Science and Technology news... :: View topic - Best strategies for bilingual language acquisition? (inter-c

Sonja Elen Kisa · Guest

What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

Language A:
-minority language that the parents want to preserve by teaching as
the baby>s primary language
-mother>s native language
-father knows the basics
-small school system (and maybe babysitters or kindergarten) available
in this language, which child will attend

Language B:
-very dominant cultural language in the area and all media
-father>s native language
-mother also fluent
-language used when mother and father talk to each other

For example, the couple could raise the child exclusively in language
A until the child reaches a certain age or reaches certain linguistic
milestones (what time is best?), then the father could switch to his
own language B when speaking to the child, and the child would learn
to use A with mom and B with dad?

Thanks!

Sonja

Peter T. Daniels · Guest

On Jul 27, 3:42 pm, Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:
[quote]What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

Language A:
-minority language that the parents want to preserve by teaching as
the baby>s primary language
-mother>s native language
-father knows the basics
-small school system (and maybe babysitters or kindergarten) available
in this language, which child will attend

Language B:
-very dominant cultural language in the area and all media
-father>s native language
-mother also fluent
-language used when mother and father talk to each other

For example, the couple could raise the child exclusively in language
A until the child reaches a certain age or reaches certain linguistic
milestones (what time is best?), then the father could switch to his
own language B when speaking to the child, and the child would learn
to use A with mom and B with dad?
[/quote]
Don>t do anything special at all. Have everyone who encounters the
baby talk in whatever languages come most naturally to them, and the
baby, all by itself, will magically sort them all out and grow up
speaking all the languages involved perfectly (i.e., natively).

Obviously Language B will have more input, so mother and mother>s
family should be encouraged to use Language A around (as well as with)
the baby as much as possible.

Sonja Elen Kisa · Guest

So you>re saying that daddy should use language B from the get go and
not even make efforts to use only language A with the child for
unilingual consistency in the first years?

Guest

On Jul 27, 10:42 pm, Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:
[quote]What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:
[/quote]
The best strategy is, that everyone speaks his or her native language
in a natural way. Period.

Nathan Sanders · Guest

In article
<35219a7f-9c6c-4d6d-a23b-5972cced78ee@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
Sonja Elen Kisa <sonjaaa@gmail.com> wrote:

[quote]What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

Language A:
-minority language that the parents want to preserve by teaching as
the baby>s primary language
-mother>s native language
-father knows the basics
-small school system (and maybe babysitters or kindergarten) available
in this language, which child will attend

Language B:
-very dominant cultural language in the area and all media
-father>s native language
-mother also fluent
-language used when mother and father talk to each other

For example, the couple could raise the child exclusively in language
A until the child reaches a certain age or reaches certain linguistic
milestones (what time is best?), then the father could switch to his
own language B when speaking to the child, and the child would learn
to use A with mom and B with dad?
[/quote]
Children raised in bilingual households learn both languages without
confusion. There>s no need to stagger the languages by waiting to use
one. In fact, if you wait too long, this could lead to imperfect
acquisition of that language---even just waiting two years could
potentially impair their acquisition of native-level phonetics.

Use both languages as much as you can from the very beginning, and not
just directly with the child, but also around them when talking to
other people. Children acquire language from wherever they hear it,
regardless of whether it>s directed toward them or not.

Make sure the child is exposed to both languages in different
environments other than just at home, from people other than just the
parents. Many bilinguals report feeling very differently about their
languages, with one language perceived as "for home only" or "for
adults only", which often leads to them devaluing or ignoring this
language in daily use as their social circles outside the home become
more prominent.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams College
http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/

Peter T. Daniels · Guest

On Jul 27, 4:14 pm, Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:

[quote]So you>re saying that daddy should use language B from the get go and
not even make efforts to use only language A with the child for
unilingual consistency in the first years?
[/quote]
How did you manage to get that from what I wrote? Since you didn>t
bother to copy any of it, I don>t even know what that>s a comment on.

Babies sort out linguistic input all by themselves, into however many
languages they hear regularly.

"Unilingual consistency," quite aside from being impossible to
achieve, serves no purpose whatsoever. There are hundreds of books on
raising a bilingual child -- get one!

Peter T. Daniels · Guest

On Jul 27, 4:16 pm, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@williams.edu> wrote:
[quote]In article
35219a7f-9c6c-4d6d-a23b-5972cced7...@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:

What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

Language A:
-minority language that the parents want to preserve by teaching as
the baby>s primary language
-mother>s native language
-father knows the basics
-small school system (and maybe babysitters or kindergarten) available
in this language, which child will attend

Language B:
-very dominant cultural language in the area and all media
-father>s native language
-mother also fluent
-language used when mother and father talk to each other

For example, the couple could raise the child exclusively in language
A until the child reaches a certain age or reaches certain linguistic
milestones (what time is best?), then the father could switch to his
own language B when speaking to the child, and the child would learn
to use A with mom and B with dad?

