Adnan's Carry OnAdnan’s parents spoke their native languages with him in his childhood and he was exposed to English in his childhood as well. He picked up the languages of English, French, and Gujarati to an extent. In Language Development in Early Childhood Education, it illustrates that language knowledge has five different aspects: phonological knowledge, semantic knowledge, syntactic knowledge, morphemic knowledge, and pragmatic knowledge. (Phonological knowledge refers to the linguistic knowledge over the relations between sounds and symbols; semantic knowledge is about the words that label concepts; syntactic knowledge refers to the system that overrules all the grammars; morphemic knowledge refers to word structure; and pragmatic knowledge involves the general intent in communication and how to achieve that intent) (11). The time from birth to about the age of ten is the optimum time for these types of knowledge (97). Having been exposed to three languages, Adnan developed the required knowledge in his youth and it is very facile for him to further develop mastery with theses three languages. Adnan’s experience also relates to that of Cherry. Cherry’s family spoke Mandarin during her childhood and she attended English-speaking schools. She became familiarized with the usage of Mandarin and English in her youth quicker than the other Chinese students who did not have such an experience. Because of these clear advantages, she speaks a better English. On the other hand, it is described in the book Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy through School Age, that in learning languages in general, infants exposed to two languages are “delayed” relative to monolinguals (23) while “infants in monolingual environments become increasingly specialized in a particular system of sounds, making a ‘neural commitment’ to the phonological system of their native language by the end of the first year”. So, although there might have been a chance that he could have suffered from triple loaded duty of language since anything could be expressed with three languages, now, he has no difficulty speaking any one of them. Besides, he noted that he doesn't even confuse the grammar or vocabulary usage among these three languages. Samantha and Maria have had somewhat similar academic experiences; however, they did have a hard time. When they moved to America, speaking Spanish instead of English, they had a difficult time in English-speaking classes and social dilemmas. After a short period of time, they became better at speaking English and the other difficulties were solved along the way.
Otto, Brverly. Language Development in Early Childhood Education, 4th ed. Northeastern Illinois University, 2014. Print. McCardl, Peggy and Hoff, Erika, eds. Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy through School Age. Great Britain: Crowmwell Press Ltd. |