(Submitted on 19th February 2020 for UCL PLIN0044 Coursework Assignment 1)
Malaysia is a multilingual country where English and Malay are commonly used in the society while Tamil and Chinese (including Mandarin and other dialects) are used within Indian and Chinese communities (see David et al., 2018 for an overview). With the compulsory education of English and Malay in national schools, and the rising socioeconomic status of Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and Chinese dialects such as Hakka are at risk of being endangered as parents are reluctant to expose their child to multiple languages. On the other side of the spectrum, there are families who view English as a superior language with high prestige and give up on learning their mother tongue so that the child can focus on learning English. Parents play an important role in child language acquisition as they act as a primary source of language experience for children (Hoff, 2006). In this essay, I will provide three pieces of advice to parents who wish to raise their child multilingually but are insecure and do not know how to proceed.
Firstly, in order for the child to acquire all languages successfully, rich and sufficient input of each language is needed. There are misconceptions that children exposed to multiple languages will lag behind in their language development, however, many do not realise that the underdevelopment of language is due to lack of input in the language. Children have the capacity to learn multiple languages and dual language learning is not burdensome (Paradis et al., 2011). Research have shown that bilingual children are able to differentiate the two languages and build separate linguistic systems for each language from early on (Burns et al., 2007; Bosch & Sebastián-Gallés, 2003). Moreover, bilingualism enhances the acquisition of an additional language and multilingualism brings more advantages than disadvantages (Cenoz, 2013). Nevertheless, parents should recognise that bilinguals do not always develop language at the same rate as monolinguals especially in morphosyntax development and vocabulary size. Parents should not treat this as an impairment because this is primarily due to the amount of input the child gained in each language (Unsworth, 2016). Compared to their monolingual peers who only gain input from one language, bilingual children gain inputs from multiple languages which causes their exposure in each language to be lesser than monolinguals. Bilinguals usually lag behind their monolingual peers in the language that is less spoken at home, however, they are able to catch up when they grow older. Oller & Eiles (2002) and Paradis (2009; 2010) showed that the gap in vocabulary size between bilinguals and monolinguals was nearly closed at age 11-12.
The biggest challenge of multilingual families is to ensure that the child has rich and adequate exposure of each language over time (Paradis et al., 2011). Pearson et al. (1997) found that children are unable to acquire a language when the input of that language is less than 25% of their total language input.It is important to ensure consistent and sufficient input in each language in order to facilitate the child’s multilingual development. A good strategy to be used for multilingual parents is the Time and Place (T&P) strategy where parents assign specific time or place to use certain languages, e.g. Mandarin in the living room, Hakka in the dining room. This allows adequate input in each language by balancing out the exposure. Crucially, parents should understand that changes in language dominance are common in multilinguals and balanced multilingualism is unlikely (Baker, 2014). The best thing parents can do is to assure rich input of each language in early years of childhood so that multilingual acquisition is complete.
Secondly, parents should speak a language that they are familiar with to the child. Apart from providing the child with accurate linguistic input, speaking native language to the child enables the transmittance of the parents’ heritage and culture, provides the child with rich cultural background and shapes the multilingual identity of the child (Baker, 2014). Due to globalisation and increasing acknowledgement of multilingualism, a large number of youths in Malaysia today wished that they had acquired their heritage language when they were young. Ding (2016) found that many youths value Hakka as their mother tongue and prefer to use Hakka, however, they have imperfect knowledge of Hakka and are unable to generate sophisticated discussions due to the lack of native input at home. Ting (2013) also found a significantly increased amount of English/Malay-educated Chinese that wished they had acquired literacy in Mandarin. These studies show that parents should not give up on their native language because this is what that shapes the child’s identity in the future.
Furthermore, parents speaking a language that they are not fluent in with their child may interfere with the child’s learning of the language. If parents provide ungrammatical inputs to the child, the child will end up building linguistic representations that differs from native speakers. This may cause the child to speak with a ‘foreign accent’ and have negative impressions on the heritage language (Baker, 2014). In contrast, parents are able to command more respect and credibility if they speak to their child in their native language than an imperfect majority language (Cunningham-Andersson & Andersson, 2002). In order for children to learn language, parents need to build a meaningful environment for language learning (Lieven, 1994). Strong language development does not only rely on language competence but also colourful and varied language input including stories, rhymes and poems that can only be conveyed naturally in the native language (Baker, 2014). It is worthwhile to communicate beliefs and values in the native language of parents because some words and phrases lack translation equivalence in another language and will not achieve the same effect if they are translated. In short, parents should not give up on speaking their native language to their child because language development happens naturally in the native language.