Children raised in bilingual households learn both languages without
confusion. There>s no need to stagger the languages by waiting to use
one. In fact, if you wait too long, this could lead to imperfect
acquisition of that language---even just waiting two years could
potentially impair their acquisition of native-level phonetics.

Use both languages as much as you can from the very beginning, and not
just directly with the child, but also around them when talking to
other people. Children acquire language from wherever they hear it,
regardless of whether it>s directed toward them or not.

Make sure the child is exposed to both languages in different
environments other than just at home, from people other than just the
parents. Many bilinguals report feeling very differently about their
languages, with one language perceived as "for home only" or "for
adults only", which often leads to them devaluing or ignoring this
language in daily use as their social circles outside the home become
more prominent.
[/quote]
I knew at least one person in Chicago, and I am told this is a very
common situation, whose parents were monolingual Polish-speakers, who
heard no English until he went to school (I didn>t think to find out
whether that meant kindergarten or something earlier), who was
perfectly bilingual and had no accent at all in his English.

I also knew a trilingual, whose mother spoke only Nahuatl and maybe a
few words of Spanish, whose English was perfect and whose Spanish
presumably was too as they lived in Pilsen, the Mexican neighborhood.

Jens S. Larsen · Guest

Craoibhi:

[quote]On Jul 27, 10:42 pm, Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:
What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

The best strategy is, that everyone speaks his or her native language
in a natural way. Period.
[/quote]
If they can, that is. Not everybody have a command of their native
language to speak it naturally, while others have several native
languages to choose from. In Sonja>s case, if both parents think it>s
important to do something to preserve language A and its culture, the
mother can speak it with her child. Giving the child an opportunity to
speak A with people of its own age is more important, though. People
(at least most of them) actually get more language from their peers
than from their parents.

Trying to delay language B is, of course, not an option. In all
dealings with language, it should be treated both as important and as
fun.

Jens S. Larsen

Peter T. Daniels · Guest

On Jul 28, 10:00 am, "Jens S. Larsen" <jens_s_lar...@yahoo.dk> wrote:
[quote]Craoibhi:

On Jul 27, 10:42 pm, Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:
What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:
The best strategy is, that everyone speaks his or her native language
in a natural way. Period.

If they can, that is. Not everybody have a command of their native
language to speak it naturally,
[/quote]
Actually, by definition, they do.

[quote]while others have several native
languages to choose from. In Sonja>s case, if both parents think it>s
important to do something to preserve language A and its culture, the
mother can speak it with her child. Giving the child an opportunity to
speak A with people of its own age is more important, though. People
(at least most of them) actually get more language from their peers
than from their parents.

Trying to delay language B is, of course, not an option. In all
dealings with language, it should be treated both as important and as
fun.[/quote]

Guest

On Jul 27, 4:16 pm, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@williams.edu> wrote:
[quote]In article
35219a7f-9c6c-4d6d-a23b-5972cced7...@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:

What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

Language A:
-minority language that the parents want to preserve by teaching as
the baby>s primary language
-mother>s native language
-father knows the basics
-small school system (and maybe babysitters or kindergarten) available
in this language, which child will attend

Language B:
-very dominant cultural language in the area and all media
-father>s native language
-mother also fluent
-language used when mother and father talk to each other

For example, the couple could raise the child exclusively in language
A until the child reaches a certain age or reaches certain linguistic
milestones (what time is best?), then the father could switch to his
own language B when speaking to the child, and the child would learn
to use A with mom and B with dad?

Children raised in bilingual households learn both languages without
confusion. There>s no need to stagger the languages by waiting to use
one. In fact, if you wait too long, this could lead to imperfect
acquisition of that language---even just waiting two years could
potentially impair their acquisition of native-level phonetics.

Use both languages as much as you can from the very beginning, and not
just directly with the child, but also around them when talking to
other people. Children acquire language from wherever they hear it,
regardless of whether it>s directed toward them or not.

Make sure the child is exposed to both languages in different
environments other than just at home, from people other than just the
parents. Many bilinguals report feeling very differently about their
languages, with one language perceived as "for home only" or "for
adults only", which often leads to them devaluing or ignoring this
language in daily use as their social circles outside the home become
more prominent.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams Collegehttp://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
[/quote]
A friend takes his very young children (the younger one may be around
2) to French classes under the assumption that it is beneficial
somehow (my guesses - it would even help acquire English better or
perhaps generally improve cognitive abilities).

