We define bilingual as a person who speaks two languages, that is, he speaks, reads and writes the two languages in question perfectly. In general, one of these languages is your native language and the other is acquired thanks to the study of it.
And, on the other hand, when a text, a document, is written in two languages, it will be said that it is also bilingual.
Bilingualism (the ability of a person to use two languages interchangeably) can be native or acquired. If a child is the son of Mexicans but was born and raised in the United States, it is likely that he or she is native bilingual, since at home, he or she will speak Spanish, while at school and in the general life he / she appeals to English.
On the other hand, if a person is born and lives his entire life in Chile, but studies German from the age of five, when he reaches a certain age he will master this second language perfectly, in addition to his native Spanish. It will, therefore, be a case of acquired bilingualism.
The notion of bilingual, therefore, is associated with a perfect command of two languages that the individual can use in an interchangeable way (that is, he can express himself without problems in both languages). A subject who has knowledge of another language in addition to his mother tongue will not be bilingual, since he cannot express himself fluently.
In recent years, in countries like Spain, bilingualism has gained special relevance. A good example of this is that in more and more schools, both schools and institutes, we move to an education based on that. Therefore, many of the classes are taught by teachers in English so that students, from an early age, become fluent in the language that has come to be considered the universal language: English.
Specifically, the different government institutions have committed to this type of education, based on the Spanish and Anglo-Saxon languages, because it is considered that it carries a significant amount of benefits for children and young people.
A language is defined by a set of sounds or as a code that serves to communicate and represents our first link to the world. The newborn who cries and cries when he comes into the world does so to express himself and attract attention. The words, the syntax, the grammar, everything that comes after and contributes to build our mental universe that helps to structure the way we perceive the world. A bilingual can use two linguistic reference systems to describe a feeling or express an idea. For a long time, it was thought that this could lead to confusion, especially among younger children.
After 1962, thanks to a study by Pearl and Lambert on the relationship between bilingualism and intelligence, the scientific trend changed its course. In recent decades, several studies have highlighted the existence of a “metalinguistic awareness”, that is, a predominant attitude among bilinguals to solve cognitive enigmas without going through language: as if, faced with a mathematical equation, a bilingual had more ability to solve that.
