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Bilingualism and the Individual Multilingual Matters (Series) ; 42 Holmen, Anne. Multilingual Matters 1853590150 9781853590153 9780585113531 English Bilingualism--Congresses, Language and languages-Variation--Congresses, Second language acquisition-Congresses, Literature and society--Congresses. 1988 P115.B547 1988eb 404/.2 Bilingualism--Congresses, Language and languages-Variation--Congresses, Second language acquisition-Congresses, Literature and society--Congresses.
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Bilingualism and the Individual Copenhagen Studies In Bilingualism, Vol. 4 MULTILINGUAL MATTERS 42 Series Editor: Derrick Sharp Edited by A. Holmen, E. Hansen, J. Gimbel and J. N. Jørgensen MULTILINGUAL MATTERS LTD Clevedon · Philadelphia
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Disclaimer: This book contains characters with diacritics. When the characters can be represented using the ISO 8859-1 character set (http://www.w3.org/TR/images/latin1.gif), netLibrary will represent them as they appear in the original text, and most computers will be able to show the full characters correctly. In order to keep the text searchable and readable on most computers, characters with diacritics that are not part of the ISO 8859-1 list will be represented without their diacritical marks. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bilingualism and the individual. (Copenhagen studies in bilingualism; vol. 4) (Multilingual matters; 42) English and Danish. Proceedings from the 5th Nordic Conference on Bilingualism held on the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies at Copenhagen, June 22-25, 1987. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Bilingualism-Congresses. 2. Language and languages-Variation-Congresses. 3. Second language acquisition-Congresses. 4. Literature and societyCongresses. I. Holmen, Anne. II. Nordiska tvåpråkighetssymposiet (5th : 1987 : Royal Danish School of Educational Studies) III. Series: Københavnerstudier i tosprogethed; bd. 4. IV. Series: Multilingual matters; 42. P115.B547 1988 404'.2 88-12461 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Bilingualism and the individual (Copenhagen studies in bilingualism; V.4) (Multilingual Matters; 42). 1. Bilingualism. I. Holmen, A (Anne), 1954404'.2 ISBN 1-85359-015-0 Multilingual Matters Ltd, Bank House, 8a Hill Road, and 242 Cherry Street, Clevedon, Avon BS21 7HH, Philadelphia, Pa 19106-1906 England. USA Copyright © 1988 J. N. Jørgensen, E. Hansen, A. Holmen, J. Gimbel and the authors of individual chapters All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Short Run Press, Exeter
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Foreword This is one of three volumes of publications of proceedings from the Fifth Nordic Conference on Bilingualism. The remainder of the papers are published in a special double issue of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development and in Volume Five of the Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism published by Multilingual Matters, Ltd. The Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development contains papers dealing with two sub-themes of the conference which have particular relevance in the Scandinavian context. One is the school's relationship to bilingualism, discussed at the national level. The other group of papers in that volume deals with the learning and development processes which go on in the individual. Volume Five of the Copenhagen Studies comprises the papers on Bilingualism in Society and School. There are papers on language planning, on the different status of different languages, and on language ecology. The volume also includes papers on group bilingualism, on pre-school children, and finally on classroom practice. Some of the exhibits from the exhibitions at the conference are used as illustrations in this volume. At this time we as organisers wish to express our gratitude to: our co-organisers, especially Marie Hald and Inger Nørgaard, our colleague Bent Søndergaard of the Pedagogische Hochschule Flensburg, and, from our own institution, Gerd Gabrielsen, Erik Larsen, Jørn Lund and Marie-Alice Séférian; the participants in the conference; the publishers of the proceedings of the conference (not the least for kindly agreeing to go against their house policy of not accepting manuscripts that are written in languages other than English. It was one of the conditions of the conference, however, that all papers submitted before the deadline were to be published as part of the proceedings); to our sponsors: King Frederik and Queen Ingrid's Foundation, Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik's Foundation, The TUBORG Foundation, Knud Højgaard's Foundation, Rosalie Petersen's Foundation, Julius Skrike's Foundation, SAS Travel Grants, The Rockwool Foundation, The
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Foundation for Danish-Swedish Co-operation, The Cultural Foundation for Denmark and Finland, Denmark's Teachers' Union, The Danish Masons, The Letterstedt Society, The Ministry of Education, The City of Copenhagen, The County of Copenhagen, The Research Council for the Humanities, The Greenland Foundation of the Danish Parliament, The Royal Danish School of Educational Studies. EMDRUP NOVEMBER 1987 ANNE HOLMEN, NORMANN JØRGENSEN, JØRGEN GIMBEL, ELISABETH HANSEN
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Introductory Note Anne Holmen, J Normann Jørgenson, Jørgen Gimbel, Elisabeth Hansen Department of Danish Language and Literature, The Royal Danish School of Educational Studies at Copenhagen The Fifth Nordic Conference on Bilingualism was held at the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies in Copenhagen, 22-25 June 1987. The main theme of the conference was 'Two Languages and Two Cultures in Education'. This theme was dealt with in many ways by the contributions offered during the conference, and no less in the more than 1,300 pages of manuscripts submitted for publication in the proceedings. Many of the papers, however, deal with certain aspects of bilingualism currently drawing attention from many students of the discipline. These aspects include the macro-level planning of language education in multilingual societies, the micro-level second language learning strategies, the linguistic level analysis of interactional data involving bilinguals, and on the cultural level bilingual writers. We have chosen to group the papers according to their relationship to the main theme of the conference. The papers in this volume deal mainly with bilingualism in relation to the individual. The first group of papers have their main emphasis on the analysis of conversational data involving bilingual speakers. Pedersen, Ytsma, Dahlbäck, J¬rgensen and Hirvonen all present material from bilingual (school) children. Pedersen's children belong to the German minority in Denmark, and she is particularly interested in their changing relationship over their school years with the three languages (namely standard German, standard Danish and the local Danish dialect, S0nderjysk) at their disposal in the border region between Denmark and Germany. Dahlbäck has studied the difference in second language conversation between two girls, one pre-schooler and her nine-yearold sister, finding substantial differences in their use, both towards adults and towards peers, the younger girl playing more with the language, and the older sister having a more instrumental relationship to the second language. Hirvonen compares the 'foreigner talk' of monolingual and bilingual children. She finds, and expresses some surprise at this, that the monolingual children adjust their language more to the (perceived) competence level of learners than bilinguals
