In a country like Canada, being bilingual is a definite asset.  Living in Ottawa many more doors are opened if you can speak both of the country’s official languages, and in the future we hope that Niko speaks both English and French fluently.  He seems to be off to a bilingual start anyway, just not a French and English one.

Both Borys and I are used to hearing the regular sounds of crying, cooing, gurgling, and grunting that come from our little guy (especially grunting).  But we were caught off guard the other day when standing in the kitchen and we heard him say “Baba Yaga” (sounds like bubba yugga).  This is how it happened:

Niko: Baba Yaga

Borys/Allison: Did he just say Baba Yaga?!

Borys/Allison: Yes, it sounded clearly like Baba Yaga?

Allison: Hmm…what does that mean? Baba Yaga?

Borys: In Polish that means witch, or it’s this witch-like character.

Allison: Hey, I think I remember reading about Baba Yaga when I was a kid.

Well, after a bit of research and with the guidance of Wikipedia, I have discovered more about Baba Yaga.  Yes, she is a witch-like character that “flies around on a giant mortar or broomstick, kidnaps (and presumably eats) small children, and lives in a house which stands on chicken legs”. What? Eats small children! Oh, Niko, why would you choose this for your first word?!

To complete his bilingual repertoire, last night as we were all lying in bed watching TV, Niko chest down on top of me and gazing around intently, said “Hi”. This is how it went:

Niko: Hi.

Borys/Allison: Did he just say “hi”?!

Borys/Allison: It sounded just like it! Weird.

So, for a baby just over two months old we are clearly impressed by his vocal abilities.  We just hope this continues when he has to learn French!

“Desde hace mucho tiempo la tierra te conoce…” de Pablo Neruda perteneciente a “100 Sonetos de Amor “

Pueden leer, escuchar y descargar esta poesía visitando (Parallel Text included Spanish-English):

http://albalearning.com/audiolibros/neruda/soneto015-sp-en.html

TODOS los audiolibros y libros (audio y texto) en:

http://albalearning.com

No olvide consultar las últimas incorporaciones a Audiolibros y Libros: http://albalearning.com/#ultimos

New!

You can now learn Spanish, French and English by doing online quizzes and following the vocabulary with sound files. It’s free! .No registration needed!

Ahora usted puede aprender Francés, Español e Inglés haciendo ejercicios interactivos en línea con vocabulario y sonido. Es gratis. C’est gratuit.

Visit http://albalearning.com/ejercicios

Vocabulario Básico:Vocabulary page- Página de vocabulario – Page de vocabulaire : http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/voc

Noticias en Español (News in Spanish with Quizzes Online to test your understanding): http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/noticias

Todos los ejercicios (All online quizzes): http://albalearning.com/ejercicios/index-ejercicios.html

This summer when we visited Germany, AA lost her stuffed whale on the way there.  To cheer her up, Oma gave her a stuffed dog (or wolf, we are still debating, but AA decided he is a dog , so dog it is)  AA was very happy that she got a new friend and prompted named him.

I asked her in Mandarin what his name, she responded in Mandarin “他的名字叫哈利 (His name is Hali)”.  I told her that I was pleasantly surprised that she gave the dog a Chinese name.   She corrected me, “He has two names, one in English, Harry, and one in Mandarin like everybody else.”

It is true that in our family we all have two names, Chinese and Angelo (we choose the names the work in both German and English).   It is interesting to me that she applies that subtle knowledge to her toys.   It is also very practical. This way, we don’t have to switch to English pronunciation mid way through our Mandarin sentences and vise versa.

1. Compliantia now available in French

The Compliantia interface is now available in French with more languages to follow.    Our customers may create Store Walk-through forms in up to 3 languages allowing a single form to reach different user populations, provinces or countries.

2. More scoring options

The brand Administrator may now check the “section penalty” check box next to each form item.  When checked, if the item is non-compliant during the visit, the section score is automatically set to zero regardless of other items.

