Summary and new issues on English acquisition as first or second language

[Brian McMahon]

In the two weeks since my message was originally posted, it has generated
34 replies and they are still trickling in. The majority of the responses
came from persons from bilingual families. Unfortunately, many did not
say whether they are linguistics professionals but, given where the
message was posted, I assume that they are unless they indicated
otherwise.
Given the level of interest that has been generated in the issue,  anyone
who wants to repost the message elsewhere may do so, although be warned
that one reposting to the Languages and Educational Mobility section of
Inter-EU angered a subscriber from Ireland (for lack of relevance), a
country that is officially bilingual. It may also be useful to get the
opinions of child psychologists and pediatricians (and give them your
opinions), since professionals from these fields gave the now-questioned
advice.
To briefly review: As a sideline I hold English conversation sessions.
One of my students has two children, 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 years of age. The
family lives in Crdoba, a monolingual/monocultural city of one million
in the center of Argentina. The father works elsewhere and is with the
children every weekend. The city has no international schools but does
have "bilingual" schools with varying quality of instruction in English.
At the advice of "experts" they held off the introduction of English to
the older child solely because they were told that it would delay his
capacity in Spanish. However, the goal was always to ensure first
language, native proficiency in both languages. They have done the same
with the smaller child, a little girl.
I asked for opinions on this decision and also requested responses to a
number of questions: 1) The advisability of hiring an English tutor; 2)
Whether the situation is becoming urgent for the older child and if there
is an age limit for acquiring first language proficiency; 3) Whether any
structured materials (texts, storybooks, etc.) would be helpful and to
name them; and 4) When to introduce the younger child to English.
Although there were some differences of opinion on the effects, all the
responses said that the parents should have introduced English
immediately in the case of a normally developing child (thus also
answering the last question). The differences of opinion concerned
variations in  children's abilities in their languages. The one
language/one parent rule was endorsed by everyone with one exception who
said that both parents should speak English at home since the kids would
pick up the local language anyway. Several said that children who speak
more than one language, after sorting them out, show greater cognitive
flexibility and generally greater abilities in language-related
activities.
Only two respondents said that a tutor would be advisable. The rest
favored au pairs, small children (native speakers), and vacations in
English speaking countries.
Most agreed that the situation was not becoming urgent if the one
parent/one language rule is enforced and supplemented by stories, videos,
rhymes and other vocabulary building activities. Opinions about the
"cut-off" age ran from seven years of age to adolescence. It was
interesting that most addressed the question in absolute terms rather
than relative terms: I believe that given their unanimous opinion about
when to introduce English, they might have wanted to say "the more
exposure the better, especially before adolescence when it is probably
too late to attain first language proficiency." One (academic) reply said
that the question of native proficiency is not important. I would reply
that it is very important in a world of standardized tests that can
dramatically affect a person's future choices. I hope that we can
generate some more discussion of this issue.
The question about structured materials generated recommendations for
"The Bilingual Family Newsletter" (if anyone from the newsletter or
Multilingual Matters is reading this, please contact me with
information); Sesame Street, Raffi and Curious George books and/or
videos; stories (in both their Spanish and English versions in one case);
etc. The only text was "I Like English." Nearly all emphasized the use of
English while playing. I would appreciate it if anyone with other
recommendations would post them or send them directly to me.
Finally, the responses to the posting and an article in Newsweek since
the posting have generated more issues for further discussion: 1) The
Newsweek article (February 19) "Your Child's Brain" includes a section
about perceptual maps and language learning. The findings about language
learning discussed in this article, coming from another discipline, are
certainly fodder for discussion among linguists and are very relevant to
this case; 2) The parents are now considering whether to send the older
child to a bilingual nursery school for a half-day session with 90
minutes of instruction in English (the school has one teacher who is a
native speaker). They would like your opinions; 3) One respondent said
that correcting a child's pronunciation is taboo. Agreed?; 4) An
unresolved issue concerns whether the American father should speak
English only and inflexibly or leave the possibility of speaking Spanish
open for brief specific circumstances (emergencies, safety,
heart-to-heart talks). Opinions?
In addition to being of possible academic interest, this discussion is a
clear demonstration of the power of the Internet to contribute to the
solution of practical problems. Many thanks to everyone who participated
or will participate.

Brian McMahon
bmcmah at meyosp.mecon.ar