Thirdly, in addition to providing a stimulating environment for language learning, it is crucial for children to have a positive self-concept about the languages and cultures they are exposed to (Baker, 2014). A study by Lee (2002) showed that the main factor for lack of motivation in sustaining heritage language is the lack of recognition of the importance of heritage language. They also found that heritage language proficiency correlates with the strength of bicultural identification. Language attitudes can affect language proficiency and maintenance (Young & Gardner, 1990). To master a language well, there must be a need for children to maintain that language. As role models, parents must first identify with the language and get rid of any negative ideologies. It is important to keep in mind that implicit ideologies of language held by parents may hinder language development by affecting the way parents communicate with their child. For example, a Singaporean Indian family who wished to maintain Tamil language at home have been primarily using English as the default language of communication due to the underlying thought that English is more superior than Tamil. The parents only used limited Tamil utterances to teach the child vocabulary; hence, the child gained very little input of Tamil and only achieved low-level proficiency (Curdt-Christiansen, 2016). King (2000) explained that negative ideologies of language stem from deep-rooted beliefs that minority languages or ‘dialects’ are inferior and powerful European language like English is superior. Therefore, if parents wish to raise a multilingual child successfully, they should dispose the view that certain languages are more superior than other languages. In fact, they should foster the child to appreciate and embrace their multicultural background.
In Malaysia, there is a rising population that views linguistic and cultural diversity as a unique identity of Malaysians (Ang et al., 2015; Ting, 2013). Thus, it is crucial for families to uphold and embrace the amalgamation of local cultures and languages. Parents may encourage a positive attitude towards multi-language learning by praising their child for their effort in maintaining multilingualism. When children experience rewards, they are likely to preserve their interest in learning the language and culture. It is also helpful to send children to schools that embraces multiculturalism and encourage cultural participation by exposing children to traditional cultural activities, music and literature. This will help the child acknowledge the importance of heritage language and culture. As quoted by Baker (2004), “Apositive attitude to bilingualism is a long-term preserver of bilingualism in a child” (p. 64). Parents should cultivate children’s interest in sustaining multilingualism to ensure that they do not abandon a particular language later in life.
To sum up, raising a multilingual child can be challenging as government strategy, socioeconomic status and education policy can also affect how language is used in the family (Curdt-Christiansen, 2018). As parents, it is important to understand that myths about multilingualism is not true and not be affected by negative ideologies. To aid children’s multilingual development, parents need to ensure sufficient input in each language, retain the use of heritage language at home and hold a positive attitude towards multilingualism. Only then, the unique multilingual identity of Malaysians can persist.
Firstly, in order for the child to acquire all languages successfully, rich and sufficient input of each language is needed. There are misconceptions that children exposed to multiple languages will lag behind in their language development, however, many do not realise that the underdevelopment of language is due to lack of input in the language. Children have the capacity to learn multiple languages and dual language learning is not burdensome (Paradis et al., 2011). Research have shown that bilingual children are able to differentiate the two languages and build separate linguistic systems for each language from early on (Burns et al., 2007; Bosch & Sebastián-Gallés, 2003). Moreover, bilingualism enhances the acquisition of an additional language and multilingualism brings more advantages than disadvantages (Cenoz, 2013). Nevertheless, parents should recognise that bilinguals do not always develop language at the same rate as monolinguals especially in morphosyntax development and vocabulary size. Parents should not treat this as an impairment because this is primarily due to the amount of input the child gained in each language (Unsworth, 2016). Compared to their monolingual peers who only gain input from one language, bilingual children gain inputs from multiple languages which causes their exposure in each language to be lesser than monolinguals. Bilinguals usually lag behind their monolingual peers in the language that is less spoken at home, however, they are able to catch up when they grow older. Oller & Eiles (2002) and Paradis (2009; 2010) showed that the gap in vocabulary size between bilinguals and monolinguals was nearly closed at age 11-12.