3. Built-in visit approval process

A Compliantia visit has an implicit life-cycle.  A visit is first labelled “In progress” while the visit is taking place.   The status is automatically advanced to completed when the visit is completed.    Yet many organizations require the visit to be signed by the store owner or franchisee.   Compliantia’s built-in approval process effectively acts as an electronic signature.  Store owners can now easily and quickly approve a completed visit.  The Audit Trail function displays the complete history of the visit, date and user-stamped, from in-progress, to completed and approved.

This continues my musings from last week. 

Despite some misgivings about which language to speak with my children on a day-to-day basis, I have no doubts at all that it is hugely beneficial for them to grow up with more than one language.  So here is a quick summary of the top ten tips that I have learnt from parents, educators, linguists and children too about growing up with many languages.

1)  Speak your mothertongue with them from the start (preferably even during pregnancy)

2) If you aren’t fluent in a foreign language, don’t give up – just build a good support system around yourself.  There are so many resources out there (books, DVDs, CDs, games, neighbours and babysitters) – use them creatively.

3) It doesn’t have to be expensive – many things are available from the library.  You can also do online skillswaps – there are plenty of language classes available in exchange for other skills.

4) There is no single right way to do it – each child, each family, each situation is different.  Find what works best for you.

5) Don’t be intimidated by the science – if you have the willpower and the motivation, you can do it.

6) Motivation is more important than natural talent – any child can learn an additional language if they are exposed to it early enough and if it’s fun enough.

7) Consistency is hard – there are so many reasons to give up, but persevere even when you get discouraged.

Confusion is normal – children will throw in words from different languages, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know the difference.

9) It’s never too late – yes, it does help to start as early as possible, but you can learn a language really well even later in life (you will just have to work harder at it).

10) Enjoy the journey – relax!  Even if your child doesn’t become perfectly bilingual, they will still have a passive language base that they can reactivate and improve at any stage in life.

What experiences have you had in growing up multilingual or raising your children multilingually?  Are there any other top tips you would like to add?

Check out this article by Beth Butler at http://www.articlemark.org/Articles/Family/Infants-and-Toddlers/Raise-A-Bilingual-Child:–5-Strategies-to-Jump-Start-Second-Language-Learning-For-Your-Child-51528 posted May 2, 2008.

Here is a brief summary:

Five key strategies for jump starting the second language learning of your child:

1) Start the second language learning early. Play music CDs during pregnancy and talk to your baby from the moment of birth in two or more languages if possible.

2) Look for a bilingual language learning series that provides you and your child with the following four components: visual cues, music fun, beginning reading  and verbal exchange.

3) Repeat, repeat, repeat!!! Repetition is the key for all the learning that takes place with your child. T

4) Have fun and be patient! Try to never force the new language learning on your child.

5) Show your child that you respect other cultures and value the ability to speak other languages.

Author Bio
Beth Butler is the creator of the BOCA BETH Language Learning Series for young children ages birth – ten.

A post I’ve wanted to make for some time is how I came to be doing this at all.

I mean, I know I wrote this, right back at the beginning, which explains the why of it – but the how of it is down to the people who put me in a position even to think that someone like me could sustain a non-native bilingual existence with my first-born for a matter of weeks, let alone the 21 months we have so far clocked up between us, one day at a time (as we say in the After School Club.) 

I have been lucky and had a lot of talented teachers in all disciplines in my life, most of which was (at least, prior to the After School Club watershed) spent in full-time education. But a few of them have given me confidence that I was able to take outside the classroom, confidence which saw me through the lessons of the many rubbish teachers I have also had, and, in a way – though the faults are all my own – helped create the Francophone monster that is Papa et Piaf. 

Here they are. 

