Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.08 10/3/83; site psuvax1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!psuvax1!simon From: simon@psuvax1.UUCP (Janos Simon) Newsgroups: net.kids,net.nlang Subject: Re: Re: Teaching children to be bilingual Message-ID: <1146@psuvax1.UUCP> Date: Sun, 14-Oct-84 21:32:10 EDT Article-I.D.: psuvax1.1146 Posted: Sun Oct 14 21:32:10 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 16-Oct-84 03:11:25 EDT References: <1505@ucla-cs.ARPA> <858@ihuxb.UUCP> <1170@eosp1.UUCP> <186@scc.UUCP> Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ. Lines: 18 [] I have friends in Brazil who speak English at home. Their daughter is fully bilingual. They speak almost exclusively English at home. I also have friends in the US with almost trilingual children: they speak Portuguese and Hungarian, besides English. They were fully trilingual until about age three: now their Portuguese is adequate, but not equal to that of a native speaker, and their Hungarian is marginal. This seems to be directly related to the amount of exposure to each language. There seem to be three periods: a)up to age ~3 (or until substantial contact with peers develops) they will pick up languages with great ease, if they are required in a situation. b)up to about age 10-11: language skills will be mantained only if exercised (although relearning later is easier), and exercised a lot. When one language skill falls behind the other, a strong pressure is needed to make the child - who feels inadequate when using it - to speak it or even to listen. c)older children, who have language skills. maintain them like adults (but also have more difficulty learning new languages). js