Bilingualism and Multilingualism

Box 7.3. Bilingualism refers to attaining proficiency in communicating through any two languages; learning more than two languages is multilingualism. 'Mother tongue' has been variously defined — one's native language, the language spoken from the cradle, the language ordinarily used at home, or the language spoken by the mother — but is generally viewed as the language a person identifies with at an emotional level, and it is possible to have multiple mother tongues. The Indian social context is characterised by grass-root multilingualism, making bi/multilingualism a characteristic at both individual and societal levels; most Indians use more than one language across different domains of daily life, so multilingualism is a way of life in India. Studies reveal that bilingualism/multilingualism facilitates children's cognitive, linguistic, and academic competence. …