1. LANGUAGE

1.1 The Phenomenon of Language “Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world.” (Noam Chomsky) (retrieved 2/11/2010 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/language.html ) Language is species-specific to human beings. Other members of the animal kingdom have the ability to communicate, through vocal noises or by other means, however their communication is limited. It is known that certain animal species have ways how to e.g. warn the other members of their pack of coming danger, or announce their discovery of food, or threaten other individuals to protect their territory. The most important feature characterizing human language against the known modes of animal communication is its productivity and creativity. People are unrestricted in what they can talk about, although it may be necessary to adapt one‟s language in order to cope with new discoveries or new modes of thought. Noam Chomsky said: “Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.” (retrieved 2/11/2010 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/language.html ) People have always liked playing with language, the proofs of that are countless puns, plays on words, riddles, anagrams, metaphors, chants and rhymes, let alone poetry and literature itself. Language is an endless source for human wit and creativity.

1.2 How Many Languages Are There in the World? It is difficult to calculate the actual number of languages spoken in the world. One of the problems is that of the definition of what constitutes a language. This leads to the following range in answers:

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According to the National Virtual Translation Center, there are about 6,900 languages in the world. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language says that estimates of total living languages in the world vary from 3,000 to 10,000. Voegelins' Classification and Index of the World's Languages (1977) lists 20,000 languages and dialects, grouped into about 4,500 living languages. (

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_different_languages_are_spoken_in_the_world

retrieved 2/11/2010)

1.3 What is Language? Selected Definitions of Language Many definitions of language have been proposed over time. Although they vary in the wording, they are generally similar in their meaning. lan·guage (n.): a system of communication consisting of a set of small parts and a set of rules which decide the ways in which these parts can be combined to produce messages that have meaning. (Cambridge International Dictionary of English 1995) lan·guage (n.) 1. a. Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. b. Such a system including its rules for combining its components, such as words. c. Such a system as used by a nation, people, or other distinct community; often contrasted with dialect. 2. a. A system of signs, symbols, gestures, or rules used in communicating: the language of algebra. b. Computer Science. A system of symbols and rules used for communication with or between computers.

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3. Body language; kinesics. 4. The special vocabulary and usages of a scientific, professional, or other group: "his total mastery of screen language - camera placement, editing - and his handling of actors" (Jack Kroll). 5. A characteristic style of speech or writing: Shakespearean language. 6. A particular manner of expression: profane language; persuasive language. 7. The manner or means of communication between living creatures other than humans: the language of dolphins. 8. Verbal communication as a subject of study. 9. The wording of a legal document or statute as distinct from the spirit. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition ©2000. Updated in 2009. ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/language retrieved 25/11/2010) The online Encyclopaedia Britannica offers the following definitions: language, a system of conventional spoken or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release. Any succinct definition of language makes a number of presuppositions and begs a number of questions. The first, for example, puts excessive weight on “thought,” and the second uses “arbitrary” in a specialized, though legitimate, way. “Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of ideas into thoughts.” (Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar) “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.” (Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager, American linguists) ( http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/329791/language retrieved 2/11/2010) No matter which definition of the term „language‟ we choose as the one closest to our liking, it still leaves us wondering how human language has become so complex. And there 3

is no logical end to its development. Language is not stationary; it is alive, changing all the time. New words come to being, some words are lost, some words come out of fashion, some words come back into fashion after being abandoned for some time, and some words change their meaning over time. The online Encyclopaedia Britannica says: “A language both reflects and affects a culture‟s way of thinking, and changes in a culture influence the development of its language.”

1.4 The Origins of Language There are many theories about the origins of language. Dr. C. George Boeree, a professor of psychology at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, presents the following theories of language origin, many of them have amusing names (invented by Max Müller and George Romanes a century ago): 1. The mama theory. Language began with the easiest syllables attached to the most significant objects. 2. The ta-ta theory.

Sir Richard Paget, influenced by Darwin, believed that body

movement preceded language. Language began as an unconscious vocal imitation of these movements. This evolved into the popular idea that language may have derived from gestures. 3. The bow-wow theory. Language began as imitations of natural sounds – moo, choochoo, crash, clang, buzz, bang, meow...

This is more technically referred to as

onomatopoeia or echoism. 4. The pooh-pooh theory. Language began with interjections, instinctive emotive cries such as oh! for surprise and ouch! for pain.

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5. The ding-dong theory. Some people, including the famous linguist Max Muller, have pointed out that there is a rather mysterious correspondence between sounds and meanings. Small, sharp, high things tend to have words with high front vowels in many languages, while big, round, low things tend to have round back vowels! This is often referred to as sound symbolism. 6. The yo-he-ho theory. Language began as rhythmic chants, perhaps ultimately from the grunts of heavy work (heave-ho!). The linguist A. S. Diamond suggests that these were perhaps calls for assistance or cooperation accompanied by appropriate gestures. This may relate yo-he-ho to the ding-dong theory, as in such words as cut, break, crush, strike... 7. The sing-song theory. Danish linguist Jesperson suggested that language comes out of play, laughter, cooing, courtship, emotional mutterings and the like. He even suggests that, contrary to other theories, perhaps some of our first words were actually long and musical, rather than the short grunts many assume we started with. 8. The hey you! theory. A linguist by the name of Revesz suggested in his work The Origins and Prehistory of Language (1956) that we have always needed interpersonal contact, and that language began as sounds to signal both identity (here I am!) and belonging (I‟m with you!). We may also cry out in fear, anger, or hurt (help me!). This is more commonly called the contact theory. ( http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/langorigins.html retrieved 7/11/2010) Edward Vajda, a historical linguist and professor in Western Washington University's Department

of

Modern

and

Classical

Languages,

on

his

webpage

http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test1materials/origin_of_language.htm talks about two main hypotheses concerning the origin of language: 1) Belief in divine creation. Many societies throughout history believed that language is the gift of the gods to humans. The most familiar is found in Genesis 2:20, which tells us that Adam gave names to all living creatures. This belief predicates that humans were created from the start with an innate capacity to use language. 2) Natural evolution hypothesis. At some point in their evolutionary development humans acquired a more sophisticated brain which made language invention and learning

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possible. The simple vocalizations and gestures inherited from our primate ancestors then quickly gave way to a creative system of language. Yule (2006) talks about 6 possible sources of language: 1. The divine source 2. The natural sound source, which corresponds to the „bow-wow‟ theory. 3. The social interaction source, which corresponds to the „yo-he-ho‟ theory. 4. The physical adaptation source, which suggests that during human evolution such changes in physical appearance of our ancestors (e.g. upright posture, changes in the shape of the scull) resulted in ability to produce sounds which became human language, most importantly changes concerning teeth, lips, mouth, larynx and pharynx. 5. The tool-making source, which suggests that manual gestures used during tool making may have preceded language. 6. The genetic source, which suggests as the possible source of language a crucial mutation in human genetics which lead to the innate capacity for language (the innateness hypothesis).

1.5 The Study of Language Spolsky (1998) says: “Language and society may not be peculiarly human – how else can one appreciate social amoebae or the honey bee? – but they are such fundamental human phenomena that they cry out for better understanding.” People have always been interested in language, the way it „works‟. The study of language, linguistics, started with grammatical descriptions of old languages hundreds of years ago. It has developed into a science which nowadays concerns itself with all aspects relating to language. Language can be studied from many angles and for many purposes. “Sociolinguistics is the field that studies the relationship between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live. It is a field of study that assumes that human society is made up of many related patterns and behaviours, some of which are linguistic.” (Spolsky 1998) 6

Neurolinguistics studies how language is processed in the human brain. Psycholinguistics, described by Scovel (1998) is the study concerned with “the use of language and speech as a window to the nature and structure of the human mind.” Psycholinguistics asks and tries to provide answers to many questions concerning language. Questions such as: How are language and speech produced? “The production of language demands the synthetic talents of an imaginary mental chef, who selects the appropriate ingredients, weighs them carefully, and then stirs them together into a creative new dish.” How are language and speech comprehended? “The comprehension of language, on the other hand, requires the analytic skills of a cognitive chemist, who takes whatever is served up and meticulously breaks it down into its individual compounds and elements in order to understand it completely.” (Scovel 1998) How are language and speech acquired? This is an issue which will be dealt with in more detail in chapter 2.

