Content area
Abstract
Bilingualism is a phenonemon which has been studied by linguists because of its effect on language usage, by. sociologists because of its effect on the social and cultural institutions, and by educators because of its effect on the learning situation. Only during the past twenty years, however, have psychologists been concerned with the functional approach of language meaning and with the interference of the two languages of the bilingual. Researchers have been concerned with the methodological instruments needed to measure bilingualism and have attempted to answer several questions: How does a bilingual process information? Is it possible to deter- mine a subject's degree of bilingualism? Can a researcher through various language tests determine the subject's proficiencies in both languages? Do the language systems coexist dependently or independently?
