Unit 4: Linguistic Diversity, Multilingualism, 2nd Language Acquisition, Linguistic Attitudes and Justice

Linguistic Diversity

differences across languages and diversity of languages with a region

Many languages show diversity of:

phonetic inventory (lang with 8 vs 76 consonants) and vocabulary (Tofa (turkish lang) words for reindeers vs our one word)

Translation from a word for a specific reindeer in Tofa to just reindeer in English is a good example of

things being lost in translation

diversity is not only global but is also

regional

Indigenous language loss due to:

Disease (English settlement), boarding schools (forced to speak English), lack of setting for language use (relocation; tribes not sanctioned), economic factors (idea that heritage lang. is disadvantage)

Language endangerment is attempted to be fixed by __________

revitalizationmo

modern approaches to language revitalization

-clarifying proficiency and fluency goals

-social value of partial learning

-immersion for children (home/school)

-working with elders in community

-linguistic and pedagogical training of community members

True/False: Eskimo has 50 words for snow?

False

Who does the revitalization efforts include?

linguist, community members/elders; gov’t

Process used to find relation between two languages

comparative method

Multilingualism vs. Bilingualism

bilingual: speak two lang.

multilingual: more than two lang.

(bilingual can be used for both)

code switching between languages is not a

deficiency

where is multilingualism a norm

most of the world (U.S. is unusual)

3rd generation may feel

the loss of their heritage language (can’t communicate as well with 1st gen)

advantages to knowing more than 1 language

-multitasking

-postpones alzheimer’s

-may benefit cognitive development

-gain ties to heritage/identity

-potential economic/professional/scholarly advantage

-cross-cultural awareness and understanding

size of overall vocabulary of bilingual students was

the same as the vocab of the monolingual kids

stoop test showed (identifying small banana, apple etc.)

showed more advance executive skills in bilingual children (being able to ignore unnecessary info and understand the more important; multitasking)

word comprehension/ receptive vocab study video showed

that bilingual two year-olds have a smaller vocab in 1st lang. comparted to monolingual, but equal overall vocab across both languages

Sequential bilingual

acquired 1 language first at home then another at school or work

Simultaneous bilingual

parents/caregivers speak more than one language to them

Is it more difficult for a child to acquire two languages than it is for them to acquire 1?

No (this is a myth)

child learning two languages may mix up the word order or other grammatical rules, but they are not neccessarily

confused, just normal to make an oopsie (mistake)

Adult Language Acquisition

fundamentally different from childhood acquisition when there is typically immersion and motivation

-sequential: after acquiring 1st language

Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

child vs adult; communicative competence; passive language understanding

communicative competence

learner’s ability to understand and use language appropriately to communicate in authentic (rather than simulated) social and school environments

passive language understanding

comprehension good, but production is difficult