Why is it some children don’t become bilingual even
though one parent is a foreigner?
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Yuna Yamamoto
2016
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Contents
Abstract ⅳ
Chapter One: Bilingual Families
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 What is bilingualism? 1
1.2 What are the advantages of becoming bilingual? 3
1.3 How can people become bilingual? 3
1.4 How to bring up a bilingual family 5
1.5 Why don’t some people who have the opportunity to be bilingual, not become bilingual? 7
1.6 Research questions 7
1.7 Summary 8
Chapter Two: The Experiment
2.1 Introduction 9
2.2 The Experiment 9
2.2.1 Introduction to the questionnaire 9
2.2.2 Method 9
1) Subject 9
2) Procedure 10
2.3 Results 10
2.3.1 Introduction 10
2.3.2 Jason and Yukie Williams 10
2.3.3 Mitch and Izuru Abell 13
2.3.4 Mari Sakaguchi 15
2.3.5 Chris and Minako Creighton 17
2.3.6 Claus and Ikuko Ichikawa 19
2.3.7 Daniel and Aya Imai 20
2.3.8 Joe and Emiko Kirino 22
2.3.9 Hisham and Ryoko Mastumoto 24
2.3.10 Rob Waring 26
2.4 Summary 27
Chapter three: Discussion
3.1 Introduction 28
3.2 Summary of the results 28
3.3 Discussion of the results 29
3.3.1 Some Golden Rules for becoming bilingual 29
3.3.2 What is the important things bring up the children bilingually?
30
3.4 Research questions 31
3.5 Implications 32
3.6 Limitations of the Experiment 32
3.7 Further research 33
3.8 Conclusion 33
References 35
Appendices 37
Abstract
This thesis discusses the results about bilingual families of a questionnaire, to find out the “Golden Rules” to bring up children bilingually. It will help establish bilingualism in children. This information would be very useful for parents and educators as bilingualism is something that will become more and more useful as the world becomes more international.
In Chapter One, we looked at definition of bilingual, what are the advantages of becoming bilingual and how to bring up a bilingual family and so on.
In Chapter Two, we looked at the results of questionnaire given to people who don’t have bilingual children and those who have bilingual children. They answered their ideas, gave important information and explained effective ways to bring up children bilingually. Also, we looked at some plans of those who have bilingual children and what did they do to make their children become bilingual.
In Chapter Three, we discussed the results of the questionnaire and research questions in detail. We can see some Golden Rules. For example, “one parent one language”. The only house rule which consistently helped to bring up their children bilingually was if the father is there, then they speak only English in the house and if the father is not there, then they only speak Japanese. Another example was that all of the families think that speaking is the most important thing to bring up the children bilingually and they try to use the second language more and more with children. And they should not force their children to use second language. Learning a language should be enjoyable for children.
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Chapter One: Bilingual Families
1.0 Introduction
“Bilingualism” is a very interesting topic to many people who have an interest in international families and are obviously closely linked to bilinguals. Some people are not bilingual even though one of the parents is a foreigner. It is true to say that the children of international families are not always bilinguals. Some families have succeeded in bringing up their children bilingually and some families are not interested in having bilingual children, or haven’t succeeded in bringing up their children bilingually yet. However, despite this, there are maybe some Golden Rules that could be suggested to promote bilingualism in the children of international families.
1.1 What is bilingualism?
What is Bilingualism? Most people who are not linguists would answer, “having the ability to converse fluently in two languages.” However, there is a problem. How do you measure “fluency” in any language? For example, no one speaks the whole of the English language, only parts that are relevant to their lives. Bilinguals must be the same, for example, a bilingual doctor, speaks English at home and Japanese at work. His domestic English would be better than his scientific English and his scientific Japanese would be better than his domestic Japanese. That is why defining bilingualism is so difficult; with two different bilinguals you are never measuring the same thing. Moreover does knowing a few words in a foreign language make you bilingual, or if not, how many words and how much grammar does one need?
There are many definitions of bilingualism. Although it may be effective to explain one type of bilingualism, it also appears that these definitions don’t cover every aspect of bilingualism.
Here are some of the definitions suggested by researchers and linguists in the past include the following definitions found in Harding and Riley (1986).
a) “The mastery of two or more languages – bilingualism or multilingualism – a special skill. Bilingualism and multilingualism are relative terms since individuals vary greatly in types and degrees of language proficiency.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1965)
b) Bilingualism is native like control of two languages… Of course, one cannot define a degree of perfection at which a good foreign speaker becomes a bilingual; the distinction is relative.” (Bloomfield, 1933)
c) “The phenomenon of bilingualism is something entirely relative…we shall therefore consider bilingualism as the alternative use of two or more languages by the same individual.”
d) Bilingualism is understood…to begin at the point where the speaker of one language can produce complete, meaningful utterances in the other language.”
e) Bilingualism is an optional or obligatory means for efficient two-way communication between two or more different ‘worlds’ using two different linguistic systems.”
The definition used in this thesis is to able to speak two languages with the facility of a native speaker.