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do; i.e. the monolinguals use more foreigner talk than the bilinguals when talking to learners. Hirvonen ascribes this finding to the bilinguals' greater awareness of what learners really are capable of, and their being more acquainted with the task of communicating in two languages. Ytsma presents data from two Frisian-Dutch classrooms in bilingual schools. His approach is partly quantitative, partly qualitative, and he finds that the question of language choice is particularly ambiguous in bilingual classrooms with two languages which are in principle equal. Jørgensen's material was collected among Turkish children in Danish schools. He has analyzed their communication strategies in solving a communicative problem well-known in school: explain something to an adult who knows it all perfectly well in advance! Lanza's paper describes the growing bilingual awareness of a child growing up in a bilingual family with parents adhering fairly strictly to the one-person-one-language strategy. She finds clear evidence that the child's awareness, as it appears in conversations with her parents, is due to the parents' deliberate metalinguistic input. Vejleskov uses his material from Norwegian pre-school children engaged in role play to express doubt about the distinction between 'social' and 'cognitive' language, maintaining that children in role play exhibit both kinds of language simultaneously and indistinguishably from each other. Arnberg looks at children's role in conversation from the other side, namely that of perception. She has developed a means of assessing comprehension skills in very young bilinguals in which they control the speaking rate (the input speed!) themselves. Her intriguing experiment allows for comparison of comprehension and production skills as well as assessment of comprehension skills in bilingual children of different ages. Håkansson & Lindberg set up a typology of questions in their paper. They emphasise that the teacher's questions in the second language classroom are not only cues for imitation and repetition of socially meaningless phrases, but also parts of a verbal interplay with the learner. Kalin deals with metalinguistic knowledge in adult second language learners, focusing on their ways of handling difficulties in understanding and the development of strategies over time. All these papers show bilinguals in verbal interaction, especially bilingual children in conversation with each other, with monolingual children, and with adults. The sheer number of papers dealing with this aspect of linguistic analysis marks a shift in emphasis from previous conferences. Structural linguistic data have given way to conversational and interactional data. Perhaps it is more precise to say that the researchers' perspective on the data has changed. The focus is not on the language being learnt, but rather on the way the learner uses his or her second language. To a certain extent, this development reflects a general trend. It is, however, also characteristic of the study of the linguistic aspects of bilingualism in the Nordic countries that it has gradually gone through the steps that appear from the proceedings of the conferences, e.g. Ejerhed & Henrysson (1981) and Wande et al. (1987). Not that hard-core linguistics dominates in either, but the dimension represented in contributions like Mejdell's and Viberg & Axelsson's in Wande et al. (1987)
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has now been supplemented by the interactional dimension. This is not to say that linguistics in the narrow sense of the word is outdated. On the contrary, it is alive and well, as can be seen in the section entitled 'Linguistic Structure and Variations in Bilinguals'. Boseker's paper not only presents a quite comprehensive review of Black American English and its place in the American educational discussion, but also presents a strategy for teaching children speaking Black American English to read. Similarly, Melchers presents a bidialectal area, the Shetlands. The linguistic data are likewise presented and discussed in an educational context. Two papers discuss the influence of a majority language on the mother tongue of school children. Stankovski uses material from the JUBA project at the University of Lund to follow the phonological mother tongue development of Serbocroatian-speaking children living in diaspora conditions in Sweden. He finds that his material, together with similar investigations of the development in speakers of Slavic languages, sheds important light on the development of pronunciation as such. Ulla Lauren discusses the vocabulary deviations from 'Standard Swedish' in the written production of Finnish children. Two clearly different phenomena occur, namely on the one hand integration of Finnish elements (leading to regionalisms in Finland Swedish), and on the other hand interference, the individually occurring influence from Swedish. In contrast to these two papers, Strömman's paper looks at the linguistic interplay between two languages spoken in the same surroundings. She has investigated the trade slang of three work places in a Swedish-speaking area of Finland. She found that the trade slang in a given place is determined not only by the language dominance in general, but also by the language of the trades' educational approaches. Although it was clearly present in many discussions during the conference, and although it had an important place in the opening address of the conference by Bertel Haarder, Minister of Education (Haarder, 1988) the acquisition of foreign languages in school by majority language speakers was underrepresented in the papers. One exception is Haastrup's investigation of the changing influence of English and French on the spelling of loan words in Danish. The third group of papers in the present volume covers a number of approaches to the question of the effect of the learners' different backgrounds on their second language acquisition. Mägiste has studied hemispheric involvement in German and Polish speakers learning Swedish and found evidence against the hypothesis that involvement of the right hemisphere peaks at an early stage of second language acquisition and gradually gives way to involvement of the left hemisphere. Her study supports the so-called age hypothesis, according to which lateralization will be less important in languages acquired after puberty. Stroud has studied text production by near-native learners of Swedish and compared learners with different mother tongues and different cultural backgrounds. Mougeon & Beniak maintain that English speakers having been
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immersed in French-medium schools acquire a French which is characterised by several shortcomings, especially with regard to casual style speech. Hvenekilde compares mathematical and arithmetical concepts in Norwegian and certain minority languages, such as different number systems and alphabets as well as different traditions of 'finger calculation techniques'. The project described in her paper is a systematic analysis of the differences. An empirical investigation among minority language students in Norwegian schools will be carried out later. Berliner uses the stroop test and other psychological experiments to investigate the relationship between cognitive style and attitudes in Greenlandic speakers with Danish as their second language, and Bent Søndergaard also reports a study on attitudes towards Danish as a first foreign language, in the Faroe Islands. He finds a surprisingly neutral attitude towards Danish. The last group of papers in this volume brings us to one of the most fascinating themes covered by the study of biculturalism in education, that of bilingual fiction and fiction produced by bilinguals. Séférian discusses the first question that comes to mind. Can a poet really be bilingual, or better: can a bilingual produce poetry in both of his (or her) languages? To answer this she presents the case of the Algerian-French writer Kateb Yacine. She answers the question in the affirmative, although somewhat hesitatingly: yes, a poet can be bilingual. Gaski looks at what he calls ethno-poetry from a different angle. He describes the use of minority language fiction as a vehicle for the survival of the minority language (and culture). Herberts explains the relationship between bilingual (or minority) identity and creative fiction. Fiction and poetry mirror the conditions under which they are createdand in turn may influence the feeling of identity in future generations who are taught about the same fiction and poetry in school. This aspect is also taken up by Kleivan in her paper about child literature in Greenland. She describes both the translated Danish literature (e.g. literature written in Danish for Danes about Greenland) and the Inuit literature. This fairly small section of four papers thus embraces the full spectrum of language combinations covered by the conference: from the suppressed indigenous minority language, to the established prestigious foreign language! References Ejerhed, Eva & Inger Henrysson (eds) (1981) Tvåspråkighet. Foredrag från tredje Nordiske Tvåspråkighetssymposiet 4-5 juni 1980, Umeå universitet. Acta Universitatis Umensis. Umeå Studies in the Humanities, 36. Umeå: Umeå universitet. Haarder, Bertel (1988) Opening address. The fifth Nordic conference on bilingualism. Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development, Special Double Issue. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. Wande Erling, Jan Anward, Bengt Nordberg, Lars Steensland & Mats Thelander (eds) (1987) Aspects of multilingualism. Proceedings from the fourth Scandinavian symposium on bilingualism 1984. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Multiethnica Upsaliensia, 2. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet.
