Raising Multilingual Children: Foreign Language Acquisition and Children

236 Pages·2000·2.18 MB·English

by  Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa

RAISING
MULTILINGUAL
CHILDREN:
Foreign Language
Acquisition and Children
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
BERGIN & GARVEY
RAISING
MULTILINGUAL CHILDREN

>
RAISING
MULTILINGUAL CHILDREN
Foreign Language Acquisition
and Children
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa
BERGIN&GARVEY
Westport,Connecticut • London
Library of CongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Tokuhama-Espinosa,Tracey,1963–
Raising multilingualchildren : foreignlanguageacquisitionand children /
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesand index.
ISBN 0–89789–750–1(alk. paper)
1. Bilingualismin children. 2. Childrearing. 3. Language
acquisition. 4. Languageand languages—Studyand teaching. 5. English
language—Studyand teaching—Foreignspeakers. 6. Comparative
education. I. Title.
P115.2.T65 2001
404'.2'083—dc21 00–029258
British Library Cataloguingin PublicationDatais available.
Copyright(cid:1) 2001 by TraceyTokuhama-Espinosa
All rights reserved.No portionof this book maybe
reproduced,by any processor technique,without
the expresswrittenconsentof the publisher.
Library of CongressCatalogCard Number:00–029258
ISBN: 0–89789–750–1
First publishedin 2001
Bergin & Garvey,88 Post RoadWest,Westport,CT 06881
An imprint of GreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
www.greenwood.com
Printed in the UnitedStatesof America
TM
The paperused in this book complieswith the
PermanentPaper Standardissuedby the National
InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In Appreciation
A warm hug of appreciation to my children, Natalie, Gabriel, and Mateo,
and to Cristian for helping raise them, and a special thank you to my arm-
chair linguist mother, Reba, and to my father and first teacher, Al.
And to all those who helped in the kitchen,
foremost among them:
Dr. Cristina Allemann-Ghionda of Cologne University,Germany,andDr.
Terry Osborn of Queens College in New York for peerless peer advice.
Great appreciation is due to Jane Garry and David Palmer at Greenwood
Publishing for their patience and guidance, and to Giselle Mart´ınez de
Mele´ndez, Cherise Valles McGivern, and Marlene Hall-Amsler who, in
additiontobeingmothersofmultilingualchildren,arecarefulandobservant
readers.
A verysincerethanks toMaureenO’HanlonandherhusbandJu¨rgenKoch,
Ulla Ho¨henwarter, Peggy Rodrigue, Mariana Quintero de Hugo, Corinne
Kurz, Christine Tschabuschnig, Sarah Turney, Kim van Helvoort, Ve´ro-
nique Produit, Yolanda Orton˜es de Garc´ıa, and Galit Locker. You are
greatly appreciated for your ideas, opinions, and stories.

Contents
Tables and Figures xi
Chapter 1 The Search for the Secret to Successful
Bilingualism: Somewhere between Academia
and the Family 1
Chapter 2 Ten Key Factors in Raising Multilingual
Children: A Recipe for Success 9
Chapter 3 Ingredients 17
Taking Advantage of the Windows of
Opportunity 17
Your Child’s Aptitude for Foreign
Languages 37
Chapter 4 Baking Instructions 47
The Role of Motivation in Language
Acquisition 48
Second Language Learning Strategies 56
Being Consistent with the Chosen Strategy 62
viii Contents
Chapter 5 Kitchen Design: The Role of the Language
Environment 69
What Is Your Family Language
Environment? 70
What Are the Opportunities in Your
Environment? 71
The Relationship between the Native and
the Foreign Language 79
The Role of Siblings in Language
Acquisition 86
Chapter 6 Plumbing and Electricity: The Multilingual
Brain 89
The Possible Role of Gender in Language
Acquisition 89
The Possible Role of Hand Use in Language
Learning 91
The Multilingual Brain 94
Chapter 7 The Chefs and Chefs’ Assistants: The Role of
the Teachers and the Schools 117
Opportunity and Support in the Schools 117
Opportunity and Support from Teachers 124
Chapter 8 Baking Your Own: Your Personal Family
Language Profile 133
Degrees of Success 133
Multiliteracy Skills 139
Chapter 9 A Mess in the Kitchen 153
What to Do in Problem Situations 153
Some Suggested Readings 160
Changing Language Strategies 162
Chapter 10 The Sweet Smell of Success 165
A Summary 165
Diary Accounts of My Own Children’s
Language Development 167
Contents ix
Appendix A Finding Language Sources in Scarce Language
Environments 187
Appendix B The Family Studies: How the Information
Was Gathered 189
Glossary 195
Bibliography 199
Index 211