According to the 1990 United States Census, one in seven, or 31.8 million, people speak a language other than English in their home. In the past, second generation children were encouraged to adopt the customs, culture, and language of what was identified as the majority culture. Today, with greater recognition and celebration of cultural differences, people are more likely to maintain and share their primary language with their children and to promote bilingualism as a reflection of ethnic pride and identity.
Different people use the term in different ways.
For some, bilingualism means an equal ability to communicate in two languages. For others, bilingualism means the ability to communicate in two languages, but with the possibility of greater skills in one language. Most researchers agree that a child who is exposed simultaneously to two languages at an early age will naturally learn to use both languages. Children can be expected to go through some periods of mixing the two languages and borrowing vocabulary to express ideas, sometimes within the same sentence. This occurs because vocabulary may exist in one language but not in the other.