bilingual

n. A bilingual is any individual with communication skills in two languages. Those skills may represent the written, spoken, or auditory domains with any degree of fluency or proficiency in each language. For example, a bilingual individual may have listening comprehension in one language and both spoken and written comprehension in a second. Fluency and proficiency may be assessed using standardized measures for language ability. A narrow view of this term would include only individuals who have native-like fluency in each of their two languages. In contrast, the most inclusive definition may include an individual who has spoken skills in a language other than the native language. Typically, bilinguals are dominant in one of their languages. An individual who is able to understand utterances in a language but has no productive competence in that language and is fluent in his/her native language is referred to as a receptive or passive bilingual.

- JA

► See also BALANCED BILINGUAL and BILINGUALISM