[RNLD] Non-natives teaching native languages

[Joshua Nash]

Dear RNLD list,

I am researching and writing a paper titled ’On being a language vessel’. The focus is autobiographical - how I have created along with my supportive partner a multilingual environment in my home by speaking to my two year old child only in Danish along with a little Norfolk and Hindi, followed by some German, Norwegian and Bengali. None are my native language. As such, I claim I am a vessel of the Danish language - I am the only speaker in our environment, and thus a vessel of the language, grammar, and to a certain extent Danish culture. I am also encouraging friends to speak to my child in their language. Farsi and Polish are not out of the question in the coming years.

I am on the look out for theory and case studies of people who speak a non-native language to their children in their home environment. That is, languages to which they have no familial, cultural, or geographical connection. I started looking at Hinton and Hale (2001) The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice and Hinton (2013) Bringing Our Languages Home. Still, considering such volumes generally focus on reclaiming or revitalising heritage languages in the domestic environment by people with emotional and cultural connections to these languages, they are not entirely relevant. George Sanders's books Bilingual Children: Guidance for Family and Bilingual Children: from birth to teens seem to be the closest to what I am embarking on personally and intellectually. (There is also the obvious case which stands out - Ken Hale speaking Warlpiri to his sons. (Ezra Hale has a short chapter in Hinton’s (2013) volume.))

I welcome any comments or suggestions off list about any other published or unpublished case studies, no matter how remote they may seem, which may help in my research.

Regards,

Joshua Nash
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