L2 influences

[Ann Dowker]

There has been some very interesting work on sign language development
in children whose parents had acquired language after the 'sensitive
period' and were providing a reduced and inconsistent model. Even
in this rather extreme situation, children have improved on the model
and developed 'normal' sign language.

See:

L. Gleitman and E.L. Newport: The invention of langauge by children:
environmental and biological influences. In Daniel Levitin (ed.)
Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press (pp. 685-704)

Singleton, J.L. and Newport, E.L. (2004). When learners surpass their
models: the acquisiton of American Sign Language from inconsistent
input. Cognitive Psychology, 49, 370-407

Best wishes,

Ann


In message <AB5C3B76-212B-11D9-AA69-000A95CD8346 at comdis.umass.edu> Shelley Velleman <velleman at comdis.umass.edu> writes:
> A question has arisen in a Mass. school system as to whether a
> kindergarten teacher whose first language is not English could have a
> negative impact on her normally-developing students' English language
> development by being a poor role model.  (She occasionally omits
> function words, but is quite intelligible.)  Since being bilingual is
> clearly not a disadvantage, it seems obvious to me that exposure to a
> person with a slightly different system should do no harm to a child's
> first language system.  (And, for example, over the past 28 years I've
> so far been unable to detect any negative linguistic effects on my
> husband, who was raised by such an ESL speaker i.e. his father.)  But,
> does anyone know of any literature that would specifically, directly
> address this question?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Shelley
>
>
>