Bilinguals' Language Co-ordination in Communication

Throughout literature and research, the term Bilingualism has remained extremely difficult to define as it has developed multiple meanings over time, however, it is generally acknowledged as when an individual has developed a high level of fluency and proficiency in two or more languages (Hamers, 2000). It is the coexistence of multiple active language systems that are constantly in contact with one another and active within the speaker even when only one language is being utilized (Hamers et al., 2000 & Kroll, 2008). According to Khateb, Shamshoum & Prior (2017), it is commonly believed that being able to completely switch and alternate between languages, with very little difficulty, is one of the strongest attributes of bilingual speakers. Bilingual speakers can voluntarily select to discourse in any given language and can control which specific language to utilize at any given time or context. However, this belief is extremely misleading and not entirely correct (Crinion et al., 2006 & Khateb, Shamshoum & Prior, 2017).

[bookmark: 20]Bilingual speakers must first acquire strong cognitive abilities in order to control and correctly select which language to communicate in and which language to avoid interferences from (Reverberi et al., 2015). If there is a lack of equilibrium between both languages then the speaker will not have the ability to co-ordinate their two languages for successful communication in both monolingual and bilingual contexts, resulting in detrimental effects such as poor linguistic proficiency, miscommunication and disruption to performance (Branzi et al., 2015; Reverberi et al., 2015; Hamers et al., 2000 & Kroll, 2008). This vividly exemplifies that language control is vital for bilingual speakers in order to co – ordinate their two languages and ensure successful communication in both monolingual and bilingual contexts.

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Branzi et al (2015) defines Language Control as a significant cognitive mechanism which allows bilingual speakers to co – ordinate both their target language and their non – target language. This study provides strong evidence that the human brain plays a vital role in language processing and that certain brain areas such as the cortical and subcortical brain regions allow bilingual speakers to control, co - ordinate and switch between their two languages when communicating. The study examined eighteen fluent German and Italian bilingual speakers in two different switching tasks. The results from the data illustrated that language conflicts and speech errors between languages are monitored by the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, interference between languages and conflict resolution are regulated by the left prefrontal cortex and that the verbal interferences between languages when switching occurs is managed by the subcortical brain structures within bilingual speakers (Branzi et al., 2015).

In addition, the findings from this experiment further illustrated that several other important brain structures and regions likewise have a significant influence on bilingual language control. This highlights that specific brain structures and regions allows bilingual speakers to develop the ability to co-ordinate their two languages. The brain is essential for language processing and specific brain regions will determine whether the native language or the second language of a bilingual speaker becomes the spoken language in a monolingual context and whether the native language or the second language of a bilingual speaker is activated in a bilingual context. This ultimately results in successful communication in both monolingual and bilingual contexts (Branzi et al., 2015).

Bilingual speakers have a higher demand for greater language and cognitive control during discourse in order to promote the activation of the appropriate and intended language within a certain context and inhibit interference from the unintended and non – target language (Reverberi et al., 2015). This neuroimaging study conducted by Reverberi et al (2015) aligns with previous studies conducted and supports Branzi’s et al (2015) claim that cortical and subcortical areas of the brain play a vital role in determining which language bilingual speakers chose to communicate in. Unlike monolingual speakers, bilingual speakers have greater cognitive demands in which they must closely examine possible errors in speech, they must then correct these possible misarticulations and language errors and they must constantly select which language is the most appropriate to communicate in. However, specific cortical brain regions alone do not determine which language is inhibited and which language is uninhibited in bilingual speakers (Reverberi et al., 2015). In fact, contextual cues, pragmatic cues and speaker cues are other factors which also determine and influence how bilinguals co-ordinate their two languages for successful communication in both monolingual and bilingual contexts (Reverberi et al., 2015).

Contextual cues can be highly biased towards a certain language and pragmatic cues determine which language is activated and which language remains inactivated. This is all decided at the preverbal stage which generally means before any actual communication or verbal speech has begun (Reverberi et al., 2015). Within this research paper, Reverberi et al (2015) observed twenty – one German and English bilingual speakers during task – cueing paradigm examinations. The results demonstrated that different areas of the brain were active for the German language and that different regions of the brain were active for the English language (Reverberi et al., 2015). If the brain regions associated with the German language were active then this indicated that the bilingual speaker would communicate in German, however, if the brain regions associated with the English language were active then this indicated that English became the dominant and spoken language.

This reinforces and underlines that bilingual speakers are in fact able to effectively co – ordinate their multiple languages through which brain regions are active and which regions are not active. Furthermore, the results additionally conveyed that when participants were cued by the researchers to speak in a particular language, they maintained that language throughout the experiment and did not switch to the non – target language. This indicates that bilingual speakers do utilize contextual cues, pragmatic cues and speaker cues to co – ordinate their two languages in both a monolingual context or a bilingual context (Reverberi et al., 2015). Utilizing this strategy enhances the communication skills and language competence of bilingual speakers.

