Bilingualism and Biculturalism Essay Example for Free

Bilingualism and Biethnicalism EssayRunning gunpoint BILINGUALISM AND BICULTURALISM E. Biculturalism in society Biculturalism usu all in ally exists in a country where deuce different refinings or cultural identities ar allowed to freely flourish within the society. It is characterized by widespread occupation of hatful be to devil diverse cultures. However, true biculturalism housenot exist in a country where single culture is suppressed or discriminated. Bicultural countries have official policies to protect the interest of both cultures. It besides facilitates equitable status and rights to people belonging to both cultures without any prejudice. These countries withal celebrate festivals pertaining to both cultures to preserve integrity of both cultures and foster the heart of togetherness. E. 1 Biculturalism in Canada Canada follows a indemnity of official bilingualism as its gives satisfactory status to both side of meat and french in its parliament and court s. This was d cardinal to preserve the cultural identity of French communities in Canada, as support for the French voice communication in Canada had weakened and side had become the preferred run-in in business and politics, by the end of the nineteenth century.As the years passed by, Francophone communities outside of Quebec begun to realize the extinction of their culture was inevitable, unless French-based education was made a top priority. Certain political forces in Quebec had also wanted a separate state during the 1960s. Franco-Albertans living in Quebec called for bilingualism and biculturalism to ensure that Canada stayed united. This led to the proclamation of the Official spoken communications Act of 1969 announcing Canada as a bilingual nation (Albertas Francophone Heritage 3).Today, Franco-Albertans be entitled to exclusive French-only education jibe to rights guaranteed by Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission, while French is also now used in g everywherenme nt offices and hospitals in Alberta. every these developments with respect to biculturalism have kept Canada together as one nation and led to the revival of the French culture. E. 2 Biculturalism in Australia Australia was sooner inhabited only by several indigenous tribes, until the Europeans settlers started to immigrate there.These comparatively new settlers started to control the ethnicity of the immigrants settling down to ensure that Australia had a cultural identity of a British Colony. Until 1973, the governments empowered by the Immigration Restriction Act followed the White Australia policy to keep a understand on non-European immigration. The racial injustice perpetrated by the White Australia policy official came to end by temporary of the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975. Australia started to rigorously follow a bicultural policy similar to Canada, beginning its doors to several thousands of immigrants from all over the world.The extent of Australias multicultura l policy can be get out understood from a 2005 Department of Immigration statistic which reports that forty percent of the contributing workforce in Australia had at least one pargonnt born outside of Australia, while twenty-five percent of them were not originally born in Australia (Wikiepedia 9). Australian values of mateship centered on equality, loyalty and friendship, have enshrined in its biculturalism policy and given equal rights to all Australian citizens irrespective of their ethnicity.Multiculturalism was initially perceived as the acceptance of people coming from different cultural backgrounds as members of Australian society. However, the significance of biculturalism has now deepened and empowered immigrants in Australia to register their cultural identity, thereby enabling them to experience both Australian culture as well as their inseparable culture. E. 3 Biculturalism in the United States America, in spite of being one of most culturally diverse nations in the w orld and built on values of equality, does not formally have a federal multiculturalism policy.That being said, America does practices biculturalism on a social level as immigrants from various countries are freely allowed to practice their religion and exhibit their cultural identity. The Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 nullified quotas based on ones national origin. Since then, more twenty twenty-eight million people immigrants have legally been received by the United States of America. Bilingualism is also prevalent is certain Southern states that are heavily populated with communicative immigrants. F. The relationship of bilingualism to biculturalismBilingualism and biculturalism are concepts that are very closely tied together. Bilingualism not only helps one to associate and effectively communicate with the society around him/her, but also enables a person to maintain govern over his/her indigen quarrel. Since dustup is the key to stay in touch with ones ethic or national cult ure, bilingualism helps foster biculturalism as well. F. 1. Origin of bilingualism in bicultural societies Canada was one of the pioneers of the New World to officially adopt the policy of bilingualism.In 1867, British North America Act was passed to legalize to conversing in English as well as French in Canadian Parliament as well as Courts of Law, thereby paving the mood for a bicultural state. As the worlds political climate began to miscellanea during the beginning of the twentieth century, the idea of cultural pluralism started to gain momentum. Biculturalism began in western world and paved the way for biculturalism to be adopted as a political policy in many other split of the world.F. 2. Bilingual education Bilingual education is a method of teaching all subjects to students through a countrys primary language as well as the students native language. There are several types of approaches and programs available to carry out bilingual education. Transitional programs teach all subjects in the students native language and English is taught as a separate subject until bilingual students can study along with other native students in normal classrooms.Dual Language programs consist of an equal combination of students who are native English speakers as well students who have another common native language. These methods enable all students in the class to be bilingual and understand subject matter in both languages. Late-exit program is yet another method that is quite similar to transitional programs, but it also teaches all the subjects in English again to reinforce the subject content and achieve effective bilingualism. It is hard to generalize and develop a common plan to educate bilingual students.For instance, in the US, young immigrants are either more educated or less educated native-born American students since immigrants from Asian countries are relatively well-educated compared to their South American counterparts, as a result of to social and economic differences. Language maintenance and Language shift Language maintenance is an effort to preserve the linguistic ability of baby bird in his/her native language, while not compromising on learning the popular secondary language at school. It is can result from a passion for ones culture or a necessity to communicate with elder members in the family.Career prospects due to international acclaim or the handiness of media services such as television programs or books in ones native could also cause language maintenance. The avoidance of ones native language is known as language shift. For instance, bilingual children may stop use their mother tongue owing to a higher leg of English exposure in school. Other factors that influence language shift are fear of ones native language negatively influencing their English language skills or learning abilities.Lack of enate encouragement to maintain ones native language can also lead to language shift. G. Transference Transference occurs when a persons native language negatively influences the way he/she uses another language or vice-versa. This influence can occur in the form of distinctive viva voce expressions i. e. accent or odd sentence compositions. It is classified into lexical, phonological, semantic, prosodic, tonemic, syntactic and pragmatic transferences.CONCLUSIONThe concepts of bilingualism and biculturalism are two critical aspects that have held together societies comprising of several cultures, languages, races and ethnic backgrounds. Since transference or the deviation from the norms of a language could lead to language shift, proper bilingual education has to be provided to ensure that one is comfortable using both languages. Bilingualism, the preservation of ones native language accompanied by command over a countrys primary language, is necessary to achieve biculturalism in a society as well retaining ones true cultural identity.References A Research Guide for Students. (1998-2006). Retr ieved March 20, 2008. http//www. aresearchguide. com/1steps. hypertext mark-up language Bilingualism and Biculturalism. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from Albertas Francophone Heritage. http//www. edukits. ca/francophone/en/secondary/infomatics_text_bilingualism. html Chan, K. (1998). Bilingualism and Biculturalism. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from Academia. http//www. geocities. com/goktimus/bilingualism. html Multiculturalism. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia. http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Multiculturalism.