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<TITLE>RE: language preference</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>I know some groups have used graded picture naming (accuracy, or speed) as a measure of language dominance, and two students of mine have done small projects with bilingual Urdu-English and Arabic-English children - the technique has the advantage that it is fairly easy to adapt an existing test to the population you are studying, and also since it is a commonly used diagnostic test if you are interested in developing such tests for a bilingual population it is helpful for that, too.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I wonder if some of the "children denying knowledge of their home language" thing is misunderstanding the questions put to them - although I don't know all the literature, it is remarkably difficult to get the concept of "different languages" across to children who have just started school, especially if you are not sure if their grasp of one of the languages is good enough to answer questions in that language. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Working in a multi-home-language, one-school-language area in East Africa, children were very confused when asked "what language do you speak at home" and yet we could not necessarily assume they knew enough of the three or four potential home languages to answer questions in that language - and could not take "no answer" as lack of knowledge of that language. One memorable incident came when a child, asked "what language do you speak at home" [ambiguous answers were followed up with examples that the child almost always recognised as possible or ridiculous] answered "we don't have language at home"... the only time she had heard the word "lugha" ("language") was in the context of the school lesson "lugha". Other children answered "yes" to languages they could not possibly have spoken at home, or "no" to all examples of languages.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I also heard an anecdote from a colleague who when she asked a bilingual Spanish-English child "does your mommy speak to you like this?", the child watched her face very closely and tried to copy her exact expression while speaking to determine if, indeed, her mommy did speak to her "like this".</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Katie Alcock</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>refs:</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Kohnert, K. J., Bates, E., and Hernandez, A. E. (1999) Balancing bilinguals: Lexical-semantic production and cognitive processing in children learning Spanish & English. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research 42 (6):1400-1413.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Kohnert, Kathryn J., Hernandez, Arturo E., and Bates, Elizabeth. (1998) Bilingual performance on the Boston Naming Test: Preliminary norms in Spanish and English. Brain & Language 65(3): 422-440 (3):422-440.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Katie Alcock, DPhil</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Lecturer</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Department of Psychology</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>City University</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Northampton Square</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>London EC1V 0HB</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Phone (+44) (0)20 7040 0167</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Fax (+44) (0)20 7040 8581</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Web <A HREF="http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/k.j.alcock" TARGET="_blank">http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/k.j.alcock</A></FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>> -----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> From: Ann Dowker [<A HREF="mailto:ann.dowker@psy.ox.ac.uk">mailto:ann.dowker@psy.ox.ac.uk</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Sent: 18 May 2003 19:04</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> To: Roma Chumak-Horbatsch</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Cc: info-childes@mail.talkbank.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Subject: Re: language preference</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Ellen Bialystok's books "Language Processing in Bilingual Children"</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> and "Bilingualism and Cognition" may give some useful guidance.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Best wishes,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Ann</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> In message <3EC6F1CB.E85A2923@acs.ryerson.ca> Roma </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Chumak-Horbatsch <rchumak@ryerson.ca> writes:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > I am looking for ways to test</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > young bilingual (Ukrainian-English) </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > children's (ages 4-8) </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > language preference/dominance.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > If you know of any studies please let me know.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > Will post results.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > Roma</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > Roma Chumak-Horbatsch PhD</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > School of Early Childhood Education</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > Ryerson University</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > 350 Victoria Street</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > Toronto, Ontario</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > M5B 2K3</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > CANADA</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> > </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
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