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Contents Introductory Note Anne Holmen, J. Normann Jørgensen, Jørgen Gimbel And Elisabeth Hansen
v
Interactional Analysis: 1. Second Language Learners in the German Minority in Denmark Karen Margrethe Pedersen
1
2. Children's Questions to Children and Adults in a Second Language Hans Dahlbäck
13
3. Monolingual and Bilingual Children's Foreigner Talk Conversations Tuula Hirvonen:
27
4. Turkish Children's Communication Strategies in Danish J. Normann Jørgensen
39
5. Bilingual Classroom Interaction in Friesland Johannes Ytsma
53
6. Language Strategies in the Home: Linguistic Input and Infant Bilingualism Elizabeth Lanza
69
7. A Critique of the Distinction Between 'Academic' and 'Communicative' LanguageFrom a Pragmatic Point of View Hans Vejleskov
85
8. Assessing Comprehension Skills in Preschool Bilingual Children Lenore Arnberg
91
9. What's the Question? Investigating Questions in Second Language Classrooms Gisela Håkansson And Inger Lindberg 10. Metalinguistic Knowledge and Understanding in Adult Language Learning Maija Kalin Linguistic Structure and Variation in Bilinguals 11. Bidialectalism in the United States Barbara J. Boseker
101 117
133
12. Bidialectism and the School with Special Reference to the Shetland Experience 159 Gunnel Melchers 13. Obstruents and their Development in the Population D07. In the Archive for Diaspora Languages Miodrag Stankovski
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14. Tvåspråkiga barns ordförrådinterferens och integration Ulla Laurén
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15. Fackslang i Tvåspråkiga FöretagSvensk eller Finsk? Solveig Strömman
201
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Page x 16. Spelling Errors in Danish Loan Words or on the Changing Linguistic Dominance and Consciousness of Language History 209 Niels Haastrup Different Backgrounds and Second Language Learning 17. Leaning to the Right: Hemispheric Involvement in Two Immigrant Groups Edith Mägiste
219
18. Literacy in a Second Language: A Study of Text Construction in Near- Native Speakers of Swedish Christopher Stroud
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19. Minority Language Schooling without Home Language Maintenance: Impact on Language Proficiency 253 Raymond Mougeon And Édouard Beniak 20. Elevene fra språklige minoriteter og matematikkfaget Anne Hvenekilde
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21. Cognitive Style and Attitudes in Bilingual Inuits Peter Berliner
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22. Motivationsprofilen ved indlæring af L2 med henblik på dansk på Færøerne Bent Søndergaard
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Literature and Bilingualism 23. Kan en digter være tosproget? Tilfældet Kateb Yacine Marie-Alice Séférian
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24. Etno-Poesi og Majoritetens Forståelse Harald Gaski: Joik
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25. Språkmöten i Minoritetslitteraturen Kjell Herberts
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26. Børnebøger i Grønland: Sprog og indhold Inge Kleivan
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Appendix
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Index
341
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1 Second Language Learners in the German Minority in Denmark Karen Margrethe Pedersen Institut for grænseregionsforskning, Aabenraa, Denmark. Abstract This paper presents a longitudinal sociolinguistic project in the Danish-German border region and gives some results from the first part of the project that concentrates on children living in Southern Jutland. Half the informants belong to the German minority, and they have either a Danish dialect or German as their first language. The children's second language acquisition is described at different age levels in kindergarten and school, and their attitude to their bilingualism is explained. The manner in which the youngest group communicates successfully is often seen to be dependent on the hearer's bilingualism, but among the oldest informants the language norms of the group seem to be decisive for success or failure in communication. As the children grow older, the necessity of acquiring standard Danish as the third variety is considered, and the introduction and function of the majority language in minority education is discussed. The overall long-term aim of the longitudinal research project, 'The meeting between the Languages in the Danish-German Border Region', is to understand the role of the languages and their varieties in social and cultural processes in general, but also in educational processes. The first part of the project describes the languages of children living in Sønderjylland, the Danish region bordering on Germany, where a German minority is estimated to number approximately 5% of the population. In the area three languages are spoken: Sønderjysk, which is a Danish dialect, Danish and GermanGerman partly as a minority language, partly as a foreign language. The main questions for the analysis are 'Why and how the children are socialised to become either monolingual, bilingual or multilingual speakers, and whether their linguistic, communicative and cultural competence qualifies or stigmatises them in the educational system and in their choice of professional
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career'. We hope to be able to answer the questions by collecting data on a micro-level, applying both qualitative and quantitative methods, and by analyzing and interpreting the data so that they give an explanation at the individual level at different ages and open up the prospect of making comparisons between the informants. The analysis will not result in statistical generalizations, but in qualitative descriptions, and in this paper some results from the preliminary analysis are given. We have had the opportunity to work with 65 children in the municipality of Tinglev, a typical rural district. They were chosen at random from two groups: 4-5-year-old children from kindergartens and 12-13-year-old pupils. Half of both groups attend German minority institutions and I shall concentrate on that group. The data come from tape-recordings of various types of verbal interaction among the children and between children and interviewers. They are supplemented by participant observation and information from questionnaires about the linguistic and sociocultural background, completed by parents and pupils. Language Distribution From the questionnaires we know that attending a German minority kindergarten or school does not necessarily indicate that one speaks German at home. Twenty per cent of the youngest group and 13.3% in the oldest group speak German at home, but the rest speak 'Sønderjysk, the Danish dialect of Southern Jutland. It cannot be ascertained, however, whether the distribution in the use of German, Sønderjysk and standard Danish is typical of the whole minority, because available statistics differ greatly. According to Byram (1986) a conservative estimate indicates that two-thirds of the minority speak Sønderjysk as their low (L)-language and German as their high (H) language in minority affairs, but minority authorities say it is fifty-fifty. The percentage of my children with German as H language may, however, be typical of rural areas like Tinglev, the percentage being higher in urban districts, where many members of the minority educated in Germany live together with new arrivals from Germany, a constellation that might result in German being used as both L and H language. All the informants but one began to learn their second language at the age of 2½ or 3 years, and I want to give an analysis of some conversational sequences in order to illustrate how the children are socialised to this successive bilingualism and in order to discuss some pedagogical perspectives.