The biggest challenge of multilingual families is to ensure that the child has rich and adequate exposure of each language over time (Paradis et al., 2011). Pearson et al. (1997) found that children are unable to acquire a language when the input of that language is less than 25% of their total language input.It is important to ensure consistent and sufficient input in each language in order to facilitate the child’s multilingual development. A good strategy to be used for multilingual parents is the Time and Place (T&P) strategy where parents assign specific time or place to use certain languages, e.g. Mandarin in the living room, Hakka in the dining room. This allows adequate input in each language by balancing out the exposure. Crucially, parents should understand that changes in language dominance are common in multilinguals and balanced multilingualism is unlikely (Baker, 2014). The best thing parents can do is to assure rich input of each language in early years of childhood so that multilingual acquisition is complete.
Secondly, parents should speak a language that they are familiar with to the child. Apart from providing the child with accurate linguistic input, speaking native language to the child enables the transmittance of the parents’ heritage and culture, provides the child with rich cultural background and shapes the multilingual identity of the child (Baker, 2014). Due to globalisation and increasing acknowledgement of multilingualism, a large number of youths in Malaysia today wished that they had acquired their heritage language when they were young. Ding (2016) found that many youths value Hakka as their mother tongue and prefer to use Hakka, however, they have imperfect knowledge of Hakka and are unable to generate sophisticated discussions due to the lack of native input at home. Ting (2013) also found a significantly increased amount of English/Malay-educated Chinese that wished they had acquired literacy in Mandarin. These studies show that parents should not give up on their native language because this is what that shapes the child’s identity in the future.
Furthermore, parents speaking a language that they are not fluent in with their child may interfere with the child’s learning of the language. If parents provide ungrammatical inputs to the child, the child will end up building linguistic representations that differs from native speakers. This may cause the child to speak with a ‘foreign accent’ and have negative impressions on the heritage language (Baker, 2014). In contrast, parents are able to command more respect and credibility if they speak to their child in their native language than an imperfect majority language (Cunningham-Andersson & Andersson, 2002). In order for children to learn language, parents need to build a meaningful environment for language learning (Lieven, 1994). Strong language development does not only rely on language competence but also colourful and varied language input including stories, rhymes and poems that can only be conveyed naturally in the native language (Baker, 2014). It is worthwhile to communicate beliefs and values in the native language of parents because some words and phrases lack translation equivalence in another language and will not achieve the same effect if they are translated. In short, parents should not give up on speaking their native language to their child because language development happens naturally in the native language.
Thirdly, in addition to providing a stimulating environment for language learning, it is crucial for children to have a positive self-concept about the languages and cultures they are exposed to (Baker, 2014). A study by Lee (2002) showed that the main factor for lack of motivation in sustaining heritage language is the lack of recognition of the importance of heritage language. They also found that heritage language proficiency correlates with the strength of bicultural identification. Language attitudes can affect language proficiency and maintenance (Young & Gardner, 1990). To master a language well, there must be a need for children to maintain that language. As role models, parents must first identify with the language and get rid of any negative ideologies. It is important to keep in mind that implicit ideologies of language held by parents may hinder language development by affecting the way parents communicate with their child. For example, a Singaporean Indian family who wished to maintain Tamil language at home have been primarily using English as the default language of communication due to the underlying thought that English is more superior than Tamil. The parents only used limited Tamil utterances to teach the child vocabulary; hence, the child gained very little input of Tamil and only achieved low-level proficiency (Curdt-Christiansen, 2016). King (2000) explained that negative ideologies of language stem from deep-rooted beliefs that minority languages or ‘dialects’ are inferior and powerful European language like English is superior. Therefore, if parents wish to raise a multilingual child successfully, they should dispose the view that certain languages are more superior than other languages. In fact, they should foster the child to appreciate and embrace their multicultural background.
