Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/36-149

Title: On Bilinguals and Bilingualism
Publication Year: 2024

Publisher: Cambridge University Press
http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics
Book URL: https://cambridge.org/9781009210416

Author(s): François Grosjean

Reviewer: Victoria Beatrix Fendel

SUMMARY

Grosjean’s On Bilinguals and bilingualism consists of eleven chapters, an appendix containing his position paper on the right of the deaf child to grow up bilingually, a subject and researcher index, and a list of references. The book sets itself the goal to tie together forty years of research by the author in the area of bilingualism with a specific focus on a psycholinguistic approach to the matter, to set his work against the research community’s and often the general public’s reactions, and to offer follow-up comments on issues that the author had thought about further. The book fully achieves this goal and in fact exceeds it.

The introduction explains the scope of the book in a short and concise way. The chapter already reflects the personal and self-critical approach taken, with Grosjean signposting to his follow-up comments on his own work and his dialogue with reactions from colleagues. Grosjean’s goal is to “avoid too much terminology” (p. 2), a goal that was certainly achieved. The book reads well and smoothly and the reader is at no point slowed down by terminology or manner of writing.

Chapter 1 charts Grosjean’s own journey to bilingualism (“so I started my life as a monolingual”, p. 4) from his childhood in France and and English-medium school in Switzerland through his Master’s thesis in Paris on interferences, i.e. “deviations from the language being written or spoken stemming from the influence of the other language” (p. 7), especially grammatical ones (p. 9) to becoming an experimental psycholinguist in the early days of bilingualism research. Grosjean provides an overview of his 1982 book Life with Two languages, which crucially defines bilinguals as “people who use two or more languages [(or dialects) (p. 31)] in their everyday life” (p. 10, something that was only gradually adopted, see p. 17) and bilingualism as “neither a problem nor an asset but quite simply a fact of life” (p. 10) [my emphasis in quotes]. He also discusses the “over-importance given to fluency (now usually referred to as proficiency)” (p. 17) and emphasises that languages can go dormant (p. 17), and that interferences can result amongst other things from the avoidance of certain elements (p. 19). Noticeably, he notes that the passage of bilingualism “often leaves a permanent trace in the language that has survived” (p. 21).

Chapter 2 presents Grosjean’s holistic view of bilingualism which is “neither a problem nor an asset but quite simply a fact of life” (p. 23). Bilinguals have traditionally been assessed with the ideal monolingual speaker-hearer as the bar, and this has been detrimental to the individuals involved and the field as a whole. His key notion is that of speech modes: he distinguishes between the monolingual mode when the language that is not used in active production is deactivated, the bilingual mode when both languages are activated, and an intermediate mode (p. 28). The bilingual will shift quite easily towards the bilingual end of the mode continuum when, for example, they know that the interviewer is bilingual or they notice the setting is favourable towards bilingualism. It is thus a variable to control for in experimental studies (p. 31, p. 48). He further introduces the idea of language histories of bilinguals, i.e the dominant language can shift several times over the course of a bilingual’s life (pp. 32–34) such that “the bilingual’s first language is not automatically the stronger language at a particular point in time” (p. 34). Grosjean fundamentally believes that all language users are fully competent communicators independently of the number of languages they use (p. 34). Grosjean’s view on the bilingual not just being two monolinguals has found recognition in policy (p. 39); yet he acknowledges that “it will take many more years for the majority of the general public, as well as specialized bodies in research and education, to envisage bilinguals as specific speaker-hearers in their own right and to do away with a monolingual bias” (p. 39).

Chapter 3 is dedicated to the bilingual’s language modes, i.e. the bilingual, the intermediate, and the monolingual modes that the bilingual shifts between dependent on environmental cues (p. 44), but usually subconsciously (p. 45). Grosjean considers dynamic interferences “ephemeral or accidental intrusions of the other language” (p. 41). Language mode comprises two components, the base language, i.e. the language that is communicated in primarily, and the level of activation of the two languages (p. 43). Processing seems selective in bilingual mode but non-selective in monolingual mode, as shown by multiple experimental studies that Grosjean reports on and that have taken the speech mode into account as a variable to control for. In bilingual mode, switching seems to come at no perception cost (p. 53). Language mode is “a complex behavioural phenomenon and a cognitive phenomenon” (p. 55).