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Communication Strategies in the Kindergarten The kindergarten children who speak the Danish dialect at home are very positive towards learning German, and they feel free to use both languages. The teachers also use both languages. They speak German in activities such as singing, games and meals and when they give instructions like 'Go and brush your teeth'. Dialogues with children who have been in the kindergarten for a year or so are also in German, but the teachers speak the dialect to the youngest dialect-speaking children. The code choice in 'Memory'a game of cardsis German. When playing 'Memory' with the German-speaking interviewer, the three 4-5-year-old girls, Hanne, Tove and Kirsten, intend to explain in German the pictures on the cards, when they turn them. Hanne:
ein
Tove:
ein Feuermann
Hanne:
ein Feuermann
a fireman.
In the transcriptions single underlining indicates deviations from standard language, whereas double underlining indicates interference or code-switching. Tove corrects the interference in Hanne's remark by saying 'Feuermann', and Hanne repeats the word. Though it is not quite correct, the interviewer does not interfere. Later in the play Kirsten says 'Feuerwehr' (fire brigade) to the same picture, and the two girls repeat it. We cannot make out whether they have learnt the correct expression or not, but imitations like these seem to be typical learning strategies. Kirsten, who knew the word 'Feuerwehr', speaks German at home in contrast to the two other girls, but she does not always succeed in teaching them new words in German on the first occurrence. Tove:
ein
a watch.
Kirsten: ein_ Uhr
a watch.
Tove:
no.
næh
Kirsten: doch ein Uhr_ kan man
you can also say a watch.
auch sagen The interviewer confirms Kirsten's statement, but does not explain that ' ' is a Danish dialect expression, and 'eine Uhr'is a German word. During the participant observation we never heard the teachers give the children such a metalinguistic knowledge either, so we decided to use the same strategy as the teachers in order to analyze the learning strategies. Later on Tove and Hanne repeat without protest after Kirsten: 'eine Uhr'.
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The play goes on, and Tove turns two similar cards with cats on: Tove:
Katze_ wir hab_ zwei
cats we have two cats at
Katze_ zu Hause
home.
Hanne:
du skal ikke/når vi Hælder mælk you ought not/when we are pouring op til den se så får man sådan milk for it look then you get a scratch like this. en krads på
Tove:
vi giver den hver dag mad
we give it food every day.
Hanne:
ja og æ missekat har kradset oven på æ finger du
yes and the pussycat has scratched my finger you see.
Interviewer:was ist das?
What is that?
Kirsten:
a moped and a moped.
ein Moped und ein Moped
(The play goes on in German.) The interviewer and Kirsten stick to German throughout the play. Hanne does not, she switches to dialect, giving Tove a piece of good advice about cats. She is referring to an episode from home where she speaks Sønderjysk, the Danish dialect. That may be the reason why she chooses the dialect, but it is also possible that she uses dialect because she is very involved in her message. She either cannot express such an involvement in German because of a lack of vocabulary items, or she is not used to it. Other communicative situations show, however, that she is able to produce sentences in German. The reason for Tove's code-switching is that her speech is a continuation of the last language used, but of course, it is also possible that dialect is used because the activity referred to takes place at home, where Sønderjysk is the only language spoken. As exemplified by different explanations, the cause of code switching might be a combination of many reasons. Interference and code-switching to the Danish dialect are accepted and understood in the kindergarten, but the status of the dialect is peripheral because the linguistic goal is German. The focus on German and not on the Danish dialect as a second language has consequences for L1 speakers of German like Kirsten. Their first language is highly esteemed and understood by all, apart from the very youngest, a function that seems to prevent some of the German speakers from acquiring a productive competence in the Danish dialect. These are mainly children from an entirely German network. The result is that the children being asked a question in dialect often resort to an answer in German or avoid answering by saying the formula: det ved jeg ikke
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Playing 'Memory' with the Danish interviewer, Kirsten explains about the cards in German, but uses the formula, 'I don't know' five times when she is asked to explain some well-known episodes on a picture. She produces one sentence in dialect: Hvorfor tror du han står helt Why does he stand there Interviewer: alene der og kigger på? watching all alone, do you think? Kirsten: for ingen leger med ham nobody plays with him. When she talks to the German interviewer about almost the same picture, she turns out to be an involved speaker, not doubting what to say. Having attended the kindergarten for one or two years, the German L1 speakers seem to be at an early stage of successive bilingualism. They use formulas and produce a few other sentences, but interference from German is hardly seen. Code-switching is the predominant strategy. The dialect speakers, on the other hand, seem to have moved quickly through stages like those in simultaneous bilingualism, though the situation is of a successive character, probably because the second language is a necessity from the age of 2½ or 3 years. The type of bilingual development is, of course, dependent on how well established the first language is when the second language is introduced. It is also dependent on how much time the child spends in kindergarten every day (this may vary from four to ten hours) and on how much the parents speak to the child at home. After a year the children's language mixing has almost disappeared, but there is some influence from the Danish dialect on German, resulting in interference. The children's code choice is dependent on the topic they are talking about and the type of activity they are taking part in, and not so much on the person they are talking to. Though the children define a situation as being German, they code-switch to the dialect when referring to an experience that took place in dialect or that normally takes place in dialect outside kindergarten, just as in Hanne and Tove's dialogue about the cat. They also often switch to the dialect when they have problems to solve, and it need not be linguistic problems. In a dialogue with the German interviewer, Tove speaks German until she cannot answer a question. Without hesitation she changes into dialect: det kan jeg ikke huske det ved jeg I can't remember I don't Tove: ikke hvad for en farve det er know what color it is. The interviewer replies in German, and, feeling her problem solved, Tove also continues in German. In opposition to this situation code-switching as a
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continuation of the last language used is common among the dialect speaking interlocutors. Sometimes they even go on speaking the dialect until a new activity or topic is introduced. School Languages The 3-5-year-old children were not able to discuss the use of two languages, but three years later in school they are aware of a minority and a majority language. At school German is used as medium of instruction in all subjects apart from one lesson a week in grade one and grade two where standard Danish is introduced through playing activities, and five lessons a week from grade three in the subject of Danish. Few children were able to distinguish consciously between dialect and standard Danish, but some of them tended to change from 'pure' dialect towards a regional variety when they talked to the standard-speaking interviewer, but they kept to 'pure' dialect when they spoke to the dialect interviewer. The dialect speakers do not doubt their proficiency in German, they take it for granted, and the occurrence of interference from Danish has diminished, and code-switching is rare. Instead of interference a new type of deviation from High German has appeared, that is German words or expressions which are wrong in the context. They are probably chosen because they either sound like a Danish word-'a false friend'or there is a transfer from Danish to German, resulting in a non-idiomatic expression. I call such examples similarity transfer: Frucht (da. frugt) instead of Obst. Sie sagt Entschuldigung (Da. sige undskyld) instead of: Sie bittet um Entschuldigung. The German speakers, on the other hand, are not satisfied with their performance in their second language, as Kirsten says: Jo jeg kan godt men ikke så godt
Well I can, but not very well.
