BILINGUALISM:EFFECT ON READING AND WRITING
Eneidamolina
Charyl Durbin
Sandi Frederick
dduttaroy
Contents:
What is?
How is the combination?
What is the ideal age?
Is there any linguistic conflict?
Why is 2nd language important?
How does culture affect?
How do we proceed at
home?
What will be the programme in school?
WHAT IS BILINGUALISM ?
Every language has its own vocabulary, its own grammatical structures,
its own word meanings, and its own pronounciation of different letters
or letter combinations.Bilingualism is the ability to use two
languages. It involves not only speaking and writing but also understanding
what others attempt to communicate orally or in print.
COMBINATIONS:
There are many combinations of bilinguality : A child may be able to read
book of different language but can not understand the meaning.For example,
one english speaking child may read German book but can not understand
the meaning. This is due to some similarity between German and English
in print. Again, one child may understand two different languages
but can not write both equally well.
IDEAL AGE:
There are lot of controversies in determining ideal age for second language
learning. The controversies are mainly due to determining the maturity
levels of the child. To me maturity at the four levels are
more important to learn second language.
1. Pronounciation
2. Vocabulary
3. Comprehension
4. Expression
Pronounciation: Prononciation starts with imitating the
sound. At the age of 12 months, baby attempts to imitate
specific sounds which had not previously appeared in his babbling.
At the age of 2 years,baby can imitate sounds more accurately. Repeated
imitation helps him to learn more number of words. At the age of
3 years, baby can pronounce the words almost same to the original word.
Vocabulary: In building vocabulary, it is important to associate
meanings with sounds. There are two types of
vocabulary as - general and specific. Child learns general vocabulary
from his parents and specific from others in specific situation. Usually,
baby at the age of 3 years has more than 100 words and he can
relate the word to specific sound and to specific meaning. At this age,
child increases his vocabulary not only by learning new words
but also by learning new meanings for old words. For example, he can relate
orange to both fruit and to colour.
Comprehension :Comprehension covers one's ability to understand
the meaning of words or sentences. At the age of
3 years, baby can comprehend the general meaning of others simple actions,
voice intonations, and gestures.
Expression: There are two media for expressing the thoughts
as verbal expression and written expression. At the
age of 3 years, child can verbally express his thought clearly
but he may have some difficulty in expressing thought clearly in writing.
But at the age of 8 years, he can speak and write his thoughts in
different languages.
THE LINGUISIC CONFLICT:
English VS Ghetto english: Queenou wrote :"We work with children
in an inner city low income environment. The vast majority of our children
all speak English, but it is "ghetto" English and we strive hard to enable
the children to keep their home "language", which has richness and color,
but at the same time we want the kids to be able to get into the
school or career of their choice. To that end we do a lot of editing of
writing in our after school and summer program. Children are required
to do additional academic work beyond their school work.A good tool for
encouraging writing skills across the board, and especially editing, is
the computer.As businesses update their computers, we ask for donations
of their old computers. We have established a very nice computer lab with
very little expense. We have educational games with reading, writing
and math focii. Some of our software is specifically geared toward grammer
usage and the kids learn grammer effortlessly. In a more structured
activity, the children keep journals on floppy disks and do their
editing on the computer. This makes the process fun as they use spellcheck,
cut and paste, and improve their writing.
English VS Bengali: Bilingual dominance increases spelling mistakes.
When the child writes, he follows certain pronounciation. Difference in
pronounciation causes some errors in writing the words correctly. It causes
problem in expressing one's ideas in writing. For example, in english grammer,
verb follows subject and object comes after verb- I(subject)eat (verb)rice(object).
But in Bengali grammer, object follows subject. Verb comes
last. For example:
Ami(subject) bhat (object) khai (verb)=I (subject) eat(verb) rice(object).
IMPORTANCE FOR GLOBALIZATION:
Eneida added "... as a Puerto Rican -- I live under two flags: the American
and the Puerto Rican Flag, and that my country has two official languages:
Spanish and English. Our education, from grade school is bilingual, although
our mother language (Spanish) is our first language and we learn English
as a second language. I think in Spanish and I translate my thoughts into
English as I am typing this message, and I am bringing here the issue
of bilingual education as a need of this end of century. We aren't communicating
with our Indians and American friends if we were not bilingual. Globalization
and information technologies bring an opportunity for so much professional
and commercial exchange, that it would be a real loss not to have this
opportunity.
BILINGUAL EDUCATION
CAN BEGIN IN THE HOME
Sandi wrote: "... the child who learns a second language as a youngster
develops additional brain synapses to connect his language centers permanently
in his mind and this makes him a more flexible learner in all respects.
My mother spoke to me occasionally in Spanish when I was a child, creating
in me a curiosity to see it written and to hear stories in Spanish that
I am
trying to pass on to my son. He has asked me to translate some of his
favorite stories into Spanish and is also very curious about other languages,
which pleases me greatly. At his age, language acquisition is at its height.
This helps with reading and writing motivation because he learns the magic
of words. His curiosity is captured by words and sounds and the pictures
they make in his mind in either language...though, granted, the Spanish
is quite basic at this time. He knows the stories he hears well enough
to connect one or two of the words and really, that is what I was seeking
when I began.
SECOND LANGUAGE CLASS:
Eneida wrote -"Nevertheless, it is my experience that for cultural and
identity reasons, there most be a first, mother language, (a home
of the soul) and a second language learned as an added benefit. When schools
provide children quality education in their primary language, they
give them two things: knowledge and literacy. The knowledge that
children get through their first language helps make the English or French
or German they hear and read more comprehensible. Literacy developed
in the primary language transfers to the second language. The reason
is simple: Because we learn to read by reading--that is, by making
sense of what is on the page -- it is easier to learn to read in a language
we understand. Once we can read in one language, we can read in general.
The combination of first language subject matter teaching and literacy
development that characterizes good bilingual programs indirectly
but powerfully aids students as they strive for a third factor essential
to their
success: English, or French or whatever language proficiency. Of course,
we also want to teach in the second language directly, via high quality
Second Language (SL) classes.
The best
bilingual education programs include all of these characteristics: SL instruction,
sheltered subject matter teaching, and instruction in the first language.
Non-second language-speaking children initially receive core
instruction in the primary language along with SL instruction. As children
grow more proficient in the second language, they learn subjects
using more contextualized language (e.g., math and science)
in sheltered classes taught in that second language, and eventually
in mainstream classes. In this way, the sheltered classes function
as a bridge between instruction in the first language and in
the mainstream. In advanced levels, the only subjects done in
the first language are those demanding the most abstract use of language
(social studies and language arts).In the USA, once full
mainstreaming is complete, advanced first language development is available
as an option. Gradual exit plans, such as these, avoid problems
associated with exiting children too early (before the English
they encounter is comprehensible) and provide instruction in the
first language where it is most needed. These plans also allow children
to have the advantages of advanced first language development.
CULTURAL INFLUENCE:
Use of appropriate words in appropriate places is an major issue
of good writing. Selection of words at specific place may not depend on
the differences in vocabulary, or in grammers of two languages rather
may depend on the culture. For example, in writing a letter to a friend,
we may use different words for addressing as 'hi',hey, hello,dear
etc. Though the pattern is same, they are different in their emotional
content or in expression.Queenou added -"How interesting! That reflects
my belief that it's all culture. The trick is to balance between two cultures
(or more) so that children can assimilate into mainstream culture when
they choose, but still keep the richness of their family culture.I
grew up in a mostly rural environment and I cherish the country expressions
that reflect my heritage and personality. That doesn't mean that
I can't use a very formal English when I am in a professional situation.
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