Bilingualism and Second-Language Learning

Abstract

The term bilingual refers to individuals who can function in more than one language. The category of bilinguals is very broad encompassing individuals who are sophisticated speakers, readers, and writers of two or more languages, as well as those who use a limited knowledge of asecond language for purposes such as work or schooling, and who may be literate in only one language. Because of the consequences of colonization, migration, nation-formation, traditions of exogamy, and modernization, some degree of bilingualism is typical of most people in the world.