Martin was probably the first, though he came on the scene at about the same time as Nadia (see below). The first teacher to make me realise that French was a language that people actually used, rather than a verbal trigonometry. He smoked immensely and, again, his failing made him seem more human. He was a caustic, cynical man in some ways and regularly referred to hapless students as “cretins”, which was one of the many things I liked about him – he didn’t pretend to like everyone just because they were children. This meant that, if ever he did show signs of liking you, you could actually believe it might be true. 

And he was, in other ways, tremendously kind. I remember going to see him once after the lesson because I thought I didn’t understand the perfect tense (yes, I really was that much of a loser.) I ended up actually crying (a loser AND a wimp – hands off, ladies, I’m practically married!) When he saw how distressed I was, Martin spent half his break talking me through it (remember, this man was probably a forty-a-day smoker who self-medicated on Gauloises and must have lived for his breaks. )

Several years later, he also enlivened A-level by actually telling us things we might want to know, and hinting at the dirty bits in Camus. Without him, I probably wouldn’t have bothered doing French past GCSE.

Nadia arrived at our school when I was in what was then called the third year. She came to teach us Russian, taking over from a man who had learnt his Russian spying on Soviet air traffic. She was a real Russian; she was very short; she claimed to have a brown belt in karate; she was clearly mad. Nadia, again, made a language seem much more than lists of declensions (of which Russian has many). With her, we could imagine people actually living, loving, arguing, even doing karate in this then very rare language (perestroika didn’t really get underway until my GCSE year.) When I sat A level, Nadia coached me. When I applied to Oxford, Nadia gave me extra lessons, free of charge, which is basically what got me in. When I wanted to go to Russia, Nadia helped me sort it out, and gave me a few pointers on how to get extra hard currency through customs. When I thought that Chekhov was tosh, Nadia reassured me that I was not alone. And she also said one of the nicest things a teacher had ever said to me. We were flying to Moscow together. Somehow, we were talking about my family, particularly my mum. “Well, she’s done a good job,” said Nadia. It took me a second to realise what she meant and, when I did, I must have been pink with pride. A teacher thinking that I was not only a good student, but a good person? There was hope for me yet.

Mary was the one-woman welcoming committee when I arrived at Oxford. She had given me my place (when my first choice college had, foolishly, rejected me); she had patiently and politely answered some nonsense letter I had written to her before starting (about something nothing to do with her, like bedding or grants – I had so little idea about how Oxford worked that I just wrote to the only person whose address I had on paper, and it was hers, on my offer letter); and she welcomed me, along with my fellow first-year starters, into her North Oxford sitting room in October long, long ago. 

I was not, at that point, studying French. I was at college to do single honours Russian (the English faculty had decided it could struggle by without me.) I was amazed that I was at Oxford, and was liberated by having no idea what to expect. 

The intake that year seemed beyond good. A half-Russian man; a half-Polish woman; a frighteningly gifted man who had taught himself Hungarian for a laugh; and me. And this woman, Mary, was posher than anyone I knew – she had a ‘cello, for heaven’s sake! I almost gave up, there and then.

But Mary did not give up on me. Always quick with praise and measured with criticism; always acting as if my admission had been a considered choice and not a slip of the pen on some long, closely-printed list of names; always taking her students seriously, even when we spoke nonsense. After two terms, I had even started to believe her. 

Colin took me on when I decided that, though I still wanted to study Russian, the particular joys reserved for single honours students – extra linguistics, the Lay of Prince Igor and the Memoirs of Prince Avakkum, these latter two to be read in Old Church Slavonic – were not for me. He found a place for me in his already crowded French group.

As I made the group an odd number, he also agreed to see me individually for tutorials. As I began to develop interests, and as they began to align themselves with his, he would occasionally let me set my own essay title. He even gave me a 10-year-old bottle of home-made white wine, which turned out to be the best sherry I had ever tasted. This, I decided, was what Oxford was about. 

So much so that, after a couple of terms, in the last tutorial before the vacation (it was a hollow joke to call them “holidays”) I diffidently mentioned that I had been thinking of a future in academia. 

Silence. 

