Kia ora ano.
In one of the recent contributions a parent expresses her intention to bring up her child in two languages from birth. Colin Baker in his book “A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingual Education” has some advice on the issue. He contends that in suitable home circumstances it is highly desirable to begin early.
The reasons I can see for this are numerous. In the first instance children are avid learners of language from a very early age. Having few if any responsibilities a lot of time can be dedicated to communication. Of course this is not a conscious act for the baby but the way they are hardwired. They result is that they don’t need lessons. Every interaction they have is an opportunity to learn, so parents need only do what parents do, no need for in-depth planning. Learning two languages like this is pain free.
Early bilingualism also brings about beneficial development of the child’s cognitive and social skills. They learn early on how to adapt their language use to the person to whom they are talking and this brings about a need within the child to find ways of transferring what they can do in one language to the other language. These transfer skills are invaluable in later learning.
Finally I see the ability of the child to interact with close relatives with one language or the other as the opportunity to build a rich literacy background. If say the child learns English from the Pākehā mother and French from the French father then that child can communicate freely with the grandparents on both sides. The language which is best able to convey the culture is inevitable the language of that culture. In this ideal situation the child grows up with a deep and rich knowledge of their cultures learned through the languages of those cultures. Identity is strongly affirmed.
Ka kite ano,
Chris Lowman.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
A book I strongly recommend to all parents of students in bilingual programmes
Talofa lava,
I have recently been rereading “A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism” by Colin Baker. This is a book I strongly recommend to all parents of students in bilingual programmes. Over the next weeks I intend to comment on some the major issues that he deals with in the book. Perhaps if readers have queries about bilingualism we could deal with those also, so if you have questions please e-mail them to me.
Today the question is about the influence of bilingualism on progress in reading. Baker makes the point that in almost all cases where bilingual children are slow in learning to read their bilingualism is not the reason.
To tease this out and look at some of the underlying principles we might ask why this should be so? Baker states that a child’s readiness to read is the critical issue and an encouraging atmosphere towards language learning and reading at home and at school is a most important element in this.
When learning to read there are a number of interacting processes going on. For the beginning reader there is the primary challenge of decoding the text, in other words linking the letter combinations to make recognisable words. Although spelling systems may be different in different languages this task remains the same.
Readers come to understand that text is intended to convey meaning and so their task is to work out what the text is saying to them. The reader brings to this task strategies such as:
making connections to their own knowledge and experience, forming and testing ideas about the meaning by using clues such as key words, word order and illustrations, and drawing inferences about the writer’s intent.
Bilinguals, because they typically exercise these strategies when moving from one language to another, have a good basis for getting meaning from their reading provided they are shown how to use those strategies.
Manuia lou aso, Chris
Reference: Baker, C. (2000) A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism, 2nd Edition. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, USA.
I have recently been rereading “A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism” by Colin Baker. This is a book I strongly recommend to all parents of students in bilingual programmes. Over the next weeks I intend to comment on some the major issues that he deals with in the book. Perhaps if readers have queries about bilingualism we could deal with those also, so if you have questions please e-mail them to me.
Today the question is about the influence of bilingualism on progress in reading. Baker makes the point that in almost all cases where bilingual children are slow in learning to read their bilingualism is not the reason.
To tease this out and look at some of the underlying principles we might ask why this should be so? Baker states that a child’s readiness to read is the critical issue and an encouraging atmosphere towards language learning and reading at home and at school is a most important element in this.
When learning to read there are a number of interacting processes going on. For the beginning reader there is the primary challenge of decoding the text, in other words linking the letter combinations to make recognisable words. Although spelling systems may be different in different languages this task remains the same.
Readers come to understand that text is intended to convey meaning and so their task is to work out what the text is saying to them. The reader brings to this task strategies such as:
making connections to their own knowledge and experience, forming and testing ideas about the meaning by using clues such as key words, word order and illustrations, and drawing inferences about the writer’s intent.
Bilinguals, because they typically exercise these strategies when moving from one language to another, have a good basis for getting meaning from their reading provided they are shown how to use those strategies.
Manuia lou aso, Chris
Reference: Baker, C. (2000) A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism, 2nd Edition. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, USA.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Benefits of learning another language
Kia ora tātou
I recently received an e-mail from a Samoan relative who is teaching English to Japanese students in a French speaking part of Switzerland, and it was all in Māori. This demonstrates the degree to which we are users of more than one language in the wider world. Historically New Zealanders have typically taken the view that the only language that counts is English. Their reasoning being that without it one cannot get a good job.
The concept that language only has economic value has been carried forward to the present where people express the idea that if one was to learn a second language then it should be Mandarin, Korean or Japanese as these are the languages of our major international business connections. Again the language is valued only in economic terms. We still regularly get letters to the newspaper saying that learning Māori is a waste of time because it won’t get you a job, even though that is totally incorrect. (I got mine through speaking Māori!)
Obviously there are numerous really good reasons for learning another language. After all the principal purpose of language is communication and we communicate a lot more every day than stuff that earns us money. So what other reasons can we think of?
Noho ora mai rā,
Chris
I recently received an e-mail from a Samoan relative who is teaching English to Japanese students in a French speaking part of Switzerland, and it was all in Māori. This demonstrates the degree to which we are users of more than one language in the wider world. Historically New Zealanders have typically taken the view that the only language that counts is English. Their reasoning being that without it one cannot get a good job.
The concept that language only has economic value has been carried forward to the present where people express the idea that if one was to learn a second language then it should be Mandarin, Korean or Japanese as these are the languages of our major international business connections. Again the language is valued only in economic terms. We still regularly get letters to the newspaper saying that learning Māori is a waste of time because it won’t get you a job, even though that is totally incorrect. (I got mine through speaking Māori!)
Obviously there are numerous really good reasons for learning another language. After all the principal purpose of language is communication and we communicate a lot more every day than stuff that earns us money. So what other reasons can we think of?
- Being able to talk to grandma and find out what happened in her life.
- Being able to talk to relatives in our home country
- Being able to identify with our heritage be it Māori, Samoan, French, Indian or whatever.
- Being able to participate in events of cultural significance to us such as church, weddings, birthdays, funerals, meetings, fiafia days, poukai, Polyfest…
- Being able to express thinking in ways unique to our culture and language.
- Be able to do the things our ancestors did and valued.
- Being able to participate in many worlds, in many languages
- Being able to connect with people from other cultures
- Being able to send an email half way around the world in a language significant to the receiver while still speaking French and Japanese at work, talking to the wife in English, phoning Mum at home in Samoan, and, in Māori, saying thank-you for the birthday present.
Noho ora mai rā,
Chris
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