Balanced bilingualism is a concept, which is the closest to an idealized situation. The term implies the highest possible balanced level of knowledge and usage of both languages across various situations and contexts. When talking about balanced bilinguism we are talking about near-perfect or near-complete control over two languages, which can be compared to monolingual control of a native language. Even in such an ideal situation of language development, there would still be contexts in which one language would dominate over the other. Nevertheless, balanced bilingualism is not only a theoretical notion. There are some practical examples of the concept. Take an example of a second-generation migrant, an accountant, who completed all his formal schooling after Year 8 in English langauge, but has returned to his parents' homeland. He worked there for ten years in international firm before returning back to Australia. He can easily and confidently use any of the two languages in any professional or social situation.
The idea of balanced bilingualism also involves very maximalist view. Through such a view the concept of perfect use of two languages is conveyed in terms such as 'perfect bilingualism', 'true bilingualism' or 'ambilingialism'. The opposition to this is a minimalist view, where some authors (eg. McNamara, Haugen, in Hoffman,C. (1991) An Introduction to Bilingualism. London: Longman., p.22) treat as bilinguals those individuals who have very little competence in L2 on any of its associated language skills.
Balanced bilingualism is probably an idealistic goal to many bilinguals. Recent studies also emphasized that balanced bilinguals are advantaged regarding cognitive development and functions if compared to monolinguals. |
