Question on bilingual language acquisition from non-native speaker

Sun Dec 14 13:38:10 UTC 2008

This was exactly what I was getting at in my answer to you Kristin,  
and I don't know what scientific work could really help you with that.  
There are so many personal, individual variables... I think in the end  
you will FEEL what language you want to speak with your son once you  
have him in your arms...that's what happened to me when I had my kids.  
in my case it was French. my sister spoke English...
If you are really really eager to use English, and want to give it a  
try, why not, if you speak German to him, don't worry SO MUCH, we all  
know a lot of German people whose English is absolutely wonderful, you  
are probably a good example...and will find ways to help him become as  
fluent as possible.
My best,
Aliyah Morgenstern

Le 14 déc. 08 à 14:16, Yarden Kedar a écrit :

> Dear Kristin and everyone on Info-Childes,
> As far as I can see most of the discussion so far touched on the  
> plausibility of whether the child would eventually fully acquire the  
> non-native language or not.
> One central issue however in my view is whether such 'non-native  
> upbringing' has an effect on the parent-child emotional bond. This  
> is not my area of specialty and so I'm not sure whether any research  
> findings on this have been reported, but I think that before you  
> begin considering the linguistic, cognitive and social (community)  
> factors and implications, it may be even more important to try and  
> think ahead if there might be some limiting effect in not being able  
> to fully express your emotions to your child.
> Cheers,
> Yarden
>
>
> -- 
> Yarden Kedar, Ph.D.
> Department of Psychology
> Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
> Be'er Sheva, 84105
> Israel
>
> Tel:  +972-8-647-2044
> Fax: +972-8-642-8348
>
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 12:28 PM, Isenthia  
> <kristinborjesson at yahoo.de> wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
> thanks a lot for all your answers! Sorry I didn't react any earlier,
> but I've only had the opportunity to access the internet again today.
>
> Since you all showed so much interest, I'd like to give some more
> specific information so that maybe you'll find it easier to give your
> opinion on my particular situation.
>
> So here goes:
>
> I and my boyfriend are native speakers of German. We live in Leipzig,
> Germany. My boyfriend only has rudimentary knowledge of English;
> enough to follow basic conversations in holiday situations, since we
> spent our holidays the last three years in Scotland and England. I'm a
> very big fan of the English language, literature, culture and history.
> That's why my boyfriend also very often has to watch British films in
> the original only with subtitles, although we could in principle watch
> them dubbed ;) I asked him what he thought about the idea to bring up
> our child bilingually and generally he is ok with that.
>
> The two problems I see are the following: first, I'm not a native
> speaker of English, I do speak with an accent, although it's
> comparably slight. ALso, being able to talk to my child in English as
> I would do in German is going to require some effort on my part, as
> I'm aware that I'm lacking vocabulary typical in `child-directed'
> speech. But I'd be happy and eager to remedy that ;)
>
> Second problem: So far, I'd be the only person in the child's
> immediate environment that'd be using English to him. However, since
> my partner shares my liking for the UK & Ireland, it's likely that a
> lot of our holidays will continue to be spend there. Also, a very good
> friend of mine is English and lives in Glasgow. Then, I'd try to build
> up contact to native speakers of English living in Leipzig and I'd try
> to see to it that, when the time comes, our son'll go to a
> Kindergarten that offers some sort of English-German bilingual
> interaction. I'd also be looking forward to provide my child with
> English children's stories, music, rhymes etc. I'm aware that it's
> totally unclear whether this `enterprise' is going to be successful in
> the sense that my son will see anything useful or worthwhile in
> speaking/learning a language and about a culture that seems so
> unconnected to him and the parent speaking it to him. But I personally
> also think that, if my not being able to provide `native-speaking'
> input is not considered problematic, it might be worth a try!
>
> Again, thanks a lot for your comments and `reading' suggestions. I'll
> definitely have a look at those.
>
> Best Wishes