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2. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION All children under normal circumstances learn at least one language – their first language(s). Abnormal circumstances would be such health (physical or mental) problems which may prevent a child from acquiring language, or growing up in such an environment which would not provide suitable conditions (e.g. not enough contact with other speakers and thus not enough language input which is essential for successful language acquisition). The fact that all children master the task of learning to speak within a relatively short amount of time and without any obvious lecturing has fascinated people for many years. Steven Pinker, an experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and professor of psychology at Harvard University, says: “Language acquisition is one of the central topics in cognitive science. Every theory of cognition has tried to explain it; probably no other topic

has

aroused

such

controversy.”

(retrieved

30/10/2010

from

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/pinker.langacq.html)

2.1 Language Acquisition Theories Lightbown & Spada (2006) present the three main theoretical perspectives explaining first language acquisition which developed over the past fifty years.

2.1.1

The Behaviourist Perspective: Say what I say

Behaviourism was a theory of learning which was very popular on the 1940s and 1950s, mainly in the USA. The major representative of behaviourism was B. F. Skinner. The hypothesis of behaviourists was that children learn by imitating adults around them. Children need to receive ‘positive reinforcement’ for their attempts to reproduce what they here around them in the form of praise or just communication. Thus encouraged by their environment, children continue to imitate and practise and they form ‘habits’ of correct language use. A child‟s language behaviour is shaped by the quality and quantity of the language input (i.e. the language the child hears) and by the consistency of the „positive reinforcement‟ provided by the environment. Therefore the behaviourist perspective 8

considers the environment to be the most important factor during language acquisition. Although behaviourism offered a reasonable way of understanding how children learn some regular and routine aspects of language, especially in the earliest stages, it does not give satisfactory explanation for the acquisition of more complex grammar. Children produce sentences which they have not heard previously. Behaviourism was challenged by other theories.

2.1.2

The Innatist Perspective: It’s all in your mind

The most renowned proponent of the innatist perspective is Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential linguists. Central to Chomsky‟s hypothesis is that all human languages are fundamentally innate and that the same universal principles underlie all of them. He argued that children are biologically programmed for language and that language develops in the child in just the same way that other biological functions develop. Chomsky challenged behaviourism claiming that children prove to know more about the structure of their language than they could learn just from the samples of language uttered around them. They hear language which contains incomplete sentences, false starts and slips of a tongue and despite that they learn to distinguish between grammatically correct and incorrect sentences. He concluded that children are born with a specific innate ability to discover the rules of a language system based on the input they receive. There are two important terms which are connected with Chomsky and his ideas: ‘Universal grammar’: Innate linguistic knowledge which consists of a set of principles common to all languages. ‘Language acquisition device’: The inborn ability to acquire language and to use it creatively. ‘Critical period hypothesis’: The proposal that there is a limited period during which language acquisition can occur. It suggests that there are biological mechanisms specifically designed for language acquisition and that these cease to be available at or even before puberty. Thus an older learner has to use general learning mechanisms that are not designed – and thus not as effective for – language acquisition. 9

It is difficult to find evidence to prove or disprove existence of the critical period hypothesis as the majority of children are exposed to language from birth. Although several cases of children who were deprived of contact with language at an early age and who never managed to learn to speak in what is considered to be a standard way, which were described in history speak in its favour.

2.1.3

The Interactionist / Developmental Perspective: Learning from inside out

Cognitive and developmental psycholinguists view language acquisition as „similar to and influenced by the acquisition of other kinds of skill and knowledge, rather than as something that is different from and largely independent of the child‟s experience and cognitive development‟. According to them language acquisition is „but one example of the human child‟s remarkable ability to learn from experience‟ and they believe that the human brain does not need any specific structures ‟designed‟ for language acquisition itself. According to their hypothesis all that children need to be able to master their language is available to them in the interactions with people around them. The cognitive and developmental psychologists focus on „the interplay between the innate learning ability of children and the environment in which they develop.‟ One of the first representatives of the view that language acquisition of children goes hand in hand with their cognitive development was Jean Piaget. Based on his research and observation of infants and children he developed a hypothesis that language was just „one of the number of symbol systems that are developed in childhood‟ and it can be used to „represent knowledge that children have acquired through physical interaction with the environment.‟ Another important figure linked with the interactionist/developmental view was Lev Vygotsky who studied interactions among children and concluded that „language develops primarily from social interaction‟ and that „in a supportive interactive environment children are able to advance to a higher level of knowledge and performance.‟ He stressed the importance of conversations between children and adults and children themselves as the source of both language and thought.

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Foster-Cohen (1999) talks about two different approaches to language acquisition depending on the extent to which the researchers believe in the innate knowledge of language. She uses the terms ‘observational approach’ and ‘logical approach’, with the „observational approach‟ referring to the behaviourist perspective and the „logical approach‟ corresponding to the innatist perspective.

2.2

Language Acquisition vs. Language Learning

Frequently the terms „language acquisition‟ and „language learning‟ are used interchangeably. Some linguists distinguish between them. Stephen Krashen, an expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition and development, contrasted the two terms. According to Krashen acquisition represents „unconscious‟ learning which takes place when attention is focused on meaning rather than language form, while learning is a „conscious‟ process that occurs when the learner‟s objective is to learn about the language itself, rather than to understand messages conveyed through the language. (Lightbown & Spada 2006) Steven Krashen‟s hypotheses and the „acquisition – learning‟ distinction concern second language acquisition, rather than the acquisition of the first language, the mother tongue.

2.3 Stages of Linguistic Development Yule (2006) describes the extraordinary physical development of human beings at an early stage of their life and the speed of changes that occur: “At birth, the baby‟s brain is only a quarter of its eventual weight and the larynx is much higher in the throat, allowing babies, like chimpanzees, to breathe and drink at the same time. In a relatively short period of time, the larynx descends, the brain develops, the child assumes an upright posture and starts walking and talking.”

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“Developmental psycholinguistics examines how speech emerges over time and how children go about constructing the complex structures of their mother tongue.” (Scovel 1998) Lightbown & Spada (2006) use the term developmental stage, or developmental sequence for the order in which certain features of a language are acquired in language learning. They point out as remarkable “the high degree of similarity in the early language of children all over the world.”

2.3.1

Crying

In the first few months of life, crying is a kind of language without speech, because the child communicates different types of discomfort without using normal speech sounds. Later on, crying helps the child learn how to produce linguistic sounds. Initially crying is completely iconic, i.e. there is a direct and transparent link between the physical sound and its communicative meaning. (e.g. the hungrier a baby becomes, the louder and longer the crying.) As the child develops the crying becomes more symbolic (i.e. it is not directly related to the child‟s sense of discomfort, the cries are subtly and indirectly associated with his/her needs.) Recent studies have suggested that babies may cry to get attention, rather than express discomfort or pain. (Scovel 1998)

2.3.2

Cooing

Children develop cooing, soft gurgling sounds, seemingly to express satisfaction after several weeks of interaction with their caretaker. It is not certain whether the coos of justfed baby reinforce the mother‟s contentment in nurturing the child, or whether the mother‟s sounds of comfort when nurturing the child reinforce the child‟s tendency to mimic the contentment he/she senses. It is most likely they mutually reinforce each other. (Scovel 1998)

2.3.3

Babbling 12

The babbling stage comes when children are about six months old. Babbling is the result of the natural tendency of children to produce strings of consonant – vowel syllable clusters, almost a kind of vocalic play. Some linguists distinguish between marginal babbling, an early stage similar to cooing, and canonical babbling, a later stage at around eight months, when children start producing syllables that resemble the syllables of the caretaker‟s language. (Scovel 1998) Foster-Cohen (1999) presents yet another sub-stage of babbling, so-called variegated babbling, where the sequences of sound which children produce at this stage are often quite long and may be a real challenge for adults who try to imitate them. She suggests that if children possess that kind of flexibility concerning production of sounds, it is not surprising that children are capable of acquiring perfect pronunciation of any of the world‟s languages. Foster-Cohen states that most babbled sounds seem to be independent of any particular language and studies have shown that native speakers of different languages were not able to distinguish whether children‟s babbling comes from their own, or some other language.