If, at that stage, he had turned around and started an awful, mocking impersonation of a deranged simpleton, it would not have surprised me. Of course I had been fooling myself. I was, perhaps not hopeless, but very much an also-ran, and clearly a pretentious one at that.

Instead, he said, quite quietly, “Yes, well. I was thinking of giving you a scholarship, but you don’t work hard enough.”

In a flash, several truths became apparent to me. I was not an idiot; I was not delusional; and, most important of all, the age-old myth fell apart. At school, I had been effortlessly successful. Then I had come to Oxford and had been effortlessly mediocre. I had assumed that my dear old mum was right, that the bar ha been raised and I could no longer clear it. Instead, it turned out, no-one here was effortlessly anything. The people who succeeded did so because they were very bright, but because they also worked exceptionally hard. I started taking their lead. The following term, I worked harder than ever before or since (as well as acting, rowing, and writing at a “jolly good sport” sort of level) and got my mini-scholarship (or “exhibition” as they call it). I went on to narrowly miss a First and come out of that with enough confidence intact to go on to do research at Edinburgh. Without Colin’s quiet honesty, I’d have ended up pretending to want to be a school-teacher and wondering why I hated my life (I did that anyway, years later – but at least I had a go at what I wanted to be.) 

Ian was the last one. Believed by his Edinburgh undergraduates to have it in for English loafers, he nevertheless took on an Oxford graduate, to all appearances a dilettante (it took me about a term to tell him I was working twenty hours a week and that that was why I was a bit behind on the reading) who came armed only with an undergraduate dissertation on Daniel Pennac, an author almost no one had then heard of, apparently word-processed by a five-year-old, and of which Oxford’s examiners could not decide whether it was a work of genius or the ravings of an imbecile. 

Ian gave me the benefit of the doubt and, when he realised I was broke, did all he could to enable me to make some sort of a go of my doctorate. He sent me to France twice; he found me teaching hours (my poor undergraduates, I am so sorry you were lumbered with me); he got me published; and he let me stay round his house once so I could return from Nice to do a conference paper. He also took me lunchtime drinking at the Southsider. Ian made me believe that, not only could I become an academic, but that I could live as an academic, perhaps for my whole life. The question of what the hell I was going to do with this bizarre commodity called life was finally, and to my immense relief, solved

Of course, I went on to piss all that up the proverbial wall, but that was no fault of his. And I did come out of it speaking really rather good French …

So, if any of the five of you end up reading this, thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.

I have been studying Japanese for sometime, yet if you are to ask me if I’m proficient in the language, my answer is no. The funniest thing is, I can type Japanese faster than my mother tongue, Chinese. The reason why I brought up this interesting point is because, today I was speaking to a friend and he was asking for my opinion about this. I’m not trying to say that I’m proficient in Japanese, I mean, I don’t even think I’m proficient in English or Chinese.  Everyone has his or her definition of being effectively, yet if you ask me, I would say my definition of proficiency is being able to think in that language, that is, when speaking English, think in an English way, when speaking Chinese, and when speaking in Japanese, think like a Japanese. Yet, the interesting thing to know is that we are brought up differently, so how does one define, what is English, Chinese or Japanese, or even other languages? Regardless, learning a language involves a great deal of learning, not only the linguistic aspect, there’s also the cultural aspect, the historical aspect, the communication aspect, and so much, so much more. It is indeed a long journey filled with many interesting experiences.

Corrientes & Third Stream – White Christmas
I am very honored to have had the opportunity to sing “White Christmas/Blanca Navidad” with the instruments being played by the talented band Third Stream from Pennslyvania

You can check it out here at Last.FM:
http://www.last.fm/music/Corrientes/Corrientes+Collaborative+IV/White+Christmas+-+Abbeyville+Road+Recordings+featuring+EV+on+vocals

Merry Christmas!

