Читать книгу The Mysteries of Bilingualism. Unresolved Issues онлайн
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Notes
1 ssss1 In this chapter, the reader will see a shift from the use of “fluency” in earlier research to “proficiency” in later research. The two are used synonymously here. In chapters that follow, though, we will report on the work of some researchers, as in ssss1, who use “fluency/fluent” to mean that a person speaks easily, clearly, and with few hesitations.
2 How Many Bilinguals Are There?
Bilingualism is widespread and can be found in practically every country of the world, in all classes of society, and in all age groups. It has been estimated that probably more than half of the world’s population is bilingual; that is, it uses two or more languages (or dialects) in everyday life. But this is just an estimation and, unfortunately, we are still a long way away from knowing exactly how many people are indeed bilingual. Are things easier if we try to assess the number of bilinguals country by country? Not really as there are huge gaps in what we know. And when some data does exist, it is far from satisfactory.