2.3.4

First Words

Children cross “the linguistic Rubicon” (Scovel 1998) and utter the first word when they are about one year old. The line might not be so clean cut as parents are sometimes not certain whether they heard an actual word amongst the sounds their child produces. Scovel (1998) uses the term idiomorph to refer to the tendency of children to invent their own words to refer to their environment. An example of such an idiomorph would be the word „ka ka‟ the child might use for „milk‟. Foster-Cohen (1999) describes the first words, which emerge before the end of the babble period, as idiosyncratic to the child. She uses the term proto-words to refer to the first attempts to produce words are often not really true words; they are just sequences of sound which children decide to use for various communicative purposes. Painter (1985) uses the term protolanguage when describing her son‟s language development. Scovel (1998) claims that not all children have to necessarily invent their own words, some children, as frequently, begin to learn the vocabulary of their mother tongue straight away. 13

Observations of children have shown that the first words children learn tend to be those referring to prominent, everyday objects and people. Pinker states that children's first words are similar all over the planet. He says: “About half the words are for objects: food (juice, cookie), body parts (eye, nose), clothing (diaper, sock), vehicles (car, boat), toys (doll, block), household items (bottle, light), animals (dog, kitty), and people (dada, baby). There are words for actions, motions, and routines, like up, off, open, peekaboo, eat, and go, and modifiers, like hot, allgone, more, dirty, and cold. Finally, there are routines used in social interaction, like yes, no, want, bye-bye, and hi.” (retrieved

30/10/2010

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/pinker.langacq.html ) Another term used by Scovel (1998) is egocentric speech, originally used by Piaget, when talking about the natural tendency of children to perceive themselves as the centres of the universe and their way of describing the surrounding world from that point of view. Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) talk about the fact that small children love playing with language. They spontaneously repeat certain sounds and words over and over just to amuse themselves, or sometimes to send themselves to sleep. This process is called lullation and is viewed as an important part of the learning process. Playing with language for pleasure is an activity which people perform with various degrees of complexity throughout their lives.

2.3.5

Mean Length of Utterances (MLU)

An important factor for defining stages of language development is the number of words a child can say in one utterance. This is scored as the mean length of utterance (MLU), devised in 1969 Roger Brown, a psychologist, who studied linguistic development of children. MLU is traditionally calculated by dividing the number of words (or morphemes) spoken by the number of utterances. E.g. in a case where the child says two words in total and there were two utterances, the MLU is „one‟. According to Brown there are five stages: stage 1 (MLU scores from 1.1 – 2.0), stage 2 (MLU 2.0 – 2.5), stage 3 (MLU 2.5 – 3.0), stage 4 (MLU 3.5 – 4.0), stage 5 (MLU 3.5 – 4.0). The length of a child‟s utterances is a good indicator of his or her linguistic development. (Myszor 1999) 14

2.3.6

The Holophrastic / Single-word Stage

The Holophrastic stage is the period when children use single words as skeletal sentences. The one-word utterances, accompanied by the intonational, gestural, and contextual clues, are used in conversation to perform different language functions. For example a child can use the single word „milk‟ saying: -- “This is my milk.” (statement), -- “Where‟s my milk gone?” (question), -- “I want milk!” (request), -- “Oh no, I‟ve spilled my milk!” (exclamation). “Holophrastic speech is the bridge that transports the child from the primitive land of cries, words, and names across into the brave new world of phrases, clauses, and sentences.” (Scovel 1998)

2.3.7

The Two-word Stage

Children begin to combine words to form two word utterances when they are about 18 months old. Why? Myszor (1999) suggests that a possible answer may be that children hear several words at a time in the language they are exposed to, or they might grow to realize that two-word utterances are better understood by the people around them and lead to more satisfactory results. At this point children have to learn how to link two words together to convey the right meaning. Particularly children whose first language is English, where word order is crucially important. Scovel (1998) talks about results of many linguistic studies that revealed that children in the two-word stage do not randomly rotate words between first and second position. The fact that the order of the words in children‟s two-word utterances tends to follow the normal word order, indicates that children at that stage are already sensitive to the word order in their first language.

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2.3.8

Telegraphic Speech

The term „telegraphic‟ implies that the utterances produced by children at this stage resemble telegrams which, before the age of telephone, fax and email, used to be the means of sending information quickly and far. Telegrams needed to be short and explicit. At this stage children tend to use content words (usually nouns, verbs, and adjectives that refer to real things) and leave out function words (auxiliary verbs, prepositions, pronouns). They also usually drop inflections (-s for plurals, or -ed for past tense). Examples of telegraphic speech: “I show book”, “I very tall”, “That car?” (Scovel 1998, Myszor 1999)

2.3.9

Grammatical Morphemes

The following list of grammatical morphemes was adapted by Lightbown & Spada (2006) from Robert Brown‟s book where he presented the results of his longitudinal studies of the language development of three children in 1960‟s. The study showed that a child who has mastered the grammatical morphemes at the bottom of the list also mastered those at the top, but not vice versa. The children did not master the morphemes at the same rate or age. -

present progressive –ing (Mommy running)

-

plural –s (Two books)

-

irregular past forms (Baby went)

-

possessive „s (Daddy‟s hat)

-

copula (Annie is happy)

-

articles the and a

-

regular past –ed (She walked)

-

third person singular simple present –s (She runs)

-

auxiliary be (He is coming)

2.3.10 Negation Children learn how to say no very quickly. Very soon they master the ways how to refuse, or reject, or comment on the disappearance of objects or people around them. Studies have shown that children understand the principles of negation very early; they take time to 16

learn to use the appropriate words and word order of grammatically correct sentences. Lightbow & Spada (2006) present 4 stages which have been observed in the development of negation in acquisition of English, and similar stages in other languages. Stage 1 Negation is usually expressed by the word „no‟, either alone or as the first word in the utterance: No. No cookie. No comb hair. Stage 2 Utterances become longer and the sentence subject may be included. The negative word appears just before the verb. Sentences expressing rejection or prohibition often use „don‟t‟: Daddy no comb hair. Don‟t touch that! Stage 3 Children create more complex sentences with the negative element inserted in them. Sometimes they use other forms of the negative than „no‟, e.g. „can‟t‟ or „don‟t‟. The sentences seem to follow the correct English pattern of attaching the negative to the auxiliary or modal verb. However, children do not yet adjust the forms appropriately according to different persons or tenses: I can‟t do it. He don‟t want it. Stage 4 Children begin to attach the negative element to the correct form of auxiliary verbs such as „do‟ and „be‟: You didn‟t have supper. She doesn‟t want it. They still might have difficulties to master some other features related to negatives: I don‟t have no more candies

2.3.11 Questions

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According to Bloom (1991) there is a predictable order in which the „wh-words‟ emerge. Generally the first wh-question word children learn to use is „what‟, very often learned as a part of a chunk „Whassat?‟ Chunk: A unit of language that is often perceived or used as a single unit. Chunks include formulaic expressions (expressions or phrases that are often perceived and learned as unanalysed wholes) such as „thank you‟, or „Hi, how are you?‟ but also bits of language that frequently occur together, e.g. „bread and butter‟. Soon afterwards emerge „where‟ and „who‟, identifying and locating people: „Where‟s mummy?‟ or „Who‟s that?‟ „Why‟ emerges around the end of second year and then becomes a favourite word. E.g. „Why that lady has blue hair?‟ With better understanding of manner and time, „how‟ and „when‟ emerge. There is a consistency in the acquisition of word order in questions. Six stages have been observed: Stage 1 The earliest questions children produce are either single words or simple two- or threeword sentences with rising intonation: Cookie? Mummy book? At this stage they might also create some correct questions as they learned them as chunks: What‟s that? Where‟s Daddy? Stage 2 Children continue to use the chunk-learned forms alongside their own questions which have the word order of declarative sentences, with rising intonation: You like this? I have some? Stage 3 This stage is called ‘fronting’ because children notice that questions have different word order and they seem to develop a rule for question making, which is putting something – a verb form or question word – at the „front‟ of the sentence, otherwise in a form of statement: Is the teddy is tired? Do I can have cookie? Why you don‟t have one? Some of their questions may seem correct: Can I go? Are you happy? 18

Stage 4 At this stage some questions children form by subject – auxiliary inversion, with more variety in the auxiliaries than at stage 3: Are you going to play with me? Children also start adding the auxiliary „do‟: Do dogs like ice-cream? Children still do not seem to be able to use both inversion and wh-words when they cooccur. They can use either of them alone, but they cannot apply them together, unless they are formulaic units such as „What‟s that?‟ Stage 5 Both wh- and „yes/no‟ questions are formed correctly: Are these your boots? Why did you do that? Does Daddy have a box? Difficulties with negative questions might persist: Why the teddy bear can‟t go outside? Children still have problems with wh-words in subordinate clauses and they need to learn how to form embedded questions. They overgeneralize inverted form which would be correct in simple questions: Ask him why he can‟t go out. Stage 6 At this stage children mastered forming all question types. (Lightbown & Spada 2006)

2.3.12 Overgeneralization Overgeneralization is a term used to describe situations when children learn a certain language rule and they apply it inappropriately. The most common example would be the – ed bound morpheme used for creating regular past tense is applied to create regular forms of a verb which is irregular, e.g I goed instead of I went. (Myszor 1999)

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Overgeneralization error is the result of trying to use a rule in a context where it does not belong, e.g. putting a regular -ed ending on an irregular verb, as in „buyed‟ instead of „bought‟. (Lightbown & Spada 2006)

2.3.13 Correction Lightbown & Spada (2006) use the term corrective feedback: an indication to a learner that their use of the target language is incorrect. It can be explicit: „He go‟ – „No, you should say “He goes”, not “He go”‟, or implicit, more gentle: „He go‟ – „Yes, he goes to school every day.‟ Corrective feedback applies more to second language acquisition and older learners who might benefit from correction, sometimes they even request it. The correction should implicit, rather than explicit as explicit correction might be in some cases discouraging, even off-putting for the learners. Overall, studies have shown that concerning first language acquisition, correction has vey little, or almost no effect on young children (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008).

