Multilingualism in India

Multilingualism is the ability of an individual speaker or a community of speakers to communicate effectively in three or more languages. Contrast with monolingualism, the ability to use only one language. A person who can speak multiple languages is known as a polyglot or a multilingual.

1. Language Across Curriculum Mrs.Deepali Gaurav Borde CSSM

2. Unit 2: Multilingualism and its Implications in the Indian Classroom/Context a) Multilingualism in the Indian Context b) Developing socio-linguistics awareness in the Indian classroom c) Critiquing state policies on language and education

3. WHAT IS MULTILINGUALISM ? ¢ People who speak or have been spoken in two or more languages since birth. Example Marathi speaking father married to a Gujarati speaking mother with the family living in Chennai, where the community language (and primary language of education) is English. If the child goes to English medium school from a primary age then trilingualism will be the result. Son

4. ¢ People who have been one language since birth and later learned other languages.

5. MULTILINGUALISM ¢ Multilingualism is the act of using Polyglotism or using multiple languages . Polyglot Greek Word Multiple + Languages Poly + glot

6. MULTILINGUALISM - Is the act of using or promoting the use of, multiple languages,either by an individual speaker or by a community of speaker. - Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world’s population. - Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and culture openness.

7. Multilingualism in the Indian Context India is a multilingual country because of the number of languages spoken in the country. Hindi is the official language of the country. India has many languages spoken in the country due to the regional diversities.

8. India is a land of diverse languages since it is a multicultural country. At present there is not a single State or Union Territory that is monolingual. India is so vast and is divided in so many States, languages and religions, its culture is also much diversified. Each region possess its own local holidays and cultural differences.

9. Characteristics of indian multilingualism multilingualism Bilingualism at the grass root level Maintenance norms Complementarities of languages Multiplicity and linguistic identities strategy for mother tongue maintenance Multilingualism as a positive force Early socialisation for multilingual functioning

10. 1. Bilingualism at the grass root level : Widespread use of 2 or more languages in different domains of daily life makes it possible for individuals and communities at the grass root levels to communicate among themselves and with members of different speech communities . Communication across the country remains open and unimpaired because of concentric layers of societal multilingualism.

11. 2.Maintenance norms : In India, minority languages in contact with dominant languages have tended to be maintained over generations. According to Pandit (1977), language maintenance in India is the norm and shift a deviation. This is because of the multilingual ethos and the non-competing roles of languages in the lives of common people

12. 3. Complementarities of languages The multilingual lifestyle in India involves various patterns of language use in social interactions and in different domains of daily life. Complementarities of relationship between languages is achieved by smooth functional allocation of languages into different domains of use. Languages are neatly sorted into non-competing spheres of activities such as home, in-group communication, market place, religious rites, formal communication, entertainment, media , inter-group communication etc. Under such conditions of multilingual functioning, individuals need and use different languages because no language is sufficient for meeting all the communicative requirements across different situations and social activities.

13. 4. Multiplicity and linguistic identities Multiple languages and multiple language identities are defining features of Indian bilingualism. Typically, language users in India extend their identities beyond a particular language. People move between languages with the patterns of identities changing under various social psychological conditions.

14. 5. Bilingualism as a strategy for mother tongue maintenance Stable forms of bi/multilingualism in contact situations in India are a result of communities maintaining their languages, not by rejecting the contact language but by linguistic accommodation.(Bhatia and Ritchie,200). Becoming bilingual is an adaptive strategy for individuals and communities and this effectively stabilises the relationship between individuals, communities and languages .

15. 6. Multilingualism as a positive force When mother tongues are healthily maintained along with bi/tri or multilingualism at the individual and community levels, social, psychological and educational benefits accrue to the minority groups. Studies have shown that bilingual children. Schooled and unschooled ,have a distinct edge over their monolingual counterparts in terms of their cognitive and intellectual skills, meta-linguistic and meta-cognitive task performance and educational achievement( in the case of schooled children )

16. 7. Early socialisation for multilingual functioning Multilingual socialisation involves development of : Progressive differentiation of languages The norms of multiple language use Understanding and consistent use of the rules governing multilingual communication including a context- sensitive hierarchy of socio-linguistic preferences.