Chapter 4 explains the complementarity principle, i.e. languages are mapped onto domains in which the bilingual uses them and “if a language is never used for a particular purpose, it will not develop” in this domain (p. 62). Bilinguals can be dominant in one or the other language for specific domains of life (p. 63). Noticeably, for instance counting and mathematical computations “usually take place in the language in which they were learned” (p. 69) and memories may be retrieved more readily in the language in which they were lived (p. 70). The principle has found its way into public discourse at the grassroots (p. 72). The complementarity principle ties in with a bilingual’s language histories, thus acknowledging that the complementary distribution can change over the course of his lifetime, as well as with the notion that bilinguals are not two monolinguals – in fact they can be as proficient as a monolingual in those domains in which the relevant language is their dominant language.

Chapter 5 is dedicated to spoken language processing and considers aspects such as the critical period, such that “some mechanisms and strategies are not acquired in that language because the first language does not have them and/or the second language has been acquired later” (p. 78). Examples that are discussed are the sensitivity to grammatical gender marking, yet noticeably this is present in highly proficient L2 learners (p. 81), the base language effect, i.e. to what extent “base-language units (phonemes, syllables, words) are favored over guest-language units … since the base language is the language being processed primarily and is the most active” (p. 81), an effect which exists in everyday life (p. 85), and guest word recognition, i.e. code-switches or borrowings in bilingual speech, something which seems influenced by language phonetics, phonotactics, and interlanguage homophonic status (p. 88). Grosjean finishes by briefly pointing to his computational model of bilingual lexical access (BIMOLA) (p. 91). This is possibly the most technical chapter as it requires some understanding of experimental setup and it does require those without this background to read sentences twice, yet it is credit to the author in that it is fully comprehensible in the latter case.

Chapter 6 charts the distinction between ephemeral interferences and more permanent transfer phenomena (p. 93). Grosjean stresses that influence can be from the first language onto the second language but also from the second language onto the first language e.g. in scenarios of “long-term immigration where, over the years, the first language starts to be used less often and its domains of use are restricted” (p. 97). In the experimental setup he reports on, attention is paid to the recognition of variants of the first language (here Neuchatel variants of Spanish); the experiment tests whether language users aware that what is presented to them is different from the “pure” first language (pp. 98–99). The bilingual group of test subjects considered the variants highly present and highly acceptable (p. 98), whereas the monolingual control group considered the variants unacceptable (p. 99).

Chapter 7 discusses the issue of biculturalism and noticeably begins by clarifying that “individuals can be bilingual and bicultural, but also bilingual and monocultural, monolingual and bicultural, and monolingual and monocultural” (p. 103) thus clearly refuting the idea that there is a one-to-one mapping between bilingual and bicultural. Like bilinguals, biculturals take part in two cultures, adapt their attitudes, behaviours, values, and languages to these cultures, and combine aspects of the two cultures; unlike bilinguals, biculturals cannot always deactivate all the traits of their other culture in a monocultural setting (p. 105). Grosjean sets nationality clearly apart from culture; they are not the same (p. 104). Noticeably, many biculturals identify with only one of their cultures or sometimes with none (p. 106) rather than with both. When biculturals make a decision on cultural identity, “the perception of the members of the two cultures” as well as “their personal history, their identity needs, their knowledge of the languages and cultures involved, their nationality/-ties” can play a role (p. 111). Some will reject both cultures, which may result in a feeling of marginality and ambivalence (p. 112). While language is one factor in bicultural bilinguals’ switching between their cultural bases, it is not the only one; rather there is usually a change in context that prompts the shift (p. 117). It is not the case that a bicultural bilingual has two separate personalities that are activated purely by language choice. Language acts at best as a prime (p. 118).

Chapter 8 advocates for bilingualism between sign language and the spoken language of the surrounding community. Like other bilinguals, the deaf bilingual may be dominant in one of their languages, may not think that they are bilingual, may use their two languages in complementary distribution, and may move between language modes; unlike other bilinguals, deaf bilinguals have long received little recognition of their bilingualism, remain bilingual throughout their lives, may not acquire certain majority language skills, and will most often be in bilingual mode. Deaf people take part, adapt to, and blend aspects of the two cultures they are part of, the deaf and the spoken one; yet the process of choosing one or the other cultural identity or rejecting both is complicated, as it is for other biculturals. Building on his advocacy paper, Grosjean emphasises that the deaf child has the right to grow up bilingually in order to ensure that linguistic, cognitive, social, and personal development are not impeded, rather than caregivers’ betting on the child’s future by relying solely on technological advances.

