LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
- the process of learning a native or a second language.
Chomsky: According to him; children are able to learn the "superficial" grammar of a particular language because all intelligible languages are founded on a "deep structure" of grammatical rules that are universal and that correspond to an innatE capacity of the human brain.
- Children at first may overgeneralize grammatical rules and say, for example, goed (meaning went), and failed only to learn exceptions that cannot be predicted from a knowledge of the grammar alone.
- Linguistics: People learning a second language pass through some of the same stages, including overgeneralization, as do children learning their native language. However, people rarely become as fluent in a second language as in their native tongue. Some linguists see the earliest years of childhood as a critical period
- The cognitive approach, increasingly favored by experts in language acquisition, emphasizes extemporaneous conversation, immersion, and other techniques intended to simulate the environment in which most people acquire their native language as children.
LANGUAGE USE
- When we think of language use, we think of activities in which plays language a necerssary role. We think of face to face conversations , reading and writing letters, novels and newspapaers, watching plays, movies formal meetings an even talking to oneself. They are all theaters of action in which people doing things in action.
THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF BILINGUALISM
INTRODUCTION
- Becoming bilingual early (e.g. before formal schooling)
- Bilingualism is disccussed by psychology and linguistics. But social and educational context is also important
- Macro influences: being an immigrant, an elite group, a majority or minority language group
- Micro environments: street, nursery, school, local community…
TYPES OF CHILDHOOD BILINGUALISM
- Simultaneous childhood bilingualism: acquiring 2 languages at the same time from birth. E.g.mother speaks german, father speaks english
- Sequental chilhood bilingualism: child learns turkish at home, then goes to nursery or elemantary school and learns german.
- Early bilingual education dont cause native language loss
- Early development of bilingualism is informal language acquisition. You dont need to do sth special to learn the other language.
THE SIMULTANEOUSLY ACQUISITION OF BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM
· Babies appear biologically ready to acquire, store and differentiate two or more languages from birth
· They need to be able to differentiate between 2 languages / store 2 languages for both understanding and production
Differentiation between two languages in the infant
· Bilingual acquisation may have started before birth
· bilingual children know which language to speak to whom and in what situation. They can easily switch languages and differentiate their 2 languages but there is individual variation / they have got 2 seperated language systems e.g. english for mum, german for dad “appropriate language matching”
· they tend to mix language less when addressing bilinguals
· code mixing is about language proficiency e.g. if the child doesnt know the word in english, the child uses a word from german
· codeswitching is affected the language model provided by parents and significant others in the family and community. E.g. if parents code-switch regularly, then the children do the same.
Language choices of parents
- many couples dont make a conscious decision about which languages to use in home.
- When bilingual parents both speak the minority language to their children, leaving the child to learn the majority language outside the home
- Particular event. E.g. when a stranger enters the house everyone changes to the majority language / culture and identity
- Emotions affect language
- But early bilingulailsm is also influenced by factors outside of parents and home. E.g. parents speak only turkish in home. But the language of school, tv, and street is german.
TYPES OF SIMULTANEOUS ACQUISITION
a bilingual child rarely or never has an equal balance in 2 language experience. It tends to change over time as family, social and educational circumstances and language use opportunities.
Categories of early childhood bilingualism
- one person one language: mother speaks german, father speaks english and community language is german/ succesful strategy
- home language is different from outside the home: child acquire L2 at school or outside the house/ succesful strategy
- mixed language: the parents use both languages with the child. The child will typically codeswitch with other bilinguals but not with monolinguals
- delayed introduction of the second language: parents speak turkish in the home until the child 2 or 3 years old, then add german.
CASE STUDIES OF EARLY BILINGUALISM
- bilingual situaitions are changable. E.g. when a bilingual person go to germany her german become stronger. When she go to england, her english become stronger
- parental control is limited. E.g. child’s language experience outside the home
one parent families and bilingualism
- one parent family has also the chance of raising a child bilingually. E.g. second language is often acquired outsde the home / the maintenance of family’s bilingualism may be challenged by the absence of parent. E.g. the child is bilingual. When the child’s father is away, mother starts to talk with her child in L1 and in L2
TRILINGUALISM
- e.g. some swedish people are fluent in swedish, german and english. Or in african and indian countries people speak local, regional and official languages
- e.g. mother speaks L1, father speaks L2, and the children take their education L3..
