John T.Denny comments on Stephen Krashen's article about raising tots to be
Bilingual raised valid issues, and felt rings true.
I raised my son to be bilingual in Japan. He grew up speaking two languages
(English and Japanese) from the moment he could talk - he had two babble
patterns - one stress timed and the other syllable timed.
He went through Japanese nursery school and elementary school, and then
transferred into International English medium education at 12 years old. He
spoke Japanese with his friends and English / Japanese at home. I found it
easier to discipline him using Japanese - for some reason it got quicker
results, and my Japanese was far from perfect.
I felt the plus of know two languages far outweighed the disadvantages - all
human beings are born with the facility for languages and two or more can be
learned just as easily as one - There are of course the master race
arguments about children not developing their 'identities' effectively or
not being able to 'think properly' in their mother tongue, or not 'mastering
one language effectively' - I heard them all so often as my son was growing
up. I have also seen many bright and intelligent children being raised by
parents speaking different languages, develop as well adjusted and charming
individuals.
>From being an infant my son had access to both cultures, folk stories etc.
The problems I had - it has to be said - were dealing with formal educations
systems and teachers who didn't see their jobs as anything more than pushing
knowledge which was to be tested.
My son chose English for his higher education and got several commendations
for his school work - he does well in science but says he can't quite work
out what the art is in 'language arts'.
if I had to do it all again I would insist on him being raised bilingual;
and the one thing I would change is that I would make sure he read in
English as much as he read in Japanese.
The facility for language is there in the human brain, it can be developed
or not depending on the child's exposure to different languages. In
childhood language is picked up naturally with the desire to communicate and
interact, it is a completely natural process.
It does not matter if they are learning perfect forms or not - the more they
interact in the language the more proficient they become.
As an applied linguist myself I would encourage parents to make every effort
to give their children the gift of more than one language, it is such a plus
in a world increasingly international world.
Peace,
Elaine
Elaine C. Gilmour
Associate Professor
Miyagi Gakuin University,
Sendai, Japan
-----Original Message-----
From: John T. DENNY [mailto:johndenny@alumni.usc.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 7:23 AM
To:
hwakangjournal@yahoogroups.comSubject: [HwakangJournal] Re: Raising tots to be bilingual: A comment
Stephen Krashen wrote:
> I understand parents' desires to "raise tots to be multilingual" (The
> Practical Linguist, Nov. 29), but there is no need for
> Japanese-speaking parents to talk their children in English. The
> advantages are slight and can be had elsewhere, and there are
dangers.
I did not read the article and most likely will not take the time to
read it. Yet a related thought...
It sure seems to me that parental involvement in a child's education is
all good. The encouragement which arises from an environment where
parents take an active interest in their child's learning has a
many-fold benefit which can not easily be ignored.
Whether that involvement may be through encouraging the use of a
foreign language, assisting in math skills or helping a child to master
a new concept.. the postive effect of parent-child interaction should
far offset any normal situation of honest mis-education. thinking
further... since when has formal education been without flaw? Thus the
risk of educating imperfections from parent to child should be no more
a risk than poor formal learning, or informal learning for that matter.
> By far the easiest way to make sure children master other languages
> are good programs in school, programs that fill the classroom hour
> with interesting projects, games, and discussions, and that provide
> children with lots of interesting reading, including comics,
> magazines and good novels.
I once again offer a twist... good schooling can be good.. yet bad
schooling can be very bad...
In a system that is dedicated to learner development you would be right
on, yet far too often schooling systems are devoted to political
motives ingrained in indoctrination. Thus teachers are not trained to
offer constructivist techniques; students are enslaved to learn in a
heavily process oriented and unforgiving curricula, while relation to
human development is lost in the agenda of making square pegs fit in
round holes.
The research strongly supports this
> approach, but most foreign language programs hold on to painful and
> inefficient methods that overemphasize grammar and memorization of
> vocabulary.
Well-said... My personal opinion is that all learners must first learn
how to learn, so that they can be freed from such nonsense of
programmed indoctrination. Yet many systems of schooling remain so
terribly ingrained in behaviorist processes which result in schooling
taking on the task of social legitimization, elitism and stratification
based on permission to advance according to ones ability to follow.
Those who do a great deal of pleasure reading in a second
> language automatically develop a large vocabulary and as well as high
> levels of grammatical accuracy.
Yet schools are not needed for such advancements. The best foreign
language learners I have met have always been those who have taken an
outside interest to advance their learning through self-motivating
techniques. Reading is wonderful for those who enjoy reading, yet
learning a language neither starts nor stops with reading alone. -- if
one has not learned how to learn (how to process thoughts -fight with
information and come to judgment), then reading, writing, speaking and
listening will go in and out equally as fast.
Research also tells us that there is
> no need to begin super-early; in fact, those who begin second
> languages later progress faster. It is more efficient to start at age
> ten than at age five.
Not being a language learning specialist I can not easily comment on
this as I do not read the literature in the field... Yet it seems to me
that each person is unique in that they are exposed to learning
materials, environments, are encouraged at different levels. Thus the
key should not be to identify an age at which one should or should not
start learning new material, yet instead to identify the features that
individuals use to excel in learning development based on their own
situation.
>
> Parents' use of a foreign language with their children can backfire
> when parents do not speak the language well and communication is
> imperfect. Imperfect parent-child communication can cripple emotional
> and intellectual development. It isn't worth taking the chance.
Yet lack of parental concern for child development can cripple a
child's learning development not to mention emotional and social
development...
Maybe it should be left up to the parent to self-assess if they have
the capability to help their child advance. Robert Feynman had some
interesting related thoughts on this topic (discussing what he learned
from his father and the point he felt he passed up his father's ability
to teach him new things) in his best selling book "What Do You Care
What Other People Think".
Peace
Tim
=====
John T. Denny M.S.Ed., Ph.D.
International Development Studies
Kyoto University
Graduate School of Human and Environmental Sciences
http://www.geocities.com/timdenny66/resume.html---
"learning, training and indoctrination follow three starkly
different objectives; yet sadly so, too often 'formal education'
is represented by the latter" J.T. Denny 2003
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