Early/Late Development of Bilingualism Baker: Chapter 5

Chapter six discusses the many different ways children become bilingual and the difference between simultaneous and sequential childhood bilingualism. Simultaneous childhood bilingualism is associated with children learning more than one language at a time form the time of their birth. It seems that infants are biologically prepared to learned more than one language at a time. In order for infants to grasp both languages it is important that they differentiate the two languages they are learning and that they properly store both languages as well. Once they have stored both languages children learn to appropriately match the languages with the appropriate situation or place. This also depends on their age and their parents and how they switch from language to language.

         There are different categories of simultaneous childhood bilingualism, such as, the more dominant language spoken to the child. Then there are the different languages spoken in different settings. Therefore, the child would speak one language at home and a completely different one at home. Then there are a mixture of when the languages are being spoken, this is generally when both languages are spoken in the home and outside. However, to the children who were introduced to a new language late on do have limitations on their second language.

          For the study activity I actually interviewed the mother of one the students I work with. I briefly interviewed her and asked her how the learning process was going. This mother shared her struggle with me and told me she has noticed how much faster her seven eight year old son is learning English a lot more. This mother is very motivated and really wants to learn proper English. When I asked her what her motivation for learning English was in the first place. Her responses to all of this was “I just want to learn English and make my children proud and someone my children can look up to and aspire to be on day.

Week 5 Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1E09b3bSA4C0jO5kvMFzeA7iw4YZ188UjAmjqiuMke4M/edit?usp=sharing

Bilingualism and Cognition Week 3

Chapter 7 was very interesting, a lot about the ideas of being bilingual are looked at, intelligence and bilingualism were examined intensively. This chapter compared and contrasted the similarities and differences between being monolingual and being bilingual. Baker discusses the belief that intelligence may be measured by an IQ test, and how this belief is related to the intelligence of bilinguals.  During some early research it was thought that monolinguals were superior to bilinguals. It was also believed that bilinguals have a lower mental ability than monolinguals. However, after some time being bilingual actually proved to be an advantage. Below is are a couple of examples of an IQ test :

What number best completes the analogy:

8:4 as 10:

a. 3

b. 7

c.24

d.5

The answer is 5 because 4 is half of 8, and 5 is half of 10.

Find two words, one from each group, that are the closest in meaning:

Group A

talkative, job, ecstatic

Group B

angry, wind, loquacious

a. talkative and wind

b. job and angry

c. talkative and loquacious

d. ecstatic and angry

Answer: c. Talkative and Loquacious

The first example would be a little more manageable for bilinguals to answer because it is a problem based on numbers. However, the second example may be difficult for bilinguals to answer, due to the advanced vocabulary.

Tongue Tied Week 3

The three major groups of language minority who continue to be negatively impacted are the Native Americans, African Americans and Latinos. It started with the when the Europeans took over and began pre ssuring Native Americans to attend catholic school in the early 1500’s. However, after persevering there was slight progress in the 1930’s. But this did not last long, because after a few back and forth regressions and progression, after the Reagan era all opportunities to restore Native American Languages were diminished.

            The second major group of language minority who continue to suffer are the African American. During the time of slavery African Americans were cruelly mistreated. A large portion of African Americans lived in the southern states, however, the African Americans who lived in the northern states were better known as Freeborn African Americans. Even though, they lived a better life they were still segregated and treated less than the white Americans. African American struggled with obtaining a decent education and fought for their rights. After the Louisiana Law that required equal but separate accommodations, this was the beginning of racial segregation in public schools in 1896. By 1899 when Cumming vs. Richmond County Board of Education ruled against the demands to end secondary educations for whites since there was none for African Americans. This led to major differences between white education and African American Education. In 1908 a law prohibiting integrated classes in a private mixed-race college. After much fighting finally in 1969 the Supreme Court gave a ruling that 33 districts in Mississippi plan to desegregate.

            The third major and largest group of language minority who continue to suffer are the Latinos. Due to the hostility towards Puerto Rican by 1907 most schools provided only English speaking classes. A lot of teachers for Latino students did not care much about their education. Whether they learned or not if they were well behaved they would pass. The Bilingual Education Act was passed in 1968 because of the lack of good educations for Latino students. In 1974 there was a law that stated the violation of students civil rights, if they were not accommodated. In 1992 Puerto Rico finally declare its official languages as Spanish and English.