Last time my mother (our kids call her Nai Nai) came and visited us, she decided that she wanted to learn English.  We enrolled her into one of those adult ESL programs.  One day Nai-Nai was practicing English with MM, and Nai-Nai asked him to say a few words that she had trouble  pronouncing.  After several tries, Nai-Nai, obviously frustrated,  complained how hard it is to learn a new language.  MM and AA was puzzled and asked, ” “Why do you have to learn it?”  Nai Nia told them that she want to be able to communicate with their father.

As the conversation went on, I realized that the children weren’t questioning her motivation but they just didn’t understand why Nai Nai didn’t speak English already and had to learn it, “Why do you have to learn it? Aren’t you born to speak both? We are born to speaking English,Chinese and German and we didn’t have to learn them!”

Another interesting development we observed while Nai Nai was here was that my children started to talk amoung themselves more in Mandarin.  AA’s bilingual preschool teacher also told me that she noticed that AA started to talk to herslef in Mandarin when playing alone.  This got me very excited.  Since we live in an English-dominated evnironment, the kids alwasy prefer to speak English than other languages, simply because they hear it so much.  However, by having another adult in the house to speak Mandarin with was enough to tip the scale in favor of Mandarin.

I am reviewing Ellen Bialystok’s 1988 article Levels of Bilingualism and Levels of Linguistic Awareness for my Sociolinguistics and Education class. It has been widely cited by proponents of bilingual education as evidence that bilingualism leads to improved metalinguistic awareness in children. Metalinguistic awareness refers to the ability to reflect upon language as a process or an object. When we talk about language, about nouns and verbs and about how concepts translate from one language to another, we are displaying metalinguistic ability. Bialystok hypothesized

that all bilingual children would perform better than monolingual children on all metalinguistic tasks requiring high levels of control of processing and that fully bilingual children would perform better than partially bilingual children on tasks requiring high levels of analysis of knowledge. (Bialystok, 1988)

Bialystok begins her article with a review of early literature on bilingualism and its effects on various kinds of achievement. The earliest literature concluded that bilingualism would harm developing minds, confusing them and retarding their academic performance (cf. Darcy, 1963). Subsequent research, however, has shown evidence for opposite conclusions.Bialystok proposes that in order to understand the relationship between metalinguistic ability and bilingualism, distinctions need to be made between levels of bilingualism and types of metalinguistic task. She distinguishes between two components of metalinguistic competence: analysis of linguistic knowledge (making explicit the structure of language) and control of linguistic processing (directing attention to forms and abstractions, ignoring meaning). In addition, bilingualism is seen not as an essential quality, but a spectrum of balance between the native language and the second language. These distinctions form the basis for her interpretation of previous literature and the formulation of her hypotheses, quoted above.

The first hypothesis makes sense when we consider that bilingual children must negotiate two different codes and map them to overlapping semantic entities. It seems natural that they develop an ability to view the codes as abstract structures. The second hypothesis predicts that balanced bilinguals who are literate in both languages will perform better on linguistic analysis tasks than bilinguals who are only literate in one language, partial bilinguals, or monolinguals. This hypothesis is in part an attempt to make sense of studies in which some bilinguals showed increased ability on language analysis problems, but others did not.

Bialystok reports on two studies that she conducted in order to test her hypotheses. In both, children were divided into monolingual, partial bilingual, and full bilingual groups. They were given a variety of problems to solve testing their analysis of linguistic knowledge and control of linguistic processing. The results largely supported her predictions, showing that degree of bilingualism influences linguistic analysis ability, and that all bilinguals perform better than monolinguals at control of linguistic processing. The exact ways in which bilinguals differ and how these differences lead to differences in metalinguistic awareness is a question that remains unanswered. Bialystok suggests that proficiency in the L2 and literacy may be important variables.

What these findings suggest is that bilingualism does not harm the cognitive functioning of children. Depending on the skill in question, bilingualism appears to either have no effect or to enhance metalinguistic awareness.

Bialystok, E. (1988). Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness. Developmental psychology, 24, 560-567.

