1) False. Culture can affect how long it takes children learn English. Do your students come from a modern industrialized countries or a rural agricultural societies? Do your students come from language backgrounds using a different writing system? These factors will affect how long it takes them to learn English. Previous schooling and school expectations will also affect language learning. Also, the more culture shock experienced by the child, the longer it will take him/her to learn a new language.
2) False. We often see children on the playground who appear to speak English with no problem. Yet when they are in a classroom situation, they just don't seem to grasp the concepts. Many people fail to realize that there are different levels of language proficiency. The language needed for face-to-face communication takes less time to master than the language needed to perform in cognitively demanding situations such as classes and lectures. It takes a child about 2 years to develop the ability to communicate in a second language on the playground, but it takes 5-7 years to develop age-appropriate academic language. Many immigrant children have been misdiagnosed in the past as "learning disabled," when in fact the problem was that people misunderstood their fluency on the playground, thinking that it meant they should be able to perform in class as well. Actually, they still needed time and assistance to develop their academic English skills.
3) True. In controlled
research, where children have been compared to adults and teenagers in
second language learning, it was found that adults and teenagers
learned a second language more readily. Yes, children outperform
adults in the area of pronunciation, and they may seem to learn faster when heard in a social setting, but a child's requirements for communication
are much lower than those for adults. This makes them seem more proficient. They have
much less to learn in order to interact with their peers, whereas adults must master more skills to seem as proficient.
4) True. Research conducted by Collier & Thomas has shown that students with no formal schooling in their native language, when placed in a classroom where only the second language is used, will take 7-10 years to reach the age and grade-level norm of their native English-speaking peers. Immigrant students who have had 2-3 years of first language schooling in their home country take 5-7 years to perform at their grade-level.
5) False. There are different levels of language proficiency. The language
needed for face-to-face communication takes less time to master than the
language needed to perform in cognitively demanding situations. It takes a child about 2 years to develop the
ability to communicate in a second language on the playground, but
it takes 5-7 years to develop age-appropriate academic language.
6) True. Collier & Thomas found that non-native speakers, being schooled in a second language for part or all of the school day, typically do reasonably well in the early years of schooling (kindergarten through second or third grade), but from fourth grade through middle and high school, when the academic and cognitive demands of the curriculum increase rapidly with each succeeding year, students with little or no academic or cognitive development in their first language, do more poorly as grade levels increase.
|
7) False. Children need comprehensible input. Imagine that you are sitting in a room of Arabic speakers. You have no idea what they are talking about. You could sit there for a long time, and learn very little, unless someone helped make that input comprehensible.
8) False. This question is more complex than it seems. In controlled research where children have been compared to adults and teenagers in second language learning, it was found that the adults and teenagers learned a second language more readily. Yes, children do outperform adults in the area of pronunciation. Children appear to acquire social language more easily. There is an old myth around that says that children are superior to adults in language learning because their brains are more flexible. This hypothesis has been much disputed. The differences in ability to learn languages may be social rather than biological. The child may have more occasion to interact socially with others . Their requirements for communication are much lower. They have much less to learn in order to interact in the school setting with their peers. Teenagers and adults have acquired language learning strategies.
9) False. In 1911, the U.S.
Immigration Service found that 77% of Italian, 60% of Russian, and 51%
of German immigrant children were one or more grade levels behind in
school, compared to 28% of American students.
10) False. Research shows that it is much better for parents to speak to children in their native language. This language will be richer and more complex. Regardless in what language information is initially delivered, children will eventually translate that knowledge into English.
11) False. Children
can speak and socialize long before they can use language for
academic purposes. BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication
Skills) are acquired first. This is the language
needed to interact on the playground and in the classroom. It usually takes
students from 1-3 years to completely develop this social language. CALP (Cognitive Academic Language
Proficiency Skils), the language needed to undertake academic tasks
in the mainstream classroom, takes 5-7 years.
12) False. Culture and personal experiences can affect how long it takes children to learn English. Previous schooling, as well as school expectations, will also affect language learning. Culture shock also plays a large role in the acquisition of language.
|
The information summarized above, as well as additional information is taken from EverythingESL.net, compiled by Judie Haynes.