Babies all over the world grow up bi-lingual, tri-lingual, quadri-lingual,
etc. and they don't usually get confused. In the Danish/English household,
is only the mother bilingual? Often, one parent speaks one language to the
baby and the other parent speaks the other, and the baby learns both
without problems. We moved to Mali when Miranda was 15 months old (already
more than a year of English-only exposure) and her nanny (a man) spoke to
her only in Bambara, as did the kids she played with and the other adults
she was around when we were gone from home, and by 24 months she was fluent
in both English and Bambara. Now, she did think that "white" people spoke
English and "black" people spoke Bambara, and was very confused when she
met her first African-American, a new Marine guard at the American Embassy.
She was perplexed that he didn't understand her when she spoke to him in
Bambara, and amazed that he knew English. But that confusion was quickly
cleared up! My neighbor speaks a south Indian language to her kids inside
the home, but English to them when out in public, and they are fluent in
both (at 7 and 3). I think she should just speak to the child in both and
not worry about it over-much. A distant Dettwyler relative from
Switzerland grew up speaking Polish to his mother, the local dialect of
Swiss-German to his father, proper German and English in elementary school,
and then learned Spanish, French, and Italian in higher grades. Many
children in special ed learn sign language along with English (in the US)
and are not confused. If you start young, there are no limits.
Kathy Dettwyler
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D. email:
[log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX 77843-4352
http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html
***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