> Kristin
>
> On 11 Dez., 13:35, "Barbara Zurer Pearson"
> <bpear... at research.umass.edu> wrote:
> > Dear InfoChilds,
> >
> > This was frustrating for me yesterday to be on the road, aware of  
> this
> > thread, but not able to join in--till now.
> > Here are my two-cents (and of course, a recommendation of my own  
> book for
> > Kristin's friend).
> >
> > Raising a Bilingual Child (by Zurer Pearson :) came out this year  
> from
> > Random House, and I think I can say, has been well-received both  
> by parents
> > and the research community.  In addition to what I tried to make a  
> balanced
> > review of the research, there's a section where I talk about why  
> we don't
> > have the studies one might want to design to answer a question  
> similar to
> > Kristin's. There are also several extended testimonials from non- 
> native
> > parents with multilingual families. (Check out some background and  
> reviews
> > about it atwww.zurer.com/pearson/bilingualchild(--and at Amazon).
> >
> > People seem to have strong opinions about whether non-native  
> parents will do
> > children a disservice by speaking non-natively to them. The issue  
> rarely
> > comes up, of course, if the language the parents are speaking non- 
> natively
> > to children is the community language.  No one has thought to  
> research it,
> > since children so clearly surpass their parents in the community  
> language.
> > (The question is framed somewhat differently for immigrant and  
> guest worker
> > communities, but I don't get the impression that this literature  
> would be
> > relevant for Kristin's friend.)
> >
> > My own opinion is that a parent who *wants* to speak a non-native  
> language
> > to a child should be encouraged to do so.  The child will lose  
> much less
> > from the parent's disfluencies than she or he will gain from the  
> extra
> > practice.   Practically speaking, it's not optimal to have *any*  
> single
> > individual be the only source of input for a child.  Among the  
> many parents
> > I spoke with for my book, non-native parents seemed to understand  
> that
> > principle more readily than many international couples, and they  
> took active
> > steps to involve native speakers somewhere in the child's routine-- 
> through
> > schools, sitters, travel, media, etc.  I especially enjoyed one  
> parent's
> > comment that he hesitated to speak only Yiddish with his child  
> since he
> > didn't know if he knew it well enough to carry it off.  Ten years  
> later, he
> > feels funny speaking a language other than Yiddish to any child,  
> not just
> > his own.
> >
> > These days, parents can find a virtual community to help them out.  
> Kristin's
> > friend might like one of the internet sites with discussion groups  
> etc.www.biculturalfamily.org (with an on-line magazine one can  
> subscribe to)www.multilingualchildren.org
> > humanities.byu.edu/bilingua  (especially for non-native parents,  
> but it
> > doesn't look like it has changed much since I first looked at it)
> > (among others).
> >
> > Good luck to the friend--and others contemplating the same move.
> >
> > Barbara
> > *************************************************************
> > Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D.
> > Research Associate,
> > Depts of Linguistics and Communication Disorders
> > 226 South College
> > University of Massachusetts
> > Amherst MA 01003
> >
> > Tel: 413-545-5023
> > Fax: 413-545-2792
> >
> > bpear... at research.umass.eduwww.umass.edu/aae/ 
> bp_indexold.htmwww.zurer.com/pearson/bilingualchild
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Isenthia" <kristinborjes... at yahoo.de>
> > To: "Info-CHILDES" <info-childes at googlegroups.com>
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 6:04 AM
> > Subject: Question on bilingual language acquisition from non- 
> native speaker
> >
> > > Dear All,
> >
> > > I'm not entirely sure whether this is the right place to pose my
> > > question. However, a friend of mine suggested I'd try here to  
> get some
> > > information on the following issue.
> >
> > > I'd like to know whether there are any studies investigating the
> > > question of whether or not a non-native speaker of a language  
> (with
> > > fairly high competency) should try and raise his child bilingually
> > > nevertheless. I'm simply interested in views on that question..
> >
> > > I'd be very happy if you could help me with suggestions or  
> references
> > > on this.
> >
> > > Thanks a lot.
> >
> > > Best,
> > > Kristin
>
>
>
>
> >

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