...Assignment #2 Bilingual: To be, or not to be My mom always believed that learning and acquiring two languages will help me in the future. After my family immigrated to Canada from Korea (South) when I was only 7 years old, she always told my brother and me about the importance of becoming and staying bilingual, learning both English and Korean. She believed that bilinguals were superior in sense compared to monolinguals as they would use more brain power than monolinguals, producing more neuronal connections and exercising their brains more complexly. As I have gotten older, I wondered if my mom’s beliefs were true. If being bilingual actually gave me an advantage. If this was true, I wondered if I would age slowly than other monolinguals...
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...2005/ED/EFA/MRT/PI/9 Background paper prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2005 The Quality Imperative The importance of mother tongue-based schooling for educational quality Carole Benson 2004 This paper was commissioned by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report as background information to assist in drafting the 2005 report. It has not been edited by the team. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the EFA Global Monitoring Report or to UNESCO. The papers can be cited with the following reference: “Paper commissioned for the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005, The Quality Imperative”. For further information, please contact efareport@unesco.org The importance of mother tongue-based schooling for educational quality Commissioned study for EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005 Carol Benson, Ph.D. Centre for Research on Bilingualism Stockholm University 14 April 2004 Part A: Overview While there are many factors involved in delivering quality basic education, language is clearly the key to communication and understanding in the classroom. Many developing countries are characterized by individual as well as societal multilingualism, yet continue to allow a single foreign language to dominate the education sector. Instruction through a language that learners do not speak has been called “submersion” (Skutnabb-Kangas 2000) because it is analogous to...
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...PSYCHOLOGY 110– LAB EXPERIENCE PAPER MEMORY in HUMAN BEINGS SECTION I: OVERVIEW Memory, is an abstract term with no real concrete definition or absolute understanding thus making the word intriguing enough to draw attention to the greater subject of what it is, how it works and why it goes wrong. It is an essential concept in our daily life yet is the most elusive and misunderstood human attribute. Its constant presence in our everyday and its intricately complex mysteries is what ignites my interest in the research conducted in this field of Psychology. As a college student memory plays a great role in our academic performance, from weather we can recall mathematical formulas to recalling something a professor said in class to remembering certain solutions, key words and definitions we read in course material. Therefore from a personal standpoint the topic of memory interests me, as by understanding this complex concept and going into the depths of it’s functioning, I might be able to improve my own. Memory is formed from childhood and I am interested to see if memory is an natural capacity, and if so what factors lead to a better memory and if not can memory be affected by daily everyday factors. From a Psychological perspective memory excites me because the way we remember things and how can help us understand behavior and reactions to various situations. Memory hence affects decision-making and all other spheres of human life. The recollection of memory,...
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...EDPROFST 226: Introduction to Bilingualism and Bilingual Immersion Education Assignment One: In his book, Language, Power and Pedagogy: bilingual children in the crossfire, Cummins (2000) tells a story of a bilingual Mexican mother who was ordered by a judge to stop speaking Spanish to her daughter during a custody dispute with her husband. The judge’s view was that the mother was ‘abusing’ her daughter by speaking Spanish in their home (p.13). Unfortunately the judge is not alone in his opinion in regards to second language acquisition and bilingualism. Nor is the context of America and the minority language of Spanish different from the New Zealand context in the way that minority languages are viewed ‘ongoing bilingualism in a so-called minority, indigenous or community language is still regarded by many as an educational, and wider social impediment” (May, Hill, Tiakiwai, 2004, p.8). Cummins asks some important questions in regards to bilingual education in both homes and schools including, ‘To what extent is it child abuse to send new teachers into classrooms (in multilingual cities such as Toronto, London, or New York) with minimal or no preparation on how to teach academic content to students who are in the process of learning English and whose cultural background differs significantly from that assumed by all of the structures of schooling (e.g. curriculum, assessment, and teacher preparation)?’ (Cummins, 2000, p.14) New Zealand is a rich, diverse multicultural...
