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2 - The Extent of Bilingualism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2021

François Grosjean
Affiliation:
Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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Summary

In Post 2.2, the difficulty in obtaining clear data on the number of bilinguals in different countries is discussed. Two examples are given. In the first, the United States, which does not address bilingualism as such in its census or annual surveys, asks three language questions that allow one to obtain a fairly good estimation of the number of bilinguals. In the second, it is shown how Switzerland has a more restrictive view of bilingualism. This impacts the number of bilinguals the census reports on.

Type
Chapter
Information
Life as a Bilingual
Knowing and Using Two or More Languages
, pp. 27 - 39
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Reference

Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: Life and Reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

References

Grosjean, F. (2010). The extent of bilingualism. Bilingual: Life and Reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeigler, K. and Camarota, S. A. (2019). 67.3 Million in the United States Spoke a Foreign Language at Home in 2018. Center for Immigration Studies, Washington, DC. https://cis.org/Report/673-Million-United-States-Spoke-Foreign-Language-Home–2018Google Scholar

References

Baker, C. and Prys Jones, S. (1998). Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Ethnologue: Languages of the World (2020): www.ethnologue.com/Google Scholar

References

Shin, H. B. and Kominski, R. A. (2010). Language Use in the United States: 2007. American Community Survey Reports, ACS-12. U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC. www.census.gov/library/publications/2010/acs/acs-12.htmlGoogle Scholar
Ryan, C. (2013). Language Use in the United States: 2011. American Community Survey Reports, ACS-22. U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC. www.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-22.htmlGoogle Scholar
Zeigler, K. and Camarota, S. A. (2019). 67.3 Million in the United States Spoke a Foreign Language at Home in 2018. Center for Immigration Studies, Washington, DC. https://cis.org/Report/673-Million-United-States-Spoke-Foreign-Language-Home–2018Google Scholar

References

Grosjean, F. (1982). Bilingualism in the United States. Chapter 2 of Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Zeigler, K. and Camarota, S. A. (2019). 67.3 Million in the United States Spoke a Foreign Language at Home in 2018. Center for Immigration Studies, Washington, DC. https://cis.org/Report/673-Million-United-States-Spoke-Foreign-Language-Home–2018Google Scholar

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