32 - Second language acquisition: the intergroup theory with catastrophic dimensions

Summary

Few European social psychological publications have concerned themselves with the social problems of bilingualism in general, or with second language acquisition (SLA) in particular. This is in contrast to, for example, a good deal of research interest shown in Canada (e.g. Gardner & Kalin 1981; Lambert 1967). Yet, why should SLA concern social psychologists, whether they be Canadian, European or Asian? There are many answers to this question and we shall highlight just a few. The most prominent is the fact that the vast majority of nations in the world are multicultural and most of these are multilingual. Europe itself can arguably be considered a laboratory for the study of bi- and multilingual issues. Furthermore, a large proportion of children are schooled in their second rather than their mother tongues, the language of the curriculum often being that of a former colonial power or of the dominant ethnic elite. For example, most speakers of English have learned the language as their second tongue (Macnamara 1967). It is true that, at the same time, we are witnessing increasing contemporary pressures towards political and economic interdependence, centralization, modernization, and the like, which might nullify multilingualism and relegate it to the status of a phenomenon of the past. However, and in some ways in response to the above forces (Tajfel 1978a), the recent resurgence of interest in ethnic revivals and national identity which many regard as a distinctly modern process (Fishman 1977; Ross 1979), has been reflected world-wide in the resurrection and modernization of ‘old’, as well as in the creation of new, languages.