2.3.14 Child-directed Speech / Babytalk / Motherese

Parents or caretakers all over the world modify their speech when talking to small children. Lightbown & Spada (2006) define child-directed speech as „the language that caretakers address to children. In some cases, this language is simpler than that which is addressed to adults. In some cultures, it is also slower, higher pitched, more repetitive, and includes a large number of questions.‟ Steven Pinker says that motherese is one example of how people in general use several "registers" in different social settings. He names the features of motherese described by, Snow & Ferguson in 1977: „Speech to children is slower, shorter, in some ways (but not all) simpler, higher-pitched, more exaggerated in intonation, more fluent and grammatically well-formed, and more directed in content to the present situation, compared to speech among adults. Many parents also expand their children's utterances

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into full sentences, or offer sequences of paraphrases of a given sentence.‟ (retrieved 30/10/2010 from http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/pinker.langacq.html) Painter (1985) says that there was a burst of interest in the language spoken to young children in the 1970s and the research carried out observed that mothers when talking to their babies use clear, well-structured utterances, frequently rephrase and repeat, clearly articulate and make use of intonation. An interesting finding was that mothers „fine-tune‟ their speech to match the changing level of competence of their children, producing more complex structural forms and fewer repetitions as the child‟s command of language increases (Snow & Ferguson 1977) Myszor (1999) prefers to use the term ‘babytalk’ and points out three main aims of this language: 1. to attract and hold the baby‟s attention; 2. to help the process of breaking down language into understandable chunks; 3. to make the conversation more predictable by keeping the conversation in the „here and now‟ and referring to things that the baby can see; and offers a list of features of babytalk which should help to achieve the above aims: 1. Higher pitch and exaggerated intonation and stress. 2. Repeated sentence frames. This occurs when the parent uses the same structure over and over, filling in part of it with a different word each time, e.g.„That‟s a – „ 3. Repetition and partial repetition of the adult‟s own words. 4. Questions and commands (getting the child to do something). 5. Frequent use of the child‟s name and an absence of pronouns. 6. Absence of past tenses. 7. A large number of one word utterances. 8. Use of simple sentences 9. Omission of inflections such as plurals (planets) and possessives (mummy‟s). 10. Fewer verbs, modifiers (adjectives in front of nouns) and function words (such as „at‟, „my‟). 11. Use of concrete nouns (cat, train) and dynamic verbs (give, put). 12. Use of expansions – where the adult fills out the child‟s utterance. 13. Use of re-casting – where the baby‟s vocabulary is put into a new sentence. 21

Myszor also offers an article by Lauran Neergaard published in 1997 by Detroit Free Press, which states that scientists say that “babytalk appears to be vital in helping babies‟ brains to absorb key building blocks of language”. The article reports a study carried out by University of Washington neuroscientist Patricia Kuhl and her team. The study showed that parents unconsciously exaggerate the vowel sounds that infants of any nationality need for mastering the phonetic elements of speech. According to Kuhl, there are three vowel sounds common to all human languages – „ee‟, „ah‟ and „oo‟ – which are the same vowels that mothers universally stress to their babies. E.g. a mother might say to her baby „Look at mommy‟s pretty beeeeds‟ instead of „beads‟. Kuhl uses the term parentese and calls it „a real tutorial on language‟. No matter which term we may choose to call the language parents use to speak to their children, the importance of interaction with other human beings and thus exposure to language input is of immense importance for a child‟s linguistic development.

It can be said that in general, most children seem to have mastered the basic structures of their first language(s) by the age of four. They can ask questions, give commands, report events, and create stories – using correct word order and grammatical markers most of the time. (Lightbown & Spada 2006) Myszor (1999) claims that most of the features of adult language are established by the age of five and that is the age up to which most of the language acquisition studies have observed children.

2.4 Summary Perhaps this chapter could be concluded with a list of 11 basic assumptions about language acquisition and commentaries to them presented by Myszor (1999) 1. Some normal babies produce no words until they are at least two years old.

22

- This is true. There is considerable variation in the speed and manner in which children learn language. Some children do not say much for the first two years but when they start speaking it is obvious that a lot of learning has been taking place. 2. Babies can learn to speak using television. - No. You can pick up some vocabulary from television but it lacks the interactive dimension. 3. Babies of deaf parents „say‟ their first word before babies of speaking parents. - This is often true. Signing words is easier than articulating them and so deaf babies are not slowed down by problems of articulation in the early stages of speaking. 4. Language acquisition is innate so a baby locked in a room for four years with little human contact will still learn to speak. -

Not true. Although many psychologists regard some aspects of language

acquisition as being innate, exposure to language is still necessary in order to learn. 5. Babies learn language by copying adults. - Only true to a limited extent, as much of the research of the last 40 years has shown. 6. Babies pick up „babytalk‟ from their parents. - No. Babytalk was started by babies! Adult versions reflect the way that babies speak and to some extent adults will teach their children this „language‟. 7. Bilingual children are often slow to talk. - Yes, acquiring two languages at the same time does tend to slow down the rate of acquisition. 8. Babies who can only say two words cannot make themselves clear. - No. adults are very skilful at making the most of limited information, often using the context to clarify what the baby has said. 9. It matters how much you talk to your baby. - Yes. Babies whose parents talk to them more learn to speak faster. 10. You can speed up children‟s language development. - If the above is true then this one must also be. There are a number of ways in which adults speak to babies that are associated with more rapid development. But there are no miraculous hot-housing techniques. 11. At birth any child can learn any language fluently. - True. There are no in-built constraints on which language can be learned. 23

3. BILINGUALISM "Kolik jazyků znáš, tolikrát jsi člověkem." (Czech proverb) (The more languages you know, the richer your life is.) You are as many times a person as the languages you know

3.1 What Is Bilingualism? If I asked you: “Are you bilingual?”, from my experience, you would be most likely inclined to say no, since the general or most widespread notion of what bilingualism means is that it is a perfect mastery or native-like mastery of two languages. Not many people dare to consider themselves to be native-like proficient in other than their native language. However, think about it for a while. Can you speak a foreign language? Can you communicate; make yourself understood in other than your native language? Or perhaps you do not feel confident enough to speak, but you understand well enough to watch a film or read a book in its original language? There has not been and there is not still a straightforward answer to the question of what bilingualism is. Various experts in linguistics have tried to supply a satisfactory answer to the question and they have formed various definitions of the term bilingualism. It may or may not be surprising that they vary considerably, or even contradict each other.

3.1.1

Selected Definitions of Bilingualism bi·lin·gual adj. (of a person) able to use two languages for communication, or (of a thing) using or involving two languages: - She works as a bilingual secretary for an insurance company.

24

- They have just published a major new edition of their French English bilingual dictionary. (Cambridge International Dictionary of English 1995) bi·lin·gual adj. 1.

a. Using or able to use two languages, especially with equal or nearly equal fluency. b. Using two languages in some proportion in order to facilitate learning by students who have a native proficiency in one language and are acquiring proficiency in the other: bilingual training; bilingual education.

