Threshold hypothesis o “Hipòtesi dels llindars”

This hypothesis, developed by Baker in 1997, helps us to explain under what conditions positive, negative or neutral consequences for performance and cognitive development can be produced through bilingualism.

To explain it more clearly we are going to make use of our imagination. So here we go!

Imagine that we are in front of a big house. As we well know, in the world there are many different types of people, and all of them need a roof under which to live. So in this house we will welcome different types of people. This house, as it is so big and tall, has stairs on both sides. Each stair represents a different language. Do you see it? Great. We can continue.

We will go inside the house, are you ready? Let’s go! In the first floor, we will find one kind of bilingual people. Hey, how are you? Well, actually they are not really fine… They are the “limited bilingual”. They have a low level of competence in the both languages they are learning or they are working with. The cognitive effects will be probably negative.

We can use the stairs now and go to see the second floor. Here we find the “Less balanced bilinguals”. Here we find that they have a competence appropriate to their age in one language, not in both. The consequences are unlikely; they can be positive or negative. Say goodbye to them, we’re going to meet people of the third and last floor!

Here we are. Last floor. “Balanced bilingual” say hello to us! Here, we find people who have a competence appropriate to their age in both languages. Of course, this will have cognitive advantages for them, it is studied that the bilingual people develop a superior cognitive capacity to the rest!

So, thanks to this hypothesis, we can know different types of bilingual people. This will be useful for us in the future to help our students. If we know how they are and which relation they have with languages, it will be easier for us to help them.