query: reviving language in native speaker who has forgotten it

[Jane Frances Hacking]

I had two such students in my class a few years ago; I recorded them as part of an accentedness rating task that also included native speakers and more advanced Russian learners.  NS listeners were very perplexed by them. They would comment on their “good pronunciation” being weird because they stumbled over what they were saying (it was a reading task).
Jane


On 4/27/12 12:35 PM, "anne marie devlin" <anne_mariedevlin at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

The general consensus is that language attrition is more or less permanent when it happens in pre-pubescent children which supports Alina's observations.  I did think it was interesting when you mentioned that your student could repeat what he had heard wonderfully.  There was a recent study carried out on Korean heritage children adopted by American parents at a very early age.  when they were tested for language retention may years later, as expected nothing had remained; however further testing revealed that the Korean born informants could differentiate between sounds much better than their non-Korean counterparts.  this could provide evidence that at least some part of the phonological memory of the first or birth language remains which could account for your student's ability to repeat.  Very interesting
AM

________________________________
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:42:25 -0400
From: aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] query: reviving language in native speaker who has forgotten it
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu

In my experience it took about half a year for adopted kids to loose Russian completely. I am speaking of those adopted between 6 and 10 that I met.

Here's an article supporting a total "rewriting" of the language in the brain: http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/13/2/155.full

On Apr 27, 2012, at 12:39 PM, KALB, JUDITH wrote:

Dear colleagues,
I wonder if any of you can help me with a student who was born in Russia, adopted at age 8 after a very difficult stint in an orphanage, grew up in NY, and is now enrolled in first-year Russian language.  He does not remember his Russian but is interested in reviving it.  He has had a lot of trouble with grammar, reading, etc., but when I have him listen to conversations, etc., he can repeat them beautifully—so the language is still somewhere in there, apparently.  He’s interested in working over the summer to try to get further with it.  Do you have suggestions on methods, programs, etc. that might be helpful?
Many thanks!
Judith

Dr. Judith E. Kalb
Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
jkalb at sc.edu

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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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