When we raise our children abroad and want to transmit our languages to them, we sometimes become aware of our own limits. If we have already lived abroad for a while, i.e. outside of the country where our language is spoken, we can feel "not fluent enough" to transmit our language to our children.
-How fluent should we be in the main language we transmit to our children?
-How can we maintain our heritage languages whilst living abroad?
-What impact does it have on our own language proficiency when we use our language only with our children?
-Is there a correlation between SES and children's language skills?
Dr. He Sun shares insights into this topic based on her research and experience.
0:15 Introduction
2:17 What made Dr. He Sun focus on research about parental proficiency in the heritage language (HL)?
4:44 What is the link between parent's HL proficiency and children's HL learning?
16:37 Some more insights into what aspects of parent's proficiency are important - quantity and quality of language input (with the latter having many different aspects!) [she mentions M. Rowe's study, see the link here below]
20:15 He Sun's project on multilingual children in Singapore with English as the most dominant language, and how to strengthen the mother tongue language (Mandarin Chinese)
(26:40 The importance for parents to have a high level of proficiency in the primary, the first language they transmit to their children)
30:32 What are the most important aspects to consider when fostering children's language skills in the HL?
(33.52 Correlation between parent's proficiency and children's outputs)
40:05 How does ideal exposure to adult speech look like?
44:00 What can parents expect if they use an additional language as the primary/main language with their children?
52:16 Talking about accents...
You can find Dr. He Sun's article mentioned in the interview here:
www.researchga...
She also mentioned this study:
Rowe, M. L. 2012. “A Longitudinal Investigation of the Role of Quantity and Quality of Child-Directed Speech inVocabulary Development.” Child Development 83: 1762-1774. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01805.x.
(17) (PDF) Maternal heritage language proficiency and child bilingual heritage language learning. Available from: www.researchga... [accessed Feb 21 2024].
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Dr. He Sun
SUN He is a senior education research scientist at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her major interests are 1) child bilingualism and eBook reading, 2) individual differences in early bilingualism/second/foreign language acquisition, and 3) harmonious bilingual experience. Her work has appeared in journals such as Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Child Development, and International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, and Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and has been featured by media, such as Straits Times and CNA. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Child Language.
#parenting #languageproficiency #learning
27 авг 2024