Chapter 9 offers numerical insights into bilingualism in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, and France and suggests that overall about half of the world’s population are bilingual. For the US, the data come from the 1976 Survey on Income and Education, the 1980 and 1990 censuses, and the American Community Survey. Over this period of time, bilingualism increased from about 10% to about 20% partially driven most likely by immersion programmes and the retention of minority languages. For Canada, the data come from censuses which dedicate several questions to bilingualism. For 2016, it is suggested that 26% of people were bilingual. For Switzerland, the data come from Swiss Statistics and show that about 40% of the country were bilingual in 2012, crucially considering Swiss German-German pairings bilingual. For France, the data come from a 1999 study conducted by the French Institute for Demographic Studies and show that about 20% of the population were bilingual then. Grosjean freely admits that his estimate of about 50% of the world population as bilingual is an estimate and that exact values are difficult to obtain but shows in a very critical manner how many routes he went down and how many other values are ghosting about (pp. 145–147).

Chapter 10 dives into special bilinguals, especially bilingual writers of literature, translators and interpreters, second-language teachers, and other special bilinguals (sleeper agents, foreign correspondents, pilots and air traffic controllers). With regard to interpreters and translators, Grosjean highlights their need not only to understand the source language but also to have the necessary transfer skills; in the case of interpreters, in fact, a rather unusual constellation of language activation is at work, i.e. they have to have both their languages fully active but one language is only for perception and one only for production, even if these are drawn upon simultaneously. Second-language teachers are special bilinguals in that their language use is often limited to the classroom, they have insight into the linguistics of the language, and they need to have both their languages active at all times. They usually have strong (and somewhat antiquated) opinions on what it means to be bilingual and would not consider themselves bilingual. Grosjean’s other special bilinguals include 1) foreign correspondents, who have to maintain their two cultures independently in order to be able to recognise what is of interest to their audience, 2) pilots and air traffic controllers, who communicate in English and whose communication has to be perfect as the safety and security of hundreds of people is at stake which is why a fixed phraseology and a system of double-checking is in place, and 3) sleeper agents who have to completely hide their bilingualism and biculturalism even in moments of stress or high emotion and fully immerse in the host language and culture for their safety while staying loyal to the culture of their employer’s country.

Chapter 11 opens with a paragraph on the straightforward path of academic careers (p. 158), which seems a fact of the past although all the ingredients are still there. The chapter however gains momentum when Grosjean highlights the importance of making research that has a direct impact on individuals’ lives visible and comprehensible to all. The chapter reflects on his work in publications and interviews, including his books aimed at a general public (2010a, 2015b), in order to debunk commonly held beliefs on bilingualism such as “bilinguals are rare and have equal and perfect knowledge of their languages; real bilinguals have acquired their two or more languages in childhood and have no accent in either of them; bilinguals are born translators; switching between languages is a sign of laziness in bilinguals; all bilinguals are also bicultural; bilinguals have double or split personalities; bilingualism will delay language acquisition in children and have negative effects on their development; if you want your child to grow up bilingual, use the one person-one language approach; children being raised bilingual will always mix their languages” (pp. 159–160, reproduced in full here to show the length of even the selective list). Gronsjean ran the Life as a Bilingual blog on Psychology Today from 2010 to 2023 and eventually turned the blog posts into a more durable and organised format, his 2021 book written during the Covid pandemic. The blog is a prime example of how to condense and audience-orient cutting-edge research. Grosjean also engaged in advocacy in his position paper The Right of the Deaf Child to Grow Up Bilingual (also provided in the Appendix), translated into French subsequently. This paper has resonated with policy makers around the world and has been mentioned in their mission statements (pp. 167–168).

