language preference

[macswan at asu.edu]

Roma,

A first order issue will be coming up with a good definition of
dominance and preference. Dominance shouldn't be equated with
preference at all. Children may "prefer" a language they have only
begun to learn, and in some cases (as with many Spanish-English and
Nahuatl-Spanish bilinguals living in majority language contexts) they may even
deny knowing their native language. Lily Wong Fillmore did a study some time
ago showing that Spanish-English bilinguals very early on made a choice not to
speak Spanish, and about the same time Hakuta and D'Andrea showed that
language choice didn't really reflect a loss of native language competence, as
Wong Fillmore had assumed (although as the depth of generations increased in
immigrant families in Hakuta and D'Andrea's study, the rate of actual
attrition of the heritage language also increased).

So I think the first step is to decide whether you are interested in
preference, which is an issue of choice, or dominance. Dominance, understood
as a linguistic or psycholinguistic notion, is not well defined and, to my
knowledge, has never been situated in the broader context of linguistic
theory. So, naturally, before you can assess it, you'll need a very clear
definition of the phenomenon of interest.

Hope that helps a little.

Jeff

References

Hakuta, K. & D'Andrea, D. (1992). Some properties of bilingual maintenance and
loss in Mexican background high-school students. Applied Linguistics, 13,
72-99.

Wong Fillmore, L. (1991).  When learning a second language means losing the
first. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6, 323-346.



On Sat, 17 May 2003, Roma Chumak-Horbatsch wrote:

> I am looking for ways to test
> young bilingual (Ukrainian-English)
> children's (ages 4-8)
> language preference/dominance.
> If you know of any studies please let me know.
> Will post results.
>
> Roma
>
> Roma Chumak-Horbatsch PhD
> School of Early Childhood Education
> Ryerson University
> 350 Victoria Street
> Toronto, Ontario
> M5B 2K3
> CANADA
>
>