2. Of, relating to, or expressed in two languages: a bilingual dictionary. n. A person who uses or is able to use two languages, especially with equal fluency. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition ©2000. Available online at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bilingual retrieved 12/11/2010) “A speech situation where an individual or community controls two (or more) languages; less usually called polyglottism (though the term polyglot for someone who speaks several languages is common enough).” (Crystal 1992) Bloomfield (1933) defines bilingualism as “a native-like control of two languages”. However, he also says that it is impossible to define the moment when the nativelike control is achieved, when a non-native speaker becomes bilingual, the distinction is relative. (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008) By contrast, Haugen (1953) concludes his observations by stating that “bilingualism begins when the speaker of one language can produce complete meaningful utterances in the other language.” (Romaine 1995) Mackey (1962) says that “bilingualism is a relative phenomenon” and proposes defining bilingualism “as a usage of two or more languages alternately by one individual.” (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008)

25

Grosjean (1989) is more pragmatic in saying that a bilingual is “someone who can function in each language according to given needs.” (Bialystok 2001). In 1992 Grosjean describes a bilingual as “a unique and specific language configuration”, claiming that a bilingual is not “a sum of two complete or partial monolinguals”. (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008) “Put simply, bilingualism is the ability to use two languages. However, defining bilingualism is problematic since individuals with varying bilingual characteristics may be classified as bilingual. Definitions of bilingualism range from a minimal proficiency in two languages, to an advanced level of proficiency which allows the speaker to function and appear as a native-like speaker of two languages. A person may describe themselves as bilingual but may mean only the ability to converse and communicate orally. Others may be proficient in reading in two or more languages. A person may be bilingual by virtue of having grown up learning and using two languages simultaneously (simultaneous bilingualism). Or they may become bilingual by learning a second language sometime after their first language. This is known as sequential bilingualism. To be bilingual means different things to different people.” (http://www.naldic.org.uk/ITTSEAL2/teaching/B1.cfm retrieved 21/11/2010) Bhatia & Ritchie (2004) suggest that “generally speaking, earlier definitions tended to restrict bilingualism to equal mastery of two languages, while later ones have allowed much greater variation in competence.” They continue saying that the modern approaches towards bilingualism “acknowledge that any meaningful discussion must be attempted within a specific context, and for specific purposes.” It is important to distinguish between bilingual individuals and bilingual societies. All the above definitions concern bilingualism in people, not in societies or communities. Bilingual society is such where there are more than one language spoken by the members of the society. Theoretically such a situation can occur that there are no bilingual speakers in a bilingual society; and on the contrary bilingual speakers live in otherwise monolingual community. (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008)

26

3.2 Types of Bilingualism 3.2.1 ‘True’ Bilingualism The online Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development cites that researchers suggest that native-like proficiency in both languages, referred to as ‘true’ bilingualism, is rare (Cutler, Mehler, Norris, & Segui, 1992; Grosjean, 1982). (http://literacyencyclopedia.ca/index.php?fa=items.show&topicId=236

retrieved

21/11/2010)

3.2.2 Types of Bilingualism in relation to Cognitive Functions Compound vs. Coordinate Bilingualism Romaine (1995) talks about the distinction between compound and coordinate bilingualism as “the most commonly debated and discussed [issue] in the early literature”. She presents the three types of bilingualism described by Weinrich (1968) according to the ways in which it was thought that the concepts of a language were encoded in the individual‟s brain. Weinrich believed that the differences in bilingualism were caused by the way in which the languages had been learned. Coordinate bilingualism develops in situations when one learns the two languages in separate environments and therefore the individual words of the two languages are kept separate and have its own specific meaning. An example could be a person who learned one language at home and later on learned a second language at school. It was believed that a different conceptual system would be developed and maintained for each of the acquired languages, i.e. the English term „book‟ and French term „livre‟ would each have their own meaning. By contrast, compound bilingualism occurs in such cases when one acquires the two languages in the same context where they are used concurrently and therefore there is a fused representation of the two languages in the brain of the bilingual person and thus the person would know both terms „book‟ and „livre‟, but would have one common meaning for both of them.

27

Weinrich distinguished one more type of bilingualism, so-called sub-coordinate bilingualism, which was a sub-type of coordinate bilingualism. In this type of bilingualism the dominant language acts as a filter for the other, thus the speakers interpret words in their weaker language through the words of their stronger language, i.e the English term „book‟ would evoke the word „livre‟. To summarise, according to Weinrich, compound bilinguals have one set of meanings and two linguistic systems tied to them. Whereas coordinate bilinguals have two sets of meanings and two sets of linguistic systems tied to them. The sub-coordinate bilinguals have a primary set of meanings established through their dominant language and another linguistic system attached to them. Spolsky (1998) offers an simplified summary saying that coordinate bilinguals were assumed to have two meaning systems each with its own set of words, while compound bilinguals had a single system with two sets of words. Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) mention this classification of bilingualism, however they refer to it as having long gone out of fashion. They also refer to the work of psychologists Ervin & Osgood (1954) who were interested in the organisation of cognitive processes in a bilingual brain and who worked further with Weinrich‟s classification. Nevertheless the hypothesis has never been satisfactorily scientifically proven since most of the observed bilingual speakers fell somewhere in between the two types and it was concluded that an exclusively coordinate or compound behaviour does not exist.

3.2.3 Types of Bilingualism in relation to the Degree of Proficiency Balanced vs. Dominant Bilingualism Balanced bilingualism: a term used to describe the case when one has a very strong command of both languages. (Spolsky 1998) Balanced bilingual: someone who is more or less equally proficient in both languages, but will

not

necessarily

pass

for

a

native

speaker

in

both

languages.

(http://www.bklein.de/buc/buc_classification.php retrieved 22/11/2010) 28

The term dominant bilingualism is used when the speaker has much stronger command of one of the two languages. It usually refers to early stages of bilingualism when the first language is much stronger and usually also preferred. Dominant bilingual: A person being more proficient in one of the two languages (in most cases to a native-like ability). (http://www.bklein.de/buc/buc_classification.php retrieved 22/11/2010) Sometimes the term semi-bilingual is used. The online Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development says that the concept of language dominance needs to be considered when defining bilingualism. “Most bilinguals have stronger skills in one language, their dominant language. However, their dominant language need not be their L1. In addition, it is possible to show language dominance in one language for one domain (e.g. L1 for home) and dominance in the other language for another

domain

(e.g.

L2

for

(http://literacyencyclopedia.ca/index.php?fa=items.show&topicId=236

work). retrieved

21/11/2010) Here it is relevant to cite Irujo‟s view concerning the matter. She presents the following definition of the term language dominance as “the notion that one of a bilingual‟s two languages is stronger than the other.” Irujo (1998) expresses her doubts concerning language dominance: “Language dominance – if such a thing even exists – varies from domain to domain. Majority of bilinguals prefer to speak one of their languages in a certain situation, or to a certain people, or when discussing a certain topic.” Her domain is bilingual education and in her book she expresses her dislike for placement tests which are given to incoming students in many bilingual programs. Such tests supposedly assess students‟ language dominance; placement in a bilingual or monolingual program is determined by the results of such a dominance test. Receptive Bilingualism Receptive Bilingualism is a significant type of bilingualism since it may occur relatively often, although by some linguists it is not considered to be „true‟ bilingualism. The term describes a situation where the speaker understands the other language, but they do not 29

speak it. The reasons for not using the language may be various, from just not being confident enough to speak to feeling animosity towards the language. (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008). In such cases the speaker can be referred to as a passive bilingual: a person who is a native speaker in one and is capable of understanding but not speaking another language. (http://www.bklein.de/buc/buc_classification.php retrieved 22/11/2010)

3.2.4 Types of Bilingualism in relation to Social Status or Attitude Elite vs. Folk Bilingualism Encyclopedia of bilingualism and bilingual education, Volume 1997 says: Elite bilingualism, sometimes referred to as prestigious bilingualism, “occurs when competence in two languages (often prestigious majority languages) is developed and maintained. Prestigious bilingualism within a family context can occasionally occur when bilingualism is cultivated and maintained within the home without outside support. This can occur when one or both parents speak a language which is not widely spoken outside the home which they decide to transmit to their children, for a number of reasons. These reasons may include a desire to maintain family heritage, contact with monolingual family members, and the educational, social and economic advantages of bilingualism.” “Folk bilingualism occurs when individual family bilingualism or multilingualism is part of a natural societal pattern.” … “A diglossic or triglossic situation may exist, where a local or ethnic language may be spoken in the family and immediate neighbourhood, an indigenous of wider communication in the wider area, and a prestigious international language such as French or English or indigenous national language in education and official life.” According to Harding-Esch & Riley this distinction is a controversial one. “Or perhaps it is better to say that the terms used here are controversial, since no one denies that the actual distinction is real. So-called "elite" bilinguals include intermarried couples and those who are living abroad, temporarily or permanently, for business or educational reasons. These are the people who to a large degree choose to have a bilingual home. "Folk" bilinguals, on the other hand, are minority enclaves (including so-called "guest workers") who have not 30

to the same degree chosen to be surrounded by another language but who feel they must be bilingual in order to preserve their heritage. Although this may look like a choice to us, it feels less like a choice to those who make it.” Paulston (1975) defines elite bilingualism as a privilege of middle classes in majority societies. Tosi (1982) claims that folk bilingualism is a result of the circumstances in which ethnic communities live and whose bilingualism is involuntary and necessary for survival. (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008).

