I wish I had read the first chapter of L&S yesterday when my son was present so I could test some of his language skills. He is 3yrs 3 mo and I catch him using language in interesting ways at times. When they discussed the questioning patters on pgs 5-7 I thought of my nephew, who is 3 yrs 9 mo. I heard him asking questions in unusual patters when he was at my house the other day. I enjoy seeing the research to explain why. I was sad to read that "subtractive bilingualism" can occur. At my son's preschool in Duluth several of his classmates spoke English as their second language. I hope the long hours they spend in child care doesn't erase their home language.
In chapter two I was ammused by the "affective filter hypothesis". I think that is what I experienced when I took Spanish in high school.
The chapter from P&B was a good refresher on information that I have heard before. I particularly enjoyed the lesson plan suggestion about a memory book to be the first assignment to introduct the teacher to the student's culture.
4 comments:
I see a lot of subtractive bilingualism in my environment. A relative of ours is bilingual in Russian and English, his wife speaks English. At first he tried talking to the children (they have 4) in Russian, but then stopped. Now two elder children can understand conversational Russian, and even say simple things like "Hello, how are you? Thank you." etc, but nothing more than that.
It is a sad, but natural thing, especially in immigrant families. Children often don't want to speak a "weird" language, that would make them stand out in their school community.
I found those patterns interesting as well. I don't currently know any small children working on their L1, but I look forward to watching my nephew acquire.
The memory book was interesting to me as well. It's not something I've done, but in the modern age of scrapbooking it is an idea that is accessible to all students.
I'm glad that you were able to connect what you read to real life experiences.
We'll need to spend some time soon to talk about the experiences of those of you in our class who are K-12 teachers.
Language acquisition is really interesting process. I know my English teacher son closely. His father communicates with him in English and his mother communicates with him in Turkish at home. Now,he is five and I can easily say that he is bilingual.
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