Peter T. Daniels · Guest

On Jul 28, 11:21 am, analys...@hotmail.com wrote:
[quote]On Jul 27, 4:16 pm, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@williams.edu> wrote:

In article
35219a7f-9c6c-4d6d-a23b-5972cced7...@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:

What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

Language A:
-minority language that the parents want to preserve by teaching as
the baby>s primary language
-mother>s native language
-father knows the basics
-small school system (and maybe babysitters or kindergarten) available
in this language, which child will attend

Language B:
-very dominant cultural language in the area and all media
-father>s native language
-mother also fluent
-language used when mother and father talk to each other

For example, the couple could raise the child exclusively in language
A until the child reaches a certain age or reaches certain linguistic
milestones (what time is best?), then the father could switch to his
own language B when speaking to the child, and the child would learn
to use A with mom and B with dad?

Children raised in bilingual households learn both languages without
confusion. There>s no need to stagger the languages by waiting to use
one. In fact, if you wait too long, this could lead to imperfect
acquisition of that language---even just waiting two years could
potentially impair their acquisition of native-level phonetics.

Use both languages as much as you can from the very beginning, and not
just directly with the child, but also around them when talking to
other people. Children acquire language from wherever they hear it,
regardless of whether it>s directed toward them or not.

Make sure the child is exposed to both languages in different
environments other than just at home, from people other than just the
parents. Many bilinguals report feeling very differently about their
languages, with one language perceived as "for home only" or "for
adults only", which often leads to them devaluing or ignoring this
language in daily use as their social circles outside the home become
more prominent.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams Collegehttp://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/-Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

A friend takes his very young children (the younger one may be around
2) to French classes under the assumption that it is beneficial
somehow (my guesses - it would even help acquire English better or
perhaps generally improve cognitive abilities).
[/quote]
If he wants them to acquire French, he should send them to play with a
group of French-speaking children of the same age. If he wants them to
acquire English, he shold send them to play with a group of English-
speaking children of the same age. The notion of "language classes"
for small children is just silly -- they acquire languages naturally,
not by "studying" them!

Guest

On Jul 28, 11:24 am, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@verizon.net> wrote:
[quote]On Jul 28, 11:21 am, analys...@hotmail.com wrote:

On Jul 27, 4:16 pm, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@williams.edu> wrote:

In article
35219a7f-9c6c-4d6d-a23b-5972cced7...@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:

What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

Language A:
-minority language that the parents want to preserve by teaching as
the baby>s primary language
-mother>s native language
-father knows the basics
-small school system (and maybe babysitters or kindergarten) available
in this language, which child will attend

Language B:
-very dominant cultural language in the area and all media
-father>s native language
-mother also fluent
-language used when mother and father talk to each other

For example, the couple could raise the child exclusively in language
A until the child reaches a certain age or reaches certain linguistic
milestones (what time is best?), then the father could switch to his
own language B when speaking to the child, and the child would learn
to use A with mom and B with dad?

Children raised in bilingual households learn both languages without
confusion. There>s no need to stagger the languages by waiting to use
one. In fact, if you wait too long, this could lead to imperfect
acquisition of that language---even just waiting two years could
potentially impair their acquisition of native-level phonetics.

Use both languages as much as you can from the very beginning, and not
just directly with the child, but also around them when talking to
other people. Children acquire language from wherever they hear it,
regardless of whether it>s directed toward them or not.

Make sure the child is exposed to both languages in different
environments other than just at home, from people other than just the
parents. Many bilinguals report feeling very differently about their
languages, with one language perceived as "for home only" or "for
adults only", which often leads to them devaluing or ignoring this
language in daily use as their social circles outside the home become
more prominent.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams Collegehttp://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/-Hidequoted text -

- Show quoted text -

A friend takes his very young children (the younger one may be around
2) to French classes under the assumption that it is beneficial
somehow (my guesses - it would even help acquire English better or
perhaps generally improve cognitive abilities).

If he wants them to acquire French, he should send them to play with a
group of French-speaking children of the same age. If he wants them to
acquire English, he shold send them to play with a group of English-
speaking children of the same age. The notion of "language classes"
for small children is just silly -- they acquire languages naturally,
not by "studying" them!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
[/quote]
I don>t think its the French that he is particular about - he just
thinks that his children should be brought up in a "bilingual"
environment - given that both he and his wife speak what sounds to me
as totally standard American (he knows French - I am not sure about
his wife).

