With reference to your personal experience as a speaker of two languages, support the above statement. While it is the case that speakers of a single language control various styles and levels of the language, it is very common that people develop some knowledge and ability in a second language and so become a bilingual. A bilingual is a person who has some functional ability in a second language. In fact, a bilingual individual provides rich field for sociolinguistic study. The way a second language is acquired, as well as the domain or register in which it is used are regarded as important phenomena in which sociolinguistics is interested. When talking about a bilingual person, it is important to know first the way each language is acquired; whether it is a mother tongue or a language being learned.
In fact, this greatly affects the ability of using the language as well as the domains in which it is used. For example, concerning myself as a speaker and user of two languages, which are Arabic and English, the language I use is always according to the domain and function in which it is used. As for the Arabic language, which is my mother tongue, I always use it at home and in most of my daily activities because of my having a strong command of it and because of the society that I live in whose individuals are mostly native speakers of Arabic. On the other hand, I sometimes also use the English language, which I have learned as a result of having my whole education in English. Thus, I use the English language in an educational use, or when dealing with foreigners. Therefore, the use of the English language, which is a second language, which is a second language, is somehow limited, not like the use of the mother tongue.
The Essay on Spanish Language and Bilingual Childhood
One day his teachers came to his home and explained that he was not doing so well in school and therefore the English language needed to be enforced in the house (453). The teachers asked for his parents to try to speak English with Rodriguez and his siblings. Rodriquez explains how speaking Spanish at home was the family language and it made him feel a intimate and close with his family and it ...
It is noteworthy that the choice of a certain language to be used depends on the domain as well as the person being addressed. This explains my use of the English language in college while using the Arabic at home. Moreover, even at home when foreigners come to visit us, I find myself talking to them in English and switching to Arabic when I start talking to my sister or when I answer the phone. In fact, this is due to my having abilities in both languages and knowing which language is to be used according to the audience design. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that it is very rare for a bilingual to have equal abilities in both languages.
For instance, despite the fact that I am a native speaker of the Arabic language, most of the time I fail to use Arabic in making any calculations or solving arithmetic problems. In fact, this is due my having learned mathematics in English. Thus, English has become the language that is related to maths and calculations. Therefore, it can be concluded that bilingualism is not just a phenomena, however, it is interrelated with other sociolinguistic aspects.
That is why a bilingual person has been regarded as an important field for sociolinguistic study.