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...info/language-and-mind/does-language-reflectaffect-thought.html Beyond Blogspot statement: My abstract is definitely beyond the Blogspot. In the Blogspot, the author discussed the controversial question “does language effect/reflect thought” by mentioning a few research results that are in favour of the Whorf hypothesis, but also pointing out that the language pattern/structure does not affect how people perceive an event. In my opinion, thoughts are always being expressed by language, therefore it is much harder to figure out the relationship between language and thoughts because they are too closely link to each other. Therefore, I decide to investigate the relationship between language and perception. Perception, in my point of view, is more intuitional and can be separated from language more easily than thoughts. In my abstract, I will display 4 evidences that show the effect of language on perceptions. Research Plan: My research question is “does language affect perception”. The sources I am planning to use are evidences/examples of how language influences on people’s perceptions (such as perception of colour, phonetic, appreciations and etc.) My tentative answer to this question is “yes, language does have effect on perceptions”. I will use the research results from the studies that I cited to show that language does affect people’s perception of the world. A short statement about my references: The following Sources are referred in my abstracts 1. Linguistic experience alter phonetic...
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...What is a Bilingual? A Bilingual person is someone who can speak or write in more than one language. A person who can speak/write in more than two languages is considered to be a multilingual. Bilingualism and multilingualism isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s the norm for most of the world’s societies. It is possible for a person to know more than one or two languages, most especially when the country is not in the western part of the globe, usually, people can speak two languages—that is, their L1 and L2, which, in this context, L2 is usually the English language. People become bilingual when they learn two languages at the same time, or, they learn the second language sometime after they acquired their L1. But then, it is more possible for a person to learn a second language sometime after he has acquired his L1. The problem is, the older you get, the harder it is to learn to speak a new language as well as a native speaker. Many linguists believe that there is a so-called “critical period” wherein the child can easily acquire any language that he or she is regularly exposed to. Under this belief, the structure of the brain changes at puberty, then after that, it becomes harder to learn a new language. In some countries, nearly everyone is bilingual or multilingual. Except for United States of America, of course. Since their L1 is already English, they are rarely encouraged anymore to learn an L2. A Bilingual can either...
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...Wonguk Cho SLS 380 Annotated Bibliography García, O. (2008). Bilingual education in the 21st century. (1st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 42-71). Chichest, England: Wiley-Blackwell. This chapter of the book deals with translanguaging, which is an approach to explain bilingualism where speakers switch from one language to another. The author thinks bilingualism is not the simple sum of a language and another language, but more complicated ability that is involved in a complex processing of human brain. Moreover, she saw code-switching as an actuality or evidence of procedure of bilingualism. At first, she refers to there are two types of code-switching; intrasentential and intersentential. Intrasentential occurs in boundaries of a clause or a sentence, so a speaker may add words or phrase of a language into a sentence in another language. On the other hand, intersentential occurs at clause or sentence boundaries. In this case, a narrator adds a whole sentence of a particular language during speaking in another language. In addition, he describes how to distinguish between code-switching and code-mixing. The main difference is whether or not the speaker knows how to differentiate between the two languages. If they do, it must be code-switching. This chapter describes how to approach to my recording data with theoretical background. Since it is hard to explain why and how code-switching is happening in the data, this chapter provides me a strong notion of code-switching, which will...
