Full Test Bank Ch9 Childhood Bilingualism

Teaching Resources for Chapter 9

Links

• [basic] This pamphlet was created by the Linguistic Society of America. It was created by professionals in the field but it provides general information that is based on state-of-the-art research. It is designed to be printed out and folded up like a regular pamphlet: http://www.lsadc.org/info/pdf_files/Bilingual.pdf

• [basic] Bilingual children typically perform ahead of their peers on executive function tasks. These are tasks that require one to switch between competing items, and to inhibit an undesirable response. You can try out what these tasks feel like yourself at this website:

http://www.cogtest.com/tests/cognitive_int/cp.html

The most relevant demos to try (from the list on the left) are the Competing Programs task and the Go-No-Go task.

• [basic] If you are interested in becoming fluent in another language, there are lots of terrific programs out there. There are several programs run out of institutions in Canada that promote French-English bilingualism:

http://www.langues.immersion.uqam.ca/en/index.php?gclid=CIza8pzI7LACFUFV4AodqTiTvA#

http://www.learnfrench.ca/

And the Concordia Language Villages provide summer camp experiences for children AND adults in a variety of different languages, including Russian, Korean, Norwegian and many more:

http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/

Activities for Students

• Find someone who is bilingual – a fellow student, a co-worker, even a teacher! Interview this person about their language history and their language preferences. Often bilingual speakers will prefer to use a particular language for a particular task. See if you can determine how your interviewee’s personal history influences their current language use.

Some questions you might want to ask to get the language history: What languages do you speak? How old were you when you learned language X? How did you learn it (at home, in school, etc)?

Some questions you might want to ask to discover language preferences: What language do you prefer to use when cooking/giving directions on campus/calculating a tip/talking with a stranger? When do you prefer to use one language over another?

• Most communities provide some kind of second language experience program for school aged children – these can range from full immersion schools, to schools with language classes, to after school programs. Find out about one or two such programs in your own community. Evaluate how likely you think each program is to effectively teach children a second language, both in the short term and the long term.

Online Movies

Movies on CD

Quicktime Movies

Sample Test Questions

1. Simultaneous bilingualism is when:
   1. a child begins to learn a second language after having already started to learn a first one.
   2. a child learns two languages at the same time from birth.
   3. a child simultaneously learns to read and write a language.
   4. a child learns to differentiate between two languages.
2. Across the world, bilingualism is:
   1. very common. Many children grow up speaking more than one language.
   2. language dependent. It is possible for children to become bilingual easily if they are learning some languages but not if they are learning others.
   3. mandatory. Children are required to learn more than one language.
   4. quite uncommon. Very few children grow up speaking more than one language.
3. Applied research approaches to studying bilingualism generally focus on:
   1. social and political aspects of educating children who are bilingual.
   2. questions centering on issues regarding immigrant children in schools.
   3. parents concerns regarding child development.
   4. developing educational programs.
4. A critical task for simultaneous bilinguals is:
   1. differentiating between their languages.
   2. fusing their languages together.
   3. forgetting one of their languages.
   4. translating between their languages.

1. Over the first year of life, bilingual children :
   1. maintain their ability to hear phonemic contrasts in the language that their mother speaks, but it takes additional them to become skilled at hearing the contrasts of another language.
   2. do not tune their phonemic abilities to a particular language but remain open to all phonemic contrasts.
   3. maintain their ability to hear phonemic contrasts in both of their languages while losing their ability hear phonemic contrasts beyond those languages.
   4. tune their phonemic systems in exactly the same way that monolingual children do.
2. In order for a child to become bilingual, which of the following must be true about her environment?
   1. the child’s parents must follow the one-parent-one-language principle so that the child can keep the two languages separate
   2. the two languages the child is learning must be closely related to each other so that the child’s phonological processing is not over-taxed
   3. the child must receive formal schooling in both languages
   4. none of the above statements describe environmental requirements for becoming bilingual
3. Studies examining the rate of language development in bilingual children have found that:
   1. bilingual children develop in both their languages at equal rates.
   2. bilingual children’s language development is within the normal range, but the actual rate may be different for each their languages
   3. bilingual children lag far behind monolingual children in the development of both their languages
   4. bilingual children acquire both their languages much faster than monolingual children acquire their one language
4. Bilingual children acquire lexical knowledge in each language:
   1. for the same words at the same time.
   2. by learning words in one language and then using them in the second language.
   3. by creating a single lexicon that combines words across the languages.
   4. without confusing the two languages.

1. Which of the following is NOT a factor in children’s ability to become bilingual?
   1. the community attitudes about the languages, such as whether or not one is prestigious or valued
   2. how related the languages are to each other linguistically
   3. the amount of input that a child receives in each language
   4. all of the above are factors that influence a child’s ability to become bilingual
2. A child speaks a low prestige heritage language at home and receives schooling an a second, high prestige language. The child has many friends in school and desires to become an integrated member of the larger community. Which of the following is TRUE about this child?
   1. the child is at risk of losing her first language in a process of attrition
   2. the child will likely become a very balanced bilingual
   3. the child will always be at a disadvantage speaking the community language
   4. all of these statements are true of this child
3. Which of the following factors influence how well a person acquires a second language in childhood?
   1. the intrinsic abilities of the child
   2. the community’s social attitudes about the second language
   3. the age of acquisition
   4. all of these are factors which influence how well a person acquires a second language in childhood
4. Code switching is:
   1. a systematic shifting between languages that is sensitive to grammatical structure and also social situations.
   2. another way of saying someone knows multiple languages.
   3. governed solely by social factors and does not respect grammatical structures.
   4. the product of a general confusion between languages.

1. Recent research on bilingualism and cognitive functioning indicates that children who are bilingual have:
   1. advanced abilities in the domain of word learning.
   2. cognitive advantages in metalinguistic awareness and executive function control.
   3. increased difficulties in school.
   4. confusion and delays in literacy development.
2. Resistance to bilingual education programs in the U.S.:
   1. is well founded, given the results of Canadian bilingual education efforts.
   2. is based on a body of scientific research demonstrating that bilingual children perform worse on a variety of academic measures
   3. is very rare, as most parts of the U.S. are highly supportive of a variety of bilingual education efforts.
   4. is based on misconceptions about how people learn language as well as reactions to poorly implemented programs
3. Research on bilingual education programs in the U.S. has shown that:
   1. students will succeed with any kind of bilingual education program – it details of its implementation do not matter.
   2. the best way to motivate bilingual students to achieve academically is through single-language (English-only) language programs.
   3. supportive dual language programs in which children are instructed in both their home language and also English lead to higher academic performance.
   4. bilingual programs prevent children from learning either language well.
4. Discuss the development of vocabulary in bilingual children. How does it compare to vocabulary development in monolingual children? Which hypothesis about language differentiation (fusion, autonomous differentiation or interdependent differentiation) does bilingual vocabulary development best support? Why?
5. Identify two factors that influence the course or rate of bilingual development and explain how they do so. Be sure to choose one factor that is rooted in the child’s environment and one factor rooted in the child.
6. Imagine that the superintendent of your local school system came to you and asked you to develop a bilingual education program. What advice would you give?