Darcy, N. T. (1963). Bilingualism and the measure of intelligence: Review of a decade of research. Journal of genetic psychology, 82, 259-282.

 “I will tell you what they are going to pay you. They are going to pay you what all jobs pay you… less than what your worth but enough to keep you crawling back for more.”  — Lois, on Malcom in the Middle

Last Wednesday, the Associated Press wrote a story about the Official Launch of The Trump Network in Miami and distributed it nationwide. As a direct result of the AP article, this business opportunity is gaining tremendous momentum.  November 20^th the company founders were interviewed with Fox News and Channel 5 News in Boston. Hold onto your hats!  

 Take the next step to change your destiny and contact me today to register for one of this week’s Trump Network – Business Presentations.  donna_adame@yahoo.com or 832-683-9463.  Visit my webside at www.trumpnetwork.com/BellaInvestmentHoldingsLLC

Sun, Nov 22, 2009 9:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST
Mon, Nov 23, 2009 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Mon, Nov 23, 2009 9:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST
Tue, Nov 24, 2009 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Tue, Nov 24, 2009 9:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST
Wed, Nov 25, 2009 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Wed, Nov 25, 2009 9:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST
Thursday – Thanksgiving
Fri, Nov 27, 2009 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Sat, Nov 28, 2009 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Sun, Nov 29, 2009 9:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST

美国佛教者 再次把所有英文主流新闻媒介挖定了!

The American Buddhist Scoops all the Mainstream English-Language News Media, Again!

佛光山还没向英文传播媒介发表的新闻稿说：

中美寺新任住持隆相和尚，1982年7月于武汉市归元寺出家，现为南京栖霞古寺住持，也担任佛光山系之宜兴大觉寺住持，其佛学素养深厚，广受佛教界推崇，隆相法师于10多年前往台湾佛光山，礼星云大师座下成为法子，典礼上 (休斯敦佛光山中美寺, 2009年11月15号），大师赞扬隆相法师为“正派的和尚”。　

Fo Guang Shan’s press release, which has still not been released to the English-language media,says:

Longxiang Fashi, who is taking charge of Fo Guang Shan’s Zhongmei (Central America) Temple in Houston, left home as a monk in July of 1982 at Yinyuan Temple in the ‎of Wuhan, and emerged as the Abbot of ancient Qixia Temple in Nanjing. He also became the Abbot of the Fo Guang Shan organization’s temple at Yixing (at Ven. Xing Yun’s birthplace in Jiangsu Province – groomy, groomy, groomy, don’t you know?), his Buddhist study and accomplishments are awesome, and he has been virtually canonized by the Buddhist world. More than ten years ago, he went to Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan and became a Dharma son of Ven. Xing Yun. And in the ceremony (at Houston’s Zhongmei Temple on 15 Nov. 09) Venerable proclaimed him “An Upright Monk.”

南无消灾延寿药师佛
性平

I take the name of disaster-solving and life-lengthening Medicine Master Buddha
Xing Ping

上个月我在VA的初级护理医师，在管理一次常规检查之中，发现我后背上边有了一包疑性的损害，说 “恐怕有基细胞癌。 我们叫专家检测。” 我早知道那儿有什么问题，可是我没办法看见。 连用镜子还看不见。 根据初级护理医师的转诊，昨天我访问了一位很快乐的皮肤学者。他一看病就强调：“有了！ 那就是基细胞癌。我立刻要把它切除！ ” 坐在考查桌子上的我边望了站在大夫的左边的穿着浅绿色的临庄长袍、戴着消毒面罩、 手抓着笔记板的那位护士。很显明的，大夫要开刀的话，她都不会反对。她的消毒面罩之上的两不透明的眼球没意可念。 同时，那位非常多嘴的大夫继续下去了： “你得知道，你必定要患癌症病的话，基细胞癌总是你对好的挑选。…” 贬抑患过癌症病的、捕获在考查桌子上的我只会点头。 心里想 “我抗议这种大夫，也许被变成为类似那位生性怪癖的护士吧！” 同时，大夫逐渐地曾移动位子了，乃至他正站在我和护士之间。“我有不同的意见。根据我的临庄经验，这就是基细胞癌病。要是先叫实验室作活组织检查，后等待结果，更后再看你，总是费钱、费时。 现今的约会， 我不但要取活组织检查料，并且要切除肿瘤，好吧？”

