<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear Susannah<div><br></div><div>I would like to echo the comments of my colleagues in saying that the extent to which bilingual development and monolingual development are similar or different is complex, and a simple change in the age of participants recruited for a study would not turn bilinguals into monolingual equivalents. I would also like to echo the comments my colleagues in encouraging you to see the potential in studying bilingual children for any research question in language acquisition.</div><div><br></div><div>Understanding the type of bilingual children you are dealing with is a crucial first step. I imagine that in Vancouver, like Edmonton, the majority of bilingual children are English second language learners from immigrant and refugee families with diverse first language/cultural backgrounds, East and South Asian being the most numerous. I have worked extensively with ESL children aged 4-6 in Edmonton, and for the majority of them, English is not their dominant language at this age, but children do vary in how much English they have been exposed to and in what context. Obtaining information on individual children's exposure to English is vital to interpreting results; simply labelling them all as "bilingual" may not be sufficient to understand all the variation in the data. This information is most often obtained via parent questionnaire. If you are interested in the questionnaires we use in my lab, you can go to the Child ESL Centre website that we have just launched, and download them: </div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.chesl.ualberta.ca">http://www.chesl.ualberta.ca</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have questions about working with ESL children and their families.</div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes,</div><div>Johanne</div><div><br><div><div><br></div><div>On 2011-09-13, at 8:41 PM, Susannah Kirby wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Dear Info-Childes community,<br><div class="gmail_quote"><br>I have a research conundrum, and I'm hoping you can assess one possible solution to it that I've come up with. <br><br>I have been investing verb-learning in monolingual children, but in my current location (Vancouver, BC), monolingual children are nearly impossible to find! On the other hand, bilingual kids are extremely easy to recruit.<br>
<br>I'm wondering how methodologically unsound it would be to allow bilingual children to participate (not mixed in with monolinguals, but as their own participant group), and then to recruit slightly older children. So for instance, my target age range for monolinguals is 3-4 years old; for bilinguals, I might use 4-5 (or even 5-6) year olds. I would also ask for parents to estimate what percentage of the day the kids hear English input, and shoot for, say, a 50%+ range.<br>
<br>Is this solution too problematic to even try? I can see reasons why it might or might not work, but I'm almost at the end of my rope, in terms of my recruitment problems.<br><br>Thanks in advance for any insight and suggestions you can offer!<br>
<br>Best,<br><font color="#888888">Susannah Kirby<br>SFU Linguistics<br>
</font></div><br><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>
-- <br>
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.<br>
To post to this group, send email to <a href="mailto:info-childes@googlegroups.com">info-childes@googlegroups.com</a>.<br>
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to <a href="mailto:info-childes+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com">info-childes+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com</a>.<br>
For more options, visit this group at <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en">http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en</a>.<br>
</blockquote></div><br><div>
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">************************************************************</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; "><b>Johanne Paradis</b> | Professor | Department of Linguistics </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; ">4-46 Assiniboia Hall | University of Alberta | Edmonton, AB | T6G 2E7 | Canada</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; ">tel:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>1 (780) 492-0805 | fax:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>1 (780) 492-0806 | <a href="http://www.ualberta.ca/~jparadis/">http://www.ualberta.ca/~jparadis/</a> </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br></font></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></div>
</div>
<br></div></body></html>
<p></p>
-- <br />
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.<br />
To post to this group, send email to info-childes@googlegroups.com.<br />
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to info-childes+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.<br />
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en.<br />