Her attitude towards learning Danish is positive, and she wants to watch Danish TV to a greater extent, but her younger brother prevents her from doing so, because he does not understand Danish. Vi kan slet ikke så godt We are not good at Kirsten:dansk. Danish at all
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Not long ago Kirsten gained a Danish-speaking friend at home. en på min gade hun hedder Lise hun kommer altid til mig så snakker vi dansk hun er One girl in my street she is called Lise she always come to me and then we speak Danish, she is a også Dane too Kirsten:dansker. Being asked whether the friend speaks the dialect or standard Danish, Kirsten replies: gør hun gør sådan you see she does so if she says hun hvis hun siger 'kache' cake ( , dialect) then she says Kirsten:så siger hun kage cake ('kage', standard). The standard pronunciation, 'kage', instead of Kirsten's dialect form 'kache' shows that the friend probably speaks either standard Danish or the regional variety. This extension of Kirsten's social network might be decisive for her linguistic and communicative competence in Danish. At this age level it is characteristic for Kirsten, as well as for most of the other children, having dialect as their second language, that the interference from German is dominant, but code-switching rarejust the opposite of the situation three years ago. Now the children also ask for help in the dialect (Hvad hedder det? (what is it called). That does not prevent interference, of course, but sometimes they realise they have chosen the wrong code and a correction follows: her er en
/bold
Kirsten: her er en /æble Language Norms at School
Here is a Here is a
/ball (dialect). /apple (standard).
In kindergarten and the first years in school, German tends to be the high status code among the children, quite independent of their code choice, but later in the educational system two parallel sets of high status language usage norms seem to be established: that of the school system: German, and that of the majority of the children: Sønderjysk, the Danish dialect.
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The code choice is not entirely the Danish dialect, but it is dominant both in and outside school. If the child's proficiency in the dialect is not good, it might be a stigmatizing factor. The dialect is, for example, used among the pupils both in remarks irrelevant to the teacher-pupil dialogue and in group discussions in lessons where German is the medium of instruction. The teachers are nevertheless addressed in German most of the time, apart from the teacher of Danish, of course. The informants, 12-13 years old, were tape-recorded during group work where the task was to write a Christmas card. In German they were told to help each other and if they wanted to talk about the picture on the post card, they were allowed to do so. The following group consists of three boys; Mads, who has German as his first language, whereas Ole and Ove have German as their second language. vi skal først Mads: Ole:
. vi skal skrive her jo
first we are going to we have to write here.
nej først skal vi Mads:
.
first are we going to
Ole:
hvem siger det?
who says that.
Mads:
det siger hun
she says.
her er en Ole: Mads:
. det siger da Heidi (. . . .)
Ole: Mads:
here is a Heidi says so. laughter.
ser jeg at de laver lygter I see they make lanterns.
Ole+Ove: (laughter) Mads: Ove:
de laver lygter
they are making lanterns.
Ole:
stearinlys
candles.
Ove:
og de bager
and they are baking.
Ole: de laver stearinlys they make candles. The dialogue goes on in dialect and Mads is silent for a time. He has succeeded in defining the task to be solved first, but has been defeated linguistically. In this interaction there is a conflict between the norms of the German school and the code choice norm within the group, but there is also
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a conflict about the task. Mads knows about the group norms and starts speaking the dialect, but changes into German, referring to what the teacher said. Ole speaks dialect and does not agree with Mads. Mads goes on switching from dialect to German, and in an attempt to make the friends describe the picture he changes into dialect: ser jeg at de laver Mads: lygter The reaction of the other two is laughter. The reason is probably that Mads speaks dialect but gives a standard pronunciation of the word 'lygter' (lanterns), but it might also be because he has chosen a wrong word. It should have been 'stearinlys' (candles) instead of 'lygter'(lanterns). His following speech shows he knows the word candles in German, Kerzen, and his friend is so kind as to translate it for him into 'stearinlys'. The German code and a mixture of dialect and standard Danish are not accepted, and the norm of the group dominates through the rest of the group work. Not only are some L1 speakers of German frustrated in their L2 acquisition, but some parents also worry about their children. Their attitude is expressed in a questionnaire for a pupil in grade six: Wir haben mit unserem Kind von der Geburt an deutsch gesprochen, um es von Anfang an, auf die deutsche Schule vorzubereiten. Wir erwarteten, es würde dänisch auf der Straße mit seinen dänischen Freunden lernen. Die dänischen Freunde sprachen aber oft deutsch mit ihm (ein schlechtes deutsch übrigens). Das kam unerwartet für uns, und wir würden bei einem nächsten Kind nun 'sønderjysk' sprechen. Standard Danish in Kindergarten and School The minority has been recommended to introduce standard Danish earlier than grade one, partly because of the frustration of the German speakers, partly in order to give the dialect speakers a productive competence of the standard variety. Byram (1986:171) says: strengthening of standard Danish:that consideration be given to earlier introduction of standard Danish, preferably in the light of a scientific investigation of the linguistic socialization of pupils in the early years.
