首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Keeping it in the Family For expat parents, passing on their native languages can be a struggle. "You understand grandmother whe
Keeping it in the Family For expat parents, passing on their native languages can be a struggle. "You understand grandmother whe
admin
2019-10-03
21
问题
Keeping it in the Family
For expat parents, passing on their native languages can be a struggle. "You understand grandmother when she talks to you, don’t you, darling?" The girl nods. Johnson met her—and her Danish mother and English father—at the airport, en route to Denmark. The parents were eager to discuss their experience of bringing up their daughter bilingually in London. It isn’ t easy: the husband does not speak Danish, so the child hears the language only from her mother, who has come to accept that she will reply in English. This can be painful. Not sharing your first language with loved ones is hard. Not passing it on to your own child can be especially tough. Many expat and immigrant parents feel a sense of failure; they wring their hands and share stories on parenting forums and social media, hoping to find the secret to nurturing bilingual children successfully.
Children are linguistic sponges, but this doesn’ t mean that cursory exposure is enough. They must hear a language quite a bit to understand it—and use it often to be able to speak it comfortably. This is mental work, and a child who doesn’ t have a motive to speak a language—either a need or a strong desire—will often avoid it. Children’ s brains are already busy enough. So languages often wither and die when parents move abroad. Consider America. The foreign-born share of the population is 13.7%, and has never been lower than 4.7% (in 1970). And yet foreign-language speakers don’t accumulate: today just 25% of the population speaks another language. That’s because, typically, the first generation born in America is bilingual, and the second is monolingual— in English, the children often struggling to speak easily with their immigrant grandparents.
In the past, governments discouraged immigrant families from keeping their languages. Teddy Roosevelt worried that America would become a "polyglot boarding-house". These days, officials tend to be less interventionist; some even see a valuable resource in immigrants’ language abilities. Yet many factors
conspire
to ensure that children still lose their parents’ languages, or never learn them. A big one is institutional pressure. A child’s time spent with a second language is time not spent on their first. So teachers often discourage parents from speaking their languages to their children. (This is especially true if the second language lacks prestige.) Parents often reluctantly comply, worried about their offspring’s education. This is a shame; children really can master two languages or even more. Research does indeed suggest their vocabulary in each language may be somewhat smaller for a while. But other studies hint at cognitive advantages among bilinguals. They may be more adept at complex tasks, better at maintaining attention, and (at the other end of life) suffer the onset of dementia later.
Even without those side-effects, though, a bilingual child’ s connection to relatives and another culture is a good thing in itself. How to bring it about? When both parents share the heritage language, the strategy is often to speak that at home, and the national language outside. But when they have different languages, perhaps the most common approach is "one parent, one language". Francois Grosjean, a linguist at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland, emphasises necessity. He recommends reserving occasions on which the only language that may be spoken is the one that needs support. Sabine Little, a German linguist at the University of Sheffield, puts the emphasis elsewhere. Making the heritage language yet another task imposed by parents can lead to rejection, she argues. She recommends letting the child forge their own emotional connection to the language. Her son gave up on German for several years before returning to it. She let him determine when they would speak it together. (He decided on the pair’ s trips in her car to after-school activities, during which his father, who doesn’t speak German, would not be excluded.) They joke about his Anglo-German mash-ups and incorporate them into their lexicon. Like many youngsters, his time on YouTube is restricted—but he is allowed more if he watches in German. Ms Little suggests learning through apps and entertainment made for native speakers; the educational type smack of homework, she thinks.
Languages are an intimate part of identity; it is wrenching to try and fail to pass them on to a child. Success may be a question of remembering that they are not just another thing to be drilled into a young mind, but a matter of the heart.
Which of the statement of the following is not true?
选项
A、In America, the first generation born in America is bilingual, and the second is monolingual— in English.
B、People who are bilinguals may be more adept at complex tasks, better at maintaining attention, and suffer the onset of dementia later.