Peter T. Daniels · Guest

On Jul 28, 11:31 am, analys...@hotmail.com wrote:
[quote]On Jul 28, 11:24 am, "Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...@verizon.net> wrote:

On Jul 28, 11:21 am, analys...@hotmail.com wrote:

On Jul 27, 4:16 pm, Nathan Sanders <nsand...@williams.edu> wrote:

In article
35219a7f-9c6c-4d6d-a23b-5972cced7...@s50g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:

What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:

Language A:
-minority language that the parents want to preserve by teaching as
the baby>s primary language
-mother>s native language
-father knows the basics
-small school system (and maybe babysitters or kindergarten) available
in this language, which child will attend

Language B:
-very dominant cultural language in the area and all media
-father>s native language
-mother also fluent
-language used when mother and father talk to each other

For example, the couple could raise the child exclusively in language
A until the child reaches a certain age or reaches certain linguistic
milestones (what time is best?), then the father could switch to his
own language B when speaking to the child, and the child would learn
to use A with mom and B with dad?

Children raised in bilingual households learn both languages without
confusion. There>s no need to stagger the languages by waiting to use
one. In fact, if you wait too long, this could lead to imperfect
acquisition of that language---even just waiting two years could
potentially impair their acquisition of native-level phonetics.

Use both languages as much as you can from the very beginning, and not
just directly with the child, but also around them when talking to
other people. Children acquire language from wherever they hear it,
regardless of whether it>s directed toward them or not.

Make sure the child is exposed to both languages in different
environments other than just at home, from people other than just the
parents. Many bilinguals report feeling very differently about their
languages, with one language perceived as "for home only" or "for
adults only", which often leads to them devaluing or ignoring this
language in daily use as their social circles outside the home become
more prominent.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams Collegehttp://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/-Hidequotedtext -

- Show quoted text -

A friend takes his very young children (the younger one may be around
2) to French classes under the assumption that it is beneficial
somehow (my guesses - it would even help acquire English better or
perhaps generally improve cognitive abilities).

If he wants them to acquire French, he should send them to play with a
group of French-speaking children of the same age. If he wants them to
acquire English, he shold send them to play with a group of English-
speaking children of the same age. The notion of "language classes"
for small children is just silly -- they acquire languages naturally,
not by "studying" them!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I don>t think its the French that he is particular about - he just
thinks that his children should be brought up in a "bilingual"
environment - given that both he and his wife speak what sounds to me
as totally standard American (he knows French - I am not sure about
his wife).
[/quote]
Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, or Korean would all make more sense than
French. Bt again, not in "classes"!

Peter T. Daniels · Guest

On Jul 28, 3:36 pm, Joachim Pense <s...@pense-mainz.eu> wrote:
[quote]Peter T. Daniels (in sci.lang):
On Jul 28, 10:00 am, "Jens S. Larsen" <jens_s_lar...@yahoo.dk> wrote:
Craoibhi:
On Jul 27, 10:42 pm, Sonja Elen Kisa <sonj...@gmail.com> wrote:

What are the best strategies to use to raise a bilingual child in this
situation:
The best strategy is, that everyone speaks his or her native language
in a natural way. Period.

If they can, that is. Not everybody have a command of their native
language to speak it naturally,

Actually, by definition, they do.

So if someone loses the native language, it is by definition not the native
language anymore?
[/quote]
On those sad but rare occasions, they no longer have a native
language.

My aunt, who is now in her middle 90s, told me a few years ago that
she can hardly speak any French any more; when my uncle brought her
home as a war bride in '46, she spoke almost no English. (Her accent
is and always has been very strong.)

Darrel Knutson · Guest

Sonja Elen Kisa <sonjaaa@gmail.com> wrote:

[quote]Language A:

Language B:
[/quote]
My kids are growing up speaking two languages and understanding a third.
As an American I have only spoken English at home with my wife and two
daughters (now age 14 and 15). My wife and kids speak German to one
another, which makes perfect sense, since we live in Germany and this is
the dominant language. And my kids speak German to me, since I of course
understand and use it as part of everyday social and working life.

My in-laws speak Plattdeutsch at home and have always spoken it with my
kids.

We use language for natural communication purposes and my kids are
fluent in German, near fluent in English and can understand just about
anything said to them in Plattdeutsch. Of course it helps when we are
visited by English-only speaking friends and relatives. And my kids very
frequently pick up some weird slang on MTV that I don>t even understand.

It>s a natural human process that shouldn>t be forced.


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