Title:
BECOMING BILINGUAL: A JOURNEY OF ENGLISH-ARABIC BILINGUAL COMPETENCE

Authors:
Emily R. Logan

Abstract:
Bilingualism is a diverse and complex phenomenon, and each individual's experience of bilingual competence is unique. This paper provides an in-depth case study of an English-Arabic speaker born in Lebanon but growing up in Australia. Her personal journey is considered in light of current research in the academic field, and is shown to reinforce many theories of bilingual development, and highlight the complex nature of bilingual competence. Important aspects of her bilingual experience include her own and her family's positive attitudes towards language and cultural heritage; the combination of formal language instruction and communicative language use; social networks among both monolingual and bilingual speakers of both languages; the challenge of diglossia in her first language, Arabic; and her high personal motivation to develop balanced bilingualism despite difficulties and setbacks. The study considers the interrelationship between her first and her second language, observing that her L1 has the developmental characteristics of an L2 due to immigrating at a young age, and that while she learnt her L2 in early childhood, both her languages display non-native phonological systems. Finally, the study argues that bilingualism is a complete language system, showing that for this speaker, her language ability is best displayed in bilingual English-Arabic settings where she can implement code-switching to make full use of her entire linguistic repertoire.