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What might happen if standard Danish were introduced in kindergarten? The L1 speakers of German would have diminished their chances of learning the dialectthe language of the minority and the majorityand the dialect speakers might become standard or regional variety speakers of Danish instead of dialect speakers. At any rate, preliminary results from the majority group seem to indicate that most L1 speakers of dialect attending kindergarten from the age of three, where standard Danish is the dominant 'institution language' among the teachers, are not bilingual at the age of five, but have become monolinguals, speaking a regional variety of Danish. As it must be just as important for the minority children that they get a chance to establish the language which is dominant within the German minority as it is that they acquire standard Danish at that age, an earlier introduction of standard Danish might be counterproductive. By introducing one hour a week in grade one with a standard-speaking teacher, as was the case some years ago, where the children are neither allowed to read nor to write in Danish, but are allowed to play games, to sing, to get traffic instructions etc., the children get the impression that standard Danish is the norm in such situations or activities within the minority and the group, and they try to speak standard Danish. In fact social activities like the above mentionedapart from singingare connected to the dialect within most of the minority, and the majority by the way. In that way the Danish lesson might create a conflict for some of the L1 speakers of dialect. They feel their dialect is of no use when they speak to their only Danish-speaking teacher. What the children want is 'real Danish', as they say, and by that they do not mean standard Danish, but to read and write in Danish, as well as they learn to read and write in German. My suggestion is that the reading process in German from grade one be supplemented by reading in Danish. The reading and writing process in standard Danish does not demand standard Danish as a spoken language (cf. Goodman et al., 1979). Let the children use their dialect when both telling and retelling stories and do not correct deviations in the written language that originate from the dialect. Let the German speakers practice what they have picked up until now in dialect, a chance they will not get very often in the classroom interaction because group work does not seem to be used much at that level. The Danish teacher and the German teacher agree on a thematically based instruction and discuss the goal and the content of the lessons day to day or week to week. Such a coordinated reading process in the two languages is realised in intercultural education in Germany (cf. Wolf, 1986), and the two languages do not seem to disturb each other. Gradually standard Danish is introduced as a spoken language, but not without the children's awareness of its function within the minority and the
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majority, and not until they know about the function of the dialect. Do the L1 speakers of German then learn both dialect and standard Danish? If they do not learn the dialect from their classmates, being allowed to speak it in the Danish lessons and speaking it as group language, if they do not learn it from the Danish teacher's speaking it, or from friends at home, they probably will not learn it before leaving school. I doubt one can teach a dialect as a second language in school. It has an informal social function and a status other than that of a standard language. If the children do not acquire a receptive and a productive competence in standard Danish before leaving school, the curriculum of the subject Danish must be changed. Until now research has not determined the school-leavers' competence, so only time will show. An insight into the position of the three languages, Sønderjysk, standard Danish and German, within the minority and the majority might, however, compensate for a lack of linguistic proficiency. Being confronted with an essential need for mastering, for example, standard Danish completely for a job, psychological, sociological and metalinguistic knowledge will help them to come up to the standard very quickly. Bibliography Arnberg, L. (1987) Raising Children Bilingually: The Pre-school Years. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Byram, M. S. (1986) Minority Education and Ethnic Survival. Case Study of a German School in Denmark. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Goodman, K., Goodman, Y. and Flores, B. (1979) Reading in the Bilingual Classroom: Literacy and Biliteracy. Rosslyn, Virginia: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. Gorter, D. (1987) Aspects of language choice in the Frisian-Dutch bilingual context: neutrality and assymmetry. In Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 8 (1 & 2) 121-32. Gumperz, J. J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mødet mellem sprogene i det dansk-tyske grænseområde (1979) Konferencerapport Aabenraa: Institut for grænseregionsforskning. Nissen, H. J. (1985) Sprachigkeit und Sprachnotwendigkeit. Deutsche Sprachwirklichkeit in Nordschleswig. Kolloquium zur Sprache und Sprachpflege der deutschen Bevölkerungsgruppen im Ausland. Flensburg: 131-43. & Pedersen, K. M. (1987) German in Primary and Lower Secondary Minority Education in Sønderjylland/Nordschleswig, Denmark. E.M.U.-projekt, Fryske Akademy, Ljouwert, The Netherlands. Oksaar, E. (ed.) (1984) SpracherwerbSprachkontaktSprachkonflikt. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter. Pedersen, K. M. (1977) Dialekt, regionalsprog, rigssprogen anlyse af børns skolesprog. Aabenraa: Institut for grænseregionsforskning. (1985) Kinder und Sprache-Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung der sprachlichen Verhältnisse in Sønderjylland/Nordschleswig. Kopenhagener Beiträge zur germanistischen Linguistik, 23, 137-57. (1986a) Das Projekt 'Die Begegnung der Sprachen in der dänisch-deutschen Grenzregion'. Deutsche Sprache in Europa und Ubersee, 11, 189-200. (1986b) Mødet mellem sprogene i den dansk-tyske grænseregion. En-, to- og flersprogede børn i Sønderjylland. Aabenraa: Institut for grænseregionsforskning.
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(1987) German minority children in the Danish border region: Code-switching and interference. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development 8 (1 & 2) 111-20. Søndergaard, B. (1981) Tidlig indføring af dansk som andetsprog i bilinguale skoler. Aabenraa: Deutscher Schulund Sprachverein für Nordschleswig. (1982) Nabosprogsproblematikken i den dansk-tyske grænseregion. Sproglæreren. Konferencenummer 13.2.1982, 66-71. (1984a) Language contact in the German-Danish border region. The problems of interference. In I. Clarkson & P. S. Ureland (eds) Scandinavian Language Contacts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (1984b) Sprogfordelingen i det bilinguale curriculum. Aabenraa: Amtscentralen for Undervisningsmidler i Sønderjylland. Walker, A. G. H. (1984) Vernacular Languages and Education. In P. Trudgill (ed.) Applied Sociolinguistics. London, New York: Academic Press, 159-202. Wolf, E. (1986) Zweisprachig koordinierter Leselehrgang Türkisch-Deutsch mit gleichzeitigem deutschen Spracherwerb. Lernen in Deutschland, 4, 136-42.
