assessing 2nd language exposure

[Johanne Paradis]

Dear Daniela,

I have been doing research on bilingual language development for a few
years, and we are *always* in the process of changing our language
background questionnaire.  But, I hope I can provide some useful comments
on the issues you have raised.

>
>1. What is the level of exposure to the(se) other language(s): Is it best
>to ask parents to estimate this as in terms of  number of hours a day?
>(week?) or in terms of a percentage of the time they speak to the child?

First, one thing we do is we go over the questionnaire with the parents
point by point rather than having them fill it out by themselves.  We find
that the information we get is more easily compared across subjects that
way.  One of the points we spend some time over is amount of exposure.
Asking parents to come up with a number off the top of their heads is not
usually effective.  We often ask preliminary questions about their daily
schedules and the child's daily schedule and work out together how many
hours out of the child's waking hours are spent in each language (to be
refined with information from other questions, like your question 2).  We
also check to see if patterns change on the weekends (they usually do).
Once we have that information, we can make our own estimates about weekly
amounts of exposure.

>
>2. Should one also consider how much time each parent spends with the
>child each day? And, as above, should this be in terms of hours a day or
>is there a better way to ask about this?

We have found this to be a very important issue.  There have been
individual cases where the children have failed to achieve true bilingual
success in spite of parental claims to what should be sufficient amounts of
exposure. A variable that appears to affect bilingual outcome is how much
the caregiver who is supposedly providing input in a certain language
actually speaks to the child at all or in that language.  We haven't
figured out a simple way to investigate this, but we do ask questions about
what each parent does with the child (Are they playing directly with the
child or supervising the child's play while they try to get supper ready?)

>
>3. How many possible sources of exposure to another language should be
>considered? (e.g, parents, grandparents, daycare etc.)

We always consider other sources because for inclusion in our studies, a
child must only have sustained and effective exposure to two languages - in
other words, we want bilinguals, not trilinguals.  Often a smattering of
exposure to a third langauge via a grandparent seems to have little
demonstrative effect, and we disregard it.  We ask whether the child shows
comprehension or spontaneous production of that language other than for
fixed routines and names.  Daycare usually constitutes a lot of exposure,
depending on how long the child has been in daycare at the time of study.
We have included children in some of our studies who have become bilingual
*through* daycare, and not through their parents.

>
>4. Should one ask about the language spoken between the parents (thus
>observed by the child) even if this language is not spoken to the child?
>(For example, I recently had a mother in the lab who told me she speaks
>Turkish to her child, the father speaks English to the child, and she and
>the father speak German to each other.)

Yes, we do ask about this.  We don't know what children learn from
overheard speech, but for us it is important to keep track of and pursue in
the same way as the information regarding question (3) and for the same
reasons.


Please feel free to contact me, if you would like further information.

Regards,

Johanne







******************
Johanne Paradis, Ph.D.
School of Communication Sciences and Disorders
McGill University
1266 Pine Ave. West
Montreal, Quebec
H3G 1A8

phone: (514) 398-4102
fax:   (514) 398-8123