Bilingual speakers who are not highly proficient or fluent in both their languages may find it difficult to manage both their languages and this can have a detrimental impact on their language competence and wellbeing (Rodriguez-Fornells et al., 2002). To prevent these negative impacts it is essential that bilingual speakers adopt effective mechanisms. The implementation of effective mechanisms will have an immense positive impact by preventing interferences from the non – spoken language in the spoken language and by allowing bilingual speakers to better manage both languages more efficiently (Rodriguez-Fornells et al., 2002).

Rodriguez-Fornells et al (2002) examined Spanish and English bilingual and presented them with a list of Spanish and English pseudowords, target words and non – target words. Participants were instructed to respond to all the target words and eliminate all pseudoword and non – target words. This examination revealed that bilingual speakers have the cognitive ability and flexibility to completely ‘shut down’ one of their lexicons and selectively ‘filter out’ words and phrases from the non – target language (Rodriguez-Fornells et al., 2002). This is yet another mind blowing method which describes how bilingual speakers are able to co – ordinate their two languages and prevent interferences from the non – target language, resulting in successful communication in both a monolingual context and a bilingual context.

In addition, as claimed by Khateb, Shamshoum & Prior (2017), bilingual speakers possess the cognitive ability to switch between their first language and their second language during a single discourse, often with ease. This alternation between the two languages is often referred to as Code – Switching. Strong evidence from previous studies conducted has revealed that code – switching is yet another approach that bilingual speakers utilize to co – ordinate their two languages and there are three specific type (Azlan & Narasuman, 2013; García, Leibold, Buss, Calandruccio & Rodrigueze, 2018). The three different types of code – switching patterns play a significant role in allowing bilingual speakers to co – ordinate their two languages and they are: Tag – Switching, Inter – Sentential Switching and Intra – Sentential (Azlan & Narasuman, 2013).

According to Heredia & Altarriba (2001), code- switching can often be an extremely time – consuming process and sentences which contain words from both languages generally take much longer to read in comparison to sentences that are monolingual. The researchers within this study claim that bilingual speakers are able to co – ordinate their two languages via the Two Switch Mechanism. This cognitive model determines which language system/lexicon is active (“on”) within the bilingual speaker and which language system/lexicon is inhibited (“off”) within the bilingual speaker. It critically analyses acoustic signals at a phonetic level and then selects the most appropriate language for that specific context which is then spoken by the bilingual speaker (Heredia & Altarriba, 2001). This aligns with the research conducted by Garcia et al (2018) which examined code – switching occurrences in fluent Spanish and English bilingual speakers.

Garcia et al (2018) examined whether code – switching negatively impacted the way in which Spanish and English bilingual speakers recognized Spanish and English words in the presence of noise. The results indicated that participants performed poorly in the mixed – language condition and were fairly slow in recognizing the words when they code – switched. However, in the monolingual conditions, participants performed extremely well and were faster at recognizing the words as code – switching was not needed (Garcia et al., 2018). This indicated that there is a cost to code – switching. If bilinguals are aware of this cost then they will be less inclined to switch between languages and thus manage them more efficiently (Garcia et al., 2018).

The research further illustrated that if bilingual speakers identify themselves from the same cultural or linguistic background as other speakers then they are more inclined to code – switch and converse in one particular language over the other (Garcia et al., 2018). This provides strong evidence for the studies conducted by both Branzi et al (2015) and Reverberi et al (2015). It reinforces that bilingual speakers do in fact utilize contextual cues, pragmatic cues and speaker cues to co – ordinate their two languages in both a monolingual context or a bilingual context, thus ensuring successful communication (Reverberi et al., 2015). In addition, the specific brain regions for the shared and dominant language between both speakers are activated, thus allowing the bilingual speakers to control, co - ordinate and switch between their two languages (Garcia et al., 2018; Branzi et al., 2015 & Reverberi et al., 2015).

Moreover, difficulties in word retrieval, poor language competence, speech disfluency and poor communication skills are all factors which can ultimately trigger code – switching occurrences in bilingual speakers. In other words, if bilingual speakers are unable to communicate or express themselves in one language, then a switch will occur in their second language. This alternation between languages is evidence of bilingual speakers managing and co – ordinating their two languages. This will result in greater and more successful communication between speakers (Heredia & Altarriba, 2001).

Future research should work towards identifying and overcoming the gaps that exist within the literature and the limitations from previous studies. Not many studies conducted previously have observed participants with different levels of fluency and proficiency. Therefore, future research should examine a large sample of participants who have different levels of fluency and proficiency. By doing so, it will ensure more reliable, accurate and valid findings. In addition, future research must examine a greater sample of participants and must investigate more languages in order to truly discover how bilingual speakers co – ordinate their two languages for successful communication in both monolingual and bilingual contexts.

To conclude, there several approaches that bilingual speakers can utilize to co – ordinate their two languages for successful communication in both a monolingual context and a bilingual context. Language control, specific brain structures and regions, contextual cues, pragmatic cues and speaker cues, code – switching as well as models such as Two Switch Mechanism are all highly significant and allows bilingual speakers to develop the ability to co-ordinate their two languages for successful communication in both monolingual and bilingual contexts.

REFERENCES

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