the medium of instruction, and the Anglo-Indians are
disadvantaged in this situation, because they do not
benefit from a similar programme in the school. In a
separate study, involving bilingualism, the continual
hearing of objects and events referred to in two different
phonetic forms enables the bilingual child to realize that
the relationship between a word's sound and its meaning is
an arbitrary one. (50)
Thus the "immersion students", that is, the non Anglo-
Indian students in Tknglo-Indian schools perform better in
bilingual learning than the Anglo-Indian students who
remain monolingual.
EUROPE: In another study which described a bilingual's
competence, "Kate" spoke Dutch and English as two
monolingual children in one. She could alternate languages
both at and within utterance boundaries (language choice)
and this "code-switching" which constitutes an aspect of a
"bilingual's competence" displays the "skilled
manipulation" of a bilingual's two languages. Kate was not
a "double monolingual" which is a reductionist and
simplistic description but "fully bilingual". (51)
Further studies in Europe have suggested that the bilingual
child catches up with the monolingual child after increased
exposure, and the child's bilingual skills had a positive
effect on the child's social development. (52)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: In an American study of
bilingualism for students from Latino and Asian
backgrounds, the children increased their commitment to
learning English, when the Principals of their schools, who
belonged to their minority groups displayed a strong
commitment to raising the achievement levels of
language-minority students .
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