I take the name of disaster-solving and life-lenthening Medicine Master Buddha,
Xing Ping

According to the most recent census data, over 18% of 5 to 17-year-olds in America speak a language other than English at home (mostly Spanish). Of these young people, at least a third can be classified as Limited English Proficient (LEP). Many of these children are living in impoverished households in linguistically isolated communities in major urban centers.

The Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 promises all American children that

“No state shall deny equal educational opportunities to an individual on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, by the failure by an educational agency to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by students in its instructional programs.”

The million dollar question: What constitutes appropriate action? What do LEP students need to achieve native-like proficiency in English and perform at grade level in all other academic subjects? It is a complex question, but one that has answers if policy-makers are willing to follow the recommendations of researchers in SLA, multilingualism, and cognitive development.

Eugene Garcia (2002) has written a comprehensive and persuasive summary of America’s educational crisis and the literature on bilingualism that points a direction for designing curricula that meet the needs of our LEP students. The studies she reviews justify the following conclusions about bilinguals and bilingual education:

1. The goal for LEP students should be the acquisition of “academic English” which allows them to participate fully in English-language academic and professional environments. Vernacular English is not enough.
2. The native language need not be sacrificed in order to achieve this proficiency. Additive bilingualism is possible, and it should be the goal of instruction.
3. Bilingualism/multilingualism does not harm the cognitive development of children. Indeed, some studies have suggested that it improves cognitive functioning, especially in the area of metacognitive awareness.
4. Long-term native language instruction alongside English instruction is necessary for LEP students to ensure that they remain at grade level in all academic subjects as they master English. It is unreasonable to expect LEP students to thrive in English immersion, and equally unreasonable to expect them to join all-English classes after a year of ESL instruction.
5. Even very young children will require several years to learn English as a second language. Older learners will not necessarily require more time, as they generally are more adept learners. It is important for both age groups that the curriculum be challenging.
6. Reading should be taught in the native language. Reading skills have been shown to transfer well from L1 to L2. Ultimate reading proficiency in English improves when students learn to read in their native language.
7. The negative perceptions of LEP individuals in mainstream American society harm education efforts. Social distance between L2 learners and the L2 community hinders acquisition. Bilingual programs must attempt to resolve this problem by addressing stereotypes, validating LEP students languages and cultures, and encouraging the creation of a strong, inclusive, shared identity among all students.

In addition, Garcia outlines areas for future research:

1. What methods of instruction are most successful in helping learners achieve the goal of proficiency in “academic” English?
2. What are the processes/mechanisms that facilitate additive bilingualism?
3. What is the specific cognitive/academic effect of multilingualism and SLA on the individual?
4. What is amount of native language instruction most positively influences academic outcomes in English? This question is directly related to planning bilingual programs that result in success in both English and all other academic subjects.
5. What are the special needs of younger and older LEP learners?
6. What is the connection between overall literacy in the native language and overall literacy in the target language?
7. What is the link between identity, self-concept, and academic performance?

In future posts I hope to discuss in more detail some of the work that has already been done treating the cognitive effects of SLA and the necessary conditions for additive bilingualism.

Garcia’s article:

Garcia, E. E., (2002). Bilingualism and schooling in the United States. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. Volume 2002, Issue 155-156, Pages 1–92.

