ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Article Critique: 'Who was the Best?' Knowledge And Rationality In Bilingual Girls' Code Choices by Agnes Bolonyai



Article Critique: 'Who was the Best?' Knowledge And Rationality In Bilingual Girls' Code Choices by Agnes Bolonyai

Introduction

This paper examines how pre-adolescent bilingual girls employ linguistic choices to construct relations of dominance and subordination in a competitive exchange of knowledge and expertise in a pretend-school activity (Bolonyai 2005, p. 3). Quantitative and qualitative analyses demonstrate that code choices used by the girls to constitute and exploit different sources of power are systematically related to the construction of currently salient identities, prevailing structural constraints, and individual goals and desires. It is argued that even young girls act as rational, social actors who actively make strategic and meaningful linguistic choices with the overall aim to achieve optimal outcomes in a given interaction.

Theoretical Frame work

Language Dominance

A comprehensive view of phonological acquisition requires consideration of sociolinguistic context. A girl's sociolinguistic skills and relative proficiency in each language are important aspects in understanding how linguistic and phonological representations are organized. Sociolinguistic evidence of language organization is found in how girls select and switch languages on the basis of social context and interlocutors. Bucholtz (1999, p. 203) found that young girls (four subjects, mean age of 2;2) were sensitive to the characteristics of their unfamiliar interlocutors and the situation. Girls made accommodations (e.g., change of language, clarification) that were contingent on implicit feedback from their communicative partner. These behaviors suggested that young simultaneous bilingual girls were sensitive to the language proficiency of strangers and were able to switch to a non-dominant language to maintain communicative exchanges. Language dominance depends on sociolinguistic context and performance demands, and reflects proficiency and personal preference. To date, there are no systematic, empirically valid measures of language dominance for simultaneous bilingual adults or girls. There are previously described variables useful in determining dominance in late bilinguals (i.e., those who acquired a second language after the age of ten) (Lim et al. 1998). Some of these variables are age of acquisition, function and frequency of language use, language status (e.g., majority, minority language), and proficiency in four modalities (i.e., understanding, speaking, reading, and writing).

Language dominance and proficiency are not interchangeable terms in the adult bilingual literature. Bolonyai (2005, p. 3) described dominance as a psycholinguistic difference in processing ability between the two languages. Proficiency was viewed in terms of the mastery of syntax, vocabulary, and pronunciation of a language. A bilingual adult can have almost native-like proficiency in both languages but still consider one language to be dominant. Goodwin (1999, p. 388) found that a self-report classification tool was a reliable method to identify dominance in English-Mandarin bilingual adults. 168 participants self-identified their dominant language, and completed a detailed questionnaire on language proficiency and history (e.g., age of first exposure, years of formal instruction). Each subject was tested in both languages with a single-word receptive vocabulary test.

A discriminant analysis determined that self-identification was reliable to correctly classify 88% of the ...