using a particular language is for communication it is better that we must use it in a manner that we can be understood by others.