C、Sabine Little, a German linguist at the University of Sheffield, stresses that making the heritage language yet another task imposed by parents can lead to rejection.
D、Teddy Roosevelt recommends reserving occasions on which the only language that may be spoken is the one that needs support.
答案
D
解析
细节题。A项“一般情况下这样的第一代能讲双语,到了第二代就只能讲一种语言”,可在文章第二段最后一句找到。B项“那些双语习得者可能更擅长复杂的任务,更善于保持注意力,(在老年时)更晚得痴呆症”,可在文中第三段最后一句找到相关内容。C项“谢菲尔德大学德国语言学家扎比内·利特尔认为让传统语言成为父母强加给孩子的又一项任务可能会让孩子反感”,可在文章第四段第八句找到。D项“泰迪·罗斯福强调了家族内传承语言的重要性”。主语应该是弗朗索瓦·格罗让,从第四段第五、六句可看出。故本题选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ZgW7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Peoplecannowavoidhavingtosortthroughalbumsfromseveraldifferentfriendswhentryingtoreliveparties,weddingsandot
Somesayitisevidentthatcomputerscandamageaperson’seyesight.Sincethepopularityofcomputersbegantoskyrocket,ther
Somesayitisevidentthatcomputerscandamageaperson’seyesight.Sincethepopularityofcomputersbegantoskyrocket,ther
Dependingonwhichplayeryouask,the"Fevernova"ballthatsportsequipmentmakerAdidassaysprovidestheultimatesoccerexp
Theperiodofadolescence,i.e.,theperiodbetweenchildhoodandadulthood,maybelongorshort,dependingonsocialexpectati
Oncetheydecidedtohavechildren,MiShelandCarlMeissnertackledthenextbigissue:Shouldtheytrytohaveagirl?Itwas
CanMixofTeachers,ComputersLeadtoPupilSuccess?[A]WhenvisitorstotheCarpeDiemcharterschoolsee175studentswea
CanMixofTeachers,ComputersLeadtoPupilSuccess?[A]WhenvisitorstotheCarpeDiemcharterschoolsee175studentswea
A、Satisfied.B、Enthusiastic.C、Disappointed.D、Indifferent.C女士谈到,男士一定见证了公司很多的变化,男士回应说绝大部分的变化都是使事情变得更加糟糕。故选C。
Since2007,theAmericanPsychologicalAssociation(APA)hasconductedasurveyofdifferentaspectsofstressinAmerica,Thisye
随机试题
下列各项不属于国别文化的是()
药物传递系统(DDS)作为创新制剂,需要的3种基本技能不包括()。
《货币市场基金管理暂行规定》规定:“对于每日按照面值进行报价的货币市场基金,可以在基金合同中将收益分配的方式约定为(),并应当()进行收益分配。”
荣发公司(小规模纳税人)2011年12月份发生如下经济业务:(1)该公司广告业务部当月取得广告业务收入500万元,付给有关单位广告制作费80万元,付给电视台广告发布费60万元。(2)该公司下设非独立核算的娱乐中心当月舞厅取得门票
自习课上,小林想跟同桌说话,可看到大家都在安静地上自习,就克制住说话的冲动。在课堂纪律形成的原因与类型中,属于()。
短期计划在执行的过程中灵活选择的范围较小,()是其最基本也是最重要的要求。
任何事物的发展都是一个螺旋上升的过程,只有坚持“一张蓝图抓到底”,以夸父逐日的_______、水滴石穿的_______,才能破解转型发展中的顽瘴痼疾。填入划横线部分最恰当的一项是:
元丰变法前,宋朝为了加强对中央司法机关的控制,在皇宫中设立()。
CosmeticSurgerySurgerythatcanimprovethewayapersonlooksisbecomingmoreandmorepopularintheUnitedStates.Th
She’scute,noquestion.Symmetricalfeatures,flawlessskin,lookstobe22yearsold—enteringanymeat-marketbar,awomanluc
最新回复
(
0
)