Although the number of interested participants was 206 at the beginning, there were 180 students who actually took part in the language background questionnaire task. I was not very surprised, because when I introduced the study and told students that a section on the Macedonian language was integrated, in which they would be asked about their language background and tested for proficiency, I heard some students’ words of confusion: “Why Macedonian?”. After the questionnaire was completed, we arranged another day for the proficiency test.
The questionnaire was analyzed in cooperation with my colleagues, the English teachers, who volunteered to participate in the study. Most of the students participating at this study were nineteen and tewenty years old. Starting with the student’s L1-Albanian, the questionnaire did not include questions about the age at which they had started to learn their native language, because in West Macedonia, Albanian is the dominant language and it is used in the family, social environment and in education. While in administration, the dominant language is Macedonian, the official language of Macedonia.
By means of a self-evaluation scale, designed by Daller (1999) (ranging from ‘very bad’, ‘bad’, ‘normal’, ‘good’ to ‘very good’) and adapted for the present study (ranging from ‘bad’, to ‘normal’ and ‘high’), the students could express how they assess their L2 proficiency. Out of 180 participants, three different groups of bilinguals were identified based on the self-evaluation scale:
1) 74 had little knowledge of Macedonian. They had started to learn Macedonian at school, and their exposure to the language was limited.
2) 18 had medium knowledge of Macedonian and medium exposure to it, 3) 88 had fully developed knowledge of Macedonian and high exposure to it.
The first result of the analysis indicated that the bilingual Albanian’s second language proficiency varied depending on social and individual factors. The degree of bilingualism in the students was consequently very complex and difficult to define. The categorization was made according to social and individual variables.
Taking into account social variables, the Albanian bilinguals were all categorized as “additive” (as suggested by Lambert 1975), because the native language, Albanian, was secure, and the second language served as enrichment. The status factor of L1 and L2 in Macedonia was found to play a very important role.
Taking into account individual variables, results show individual differences between Albanian bilingual students, based on behavioral differences (Lambert et. al. 1958), that is differences in motivation and attitude towards the second language (Gardner & Lambert 1972); age of an individual (Weinreich 1953; McLaughlin 1984; Byalistok & Hakuta 1994) and proficiency in the second language (Cummins 1981, as cited in Ellis 1994). These results indicated another type of bilingualism based on the bilinguals’ skills. Skills can be classified into the categories: reading and listening comprehension, speaking and writing (cf. Halliday 1968). According to research studies on bilingualism (see chapter one), bilinguals can be classified with reference to their proficiency levels in these four areas of skills. The following categories for bilinguals emerge incipient bilingual, receptive bilingual, functional bilingual dominant bilingual, balanced (or equilingual) bilingual and ambilingual bilingual (or perfect bilingual).
Considering these different types of multilingualism, results indicated that bilingual Albanians could be categorized into three groups:
• ambilingual balanced bilingualism- a simple form of stable multilingualism, which is assumed the both language systems are fully developed to an ideal native speaker proficiency
• transitional bilingualism- where one language system is gradually replaced by another to reserve a long-term reservation to monolingualism
• passive bilingualism – in which the speaker has only
passive/receptive command of one linguistic system and does not use the second language system (Ls) for active communicative purposes her/himself, can be taken as an instance of partial competence. It was noticed that the difference between forms of passive bilingualism and the form of
The results also indicated that bilingual Albanians could be categorized based on their second language skills. For example, some could be classified as receptive bilinguals (Hockett, 1958), if they have progressed to the point where they can comprehend much of what is presented in the second language but find it difficult to produce speech or writing. Functional bilinguals (Beatens Beardsmore 1982) have sufficient ability in both languages to carry out most social and communicative functions without difficulty. And balanced (or equilingual) bilinguals are individuals whose mastery of the two languages is roughly equivalent.
In this study, all bilinguals have been identified also analyzed based on their age of first language exposure to the L2, as suggested by Byalistok and Hakuta (1994). All bilinguals of this study had started to learn their L2 relatively early in childhood (from age 5 and 10), therefore they could be categorized as early sequential bilinguals. who are further subdivided into early (ambilingual balanced) bilinguals and will be referred to as ‘High Bilinguals’ functional transitional bilinguals will be called ‘Intermediate Bilinguals’ and passive bilinguals ‘Low Bilinguals’ respectively. For a better understanding, the figure below describes the types of bilingual Albanian students in Macedonia:
Figure 6.1: Albanian bilingual students
The results obtained from the English language self evaluation scale showed different levels of English in the three different groups of bilingual students based on 180 participants:
1) Out of 74 Low Bilinguals, 56 evaluated their English as ‘normal’ and 18 as ‘good’.
2) Out of 18 Intermediate Bilinguals, 9 evaluated their English as ‘normal’, 5 as ‘good’ and 4 as ‘very good’, and
3) Out of 88 High Bilinguals, 75 evaluated their English as ‘normal’, 8 as ‘good’, and 5 as ‘very good’
Responding to the questions, concerning student’ attitudes towards learning English, most of the students stated that they watch movies in English and that
Albanian Bilingual Students
Early Sequential Bilinguals
Transitional Bilinguals (Intermediate Bilinguals) Passive Bilinguals (Low Bilinguals) Ambilingual Balanced Bilinguals (High Bilinguals)
Albanian subtitles, help them to understand. It is important to state here that movies are usually in the original English version but have Albanian subtitles. In addition, they listen to music in Albanian and English, but never in Macedonian. They prefer to use English words when they communicate with their friends, and they try to use English only when communicating with their English teachers. As there are no English daily newspapers in Macedonia, most of the bilingual students read only Albanian newspapers, and a considerable number read both Albanian and Macedonian newspapers. They also stated that the only opportunity to read news in English is online.
The last question asked for reasons why they liked to learn English. All the students are willing to learn English as it is the language of ‘the world’s communication’ (as cited from a student’s answer in the questionnaire). Next, they stated that they would need the language for their studies at an international university and for their future career. Some interesting answers found in the questionnaire were that they like English very much because they want to join the European Union or that ‘Americans are friends of Albanians’ as one student wrote.