- sufficient exposure and incentive in important. The child may also be passive trilingual. E.g. the child speaks L1 fluently but the child can also understand L2 and L3
- bilingualism doesnt hinder the acquisition of other languages. Trilingualism has multiple positive social, cultural and cognitive advantages. Acquisition of a third language awakens and deepens interest in other languages, cultures and countries, creating more multicultural and global citizens
CODESWITCHING AND CODEMIXING
- codeswitching may be less acceptible for political, social or cultural reasons. If a power conflict exits between different groups, then language may be perceived a marker of a seperate identity. Monolinguals may believe that it shows a deficit or lack of mastery of both languages. It is sometimes regarded as a sign that the minority language is about to disappear
- codeswitching is a valuable linguistic tool. There is usually purpose and logic in changing languages. It is using the full language ressources.
- Monolingual/ bilingual mode
- Codemixing: describes changes at the word level, when 1 word or a few words in a sentence change. E.g. leo un magazine( i read magazine)
- Codeswitching: “Come to table. Das Essen ist fertig”
- Language borrowing: foreign loan words and phrases that have become an permanent part of the recipient language. “le weekend”, “der Computer”
- Language interference: bilinguals suggest that monolinguals dont like them when they use codeswitching?
- Codeswitching will vary according to who is in the conversation, what the topic is, and what kind of context the conversation occurs. Also social, economic, political and sembolic factors can influence codeswitching
- Purposes of code switching
- to emphasize a particular point in conversation
- if a person doesnt know a word or a phrase in a language that person may substitute a word in another language
- to Express a concept that has no equivalent in the culture of the other language
- reinforce a request. In a minority/majority language situation, the majority language may be used to underline authority
- to clarify a point
- to Express identity, communicate friendship or family bonding
- ease tension and inject humor
- change of attitude or relationship. E.g. a codeswitching signals there is less social distance
- to exclude people from a conversation
- It occurs regularly when certain topics are introduced. E.g. spanish-english bilinguals in the South west u.s. often switch to english to discuss Money
- This suggests that codeswitching is not just linguistic, it indicates important social and power relationships
CHİLDREN AS LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS AND BROKERS
- In first and second generation immigrant families parents may have little or no competency in tha majority language. In such families children may act as information and communication brokers. E.g. father to daughter in italian: “digli che e un imbecille” ( tell him he is an idiot). Daughter to trader: “my father wont accept your offer”
- That has positive outcomes;
- child’s status within the family for playing a valuable role
- the child learns adult information quickly
- the children accustomed to acting as interpreters learnt to take initiative
- it may maket he family more close
- the cognitive outcomes for child language brokers may be valuable. E.g. such children may learn early on that one language never fully parelels another
- possibily gaining more empathy
CH 6: THE LATER DEVELOPMENT OF BILINGUALISM
INTRODUCTION
- where a child or adult acquires a first language , and later becomes proficient in the second language/ further languages informally throught street, nursery school and community, or formally throught school, adult classes and language courses.
- Foreign language learning is not allways so positive. E.g. in US and britain only a small proportion of children learning a foreign language become functionally and fluently bilingual. It may due to emphasis on reading and writing rather than on authentic communication, lack of motivation and interest and lack of opportunity to practice second language skills.
REASONS FOR SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Societal reasons
- Assimilionist ideology: it tends to work fort he dominance of the second language, even the repression of home, minority language.
- Preservetionist ideology: learning the national language as second language may be step towards economic, social and political freedom. E.g. in ireland english-speaking children are taught irish for this reason.
- Harmony: to reduce conflict and obtain increased harmony between language groups throught bilingualism. E.g. in canada french speaking children learn english, english speaking children learn french
- Second and third language learning is often encouraged for economic and trade reasons. E.g. in singapore, scandinavia / selling to the japanese, learning japan become important
- It is also encouraged for its potential value in interaction across continents. English is growing as a “common denominator” language internationally. Languages provide access to information and hence power
- İmportant to promote intercultural understanding and peace. Languages identify, symbolize and embody their cultures.
