Children's language networks and teachers' input in minority language immersion: What goes in may not come out

A central tenet of two-way immersion has been that the minority language children benefit from mother-tongue support in addition to instruction and interaction in the majority language (usually English) with their peers in high-prestige programmes, while the English-speakers gain valuable opportunities for peer interaction in their L2 with native-speakers. Such mixing of L1 and L2 learners of the target language also occurs in minority language immersion programmes. This study presents a qualitative study of L1 minority language children’s output in such mixed groups by examining their language networks and use of the target language, Irish1, in Irish-medium preschools or naíonraí where they are interacting with L2 learners of Irish. Such networks are particularly interesting in the informal setting of preschool, where children have more freedom to move around and choose their interlocutor than in formal classrooms. This exploration of the children’s output and their language choices raises pertinent questions about the needs of minority language children for direct L1 enrichment. This leads to an examination of aspects of the teachers’ input to these minority language children in light of their linguistic needs and the evidence of contact phenomena in their output.AD 05/02/201

Assessing and diagnosing language impairment in bilingual children : a minority language study

Diagnosing specific language impairment (SLI) in monolingual children is a complex task, with some controversy regarding criteria. Diagnosis of SLI in bilinguals is made more complex by the lack of standardized assessments and poor understanding of clinical markers in languages other than English. There is an added complexity when one of the languages being acquired is an endangered one, where the domains of use and input are restricted, and where input is affected by convergence with the majority language. This article explores the challenge facing speech and language therapists and psychologists in diagnosing SLI in bilingual children acquiring Irish and English. Six speech and language therapists and four psychologists took part in semi-structured interviews exploring the impact of the bilingual environment, the nature of bilingual language impairment, current practices and the needs of these children. Thematic analysis was carried out and here three of the main themes emerging in the areas of assessment, the bilingual environment and characteristics of language impairment in this population are discussed. For assessment, an overriding theme was the requirement of standardized testing to secure additional educational and therapy resources for these children. However, because there are no standardized tests available in Irish, both professions end up translating existing English-based language and psychological assessments, using the norms provided to achieve standard scores. Both professions expressed strong dissatisfaction with this practice but saw little choice, given the Department of Education’s approach to allocation of supports. Language impairment in Irish was characterized by lexical difficulties, particularly with verbs and prepositions, tense errors, and significant borrowing and code-switching with English. Other themes that emerged were the growing influence of English as the children became older, which affected both attitudes to the minority Irish language as well as the content and structure of the language itself. The implications for service provision for bilingual populations in general are outlined.Foras na GaeilgeTS 27.08.1

'Is it really for talking?' : the implications of associating a minority language with the school

This paper examines how caregivers in a bilingual family discursively link Gaelic to a school context when interacting with Maggie, an eight year-old who is currently enrolled in Gaelic Medium Education on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. The paper argues that the caregivers achieve this discursive framing primarily through treating Gaelic as a performance language and through orienting to discourses that de-normatise Maggie s use of her minority language. The paper argues that although the caregivers believe they are encouraging Maggie s use of Gaelic, by framing the language in a school context, they link Gaelic to authority. It is further argued that this association of Gaelic with authority may be one of the many contributing factors to Maggie s low use of the language overall. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this argument in terms of language policy and planning

Language education for new speakers

No abstract available