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2 Children's Questions to Children and Adults in a Second Language Hans Dahlbäck Department of Linguistics, Lund University, Sweden. Abstract This paper deals with the questions of two children (L1 Spanish, ages 6 and 9) to children and adults in Swedish. The questions are taken from a corpus of spontaneous audio-recorded conversation. The form and content of the learners' questions are examined, as well as aspects of learner-initiated question exchanges. Questions from the younger child to other children often serve to establish social relationships and to play with language. Questions to adults elicit information. The learner is more active in exchanges with children than with adults. The older learner's questions to both children and adults elicit information, and she is equally active with both types of interlocutors. Introduction Questions have long been a favorite subject of second language (L2) acquisition research, mostly from the point of view of syntactic development (cf. McLaughlin, 1984: 105ff). The present study, however, is concerned with questions in a framework of dialogue, thus tying in to a growing interest in discourse in language acquisition (see McTear, 1985 for L1, and Larsen-Freeman, 1980; Hatch, 1983; Glahn & Holmen, 1985 and Day, 1986 for L2). In my paper, 1 I explore some of the differences between child L2 learners' questions to children and adults, and the properties of question exchanges with the two types of interlocutors. The introductory part of the paper sums up some general characteristics of child-child and child-adult conversation in a first and in a second language. After a presentation of the children and the corpus, results are given in two sections, each of which also contains brief overviews of earlier research. The
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first section deals with the form and meaning of questions, and the second with question exchanges. Child-Child and Child-Adult Conversation The earlier view of L1 child-child conversation was very much influenced by Piaget's (1926) opinion that children are egocentric and often do not adjust to the listener. This seemed to be borne out by experimental evidence to the effect that children have difficulty in describing objects so that another person can identify them from the description (cf. Lloyd & Beveridge, 1981), and it could explain why children with little input from adults have been reported to develop more slowly linguistically (see Bates, 1975). Furthermore, a large number of studies have documented syntactic, prosodic, etc. adjustments by adults to children (cf. Snow, 1986). However, observational studies of natural conversation among even small children have indicated a high degree of coherency (Keenan, 1974 and others), and children from the age of two have been reported to adjust linguistically to infants (Shatz & Gelman, 1973; Sachs & Devin, 1976; Dunn & Kendrick, 1982). But there are still differences. Dunn & Kendrick (1982) found pragmatic differences between mothers' and siblings' speech to infants, and Tomasello & Mannle (1985) report, for example, that siblings do not reply to the same extent as mothers. Likewise, in second language acquisition, not only adults but also children show evidence of adjusting to children learning a second language (overview in Hatch, 1983; studies on children's adjustments by Katz, 1981 and Hirvonen, 1985). Camaioni (1979) characterises the role of the adult in L1 conversation as that of a teacher who engages the children in rigid patterns of interaction, whereas a child will leave more room for his peer, in play-type situations. Thus, peer conversation is said to be 'symmetric' and child-adult conversation 'asymmetric'. In a study of an eight-year-old acquiring English, Peck (1978) reports similar conversational patterns in L2 communication. Meaning was central in conversation between a native adult and the learner, whereas a child interlocutor left more freedom for the learner to respond, e.g. with language play. Nauclér (1985) also stresses the rigidity of child-adult L2 interaction in a daycare center. The Children The subjects of this study are two Spanish-speaking sisters from Latin America. The youngest child, whom I will call Ana, was six years old when
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the study was made. She went daily to a Swedish daycare center where she was the only Spanish-speaking child, and she did not receive any systematic instruction in Swedish. Her elder sister, called Rina, was nine years old. She was subjected to intensive training in Swedish, together with other immigrant children in a preparatory class. Neither of the children had much contact with Swedish speakers in their free time. Data Collection Once a week, if possible, I audio-taped the learners during their usual interaction with children and adults. The recordings of Ana were made at the daycare center and those of Rina at an activity center (Sw. ''fritidshem') in the school. In both places the children were doing similar things, such as drawing, baking, playing. The recordings were made by means of small radio microphones the learners carried in a belt. Thus, they were free to run around and engage in all activities as usual. The equipment and my own presence influenced the behaviour of the learners and others very little, as far as I can judge. Recordings with Ana were begun two weeks after she started going to the daycare center and were continued for eight months. The first recordings of Rina were made when she had been going to school for ten weeks and were continued for five months, until she moved to another school. Prior to going to daycare center or school, the learners had almost no exposure to Swedish. The Corpus For this study, I extracted all of Ana's and Rina's questions in Swedish from the transcripts, as well as all other utterances by them and others in question exchanges initiated by them. By a question I mean one or in some cases two utterances with the function of eliciting a verbal response, regardless of whether a response actually occurs; cf. Ahrenberg (1987) for an extensive discussion of questions. Excluded are requests for clarification or confirmation, which depend upon an earlier utterance of another speaker. For the term 'question exchange', see below. For Ana there are about 900 questions which are identified as directed to an adult or child, for Rina about 350. This disproportion is due to the fact that Ana talks more, that the recordings of her are generally longer, and that more recordings have been made. However, as can be gathered from Table 1, questions form a larger proportion of Rina's utterances. For both Ana and Rina, questions are a greater part of their utterances to adults.
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Table 1 Questions in proportion to all learners' utterances (in percentages) Learner To adults To children Ana 12% (315/2616) 9% (576/6562) Rina 20% (184/911) 16% (169/1042) Questions Meaning For L1 child-child conversation, van Hekken & Roelofsen (1982) report that five-year-olds often use questions as a means of influencing a peer (e.g. to ask for permission or suggestions), while older children's (11 years) questions serve more to get information. The meanings of Ana's and Rina's questions to children and adults are shown in Table 2. The questions that occur significantly more often to adults (by chi-square test, p<0.05) concern own action (What shall I do with it?), label (What is it?) and cause (Why do you do that?) for Ana; and own action for Rina. To children, Ana puts more questions about ownership (Is it yours?) and opinion and will (Do you like it?). She also makes use of what I call dialogue initiators, i.e. questions which are obviously not meant to elicit information, Table 2 Meaning of questions (in percentages) Ana Rina To ad To ch To ad To ch Meaning N (315) (576) p (184) (169) p Own action 51 31 <0.001 65 7 <0.001 Label 16 8 <0.001 10 34 <0.001 Cause 7 2 <0.001 9 12 n.s. Opinion and will 0 23 <0.001 1 5 <0.01 Ownership 8 15 <0.01 2 3 n.s. Other's action 6 5 n.s. 2 15 <0.001 Role in play 0 1 n.s. 0 5 <0.01 Location 1 0 n.s. 3 8 <0.05 Dialogue initiator 0 8 <0.001 0 0 n.s. Other 11 8 8 11 Abbreviations: ad, adult; ch, child; p, level of statistical significance for the difference; n.s., not significant (p>0.05).
