The Phenomenon of Bilingualism in Slovakia: Raising a Bilingual Child in a Monolingual Culture – A Family Case Study on Intentional Bilingualism as a Communication Strategy

Defining Intentional Bilingualism

Nowadays, non-native or intentional bilingualism is not an unknown phenomenon and has also found its place in the literature. Non-native bilingualism occurs in a situation when two languages are not acquired naturally but when the situation is imitated by one or both of the parents who speak to their child in a language that is not their mother tongue. In English, this type of bilingualism when one or both parents address a child in a language that is not their mother tongue is referred to using different terms. In the literature, it has been referred to as ‚artificial bilingualism‘ (Kielhöfer &Jonekeit, 1983; Saunders, 1982; Baker, 2000; Döpke, 1992). In other words, it is bilingualism in a monolingual family living in a monolingual society (Jurančič-Petek, 2017). A Slovak linguist Jozef Štefánik replaced the old term ‘artificial’ which had been used to describe this type of bilingual upbringing by a more proper term ‘intentional’ to refer to raising children bilingually by monolingual parents (Štefánik 2000a; 2000b). Also, as Jiménez (2010) sees it, the term ‘intentional bilingualism’ is more acceptable than ‘artificial bilingualism’ as it tends to express the attitude of parents towards the way to educate their children. Other authors, such as Jurančič-Petek (2017) call this particular type of bilingualism emerging in a monolingual family with the mere purpose to teach a child a foreign language from a very early age ‘language-only’ or ‘monocultural bilingualism’. Szramek-Karcz (2016a) and Romanowski (2018) denote this approach of language education as ‘non-native bilingualism’. Valdés and Figueroa (1994) use the term ‘elective bilingualism’ when referring to individuals who choose to learn a second language in addition to their first language to follow their personal interests or employment goals. ‘Elective’ or ‘elite bilingualism’ is labeled as positive since it is considered to be a sign of high social status and education as opposed to inherently negative ‘artificial bilingualism.’ Furthermore, terms like ‘cultivated bilingualism’ and ‘bilingualism in monolingual families’ (Szramek-Karcz, 2016a) or even ‘infant bilingualism’ (Saunders, 1988, p. 38) or ‘home immersion’ are used (Saunders, 1990, p. 121). For the sake of this paper, the author adopts the term ‘intentional bilingualism’.