In Malaysia, there is a rising population that views linguistic and cultural diversity as a unique identity of Malaysians (Ang et al., 2015; Ting, 2013). Thus, it is crucial for families to uphold and embrace the amalgamation of local cultures and languages. Parents may encourage a positive attitude towards multi-language learning by praising their child for their effort in maintaining multilingualism. When children experience rewards, they are likely to preserve their interest in learning the language and culture. It is also helpful to send children to schools that embraces multiculturalism and encourage cultural participation by exposing children to traditional cultural activities, music and literature. This will help the child acknowledge the importance of heritage language and culture. As quoted by Baker (2004), “Apositive attitude to bilingualism is a long-term preserver of bilingualism in a child” (p. 64). Parents should cultivate children’s interest in sustaining multilingualism to ensure that they do not abandon a particular language later in life.
To sum up, raising a multilingual child can be challenging as government strategy, socioeconomic status and education policy can also affect how language is used in the family (Curdt-Christiansen, 2018). As parents, it is important to understand that myths about multilingualism is not true and not be affected by negative ideologies. To aid children’s multilingual development, parents need to ensure sufficient input in each language, retain the use of heritage language at home and hold a positive attitude towards multilingualism. Only then, the unique multilingual identity of Malaysians can persist.
References
Ang, S. M., Chiok, P. F., & Low, C. C. (2015). Between ethnicization and globalisation: Mediating contesting cultural identities of Malaysian youths. Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 11(3), 73-82.
Baker, C. (2014). A parents and teachers guide to bilingualism(4th ed.) Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Bosch, L., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2003). Simultaneous bilingualism and the perception of a language-specific vowel contrast in the first year of life. Language and speech, 46(2-3), 217-243.
Burns, T. C., Yoshida, K. A., Hill, K., & Werker, J. F. (2007). The development of phonetic representation in bilingual and monolingual infants. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28(3), 455-474.
Cenoz, J. (2013). The influence of bilingualism on third language acquisition: Focus on multilingualism. Language Teaching, 46(1), 71-86. doi:10.1017/S0261444811000218
Clyne, M., Hunt, C. R., & Isaakidis, T. (2004). Learning a Community Language as a Third Language. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1(1), 33-52.
Cunningham-Andersson, U., & Andersson, S. (2002). Growing up with two languages: A practical guide. Routledge.
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2016). Conflicting language ideologies and contradictory language practices in Singaporean multilingual families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 37(7), 694-709.
Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2018). Family language policy. The Oxford handbook of language policy and planning, 420-441.
David, M. Dealwis, C. & Kuang, C. H. (2018). Language Policy and Language Use in Multilingual Malaysia. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325949358_Language_Policy_and_Language_Use_in_Multilingual_Malaysia
Ding, S. L. (2016). The Role of Parents in Heritage Language Maintenance in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies, 5(1), 15-27.
Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Developmental Review,26(1),55-88.
King, K. A. (2000). Language Ideologies and Heritage Language Education. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 3(3), 167-184.
Lee, J. S. (2002). The Korean Language in America: The Role of Cultural Identity. Heritage Language Learning, Language Culture and Curriculum, 15(2), 117-133.
Lieven, E. V. M. (1994). Crosslinguistic and crosscultural aspects of language addressed to children. In Gallaway, C. and Richards, B. J. (Eds.), Input and interaction in language acquisition.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oller, D. K., & Eilers, R. E. (Eds.). (2002). Language and literacy in bilingual children (Vol. 2). Multilingual Matters.
Paradis, J. (2009). Oral language development in French and English and the role of home input factors. Report for the Conseil scolaire centre-nord.
Paradis, J. (2010). Bilingual children's acquisition of English verb morphology: Effects of language exposure, structure complexity, and task type. Language Learning,60(3), 651- 680.
Paradis, J., Genesee, F., & Crago, M. B. (2011). Dual Language Development & Disorders: a handbook on bilingualism and second language learning. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Brookes Publishing.
Pearson, B., Fernandez, S., Lewedeg, V., & Oller, D. (1997). The relation of input factors to lexical learning by bilingual infants. Applied Psycholinguistics, 18(1), 41-58. doi:10.1017/S0142716400009863
Ting, H. M. H. (2013). Language, Identity and Mobility: Perspective of Malaysian Chinese Youth.Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies, 2(1), 83-102.
Unsworth, S. (2016). Early child L2 acquisition: Age or input effects? Neither, or both?. Journal of Child Language, 43, 603-634.
Young, M.Y., & Gardner, R.C. (1990). Modes of acculturation and second language proficiency. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 22(1), 59–71.
Comments
Post a Comment