This paper deals with the bilingual factors that affect use of a language among nine science research scholars from India. Although English is the official language and the first language in India, subjects' preference of language is taken into consideration. So this resulted in the subjects' mother tongue being L1 and English being L2. The function of bilingualism is viewed at in an educational context in this paper. Individual differences are also mentioned in terms of the bilingual behavior with regard to motivation, attitudinal behavior, aptitude, language acquisition/learning, learning tools and sociolinguistic awareness. A questionnaire and an informal interview method are adopted to measure the bilingual behavior of the subjects. It is interesting to note that scientists, teachers, peer group/friends are part of the integrative motivation of the subjects, whereas examinations, getting a job, status of English are the source of instrumental motivation to learn the language. Data also reveals the ways subjects have acquired L2 i.e., English. This study has pedagogical implications such as correlation between listening and speaking, between reading and writing, exploiting students' interests to teach various language skills from one source, a need to expose students to various learning strategies to master the basic language skills.

Bilingualism is a phenomenon where "a speaker of one language can produce complete meaningful utterances in the other language" Haugen (1953, p. 7). Mackey (1957, p. 51) defines bilingualism as "the alternate use of two or more languages by the same individual". Although there are many definitions to define the competence of a bilingual, Skutnabb-Kangas' (1981) words "the choice of definition is wholly dependent upon what it is to be used for" are considered for the present study.

The present study is an attempt to look at some of the aspects that affect bilingualism. The function of bilingualism is viewed at in an educational context in the present work, (because the functions may vary from one context to the other. For example, sociolinguistic vs. psycholinguistic context). Overall pattern that emerged from the data regarding the function of bilingual factors is discussed. Individual differences are also mentioned in terms of the bilingual behavior with regard to motivation, attitudinal behavior, aptitude, language acquisition/learning, learning tools and sociolinguistic awareness. Instead of the order in certificates of the speakers for the first, the second and the third languages, the subjects' own preference of the order (in which they are comfortable to speak) is taken into consideration. Q. Nos. 2 and 3 of the questionnaire test the language performance of each subject.

Data analysis was done under five broad categories. Factors like motivation, aptitude, attitudinal behavior, language learning/acquisition, learning tools and sociolinguistic awareness were analyzed in all the subjects.

English Studies Journal, Bilingual Behavior, Pedagogical Implications, Sociolinguistic Awareness, Bilingualism, Psycholinguistic Context, Informal Interview, Questionnaire Method, Learning Tools, Language Acquisition, Communication Skills, Motivational Factors, Instrumental Motivation.