1.2 What are the advantages of becoming bilingual?
There are many advantage of becoming bilingual and one of many advantages bilingual children have is that they are better able to focus their attention on relevant information and ignore distraction (Lowry, undated). Other is that bilingual individuals have been shown to be more creative and better at planning and solving complex problems than monolinguals. For example, in Canada, employment rates are higher for French/English bilinguals than monolinguals. Canadian who speak both official languages have a median income nearly 10% higher than that of those who speak English only, and 40% higher than that of those who speak French only.
1.3 How can people become bilingual?
There are four different environments in which we can become bi-lingual, which are at work, at home and at school as well as when overseas.
Becoming bi-lingual at home
They can read books, listen to music, and do games, watch media and have conversations, especially daily conversations with the family and friends in other language. One important thing is that the parents should make children enjoy the language they use and give them reasons to use it.
Becoming bi-lingual at School
If you are fortunate enough to live in an area where there are schools which teach in different languages (where we live there are French school boards and English school boards), you could consider sending your child to a school with children who speak another mother tongue. Plenty of children enter kindergarten at schools where they do not speak a word of the language their friends speak and they quickly learn the other language.
In countries like Canada they have immersion programs, which are intended
to help all children become bilingual.
However, in most countries like Japan there is no immersion program and English is taught only as another subject so it is much harder for them to become bilingual.
Becoming bi-lingual at work
They use other language at work. It can be called “One place, one language”. With this technique, different languages would be spoken in different places. For example, a doctor would use English at work, but they use another language at home. It can be useful when you are trying to institute the foreign language as the home language to not have multiple languages in the home environment.
Becoming bi-lingual at while overseas
Staying overseas can help people to become bilingual easily provided they interact with the community and do not stay with their country peers. They have to use the language which people live there and use one. Or they could try to travel somewhere with their child where the second language is spoken. For example, if you are in the United States, some obvious easy options are Quebec, Canada (to the North) and Mexico (to the South). They should try to get out of the touristy areas where people are likely to speak English and find spots where their child will be exposed to more of the native language. Staying at small bed and breakfasts and visiting local playgrounds can be good ways to hear the language being spoken. They can also use the opportunity to pick up some materials (books, DVDs, etc. in the foreign language).
1.4 How to bring up a bilingual family
If you want your child to develop good second language ability, what steps will lead to your goal? Here are 15 tips to help increase the odds of success suggested by Beck (2012).
1. Start early. If you’re proactive from the start, you’ll have a much better chance of nurturing a good balance of mother tongue and other language.
2. Prioritize it. Make second language a priority from the get-go and you’ll stand a far greater chance of long-term success.
3. Set a goal. Set a clear goal for children. Whatever your goal is, articulate it, and make sure that your efforts match the goal you seek.
4. Get informed. By informing yourself on the subject of children and bilingualism, you’ll be better able to support the development of your child’s second language ability.
5. Adopt a strategy. Every family is not the same, but many families have found that the strategy of “one parent-one language” provides a firm foundation for the two languages to grow in a balanced way. Other families may have a different plan.
6. Read aloud every day. Reading aloud to their child in second language, for at least 15 minutes each day, is the single most important practice they can keep when it comes to nurturing your child’s second language ability.
7. Build a home library. Books are a small investment, but the eventual payoff in good second language ability is so great.
8. Visit the public library. The library may help to increase the amount of reading material available to you and the children.
9. Use background music. Making use of background music is an easy and effective way to consistently add to the English exposure your child receives.
10. Play second language games. Children love to play games, and there are a lot of great games that are fun to play and effective in promoting language exposure.
11. Make your home “second language-rich”. Beyond books, music, and games, make your home as rich in second language exposure as you can.
12. Engage in storytelling. Children love to hear about the adventures of their parents when they were young. Parents tell them true stories.
13. Give written homework. If parents think that reading and writing skill is important, it’s best to establish a habit of homework early.
14. Employ “captive reading”. For example, put posters of the alphabet and common words on the wall.
15. Convey the value of second language. It’s important to talk up the value of second language for your children.
Therefore, there is some idea and if you want raise up your children bilingual, you should try to many ways that you want to try.
1.5 Why don’t some people who have the opportunity to be bilingual, not become bilingual?
There are some reasons. One thing is that the other parent can’t or won’t speak second language to the children. For example, the children’s father is also fluent in both English and Spanish, which sound ideal. Since their children were born in a Spanish-speaking country they initially decided to speak to their children in English so they would grow up speaking both. But then they moved to the United States, and the father never could transition to addressing the girls in Spanish. In other families, the issue could be that one of the parents does not speak Spanish at all.
Other thing is that the children don’t want to speak a second language because their friends don’t. Friends influence their friends a lot. If children can’t understand why his or her family uses two kind of language, they may not feel good and they don’t want to use second language any more (Ladish, 2013).
Or just parents didn’t do “One parents One language”. Golden Rules are important to bring up their children bilingually.
1.6 Research questions
There are several research questions for this thesis.