Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 August 25

= August 25 =

Parallel language development
If I recall correctly, a human is born with an innate language development ability, and once a language becomes native, this ability fades to some degree. I am wondering if there is anyplace (Quebec, perhaps) where early public education requires simultaneous/parallel learning of two languages. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:1821:CD59:E35A:CB68 (talk) 23:34, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
 * For starters, there's a long list by country and region in our article on bilingual education. Not all items fit "early public education", depending on how you define it, but you'll still find a number of examples. ---Sluzzelin talk  00:08, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks. There's much there, but so far haven't found anything quite as I had thought I might; I am still looking.  Canada's situation is rather convoluted.  2606:A000:4C0C:E200:1821:CD59:E35A:CB68 (talk) 02:12, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Language is learnt from parents and carers, long before any child enters formal education. If parents speak more than one language, a child usually picks both up very easily. We lived in France, and knew a family with an English speaking mother and Spanish speaking father. Their child quickly learnt both languages, and French at a nursery - trilingual at age two. Even in countries which teach in more than one language children will have a "mother tongue" before they start school - but at that age quickly learn a second one. Wymspen (talk) 09:08, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
 * I've worked with some people who have a good "ear" for language. That is, they can immerse themselves in it and pick it up pretty quickly. It might be easier to pick up when you're a child, but some adults are quite adept at it too. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:13, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
 * The intention is to have bilingual Inuit/English in all Nunavut schools by 2019, page 64. As the document points out, it won't happen. There are several misconceptions in the document though. Page 63 says "Today in Nunavut, Inuktitut is the language of instruction from kindergarten through Grades 3 /4." That's nonsense. Not every community can provide that. In Cambridge Bay we have just a few teachers that are able to speak the language, Inuinnaqtun in our case, that only a few classes are provided and not every day. It also assumes that every child comes to school knowing an Inuit Language, the official term. However, in Cambridge Bay no child that has be born and raised here knows Inuinnaqtun and the only language they have. Oddly enough the Government of Nunavut ensures that we can't have Inuinnaqtun speaking teachers. If some can speak Inuinnaqtun they can make more money working for the government working as an interpreter and they don't have to deal with kids. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 12:12, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
 * This Google Scholar search result shows any number of studies on bilingual children, but I haven't found anything on those who acquire bilingualism at school. Alansplodge (talk) 18:47, 26 August 2016 (UTC)


 * According to this article, 60 to 75% of the world's people speak more than one language. I was brought up with English as my mother's tongue, but my family spoke a Slavic dialect and I lived in Puerto Rico with a Spanish nanny when I first began to talk, so I was conversant in three languages, and studied German and French in High School, Latin and Greek in college, and isiZulu as a post grad.
 * I remember crying when we moved from Texas to South Jersey, and people were very strange when I spoke to them in Spanish, which is what I had used with all my friends until 4 1/2. I think I may be one of those people with a "good ear" for language, or it may have been exposure.  But I advocate early bilingual exposure of any sort. μηδείς (talk) 00:31, 27 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Under the "innate ability" the OP most probably meant the very controversial theories of the language instinct and universal grammar.--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 21:46, 27 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Don't get me started on Chomsky. What I am talking about is simply a difference in aptitude.  I spent two years trying to learn to play two different instruments.  I basically know how a keyboard works.  But I can mimic a sound in any language very easily (although I won't retain it without practice.)   Yet I also know someone who was given a Flutaphone, had never had any schooling, and came home the first day playing TV theme songs.  Unfortunately, and I do not kid, this lead to accusations of witchcraft. μηδείς (talk) 22:07, 27 August 2016 (UTC)