Second language acquisition (fwd)

[V.M.Gathercole]

I would like to second what Fred Genesee has said about immersion in the
minority language before the majority language.  I have had considerable
experience, both in research and in living in the communities, with the
Spanish-English bilingual situation in Miami and the Welsh-English bilingual
situation in North Wales.  In both cases, the minority language--not the
majority language--is the one that is at risk of not being learned fully if it
is not established firmly in the early years.  North Wales is a particularly
telling case in this regard.  Although almost all Welsh-speaking adults are
fully bilingual, the educational system requires that all students begin school
with total immersion in Welsh.  That includes the children who come from
English-only homes.  Most children have at least three full years of schooling
in Welsh, and usually more, before they have any choice of instruction in
English.  The end result is striking.  Children who come from Welsh-speaking
homes end up fully fluent in BOTH Welsh and English.  Children who come from
English-speaking homes end up either fairly or fully fluent in Welsh and fully
fluent in English.  

What is clear from work we've been doing here is that no children are at risk of
not learning English fully.  That includes the children who come from
Welsh-only homes who do most of their schooling in Welsh.  The majority
language is so dominant that children cannot help but learn it.  

If the educational system started with instruction in English, in all
likelihood, the Welsh language would gradually diminish, as it was doing during
most of the 20th century.  It was in the 1970s that the educational policy
changed, and this has had the effect of bolstering the Welsh language in the
community.  In the last census, the use of Welsh went up for the first time in
decades throughout Wales.

If you'd like copies of any of the work we have been doing on Welsh--e.g., we
recently completed a study of language transmission from parents to children
throughout Wales that confirms what I've said above--I'd be happy to send you
copies.  You might also wish to consult work by Colin Baker, who has been
intimately involved with the Welsh bilingual education policy.

In the case of the Cree children, I think it is clear from both the Miami
bilinguals' use of Spanish and Welsh bilinguals' use of Welsh that if the use
of Cree is to be maintained in their community, it must be solidly established
in the children's early years.  The English will be acquired whatever strategy
is taken.

Best of luck in convincing the school system of this.

Ginny Gathercole
 

Quoting Ann Peters <ann at hawaii.edu>:

> Colleagues,
> I just received this query and I think some of youknow much more about
> this than I do. Please respond directly to him.
> thanks
> ann
> 
> ****************************
> Dr. Ann M. Peters, Professor Emeritus
> Graduate Chair                      http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/
> Department of Linguistics
> University of Hawai`i               email: ann at hawaii.edu
> 1890 East West Road, Rm 569         phone: 808 956-3241
> Honolulu, HI  96822                 fax:   808 956-9166
> http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/ann/
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:35:54 -0500
> From: Vince Dumond <vince.dumond at afnea.com>
> To: ann at hawaii.edu
> Subject: Second language acquisition
> 
> Good Morning
> 
> My name is Vince Dumond. I am the principal of a First Nation School in
> northern Ontario, Canada, on the James Bay Coast. I found your email in a
> paper you wrote (http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/topics/filler.pdf) while doing
> research on second language acquisition.
> 
> In three years our community will have a new school and I want to start
> planning now for a seamless integration of day care, head start and
> kindergarten, all with highly qualified teachers.
> 
> Do you know of research which supports solid foundation in first language
> until age 9, then immersion in the second language and the end product being
> a high achievement in both first and second languages by age 14?
> 
> The aboriginal language is Cree and the second language is English.
> 
> There is a fear among the elders, in this community, that the first language
> will be lost if children are not immersed in Cree for the first 3 years of
> school. There are qualified Cree teachers who can do so.
> 
> The English teachers who come to this community see children who perform
> poorly in language scores in both Cree and English. The English teachers
> insist that the children be immersed in English first and learn the mother
> tongue, Cree, 40 minutes a day at school and also learn it at home so the
> children can have a higher achievement score in English upon graduation.
> Cree is not spoken outside of this isolated area.
> 
> Can you help me find research which supports the acquisition of the first
> language as the well documented route to proceed in program planning?
> 
> Planning for this important step is crucial.
> 
> Please fee free to forward this email to the appropriate researcher.
> 
> Many thanks
> 
> Vince
> 
> 
> Vince Dumond
> Principal, JR Nakogee School
> Attawapiskat, Ontario, Canada.
> P0L 1A0
> Phone: (705) 997-2114
> Fax: (705) 997-1259
> 
> 
> 
> 




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