3.2.5 Types of Bilingualism in relation to Language Acquisition An important factor to be considered in defining types of bilingualism is when the two languages are acquired in relation to each other. Simultaneous Bilingualism vs. Sequential Bilingualism In simultaneous bilingualism, the languages are learned at the same time; in sequential bilingualism, the second is acquired after the first has been established. (Crystal 1992) The online Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development cites that “Simultaneous bilingualism is considered to occur when two languages are acquired from birth or prior to one year of age (De Houwer, 2005).“ “For sequential bilingualism, when one language is acquired following another, the age of L2 acquisition is important (Flege, 1992).” (http://literacyencyclopedia.ca/index.php?fa=items.show&topicId=236 retrieved 21/11/2010) Lightbown & Spada (2006) say that the term „simultaneous bilinguals’ is used for children who learn more than one language from the earliest childhood, while those who learn another language later are referred to as „sequential bilinguals’.

Additive Bilingualism vs. Subtractive Bilingualism 31

Additive bilingualism: A situation in which a bilingual‟s first language continues to develop while he or she is learning a second language. This continuing development of the first language provides a better basis for second language development than does subtractive bilingualism, in which the first language does not continue to develop after exposure to a second language. (Irujo 1998) The online Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development states that those who “learn another language in a formal setting, typically as an additional course credit at school, while continuing to use their L1 most of the time” are classified as additive bilinguals “because the L2 is learned in addition to an L1 that is maintained at a high level.” The term ‘elective bilinguals’ is given as a synonym for additive bilinguals. Subtractive bilinguals are referred to as ‘circumstantial bilinguals’ since it is mainly the circumstance that lead them to learning L2. “They are required to do so to attend school or to find work. Their L1 skills usually decrease or are lost in favour of the majority language. Subtractive bilingualism is particularly common in children of immigrants.” (http://literacyencyclopedia.ca/index.php?fa=items.show&topicId=236

retrieved

21/11/2010)

3.3 Defining Bilingualism in relation to Age McLaughlin (1984) claims that “there is a general consensus in the literature that children who began learning two languages under natural conditions before the age of three should be considered as engaged in first language acquisition in two languages, whereas children who learn their second language after the age of three should be regarded as second language learners. (Foster-Cohen 1999) The online Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development cites: “Researchers are discovering that sensitive periods for native-like L2 acquisition occur at younger ages than previously believed. For example, brain organization is different for L2 acquisition after 5 years of age in contrast to before age 5, when native-like organization for language is possible (De Houwer, 2005; Weber-Fox & Neville, 1996). Therefore,

32

children who acquire the L2 at school would not be considered native speakers, even if they have high levels of L2 proficiency.” (http://literacyencyclopedia.ca/index.php?fa=items.showtopicId=236 retrieved 16/11/2010) Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) present the terms ‘infant bilingualism’, ‘child bilingualism’ and „late bilingualism’. Infant bilingualism is related to simultaneous bilingualism. The term may seem absurd since infants do not really speak. However, it emphasizes the fact that children first do not speak and then start speaking in two languages. Child bilingualism can apply to either simultaneous bilingualism or to sequential bilingualism when it develops in relatively early childhood. Late bilingualism refers to situations when one learns another language later in their life. It can be classified even further as adolescent and adult bilingualism. To summarize, simultaneous bilingualism develops when two (or more) languages are acquired as the first language. That necessarily implies the age of acquisition, which is in earliest childhood, when the first language is learned. In contrast, sequential bilingualism (the terms successive bilingualism and consecutive bilingualism are at times used synonymously) applies to situations when one learns another language later in their life. Sequential bilingualism is perhaps the most frequent type of bilingualism, although it may be fairly common that the speakers do not consider themselves bilingual, which only proves the problematic issue of defining bilingualism. If I was to look at my own case, I would have to admit that, despite the fact that my control of the English language is of a good standard, I had not regarded myself to be bilingual until I started researching the topic. I see the issue differently now and I believe that I should be confident enough to call myself a sequential bilingual. I can say that I use both languages on a regular basis since my partner is English and we live in a bilingual home.

3.4 Bilingual Acquisition 33

3.4.1 Types of Bilingual Acquisition in Childhood According to Romaine (1995) there are the following six types of bilingual acquisition. Type 1: ‘One Person – One Language’ Parents:

The parents have different native languages with each having some degree of competence in the other‟s language.

Community:

The language of one of the parents is the dominant language of the community.

Strategy:

The parents each speak their own language to the child from birth.

Type 2: ‘Non-dominant Home Language’ / ‘One Language – One Environment’ Parents:

The parents have different native languages.

Community:

The language of one of the parents is the dominant language of the community.

Strategy:

Both parents speak the non-dominant language to the child, who is fully exposed to the dominant language only when outside the home, and in particular in nursery school.

Type 3: ‘Non-dominant Home Language without Community Support’ Parents:

The parents share the same native language.

Community:

The dominant language is not that of the parents.

Strategy:

The parents speak their own language to the child.

Type 4: ‘Double Non-dominant Home Language without Community Support’ Parents:

The parents have different native languages.

Community:

The dominant language is different from either of the parents‟ languages.

Strategy:

The parents each speak their own language to the child from birth.

34

Type 5: ‘Non-native Parents’ Parents:

The parents share the same native language.

Community:

The dominant language is the same as that of the parents.

Strategy:

One of the parents always addresses the child in a language which is not his/her native language.

Type 6: ‘Mixed Languages’ Parents:

The parents are bilingual.

Community:

Sectors of community may also be bilingual.

Strategy:

Parents code-switch and mix languages.

It is interesting to discover that Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) present only Types 1 – 5 as the most common ones, whilst Romaine (1995) claims that according to the literature Type 6 perhaps occurs most often since multilingual communities are the majority. Therefore many children grow up in an environment where “the individual and societal multilingualism coincide.” Romaine (1995) states that studies have shown that the „one person - one language‟ approach (Type 1) very frequently resulted in a child who understood the languages of both parents, but spoke only the language of the community in which the family lived. The reasons are that it is very difficult for children to become highly proficient in a minority language which is not spoken by the community; therefore the children do not receive enough input and also do not get enough opportunity and practice for creating the output. It may be that just one parent talks to the child in the minority language. Romaine concludes the chapter by saying: “There are obviously also many individual factors which affect the outcome in each case. Among these are amount and kind of exposure to the minority language, parents‟ consistency in language choice, attitudes towards bilingualism on the part of children and parents, and the individual personalities of child and parents.”

35

3.5 Codeswitching Codeswitching is when utterances or larger stretches of language contain elements form more than one language. (Foster-Cohen 1999) Codeswitching: A feature of bilingual speech in which the speaker changes from one language to another. Codeswitching can occur between or within clauses or sentences and may comprise a single word, a phrase, a sentence, several sentences, or longer stretches of discourse. (Irujo 1998) Romaine (1995) prefers to use the term codeswitching in the sense in which it was defined by Gumperz in 1982: “the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or subsystems.” It used to be thought that codeswitching meant that very young children cannot distinguish between the acquired languages, however, due to the research carried out, the hypothesis that the languages are separate from the start is much more favoured recently. The ability of children to distinguish between the different languages and establish two (in some cases more) language systems is truly remarkable as quite often they are surrounded by adults who switch between languages, and yet children are aware of the fact that not one, but more languages are spoken. However, in most genuinely bilingual situations children are provided with clues as for the existence of two separate language codes (Foster-Cohen 1999). When Irujo (1998) talks about the problematic issue of making a decision about the use of languages in a bilingual classroom – whether to use them separately or concurrently, she says: “I found trying to keep languages separate entailed an almost-constant battle against the natural inclination of fluent bilinguals to codeswitch.” Similarly, Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) claim codeswitching to be entirely natural for children raised bilingually in the one parent – one language environment. They say that the 36

manner in which a child codeswitches reflects the communicative function of each of the languages he or she speaks, and from early childhood he or she will relate each language with particular people or situations. Spolsky (1998) draws attention to the effects of codeswitching concerned with rolerelationships. He claims that it is important to note that it is likely that bilinguals associate each of their languages with topics and places, but also with identities and roles associated with them. “The selection of a language by a bilingual, especially talking to another bilingual, carries a wealth of social meaning. Each language becomes a virtual guise for the bilingual speaker, who can change identity as easily as changing a hat, and can use language choice as a way of negotiating social relations with an interlocutor.” Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) back up this view stating that with the development of their communicative skills, bilingual children also develop their skills to use codeswitching as a means to negotiate, to evoke intimacy, or distance with the person they are talking to, or to express their belonging to, or exclusion from a certain group. Baker and Jones (1998) suggest that some monolingual speakers seem to have negative attitudes towards codeswitching as to them it may show a lack of mastery in both languages, and that bilinguals themselves might be defensive or apologetic about their codeswitching attributing it to laziness. However, studies have shown that codeswitching is a valuable linguistic strategy, which does not happen at random as there is usually considerable purpose and logic in changing languages. “Codeswitching is complex and subtle…” and “…does not reflect linguistic incompetence, but rather linguistic skill.”

