Second language acquisition (fwd)

Wed Dec 21 18:51:33 UTC 2005

Dear All,

I have only two small comments to add to the excellent
commentary already provided on this topic.

1. I think a good part of the animus against minority language
programs in the U.S. is directed against programs that delay
the introduction of English till 2nd and 3rd grade.  Even someone
like Rosalie Porter, who spearheaded the English-only
referendum in Massachusetts, will say that two-way programs
(L1 and L2 together) were not the  target of her campaign
(although they, too, got effectively crippled by it--
but that is another question).

With that in mind, I take a different perspective on the
results that have been reported.  I think the research shows
that children learn both languages equally if they are presented
equally. As Ginny Gathercole has pointed out, the poorly developed
Spanish of even the children who had Spanish and English at
school in Miami was not so much a function of the presence of the part-
time English in their school, as of the overwhelming presence
of English in their homes and communities.  Their Spanish was
improved by the time they spent in Spanish in school, and probably
would have improved more with a greater percentage of the day
in Spanish, (the minority language).

I don't know the political situation in the James Bay Coast, but one may
need to compromise with those English-teaching outsiders.  If that
happens, it may be comforting to look at the other side of
the research coin--that learning to read in two languages at once
is not confusing and may even be facilitating.  (You might
get the Oller & Eilers, 2002, on the Miami study for support of that.)
You could end up including a little English from Kindergarten without
completely compromising the program, if you are careful
to safeguard the status of Cree in the children's minds.

I think we've been saying that if English (or any language) is the
majority language, more school time in it does not seem to be
necessary; but if English is the minority language in the children's
lives, more time in English will help it--as long as their L1 is
supported as well.  One needs to evaluate what the balance of
power of the languages is in their community.

2.  The second comment is a reaction/ realization of the power
of literacy in all this.  We are not talking just about waiting until
children are 10, but waiting until they've had time to master reading
and begin writing in the L1. We had a rule of thumb that among our
college students it was rare for someone who had  had
basic literacy training in a language not to prefer to speak
that language when presented with the opportunity (at college).
(I think 2nd grade was my cut-off, but I didn't have enough data to
contrast one grade or another.) By contrast, students who had not had
literacy training in a language (i.e. 98% of most Spanish-background
children born in Miami) generally preferred the other
language, the one in which they had learned to read and had
read extensively.  I used to joke that the speed of light is
that much faster than the speed of sound, but I'm wondering
now if that isn't more than a metaphor, whether there is something
more to the modality (or whether it's just the *added* modality,
not that it's visual).

Meanwhile, I'd like Ginny's references too!

Best,
Barbara Pearson

On Dec 20, 2005, at 8:26 PM, V.M.Gathercole wrote:

> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
> --
> This mail sent through http://webmail.bangor.ac.uk
>
>

*****************************************
Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph. D.
Project Manager, Research Assistant
Dept. of Communication Disorders
University of Massachusetts
Amherst MA 01003

413.545.5023
fax: 545.0803

bpearson at comdis.umass.edu
http://www.umass.edu/aae/
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