forgotten Russian - how to restore it?

Mon Mar 14 15:34:53 UTC 2011

Language attrition (or loss) is very common especialy in small children.  There is a hypothesis (critical period hypothesis) which posits that the critical period for language acquisition is between 2yrs old and the onset of puberty, roughly.  Therefore, if children do not have the necessary access to language during that period, the process may not be complete and it could be easier to lose.  As for the restoration, studies indicate that it may not be possible and that exposure to language before the end of the critical period may simply be lost.  However, recent studies into children adopted from Korea point to a greater sensitivity to phonological features when they try to relearn the language later.  But that really is the height of it.  Unfortunately, language does seem to disappear.
From a more personal point of view, my daughter was completely bilingual in English and Russian until the age of 7 when we returned to Ireland.  Within about 6 months she had forgotten everything.  So, it seems that cognitively that acquisition hadn't become 'set' and at the age of 7, it was still unstable and as easy to lose as it had been to acquire.
I know that doesn't provide much hope, but it would be an extremely interesting investigation to see if it could be 'restored'.  I'd love to know the outcome.
AM

> Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:58:40 -0400
> From: af38 at COLUMBIA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] forgotten Russian - how to restore it?
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> 
> I meant "tool" not "toll".Sorry
> 
> Sorry,
> AF
> 
> 
> 
> On Mar 14, 2011, at 10:46 AM, Anna Frajlich-Zajac wrote:
> 
> > It is my (not only personal) experience that the language returns, ter
> > or becomes functional, when the child (a person) realizes
> > that it is a real toll, not an abstract exercise.
> >
> > AF
> > _
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mar 14, 2011, at 10:22 AM, Helen Halva wrote:
> >
> >> I have no true research to support this, but anecdotal experiences 
> >> support the theory that (as with the boy cited earlier with 
> >> "repka") subconscious language "knowledge" is retained and merely 
> >> needs to be summoned somehow. I think that immersing the child in 
> >> the linguistic medium, for example in another family situation 
> >> where Russian is spoken, via movies, etc. or whatever might be 
> >> possible, will aid in that gradual process of recalling "lost" 
> >> language capabilities. I doubt that this would work with children 
> >> who were removed from the home language before developing active 
> >> language skills, say before the age of 3 or so, but for an older 
> >> child who left at 7 or older, I think this would be worth the 
> >> effort to test.
> >> HH
> >>
> >> On 3/14/2011 10:01 AM, Alina Israeli wrote:
> >>> For several years I worked with Russian orphans here in 
> >>> Washington DC. at their pre-adoption stage. Those were 
> >>> "unadoptable" children, i.e. too old or with health problems 
> >>> (many of them had unoperated cleft lip). The youngest were 5-6 
> >>> that usually had older siblings. Most were 9-14, a few were 16.
> >>>
> >>> One summer they would not know a word of English and would need 
> >>> me as interpreter, the next summer their English would be 
> >>> excellent and they could not remember practically any Russian. 
> >>> Some none at all. The only family where a year later Russian was 
> >>> still in use was a family that adopted three children from 
> >>> Kazakhstan (they already had one of their own), one Russian and 
> >>> two Kazakhs.
> >>>
> >>> Something interesting is going on at the cognitive level and I 
> >>> suggested to my colleagues who do language acquisition to study 
> >>> such cases (similar cases were observed in Scandinavia). Their 
> >>> reply was: who is going to fund a research that studied 
> >>> forgetting the language instead of acquiring one?
> >>>
> >>> But I think studying those mechanisms would be very useful for 
> >>> our understanding of language function.
> >>>
> >>> (One similar testimony I had quite recently from a prospective 
> >>> student, she was adopted at age 12 as was her girl-friend from 
> >>> the same orphanage; and six month later they were discussing that 
> >>> they did not remember any Russian. In high school she took it as 
> >>> a foreign language. Her pronunciation is obviously better than 
> >>> that of her peers. but that's about all. )
> >>>
> >>> AI
> >>>
> >>> Mar 14, 2011, � 2:10 AM, Emily Saunders ������� 
> >>> (�):
> >>>
> >>>> I had an odd experience with a young boy in a summer camp for 
> >>>> typical U.S. kids aged 5-10. He'd been adopted at the age of 2 
> >>>> (and was about 5 or 6 at the time of our camp) and had 
> >>>> completely forgotten all of his Russian. We looked for glimmers 
> >>>> of understanding with certain basic vocabulary words 
> >>>> (����, ����, �����, 
> >>>> ������), but nothing until we introduced to the kids 
> >>>> a simplified version of the fairy-tale ����� (Repka). 
> >>>> While the presenter was telling the story started to interrupt 
> >>>> with corrections -- not ������/sobaka but 
> >>>> �����/zhuchka, not ����� but 
> >>>> ������ and so on. I'll bet you that she has 
> >>>> childhood rhymes and stories kicking around in her memory banks 
> >>>> that could be triggered.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Alina Israeli
> >>> Associate Professor of Russian
> >>> LFS, American University
> >>> 4400 Massachusetts Ave.
> >>> Washington DC 20016
> >>> (202) 885-2387 fax (202) 885-1076
> >>> aisrael at american.edu
> >>>
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