3.6 Language-mixing / Code-mixing “Children‟s early dual language use (usually under two or three years of age) is generally referred to as mixing or language mixing. Most language mixing involves familiar words from the child‟s world such as toys, food or close family names.” (Barron-Hauwaert 2004) She states that mixing is often unintentional and may occur either because the child might not know the appropriate word in the other language, or might find a particular word easier

37

to pronounce in the other language. As the children grow older, their mixing becomes more like adult code-switching.

3.7 The One-Parent-One-Language Approach (OPOL Strategy) Barron-Hauwaert (2004) explains the origin of the term, which was first introduced by a French linguist Maurice Grammont in 1902. Grammont‟s theory was that by strictly separating the two languages from birth, the child should not be confused and gradually would acquire both languages, and the potential danger of mixing the languages would be reduced since the child would associate each language with a specific person. Each parent could also use their own language to establish a natural emotional bond with their child. According to Harding-Esch & Riley (2008), the studies which have observed children simultaneously acquiring two languages as their „first language‟ in families applying the OPOL strategy, brought evidence that those children grew up without any obvious negative effects of their bilingualism. They were able to use both languages for successful communication, although one of the languages was more or less dominant. Sometimes the dominance of the languages changed throughout the language development, usually due to the family‟s migration. Barron-Hauwaert (2004) states that the OPOL approach is often perceived as a rather elitist strategy, chosen by parents from higher socio-economic group, who often both speak the majority language of the community. The child visits a local school and is well integrated into the community having friends who speak the majority language. Therefore the input in the minority language might be restricted and an extra effort is needed to support the acquisition and maintenance of the minority language. She presents several views concerning the issue expressed by linguists in the past: “…the best results will be achieved if both parents use the minority language when addressing each other. In this way hearing spoken language the child‟s exposure to the minority language is increased.” (Arnberg 1987)

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“…with the one-person/one-language procedure the child does more than just ensure a consistent source of information. He organizes the world of his knowledge and shares it with the adult… which leads to a better understanding between the child and his interlocutors.” (Taeschner 1983 who observed her own daughters growing up bilingual) When in her own survey, using questionnaires, she approached nearly a hundred bilingual and trilingual families, Barron-Hauwaert (2004) found out that most of the responding families adapt the OPOL strategy to suit their own circumstances. In other words, the parents mostly find the approach successful, and stick to it, although they might change the rules from being stricter with separating the languages when the children are younger, to being more tolerant as the children get older. The interesting question of whether switching languages on a regular basis by parents or siblings affects the child‟s codeswitching has been investigated and observations showed that the ways in which parents use languages at home do appear to have an affect on their children‟s ways of using languages. A study by Satoko Mishima (1999) proved that the parent‟s acceptance or response to mixing was an important factor. She said: “…language mixing phenomena are strongly related to how the parents deal with the child‟s mixing”. (Barron-Hauwaert 2004) Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) claim that frequent codeswitching inevitably leads the bilingual to choose grammatical structures which are similar to both languages and thus the grammatical differences of the languages are somewhat blurred, and that this could lead the bilingual to avoid those grammatical structures which are dissimilar to both languages. They appeal to those parents who codeswitch regularly to realize that on the one hand they help their child to grow aware of similarities between the two languages, but on the other hand make it more difficult for the child to see the specific features of each of the languages. This should not be a problem so long the child is exposed to enough input in both languages from monolingual speakers.

3.7.1

Parental Reactions to Child Mixing

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Barron-Hauwaert (2004) presents five possible ways in which a parent can react to their child language mixing described by Elizabeth Lanza (1997). Minimal Grasp: the parent responds to the child using the other language by saying: “What did you say? I don‟t understand you!” forcing the child to repeat his or her utterance in the „right‟ language. Expressed Guess: a parent responding signals that they may understand what the child has said, but question it and by asking the child a question using their own language they imply they need more information from the child in that language to fully understand and to be able to respond. Adult Repetition: the parent simply repeats the child‟s utterance in their own language in the hope that the child will continue in their language. Move-on Strategy: a child says something in language Y, the parents listens and understands, but replies in language X. Codeswitching: a bilingual parent preferring a bilingual situation allows whichever language is more suitable or comes up first to give the lead for language choice.

3.8 Stages of Bilingual Development “The grammar of bilingual children develops in much the same way as the grammar of monolinguals learning each language, but the communicative aspects of language, including vocabulary acquisition, do not.” (Bialystok 2001) According to Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) the most convincing model of the linguistic development of bilingual children is that described by Volterra and Taeschner (1978) in three stages.

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Stage 1 During the first stage the child has only one lexical system which includes words from both languages. The child, however, has not yet established pairs of corresponding words. He or she uses the strategy one word – one concept meaning that he or she uses either only one word from the pair, or each word has a different meaning. An example could be an English-Swedish girl who used the Swedish word „stol‟ to refer to her high chair and the English word „chair‟ to refer to all the other chairs. Another feature that can occur during this stage is the creation of compound words which are a mixture of both languages, e.g. a term „tati‟ composed from English „thank you‟ and French „merci‟, or a compound word containing the corresponding words from both languages, „bitte-please‟. Stage 2 The child is beginning to establish two separate lexical systems, but applies the same basic grammatical rules within both of the systems. The clear sign is when the child starts translating certain words from one language into the other. E.g. the child says a word in one language and the parent asks: “And what does Mummy/Daddy say?” and the child gives the corresponding word in the other language. The child might still prefer to use only one word from the corresponding pair, even though he or she knows both, since the other word is more difficult to pronounce. Stage 3 Both vocabulary and grammar rules of both languages are separate when the child reaches this stage. He or she associates the particular language with particular people. The child is mapping the „social‟ world he or she lives in, i.e. who speaks which language; this tendency to label people according to which language they speak declines with the child‟s awareness of their bilingualism and the fact he or she uses two languages. Different children enter these stages at different ages, also the lengths of the stages differ. Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) conclude the chapter by saying that the linguistic development of bilinguals and of monolinguals follows a common pattern and upon the whole the similarities are more pronounced than are the differences.

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3.9 Language Differentiation The stage when a child realizes that he or she has two languages is an important part of their development. It is referred to as language differentiation. Most of the studies carried out report that children grow to be aware of their bilingualism from around the age of two to three. The more recent studies suggest that children have knowledge of two different languages from birth and mixing is only a developmental stage. (Barron-Hauwaert 2004) The sign of children realising their bilingualism is when they start commenting on it. Children, however, do not say: “I‟m speaking English now”, they are more likely to say: “This is how I speak with Mummy”, or “This is how Daddy says it”. It should be mentioned that at times some children might get frustrated by the fact that other people, especially their peers if they attend a monolingual nursery school or playgroup, do not speak both of the languages and for example cannot understand what the child says, or do not join them in singing a song they know in the other language. (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008)

3.10 Language Refusal and Reluctance to Talk One of the obstacles encountered by families who decide to follow the path of bilingual up-bringing of their children might be that the child starts refusing one of the languages. It is not an inevitable stage of bilingual language development; it does not happen to all bilingual children, but it has been observed. Some children at some point, according to researchers around the age of three or four, are reluctant, or completely refuse to use, the minority language, i.e. the language which is not spoken by the community. What could be the reason(s) for such behaviour? Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) say that it is important to realize whether the child‟s refusal to talk is long-term or whether the refusal might only be temporary, occurring in particular situations. They suggest six possible explanations of the child‟s refusal to use the language: 1. The child might just be stubborn or in a rebellious mood, or refusing to answer. All children have moments like that. 42

2. The child‟s refusal to speak in the particular language might just be in protest to the parents‟ breaking of the language rules. The parent might be for some reason using the language which is normally used for communication outside the home, at home. 3. The reason the child refuses the language might be because of the presence of someone who does not speak the language. The child does not want to exclude them from the conversation. Or it might be the presence of his or her friends who do not speak the language and the child does not want to be exposed as different. 4. The child might be asked to say something to „show off‟ their ability to use the other language and they do not want to be like „trained monkeys‟. 5. The child might only be receptively bilingual. 6. The child might be going through a stage in their life when he or she is trying to establish their identity, which may also concern their relationship with the language. The scenarios 1-4 should present only a temporary problem, while 5-6 might be long-term. In any of the cases, it might be preferable not to force the child to use the language, but it does not necessarily mean that the parents need to change their own patterns of language use; they might just need to accept replies in the other language.

