Since I will be working as a live-in nanny to save some rent, starting from January 2017, I have been busy packaging and looking for someone to sublet my apartment. One of reasons why this job attracts me is that the family pays much attention to the language education of the two-year-old toddler because of his speech delay. The child seems to be able to understand what people are talking about, but still he blurts only simple words like papa from time to time. Most of the time, he would use his sign language to ask for things or to convey information. The parents want me to speak to the child in Chinese or English, whatever language I am comfortable with (Though I feel that they prefer me to use Chinese). As long as I talk to the child in complete sentences rather than baby talk, it is fine. No baby talk is one of the hard rules in the house. The previous nanny spoke to the child in Vietnamese and French, and the parents talk to the child in French only. I cannot help guessing if it may be the case that the child is confused by various languages surrounding him. In contrast, there is a four-year-old girl named Bella who can speak seven languages. She's so popular that we even talked about her in the sociolinguistics class and wondered how she made it. According to my classmate Natalie, Bella's parents spent a lot of money hiring private tutors of different nationalities to "play" with Bella. Here's a video of Bella. By comparison and contrast, I negate my previous guess that the child is confounded by different kinds of input. Then I wondered if there is something wrong with the child himself . Vygotsky (1978) argued that the mind does not act upon reality or apprehend it directly but does so indirectly through signs. Signs, in contrast to physical tools that mediate labor and manipulation of nature, are psychological tools of mediation. Sign-mediated activity includes primarily the use of language but also of other semiotic tools, such as gestures, mnemonic techniques, mathematical symbols, and diagrams. According to Vygotsky’s theory, the child using his right index finger pointing to his left palm to ask for more food is able to carry out certain sign-mediated activity. Thus, I deduct that the child is sound in mind and well on the way to form verbal thought. Verbal thought defined by Guerrero(2005, pp.18) as symbolic thinking mediated by inner speech. After reading about private and inner speech serving a regulatory role played in social speech, through the study carried out by San et al (2011) that I learned that "the most notable increase in private speech occurred between 4.5 and 6.5 years of age for both speakers and listeners". Then I think that it may be still too early for the child to fully develop the language ability by means of mediation of private and inner speech. That said, I cannot help resisting the urge to ask "What language does your mind speak?" to multilinguals. Even though inner speech is not technically a language system and there is no point analyzing its structure, in which language is your inner speech turns out to be interesting. As for myself, my answer would simply be "mandarin" because I always see myself as monolingual. According to some linguists, bilingual refers to those who use both languages equally well. So the fact that my English level is rather limited leads to my answer. Nevertheless, is there some time that multilingual children feeling lost in acquiring more than one languages? How do they overcome such situation? If you happen to be a multilingual and have read the blog, I really hope you could share your experience. In the end, best wishes to you in 2017. References: Guerrero, M. C. M. (2005). Inner speech--L2: Thinking words in a second language (pp.18). New York: Springer. San, M. M. C., Boada, . C. H., & Feigenbaum, P. (January 01, 2011). Private and inner speech and the regulation of social speech communication. Cognitive Development, 26, 3, 214-229. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
1 Comment
Mela Sarkar
1/6/2017 11:41:47 am
Oh dear...but best of luck with your small tutee! One thing that it's important to keep in mind is that the range of normal variation for first language acquisition is VERY LARGE. If the child is not much over two, and clearly able to understand (especially what the parents say)...if the child can express wants through gesture in the way you describe...then everything may be just fine. But of course there might also be a delay. You might want to look up Johanne Paradis' work (with Fred Genesee and Martha Crago, as well as on her own)...she has written some very useful things on this.
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