EVALUATION

Grosjean’s book is outstandingly timely, refreshingly personal, and fundamentally self-critical. He has worked on bilingualism for forty years and heralded a view of the bilingual speaker-hearer as normal rather than the odd one out. This view has not trickled down to the general public. Rather, fuelled by societal discourse, one more often than not is confronted with questions like “do I hear the hint of an accent? where is that from?”, even if being a balanced bilingual in Grosjean’s terms. The question inherently qualifies the bilingual as the other, something Grosjean has shown extensively in his work is not the case (ca. 50% of the world are bilingual, even more when dialects are taken into account). At best the bilingual is an exotic outlier, at worst bilingualism is conceptualised as a disadvantage, as someone’s linguistic capabilities being lower than that of a monolingual. The usual follow-up is a rather insulting comment on someone’s language level, e.g. English (“but of course your English is fantastic”). While this is the daily reality, resulting in exclusion, division, and communicative barriers, Grosjean has promoted a model that considers bilingualism normal, that carefully distinguishes between domains of language usage and proficiency, and that puts a focus on language use. He pointedly mentions in several chapters how little has trickled down into public discourse. Grosjean is refreshingly personal, giving the reader a clear idea of the author’s personal experience, knowledge, and access to resources. Not only does this make his work relatable, but, much more importantly, it contributes to a discourse that acknowledges that in the end every researcher’s unique perspective will have an impact on what they look at, how, and why; and this perspective should be spelled out in order to make results fully replicable. Grosjean is self-critical, looking back at his work and adding comments where he has put further thought into a concept, changed his view, or made it more nuanced. This self-reflexivity makes the book outstanding; it is something we would like to have from every researcher towards the end of their career, something that makes it possible to put all the building blocks together without conjecturing what he might have thought but instead knowing what he does think now.
Somewhat surprisingly, despite the overall coherence of the book, the section in Chapter 10 on bilingual writers of literature opens with “some people do write in another language, or several others, but they may not feel totally at ease doing so” (p. 150). Why does the complementarity principle not apply here? Why would a bilingual necessarily prefer their first language?

Beyond this, I can only echo what many have said about Grosjean’s previous books, I saw much of myself in this book (e.g. p. 161). In fact, I first encountered Grosjean’s work in 2015, his 2001 book chapter “The bilingual’s language modes” to be precise. Both his language modes and the notion of dynamic interference found their way into my first monograph on language contact and bilingualism in Graeco-Roman Egypt (Fendel 2022, pp. 60–61). On Bilinguals and bilingualism if read widely enough has the potential to make an immense positive contribution to a society in which sociolinguistic indexicals (Eckert 2008) are treated such that we see accent bias impact hiring procedures (Levon et al. 2021), possibly based on indicators not even markers (Meyerhoff 2019, p. 23), in which identity is often imposed based on aspects of someone’s language use instead of an acceptance of post-structuralist conceptualisations of identity such as distributed identity (Pennycock and Otsuji 2022), and in which minority varieties, whether they are labelled dialects or languages currently (Van Rooy 2020), do not receive the resources, support, and recognition needed to keep them alive (Clément-Wilz 2024). Yet, given Grosjean’s range, there is potential for his ideas to reach the broadest possible audience, e.g. in the form of his book aimed at the general public (2010), his autobiography (2019), and his blog posts in book form (2021). I am grateful this book exists and I hope it will leave its mark in our society.

REFERENCES

Clément-Wilz, Laure. 2024. Les « droits fondamentaux linguistiques » existent-ils ?: Une réflexion interdisciplinaire. Language Problems and Language Planning 48(2). 123–145. https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.00121.cle.

Eckert, Penelope. 2008. Variation and the indexical field. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(4). 453–476. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00374.x.

Fendel, Victoria. 2022. Coptic interference in the syntax of Greek letters from Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Grosjean, Francois. 2001. The bilingual’s language modes. In Janet Nicol (ed.), One mind, two languages: bilingual language processing, 1–22. Malden, Mass. ; Oxford: Blackwell.

Grosjean, François. 2010. Bilingual: life and reality. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Grosjean, François. 2015. Parler plusieurs langues: le monde des bilingues. Paris: Albin Michel.

Grosjean, François. 2019. A journey in languages and cultures: the life of a bicultural bilingual. First edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Grosjean, François. 2021. Life as a bilingual: knowing and using two or more languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Levon, Erez, Devyani Sharma, Dominic Watt, Amanda Cardoso & Yang Ye. 2021. Accent Bias and Perceptions of Professional Competence in England. Journal of English Linguistics 49(4). 355–388. https://doi.org/10.1177/00754242211046316.

Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2019. Introducing Sociolinguistics. Abingdon: Routledge.

Pennycook, Alastair & Emi Otsuji. 2022. Metrolingual Practices and Distributed Identities: People, Places, Things and Languages. In Linda Fisher & Wendy Ayres-Bennett (eds.), Multilingualism and Identity: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 69–90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Van Rooy, Raf (ed.). 2020. Language or Dialect? The History of a Conceptual Pair. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Victoria B. Fendel (D.Phil. Oxford, 2018) is a research associate at the University of Oxford, one of the editors of the Classics section of the Literary Encyclopedia, and language leader for Ancient Greek in the PARSEME/UniDive COST initiative. Her research focusses on language contact (Oxford University Press, 2022) and multi-word expressions (De Gruyter Brill, 2025) in literary, epigraphic, and papyrological sources.