Monolingualism: The unmarked case

Abstract

It is frequently observed that bilingualism and multilingualism are more common in the world than monolingualism, and yet, as Romaine (1995) points out, it is rare to find a book with the title 'Monolingualism'. Linguistic theories have often assumedmonolingualism to be the norm (Pavlenko, 2000), and this view is often held by individual monolinguals who are speakers of a dominant language such as English (Edwards, 1994). This paper will review three representations of monolingualism in the applied linguistics literature. The first is as an unmarked case, against whichbilingualism and multilingualism are set as the exception. The second representation is of monolingualism as a limitation on cognitive, communicative, social and vocational potential (Kirkpatrick, 2000; Crozet, Liddicoat & Lo Bianco, 1999).Perspectives from language policy documents in Australia are presented to illustrate the second representation. The third and most critical representation employs metaphors of disease, sickness and disability to portray monolingualism as a pathological state (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000a; Oller, 1997). This latter strand ofliterature critiques the influence of the monolingual perspectives held by those who wield authority in language policy and in education. The paper concludes with a call for the development of a framework within which to understand monolingualism and its social and educational effects.