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...Leader 1 Mary Leader (Vesey) Professor: Michael Bell ENGLISH 701 9 September 2015 Essay Paper 1 Thesis Title Using these two articles, the Kenyan Malik articles, “Let Them Die, and Emilo Gutierrez, “My Bilingualism,” I will be supporting both articles, with statements about children being left at school because they are bilingual, and why languages should not die. Why we should preserve the languages dying, and the benefits in learning two languages. In Kenyan Malik’s article, he says, “There are 6000 languages in the world today, and that by the year 3000, there will be 600. He says languages die because people die. Malik, also states, that each nation speaks in the manner it thinks. For instance, if we live in France, the common language is French. If we lived in China the common language spoken, is Chinese, if we lived in Japan, the common language spoken is Japanese. And in my theory, opinion, if we do no preserve the language, there will be less for bilingual teachers and bilingual schools. Here is a false dilemma, fallacies Malik uses. Malik, says, “A language spoken by one person, or a few hundred, is not a language at all.” It is a private conceit, like a child’s secret code. This author is basis. The whole point of a language is to enable communication. Languages, can be saved, through books, and the internet. In Maliks article, he quotes, from Enoch Powell and he says, “Languages...
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...vocabulary development blocks learners’ ability to comprehend L2 content through reading and listening (August, Carlo, Dressler, and Snow, 2005). Studies also show that because EFL learners have very much fewer productive vocabulary than receptive vocabulary, they often encounter difficulties in language production (Zhong, 2011). As an EFL learner myself, I have experienced such problems as well. Oftentimes, my vocabulary limitations interfere with my communication in L2. Therefore, it kindles my personal interest in studies of L2 vocabulary development. Because vocabulary has become one of the key elements in ELT and ELL, through decades, many research have been conducted to identify how vocabulary is learned and developed, and what factors that impede or boost learners’ lexical competence. Hence, this study attempts to respond to the research questions as follow: 1. What are existing vocabulary learning strategies that EFL learners use? 2. What are factors that affect vocabulary development in EFL learners? 3. What are effective vocabulary learning strategies for EFL learners? The findings suggested that EFL learners learn L2 vocabulary through multifarious strategies such as making a personal word list, guessing from contexts, and using word cards. From the results, these different strategies, however, vary in learning effectiveness. The studies also revealed that more than single factors impact on learners’ lexical competence. For...
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...Code-switch: A Sociolinguistic Approach Walid M Rihane Arab Open University Why do People Code-switch 2 Abstract This paper sets out at the beginning different definitions and approaches to the linguistic phenomenon - Code-Switching. Through my work, I will highlight five different factors that motivate code-switching in a bilingual speaker although the reasons for code-switching are many . I will talk about the role of ethnic solidarity, social class, topic, affection, and persuasion in motivating switching codes. I will use different approaches and case-studies conducted by researchers from inside and outside Lebanon to back up my discussion. Why do People Code-switch 3 Why do People Code-switch: A Sociolinguistic Approach 1. Introduction: A person is said to be multilingual if he or she is competent in more than one language. Multilingualism is usually the result of many factors, such as colonisation, intercultural marriage, cultural interaction, education, and many other reasons. The applied linguist Del Hymes defines communicative linguistic competence as, '[a person] acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner' (Hymes, 1979). In this way, a person who is capable of using appropriately two languages or more is said to be multilingual. Usually, bilinguals and multilinguals tend to switch languages within the same utterance. This phenomenon is referred to as code-switching. Eyamba...
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...Bilingual Education is a way to label a huge term used to describe a wide variation of programs used in the United States. These programs are engineered to use full bilingualism, which is the use of two languages to teach academic content in the classroom. There are various different types of bilingual programs that are designed however, but all are geared to have the same exact outcome. The outcome for all of these programs is to use two languages proficiently in the classroom. The true question is whether bilingual programs are more effective in the long run over only English programs in raising students’ academic achievements. There are very many political and economic concerns that revolve around bilingual education in the U.S. Since...