Individual reasons
· Cultural awareness: to break down natinal, ethnic and language stereotypes, to gain intercultural sensitivity and awareness because world becomes smaller
· Cognitive development: for general, educational and academic value/ to increase intellectual fitness and stamina
· To acquire a language for social, emotional and moral development, self-awareness, self-confidence, and social and ethical values
· Careers and employment: opening up possibilities of a wider variety of careers or gaining promotion in a career
FORMAL SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
- The school has been the major institution expected to produce second language learning
- Voluntary language classes: when the school doesnt support immigrant languages, reproduction of those languages in the family may be not enough for language maintenance. Such voluntary provition may be for religious, cultural, social, integrative and ethnic vitality reasons. Thus the providers are often religious institutions
- Community language classes: e.g. in UK there have been community language classes in finnish, spanish, greek, turkish, hindi…
- Adult provision
- evening classes
- ulpan courses: e.g. in israel/ emergency measures were needed to teach Hebrew in a short time to large numbers of people as a living, spoken language. That courses also include cultural activities such as singing and field trips
- distance learning methods: radio and tv series, DVDs, CDs, videos, self teach boks, computer programs..
- bilingualism is often achieved through the informal acquisition processes of the street and screen, frieds and siblings without planing or intent by parents
THE AGE FACTOR
- there are changeable ideas: young children learn L2 more easily and successfully / older children and young adults learn a language more efficiently and quickly than young children. Because they have superior intellectual skills..
- reviews of this area:
- younger language learners are neither globally more or less efficient and successful than older learners in second language acquisition
- children who learn a second language in childhood do tend to achieve higher levels of proficiency. But age differences reflect differences in the situation of learning rather than in the capacity to learn
- the lenght of exposure ( e.g. the number of years of second language instruction) is an important factor. In formal classroom language learning situation, older learners tend initially to learn quicker than younger learners. The older learners may be higly proficient, particularlly when they are strongly motivated or have strong needs. E.g. immigrants
- teaching a foreign language early in the elementary school may be defended in terms of general intellectual stimulation, the general curricululm value of teaching a modern language, the benefits of biculturalism
- there is some research and much public discussion about the large numbers of high school students and adults who fail to learn a second language
- in the U.S. one pressure is for immigrant children to learn english as soon as possible
- there is no empirically definable end point, there are no qualitative differences between child and adult learners.
- Age does influence language learning. But there are also other factors such as social, psychological, educational factors.
- E.g. do young immigrants become more or less functional in hebrew as a second language? The extent of the everyday use of hebrew varies with age of in-migration.
Language loss in children
- Children from language minorities are sometimes at risk of losing their minority language. Sometimes children think that their minority language and culture is undesirable. E.g. U.S.
- This is not to warn against early bilingualism but rather to suggest that the minority language needs care and attention. Minority language needs particular nurturing in political situations
- Family relations may also affect language maintanence or loss
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION
- That is important for success or failure to learn a second language. Without sufficient motivation even individuals with the most remarkable aibilities cannot accomplish long term goals.
- Integrative motivation: “a wish to dentify with or join another language group”
- Instrumental motivation: “learning a language for useful purposes” e.g. to find a job, earn Money
- İntegrative motivation concerns personal personal relationships that may be long lasting. A person’s motives may be a subtle mix of instrumental and integrative motives
- Poststructualist approach: someone has an integrative motive to irish. It is possible to depict that person’s language identity as related to political, cultural, social and economic ideologies surrounding irish and open to challenge and conflict. Language attitudes thus become a part of larger societal processes and ideologies that can be examined for bias ,racism, discrimination.
IDENTITY AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Social identity and second language learning
- Memberberships such as woman, young, teacher, democrat.. help us to define our identities. Second language acquisiton is affected by and affects our membership in groups.( e.g. majority and minority groups)
- Language learning is also partly about becoming socialized. In this meaning classrooms have major limitations.
Language and power
- Learning a second language s not just about language. It is also about who we are, what we want to become, and power and prestige. It helps to gain belief, respect and social value from dialogue with others
Multiple identities and second language acquisition
- Our identities constanly develop and change across time and across situations. E.g. acquiring a second language may change our identity from an immigrant to a californian.
- Language learning may change how we think of ourselves, how others see us and it is helpful to create developing multiple identities.
Imagined communities
- E.g. a second language learner imagines obtaining well-paid employment; another imagines returning to the land of her ancestors and extended family.
