This article reports on an investigation of the development of literacy, bilingualism, and
metalinguistic awareness. The particular context of the study (high levels of bilingualism among
school-age children) and the particular language contact situation (an indigenous language) offer
a vantage point on the interaction between language learning and metalinguistic awareness and
take into account the sociolinguistic imbalances that characterize bilingual communities of this
type. The subjects who participated in the study were speakers of Spanish and Náhuatl
from Central Mexico. Assessments of metalinguistic awareness related to different aspects of the
children's consciousness of the languages they spoke or understood were compared to a
series of assessments of reading comprehension, writing, and oral narrative in both languages.
Findings suggest directions for further research along the following lines: metalinguistic
awareness is related to different aspects of literacy development in different ways, the key
variables being the degree of decontextualization and expressive versus receptive language
tasks.
A wide range of conflicting cultural perspectives associated with language acquisition and ethnolinguistic loyalties exists in Mexico wherever English is taught and spoken. The interplay ofsocioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic tensions produce positive and negative attitudes toward learning English. Students confront an array of sociolinguistic factors associated with dominant and subordinate languages. The following study compared perceptions of students and teachers in two contrasting settings, urban and rural.
Research reports from three areas of investigation (exceptional bilingualism, early differentiation in childhood bilingualism, and language mixing) are discussed with the purpose of exploring the applicability of the concept of modularity. Components of bilingual proficiency can be studied from a modular perspective along two dimensions: (1) autonomy and interaction between representations of the bilingual's two languages, (2) degrees and kinds of autonomy of Conceptual Structures from the linguistic structures of both languages, and how these domains interact. A model of bilingual proficiency is proposed based on an adaptation of Jackendoff's Tripartite Parallel Architecture (TPA). Jackendoff's (2002) assessment of Levelt's (1999) theory of speech processing represents an important attempt to promote an interdisciplinary exchange around a conception of modularity that is more in line with recent psycholinguistic research. De Bot's (2000 /1992) bilingual adaptation of Levelt's model is discussed as a key contribution to a developing convergence, taking advantage of the special opportunities that the study of bilingualism offers to the discussion. While a number of points of divergence remain between the Levelt and de Bot models on the one hand, and Jackendoff's TPA and the proposed Bilingual TPA on the other, it is not clear if these differences are of substance or rather the result of analyzing bilingual proficiency from alternate vantage points. The proposal offered for discussion in this paper is inclined toward the latter.
A study of first and second language development in an indigenous community with implications for broader linguistic and cognitive issues.
When two or more languages are part of a child's world, we are presented with a rich opportunity to learn something about language in general and about how the mind works. In this book, Norbert Francis examines the development of bilingual proficiency and the different kinds of competence that come together in making up its component parts. In particular, he explores problems of language ability when children use two languages for tasks related to schooling, especially in learning how to read and write. He considers both broader research issues and findings from an ongoing investigation of child bilingualism in an indigenous language–speaking community in Mexico. This special sociolinguistic context allows for a unique perspective on some of the central themes of bilingualism research today, including the distinction between competence and proficiency, modularity, and the Poverty of Stimulus problem.
Francis proposes that competence (knowledge) should be considered as an integral component of proficiency (ability) rather than something separate and apart, arguing that this approach allows for a more inclusive assessment of research findings from diverse fields of study. The bilingual indigenous language project illustrates how the concepts of modularity and the competence-proficiency distinction in particular might be applied to problems of language learning and literacy.
Few investigations of indigenous language and culture approach bilingual research problems from a cognitive science perspective. By suggesting connections to broader cognitive and linguistic issues, Francis points the way to further research along these lines.
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