The concept was developed by Lambert (1977) to account for the different types of bilinguality and their very different outcomes.
- Additive bilingualism is found in situations where both the languages (and the cultures associated with them) have high status in the child’s family and community and there is no danger of one language replacing another. Middle class homes where bilinguality is a matter of choice.
- Subtractive bilingualism is more likely to occur in linguistic minorities where the first language is not valued in the wider community, and may be devalued by the family itself and the individuals concerned.
- Children from minority communities schooled through a socially more prestigious language than their mother tongue. The general lack of schooling in L1 means that academic language, the full cognitive range of the language, is not developed and literacy may not be encouraged or available.
- In such situations, whether the first language is a majority or a minority language is particularly important.
The article is authored by Farhat Tazeen a teacher in AlKhair School.
May 5, 2011