Non-native parents and child's acqusition of English in Japan

[Barbara Z. Pearson]

Dear Mei Lin,

Can you clarify what you mean by "10-half hour per day."  Is that a typo, or
is it 5 hours a day in 1/2 hour intervals?  And what is the 3-month cap?  Is
it a specific program the families are following?

I presume the student knows George Saunders' book about raising bilingual
children (and checking their progress) (Multilingual Matters, 1983 (?) and
1988)  Of course, Saunders was not a beginner in the non-native language.

I met many such families during the research for my book, working title "Step
by step guide to raising bilingual children" (to appear in 2008 from Random
House, what the CarTalk brothers would call the "Shameless Commerce
Division.") Among the many families I spoke with and profiled, there were
several families where non-native speaker parents were major sources of
language exposure for their children.  However, if they didn't have fluency
themselves, they typically had access to others with fluency--either through
friends, family, hired help, or formal schooling.  I would be glad to learn
more about your student's project and share some of my materials if they are
relevant.

Best wishes,
Barbara Zurer Pearson

Quoting Mei Lin <mei.lin at newcastle.ac.uk>:

> To whom it may concern,
>
> I have an MA student from Japan who is interested in doing her
> dissertation on bilingual first language acquisition in non-native
> parent families.  She has found three families in Japan.  Both
> parents are beginners of English, but are willing to teach English to
> their children of three years old 10-half hour per day for three
> months using storied, rhymes or songs.
>
> I would like to hear from those who have done or know any of studies
> of this kind so that my student can get some ideas of how to measure
> the language acquisition.
>
> Thanks
>
> Mei
>
> Dr Mei Lin
> Programme Leader for Bilingual Education
> School of Education, Communication & Language Sciences
> King George VI Building
> University of Newcastle
> Newcastle upon Tyne
> NE1 7RU
> UK
>
>
>
>
>
> Tel: 00 44  (0)191-222 5070
> Fax: 00 44 (0)191 - 222 6546
> Email: mei.lin at ncl.ac.uk
>
>
>
>
>


******************************************************
Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D.
The Center for the Study of African American Language
Research Associate, Coordinator
University of Massachusetts
Amherst MA 01003

413.545.5023
fax:545.2792

http://www.umass.edu/csaal/
bpearson at research.umass.edu