3.11 Bilingualism and Intelligence “The development of two languages in childhood turns out to be a profound event that ripples through the life of that individual.” (Bialystok 2001) The older studies showed that bilingual children had lower IQ scores than monolingual children and concluded with negative approaches towards bilingualism. In the first half of the 20th century it was believed that “…if two languages reside inside an individual‟s 43

thinking ‟quarters‟, there is less room to store other areas of learning. Therefore, the ability to speak two languages will be at a cost to efficiency in thinking.” Most of the doctors, speech therapists and psychologists at the time advised parents to use only one language with their children to avoid mental confusion. (Baker and Jones 1998) Harding-Esch & Riley (2008) sum up the research by saying that most of the studies in the past showing that bilingualism has negative effects on intelligence involved children from minority groups who were forced to learn the majority language, whilst most of the studies presenting the positive impacts of bilingualism were realized within an environment supportive of bilingualism, involving children from families of higher social and economic status. Therefore the results were not impartial or scientifically reliable. Bialystok (2001) states that there are so many variables, including the reasons why children become bilingual, which may be immigration, education, extended family or temporary residence, or other factors such as differences in social background, educational opportunities, or home language environment, affecting the intellectual development, that the fact a child speaks two languages on its own is not so significant. Kendall & Fogle (2006) claim that “…other factors, such as the child's level of mastery of each language and the child's literacy skills, also influence the benefits derived from being bilingual. Therefore bilingualism may contribute to the strengthening of some specific cognitive skills for some children, but it should not be viewed as an overall indicator of greater intelligence or as a predictor of high academic performance.” (retrieved 30/11/2010 from http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/raisebilingchild.html) “Most notable is the possibility that an essential cognitive process that underlies much of our intellectual life, namely, the control over attention and inhibition, may develop differently and more advantageously in bilingual children.” (Bialystok 2001)

3.12 Bilingualism and Culture

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Language and culture are inseparable. Language is part of a certain culture, therefore acquiring a language, being a member of a language community, inevitably means absorbing certain cultural aspects of that community. Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged (2003) includes the term: „to speak the same language‟: to communicate with understanding because of common background, values, etc. (retrieved 25/11/2010 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/language) Culture and the lifestyle of the community where one grows up influence their habits and world views, determines how they dress, or what they eat, what their moral code is, or what they perceive as beautiful. One might not realise this fully until they are confronted with cultural differences of people from different parts of the world. A bicultural person carries two cultures inside them. (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008) If we look at the family pattern where parents of different nationalities and thus of different cultural backgrounds decide to bring their child up bilingually and teach them their language, they most likely also intend to pass onto the child some of their cultural heritage. Parents talk to the child about their customs, read books to them, teach them children‟s rhymes and songs. The child is also used to eating food typical for cultures of both of their parents. Also, celebrating Christmas and birthdays may be adapted to include aspects from both cultural worlds. Bilingual individuals present various combinations of two separate cultures. They feel comfortable in both cultures and they identify with them. Generally, people who grow up with more than one culture are less susceptible to culture shock. (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008) “The world view available to someone who moves easily through languages and cultures is necessarily different from that of someone confined to a single perspective.” (Bialystok 2001)

Irujo (1998), who specializes in bilingual education claims: “Biculturalism must be an integral part of a bilingual education program, not something that is occasionally added to the curriculum.”

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3.13 Bilingualism and Identity – Who Am I? Bilingualism and biculturalism may seem to be definite advantages as for being more cosmopolitan and sophisticated. On the other hand, how do the bilingual individuals, especially adolescent children, cope with the issue of identity? Bialystok (2001) comments on the saying „I am what I speak‟ claiming that we believe it “…because speaking is so fundamental to our constructed identity.” And she asks: “Do we alter our identity and modify our personality when we change our language?” (Harding-Esch & Riley 2008) say that each person has only one life and one identity and that bilingual people do not need to conceal their biculturalism and its significance in their lives. Their book includes a number of quotations by both bilingual children and adults who appreciate their bilingualism and have no problem with their identity. An American poet of Puerto Rican descent, Rane Arroyo, celebrates the beauty of bilingualism in her poem “My Tongue Is Like a Map”, where he says: “Sometimes I would dream in English and Spanish. I was a millionaire every time I said yes and sí.” (retrieved 24/11/2010 http://www.texasdia.org/Toolkit/Bilingualism.pdf) The following is an example of one second grader‟s poem, originally written in Spanish, which is a clear reflection of this particular child‟s experience in negotiating two worlds and two cultures. “I am from the United States and Mexico. I am from Spanish, English. I am from where I go to school. I am from eating pizza and tacos from Taco Bell. Drinking water. I am from playing soccer and wrestling. I am from cousin, brother. I am from red when I am happy and black when I am sad. 46

I am from playing soccer, eating and painting.” (retrieved

24/11/2010

http://www.suite101.com/content/bilingual-poetry-lessonspart-i-

a52619)

3.14 Advantages of Bilingualism The following „list of advantages‟ of bilingual up-bringing, which highlights various personal experience with bilingualism, is posted at: http://www.bilingualforfun.com/2009/04/26/the-advantages-of-bilingualism-and-ofraising-children-bilingual/ It‟s the easiest way to learn a second language. No lessons, no grammar books, DVDs or other boring stuff. Children learn living, playing, eating… It‟s cheap. Much cheaper than any language class. It costs practically nothing, or may be just the price of a couple of books or some music. It gives the child an opportunity to stay in touch with his/her roots and extended family. The child won‟t feel left out when s/he will be with grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins and relatives in general. It‟s natural. It‟s easier and more natural to learn a language from birth than at any time later in life, hence it‟s best to start early. It allows one to reach a native-like mastering of the language, i.e. to speak it without accent. Later in life it would be easier to learn a third or consecutive languages, because of the acquired ability to recognize different sounds, intonations, rhythms and grammatical structures. It stimulates intelligence. Bilingualism requires extra effort and flexibility and stimulates the brain, as a consequence bilingual children are faster in learning to read and write and have more developed analytical skills. A bilingual child is more aware of different cultures and environments and is open and curious towards cultural differences. In a constantly shrinking world s/he is better prepared to become a true citizen of the world.

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In the future, being bilingual could improve one‟s career and open new opportunities, more and more, mastering of multiple languages is critical for professional success.

3.15 Myths about Bilingualism In his article called Myths about bilingualism (Bilingualism is extensive and yet it is surrounded by myths), published on October 12, 2010, François Grosjean, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of psycholinguistics at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, lists misconceptions about bilingualism and bilinguals shared in the USA, Switzerland and France. He claims the following to be the common myths surrounding bilingualism and comments on them: Bilingualism is a rare phenomenon. Comment: It has been estimated that more than half of the world's population is bilingual, that is uses two or more languages in everyday life. Bilinguals have equal knowledge of their languages. Comment: Bilinguals know their languages to the level that they need them and many are dominant in one of them. Real bilinguals do not have an accent in their different languages and they are excellent all-around translators. Comment: Having an accent or not does not make one more or less bilingual, and bilinguals often have difficulties translating specialized language. Bilingualism will delay language acquisition in young children. Comment: This was a popular myth in the first part of the last century, but there is no research evidence to that effect. Their rate of language acquisition is the same as that of their monolingual counterparts.

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Children raised bilingual will always mix their languages. Comment: Children adapt to the situation they are in. When they interact in monolingual situations (e.g. with Grandma who doesn't speak their other language), they will respond monolingually; if they are with other bilinguals, then they may well codeswitch. (retrieved 4/11/2010 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201010/mythsabout-bilingualism-0)

4. Summary of the Theoretical Part The theoretical part of the thesis looks into the following phenomena: firstly, human language in its uniqueness and complexity; secondly, language acquisition and the still unexplained natural ability of human beings to learn to speak, and lastly bilingualism and its classification in all its variety. It focuses especially on simultaneous bilingual acquisition and the one-person-one-language strategy, since they constitute the subject of the case study presented in the practical part of the thesis.

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