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...Census, 2009). People use this term in different ways. For some, bilingualism means an equal ability to communicate in two languages. For others, bilingualism means the ability to communicate in two languages but with the possibility of greater skills in one language. There is a lot of criteria that goes along with bilingualism. For this research paper, the criteria I focused on were: The history of bilingualism laws in the United States, pros/cons of bilingual education in America’s school system, who benefits the most from bilingual education programs; youths in elementary or the youths in high school, bilingualism in the labor market, and bilingualism in the media. In the society that we live in today, Bilingualism has become just as it is important to learn as to learn the language from the country of a person’s ethnical background. Bilingualism has come a far way in the last 20 years to where it is today. Whether we notice it or not bilingualism plays a part in every person’s day to day life. Bilingualism is highly researchable subject is given a lot of political, as well as ethical attention. Twenty years ago in the school system bilingual education programs were almost never heard of much in elementary schools for English speaking students to have to learn another language. Most often the kids who didn’t t know English well would leave the Reed 2 classroom and go to another classroom for language programs such as E.S.L for example. What is the ESL program and does ESL...
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...Bilingual Education : Friend or Foe? Jennifer Smith Faulkner University Abstract This paper explores both the history of bilingual education as well as it’s implications for American Society. We will define the difference between bilingual education and bilingualism. It takes a formative look at the Bilingual Education Act to see our roots in bilingual education. We will examine both the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism and it’s effect on the brain. Also, we will attempt to shed some needed light on just why this is such a hot political topic. Why do Americans still seem unwilling to accept bilingual education as a necessity for their children? Bilingual Education: Friend or Foe? Bilingual education is a polarizing topic in America. Torn between preserving American culture and what makes us American, and providing immigrant children with the same access to education that all Americans deserve, bilingual education is now a political topic in America. There have been many attempts to make positive changes in our education system concerning bilingual education. Even for those who agree that bilingual education is important, arriving at the answer to the best approach is on a meandering path. With decades of studies, opinions and speculation as to the right way to best educate English language learners, it is not unlikely that many Americans wonder if bilingual education is friend or foe? Answers to these questions...
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...Bilingual Education and the Success of Boston’s Latino Youth The success of Latino students in the Boston Public School system is undoubtedly and inextricably linked to the success of the district, in partnership with state government, combining both proven and innovative strategies in delivering English language instruction to the city’s students. At 43% of total enrollment, Latino students are the largest and fastest-growing demographic in Boston Public Schools (Handy). And while a majority of Latino students speak English proficiently, census records show that in the City of Boston half of all Latinos were born outside of the United States; 30% of Latinos in the Boston Public School system are English Language Learners (Uriarte, Chen, and Kala 9), and, not surprisingly, the majority (57% in 2012) of Boston’s students classified as Limited English Proficient, speak Spanish (Uriarte). Simply put, there is no way to ensure that schools are working to the best capacity for the district’s largest ethnic group without also ensuring that proper systems are in place to educate English Language Learners, who are disproportionately Latino. Unfortunately, this has not always been the easiest of tasks, and a ballot initiative of over a decade ago would come to undermine much of the needed progress in the Boston Public Schools. November 5, 2002 may seem like a distant memory for some, but on that day, the result of that year’s election would come to have a resounding impact on Massachusetts’...
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...Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON December 2006 Copyright © by Melissa Maier Bishop 2006 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A wise professor told me before starting my PhD work to not forget my distractions. Therefore, this work is dedicated to my three favorite distractions—my husband Jeff and my two sons, Abel and Peyton. Thank you, Jeff, for all of your encouragement, your support, and your shoulder to lean on and your ear to listen during the past five years as we’ve come together on this journey. Thank you, Abel and Peyton, for sharing me with my studies and for often keeping me company while I studied for my exams and wrote my papers. Thank you also to my wonderful committee who were all so encouraging and patient with me, especially my Chair, Dr. Mark Peterson. Your excitement for my ideas inspired me as well as your belief in me. You have an unselfish and self-sacrificing nature that shines through you, and you are a gift to all of your students. Many thanks also to Dr. Roger Dickinson, who was a great support to me over the past five years and a big reason I decided to join the program in the first place. Thanks to my parents and to Jeff’s parents for helping me out in so many ways during this program. You all have always been so supportive of me in all that I do. Finally, thanks to God who put in me a stubborn and persevering nature, without which I would not have...
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