I take the name of disaster-solving and life-lenthening Medicine Master Buddha,
Xing Ping

I take the name of disaster-solving and life-lenthening Medicine Master Buddha
Xing Ping

加上了这条：

I take the name of disaster-solving and life-lengthening Medicine Master Buddha

Xing Ping

我10月19号到今天的11月16号念过百万声药师佛名号的功德完全地回向给两种人：

I take the name of disaster-solving and life-lengthening Medicine Master Buddha,
Xing Ping

Two days ago, I published a post about Piccolingo, an European program aimed to promote early language learning for preschool children.  Here, is an article I wrote several month ago on early language learning and its benefits.

Some myths and legends about language learning seem very difficult to eradicate…

One of the most ancient and long-lasting wrong idea about bilingualism is that children who are exposed to several languages at home face learning problems and are retarded in their acquisition of their mother tongue.

A new study of the Sissa (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati – International High School for Advanced Studies) just demonstrates the opposite : children early exposed to bilingualism at home develop earlier and better learning capacities than monolingual kiddies…

Experiments carried on by Professor Jacques Mehler and Agnes Melinda Kovacs show that bilingual young children cope easier with some verbal stimuli based tests.

In one of these tests, children have to associate a sequence of sounds with the position of images on a screen.  For instance, when the  baby hears a sounds sequence based on a AAB pattern (like loloba), a puppet appears on the left of the screen.  When the sequence follows another pattern, ABA (like lobalo), the puppet appears on the right side of the screen.

Monolingual one year old children  can only anticipate the apparition of the puppet according to the AAB sequel while bilingual kids are able to predict the position of the puppet in both sequences.

According to the researchers, bilingual children develop an early ability to take in consideration the important things in a determined context, while their monolingual colleagues are lost in a dark forest of details…

Theses children, also develop – even before they talk ! – a capacity to observe the tiny linguistic nuances of the parents languages and can learn foreign languages easier and faster than monolingual children.

A good news for language lovers, isn’t it ?

If you want to know more about this research, you can read the press release of the Sissa or go to the Science Magazine website to read the abstract or purchase the full article.

Notes by Delana S

“Linguistic contact is a key to the minds and behavior of other people.  When using their native language people not only communicate words, but also emotions and the roots and culture of their people.” —Ann-Christine Marttinen

Here are some thoughts from Ann Marttinen:

• When confronted by a new country, culture, and language, a child has to reestablish his personality in order to explain himself and to be accepted.
• Children should be encouraged to speak the local language, but not at the expense of their native tongue.
• Parents and teachers need to prevent excessive stress and help the child preserve his national identity, language and culture.  A strong sense of heritage and cultural identity gives the child a feeling of personal worth.  Destroy his self-esteem in his ability to communicate, and the child becomes frustrated easily.
• The worst thing a parent can do is to abandon the use of their native language in order to help their child quickly adapt to the language used in the new school or country.  When learning a new language, one’s vocabulary for endearment is limited.  The relationship between the parent and child suffers, as does closeness and family unity.

Here are few suggestions and cautions from Cynthia Storrs, SHARE, 1996:

• Don’t try to teach your child to read English the same year he or she is learning to read another language.  If your child is in a national school or preschool and is not beginning to learn reading at that time, you may want to start teaching if other indicators show that the child is ready to learn to read.
• Many children learn easily to read in their mother tongue with instruction coming first in another language.  They do this by transferring the phonic skills they have learned in acquiring the second language.
• As you read to your children in your mother tongue, get into the habit of asking them what they think will happen next.  At the end of the story, ask them to summarize what you read.
• Read-along stories with cassettes are very helpful.  Buy books in both languages (but not bilingual books—the child will probably pick one of the languages to read every time).
• Choose books and subject matter they really enjoy to encourage reading for pleasure (Ranger Rick, comic books, joke books, etc.).
• Leave notes around the house for them to read, with a treasure/reward at the end of the paper trail.

The Bilingual Family by Harding-Esch and Riley
Growing up with two Languages by Andersson & Andersson
The Multilingual Mind by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa