Rob, when did I state that no other sources play into a child acquiring language? I never stated that ONLY parents are involved in the their children's learning of languages. In my first post, I wrote that children of parents who speak Polish in the home will initially learn Polish. However, as they move into the wider circles of the culture in the US, they will acquire the predominant language. I assumed it was implicit that their learning of English would be influenced by their friends, neighbors, school, TV. etc. I also state almost exactly what you do relative to the crucial nature of the age of a child when they acquire a second language, though I referred to as the role of reduced brain plasticity as opposed to "synaptic pruning," both referring to the same process; that is, to explain why,as children grow older, they are more likely to have an accent in the second language compared to younger children.
I also sent a post in response to Don's question about how children of deaf parents learn spoken language but it wasn't accepted as it was my fourth one of the day. A summary is below and I provide articles that give pronounced credit to other sources for how deaf children learn spoken speech, including grandparents, neighbors, visitors and TV. ___________________________________________________________________________Attempted to send last night at 9:23 PM: Don, you mean how do children of deaf parents learn how to talk, right? I have provided two interesting articles below about how this occurs and it appears to be very analogous to how young children learn to speak a language not spoken by their parents and without an accent. Children raised by deaf parents will first become proficient in sign language just as children of Polish parents, e.g., will first become proficient in Polish. However, the Polish speaking child as well as the signing child are both exposed to interactions with their neighbors, friends, and for children of deaf parents, other family members. Through this process they become proficient very early in the language that is predominant in the culture outside of their nuclear family. http://www.4hearingloss.com/archives/2005/08/deaf_parents_an.html http://library.gallaudet.edu/Library/Deaf_Research_Help/Research_Guides_(Pathfinders)/Hearing_Children_of_Deaf_Parents.html http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/15/style/the-family-children-of-deaf-share-their-lives.html?pagewanted=all Joan [email protected] > TIPSfolk, > > Joan is wrong... children learn language and accent from the > environment--with parents being a primary source, but other sources of > language also providing an influence--like the TV and other people. > > Many of us children of accented speakers do not speak with our parents' > accented speech just like we don't adopt their different use of grammar, > in > most cases. Puberty is roughly a cut-off for second language learning > because of the likely synaptic pruning that takes place in the brain. > However, nonnative speakers can acquire near native fluency after puberty > with regular exposure. The best source I've read on bilingualism lately > was: > Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I.M. Craik, David W. Green, and Tamar H. Gollan > Psychological Science in the Public Interest, December 2009; vol. 10, 3: > pp. > 89-129. > > Gracias y saludos, Rob >Julie/Don: >> >> Accents are only maintained if a person learns the second language >> after the age of 12-14. So, as per you younger sibling, s/he was >> exposed to and learned the Chicago accent while their brain was still >> quite plastic. As with all statements about human behavior, there will >> be exceptions. But it has been fairly well established that brain >> plasticity is far more evident before the age of around 12. >> Children learn (their first) language from their parents--to imply otherwise is simply wrong. But children's brains are plastic enough that they can pick up a second language easily and without an accent. I didn't state from whom as I thought it would be implicitly understood that other influences as friends, school, TV, etc. would provide the scaffolding for these children to enable them to learn a second language. Joan [email protected] >> > >> > > Hello TIPSters, >> > > A student asked me why children don't always have the same >> > > accent as their parents, particularly in the case of parents who >> > > are second-language learners. A follow-up question from the >> > > class is why siblings who are raised together don't always have >> > > the same accents -- for example, a family moves from Chicago to >> > > Arkansas (like mine did) and the youngest child is the only >> > > sibling that does NOT have a typical "Southern" accent. Is there >> > > a neurological explanation for this, or are these primarily >> > > environmental effects? >> > > Julie >> > > >> > > >> > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=8684 or send a blank email to leave-8684-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
