Language Education and Children

General discussion about learning languages
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Adrianslont
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby Adrianslont » Fri Mar 23, 2018 10:23 am

Whodathunkitz wrote:Someone's mum said that she didn't speak until she was 3. The first thing she said was a full sentence.


Mm. I am extremely doubtful about that second sentence. I am doubtful that “someone” never went through the usual stages of saying “mama” or “dada” or “no” or “juice” or the dog’s name. I suspect that “someone’s mum” has a confused or eccentric memory of her child’s language development.

My observation of my own and other children around me is that there is indeed quite a lot of variation in language development.
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby Cainntear » Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:29 pm

Adrianslont wrote:
Whodathunkitz wrote:Someone's mum said that she didn't speak until she was 3. The first thing she said was a full sentence.


Mm. I am extremely doubtful about that second sentence. I am doubtful that “someone” never went through the usual stages of saying “mama” or “dada” or “no” or “juice” or the dog’s name. I suspect that “someone’s mum” has a confused or eccentric memory of her child’s language development.

It is a well-documented phenomenon. As I said before, in cultures where parents do not talk to children before they themselves start to speak, it is actually 100% normal for children to start speaking spontaneously in full sentences at what we westerners would consider a "late" stage.
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby Adrianslont » Fri Mar 23, 2018 8:55 pm

Cainntear wrote:
Adrianslont wrote:
Whodathunkitz wrote:Someone's mum said that she didn't speak until she was 3. The first thing she said was a full sentence.


Mm. I am extremely doubtful about that second sentence. I am doubtful that “someone” never went through the usual stages of saying “mama” or “dada” or “no” or “juice” or the dog’s name. I suspect that “someone’s mum” has a confused or eccentric memory of her child’s language development.

It is a well-documented phenomenon. As I said before, in cultures where parents do not talk to children before they themselves start to speak, it is actually 100% normal for children to start speaking spontaneously in full sentences at what we westerners would consider a "late" stage.

I had a short google around and found only the equivalent of “someone’s mum”. Can you link to the documentation?
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby DarrenDaka » Sat Mar 31, 2018 10:01 pm

I think the concept is interesting. If you can expose a child to multiple languages at an early age would this not be the equivalent of going to the gym for the brain and thus increase cognitive ability?
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby Cainntear » Sun Apr 01, 2018 11:32 am

Adrianslont wrote:I had a short google around and found only the equivalent of “someone’s mum”. Can you link to the documentation?

Unfortunately binned most of my uni notes years ago.
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby reineke » Sun Jun 10, 2018 11:07 pm

Bilingual first language acquisition: exploring the limits of the language faculty

Most general theories of language acquisition are based on studies of children who acquire one language. A general theory of language acquisition must ultimately accommodate the facts about children who acquire two languages simultaneously during infancy. This chapter reviews current research in three domains of bilingual acquisition: pragmatic features of bilingual code-mixing, grammatical constraints on child bilingual code-mixing, and bilingual syntactic development. It examines the implications of findings from these domains for our understanding of the limits of the mental faculty to acquire language. Findings indicate that infants possess the requisite neuro-cognitive capacity to differentially represent and use two languages simultaneously from the one-word stage onward, and probably earlier. Detailed analyses of the syntactic organization of bilingual child language indicates, moreover, that it conforms to the target systems and, thus, resembles that of children acquiring the same languages monolingually, for the most part. At the same time, bilingual children acquire the distinctive capacity to coordinate their two languages in grammatically constrained ways and in conformity with the target grammars during online production. In short, current evidence attests to the bilingual capacity of the human mind and refutes earlier conceptualizations which viewed bilingualism and bilingual acquisition as burdensome and potentially disruptive to development.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals ... C13BDFB822

Does Bilingualism Cause Language Delay?

One of the most consistent things I was warned about many years ago when my husband and I decided to both speak German with our swaddled babe in arms was language delay. Everyone told me not to worry if my son didn’t start speaking until later, as bilingual children are known to start speaking later and to be a bit linguistically confused at first. Many told me to just expect it, as if it went hand in hand: “Bilingual children start speaking later, you know.”

Here is a quote from the American Academy of Family Physicians in 1999 (my son was born in 2001):

A bilingual home environment may cause a temporary delay in the onset of both languages. The bilingual child’s comprehension of the two languages is normal for a child of the same age, however, and the child usually becomes proficient in both languages before the age of five years.

I took all of this advice at face value eight years ago. I’d even tell family not to expect my son to start speaking any time soon since he was growing up in a bilingual environment. I’d defend our choice to raise our son bilingually acknowledging that, “Yes, I know he will be delayed in his language initially but it sounds like he’ll catch up in time. We aren’t worried.” However, I was a little worried and I would head home after such a conversation feeling a little uneasy in my stomach. What if we weren’t doing the right thing?

Luckily, I came across work from Colin Baker, a researcher in childhood bilingualism. His research findings reassured me. The following is a quote from his book The Care and Education of Young Bilinguals: An Introduction for Professionals, published in 2000:

Raising children bilingually is sometimes believed to cause language delay, though evidence does not support this position. Raising children bilingually neither increases nor reduces the chance of language disorder or delay.

Despite the ongoing research on childhood bilingualism and researchers around the world doing their best to get the word out, the belief that language delay is a byproduct of bilingualism is still an ongoing misconception.

Articles continue to come out making this claim or cautioning parents about this “truth.” After a great discussion on Multilingual Living about language delay and Austism, I did some Google searches and quickly came up with a list of articles from well-meaning professionals on different sites offering similar advice as this misinformed speech and language pathologist:

…if a child is experiencing a speech and language delay/disorder, then two languages may be too challenging for them. At this point, I often tell parents of bilingual homes to choose a primary language so the child can develop a good understanding and use of one language to communicate.

It is hard to blame anyone for offering this advice with respect to language delay and disorders (she is only one of many who give this advice in cyberspace), as many in the medical establishment are still teaching it...

http://www.multilingualliving.com/2010/ ... age-delay/
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby maclinaduglas » Fri Aug 23, 2019 11:29 am

If you want to know about most popular languages then you should visit on websites where people share their language requirements.
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lichtrausch
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby lichtrausch » Tue Nov 28, 2023 3:24 am

"Taiwan Aims To Go 'Bilingual' by 2030", with a guest appearance by Krashen.

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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby lingohot » Tue Nov 28, 2023 7:26 am

lichtrausch wrote:"Taiwan Aims To Go 'Bilingual' by 2030", with a guest appearance by Krashen.


Many Taiwanese are super proficient in English. Let's hope they won't adopt the 'good advice' of Krashen...
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Re: Language Education and Children

Postby leosmith » Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:49 am

lichtrausch wrote:Taiwan Aims To Go 'Bilingual' by 2030
No way is that happening, unless they mean something like "50% of high school kids will reach intermediate". If they are really serious about it though, maybe they should import 23 million Filipinos.
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