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Page 17 but rather to initiate a conversation. Dialogue initiators include nonsense syllables with question intonation[bibibi'biba]?and, more often, repeated questions like Va heter du? (What's your name?) or Alskar du Pia? (Do you love Pia?): cf. Garvey (1977:43) for L1 and Nemoianu (1980:34ff) for L2. Rina often asks the other immigrant children about labels in Polish or Persian. She also wants to know what the others are doing, the whereabouts of objects or the role in play (Are you the little sister?), and the opinion or will of the children. One may say that Ana's questions to children mostly have to do with social relationships, directly or indirectly, whereas her questions to adults are more concerned with the way things are or should be. Rina's questions are more matter of fact, both to children and adults, and the playful character of some of Ana's questions lacks a counterpart in Rina's. Form For pre-school native children, several studies (cf. Tyack & Ingram, 1977) report that about 60% of the children's questions are yes/no questions. Ana's questions are in the majority of cases yes/no questions both to children and adults. Rina likewise uses more yes/no questions to adults, but more wh questions to children. This can be seen as a result of the informationseeking character of her questions to children; to ask about labels, places, etc. one needs wh-questions. Note that in Table 3 the figures do not sum to 100%, mainly because not all question utterances are heard so clearly that they can be classified. A striking fact about question form (see Table 4 below) is that questions to adults are more often incomplete, in that they are not framed as a complete sentence but as a word or a phrase, e.g. den? (that?). Ana also uses vocalizations that do not correspond to Swedish words, such as [a:]? To children, Ana utters two-part constructions consisting of a statement followed by a short wordusually ja? (yes? )or vocalization as a tag to bring about the desired reply, e.g. in Ja kan hjälpa. Ja? (I can help. Yes?). Similar constructions are described by Berninger & Garvey (1982) in L1 and Nicholas (1986) in L2. Table 3 Percentage of yes/no and wh-questions Ana Interlocutor Yes/no Wh p To adult 69 24 <0.001 To child 77 15 <0.001
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Rina Wh p 43 <0.05 63 <0.001
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Page 18 Table 4 Question form (in percentages) Form (a) Yes-no questions N Word/phrase Vocalization Full sentence, uninverted Full sentence, inverted Tagged Verb missing Subj. missing Other (b) Wh-questions N Word/phrase Full sentence, uninverted Full sentence,
To ad
Ana To ch
p
To ad
Rina To ch
p
(217) 57 8
(446) 24 4
<0.001 <0.05
(99) 33 0
(54) 17 0
<0.05 n.s.
20
38
<0.001
16
30
n.s.
3
17
<0.001
25
44
<0.05
0 8 3 2
4 10 4 0
<0.05 n.s. n.s.
0 5 17 3
0 4 4 2
n.s. n.s. <0.05
(77) 16
(89) 13
n.s.
(79) 18
(106) 6
<0.01
17
11
n.s.
0
8
<0.01
45 63 <0.05 77 81 n.s. inverted Verb missing 13 7 n.s. 3 2 n.s. Subj. missing 9 2 n.s. 3 3 n.s Other 0 3 0 0 Again, grammatical form can be related to meaning and context. The grammatical incompleteness of questions to adults is not surprising when one considers that the questions are used in a context of ongoing, visible activity. A very simple signal from the child suffices to make the adult offer the required information. Many questions to children have other functions and require a fuller linguistic expression. On the other hand, Ana's questions to children, in particular, are probably unanalyzed formulas (see Wong Fillmore, 1976) and occur time and time again. Exchanges The Exchange So far we have looked at the learners' questions in isolation. The rest of the paper will deal with exchanges (cf. Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975), which
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consist of at least a question and a response, plus, optionally, some frame and follow-up moves. Stenström (1984) describes in great detail question exchanges between native speakers of English. Before considering each part of the exchange, I will say something about the quantitative aspects. Dominance For Ana, there is a marked quantitative difference in her contribution with adults and children. In those question exchanges she initiates with children she contributes 64% (670) of the utterances in the whole exchange; with the adults she contributes only 48% (512; chi-square: p<0.001). Rina contributes slightly over 50% both with children and adults (54%, i.e. 199, and 51%, i.e. 330, to be exact). The qualitative aspects of the difference for Ana are dealt with below. Frame When the question is preceded by one or more utterances from the learner, those utterances are usually calls for attention. Ana uses names of persons, and Rina also calls out titta (look), which takes on a more general meaning 'listen to me', which it does not normally have in Swedish. Sometimes the listener will confirm by saying mm or ja (yes). It is somewhat more common for adults to offer such confirmations than for children. Question If the learner's question is not answered, she may, of course, simply give up. But in many cases Ana and Rina show great tenacity and flexibility in their efforts to get an answer. One of the simplest strategies is to use a verbatim repetition of the question, as Ana does when a child doesn't respond to Hur gammal e du? (How old are you?). Another strategy is to request a response by means of a word or vocalisation such as va? (what?), ja? (yes?), nej? (no?), aa?, or mm?. The question may also be followed by a suggested answer: Hur gammal e du? Fyra? How old are you? Four? Ana: Fyra? Fyra? Four? Four? Of particular interest for the light they shed on formal competence are the modifications questions may undergo if they are not answered. Having uttered in vain a nonsense question [bibi'biba]?, Ana then adds another syllable of
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the same sort initially: [bibibi'biba]?, Another type of modification amounts to specifying the referent: De e dina, Pia? Pia. De e It is yours, Pia? Pia. It is Ana: dina, Pia? De e din en docka? yours, Pia? It is yours a doll? Modification may also mean a change from a single word to a full-blown sentence: Du? Pia. Pia, du kommer You? Pia. Pia, you're coming Ana: imorron? tomorrow? A yes/no question can be turned into a wh-question. Du också hunden? (Are you also a dog?) becomes Vad e du? (What are you?). And, conversely, wh- questions become yes/no questions: Va'vems' e den? (Whose is it?) is changed into De e din? (It is yours?). Rina is somewhat more inclined to use modifications than Ana. For example, Va gör ja? (What shall I do?) becomes Va ritarja? (What shall I draw?). Rina possesses a more advanced competence in L1 and L2 and is cognitively more mature. Thus, it is in line with expectations that she would make greater use of modifications, rather than verbatim repetitions. Ana re-initiates questions more often to children than to adults. For Rina it is the other way around. In general Ana has to work harder to initiate dialogues with children than Rina, and re-initiations are one result of this. Response Whereas in adult-adult conversation almost all questions are responded to (e.g. Stenström, 1984), children have frequently been observed to break that rule (Dore, 1977; van Hekken & Roelofsen, 1982). In this corpus as well, adults respond more often than children. From adults, Ana receives a verbal response, immediately or after some tries, in 80% (253) of the cases; from children only in 51% (292). The difference for Rina is smaller: 78% (143) versus 66% (111). From the adults, the learners often get a complete sentence in reply. Children restrict themselves more often to a single word or a phrase, which in many cases is a noun, a 'yes' or a 'no'. To Ana, children reply with a nej (no) more often than adults. As will be seen below, conflict is characteristic of many dialogues between Ana and children, and negative replies are one reflection of conflict.
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Follow-up After the response, the dialogue can continue with follow-up moves from both participants. One early dialogue from Ana's corpus demonstrates what can be done with very small means: Ana:
[bibi'biba]? [bibibi'biba]? [a:]
Child:
Yes.
Ana:
Nej? [ebibibi'biba]? [ebibibibi'biba]?
No?
Child:
Ja.
Yes.
Ana:
Ja? A nej. Nej?
Or no.
Child:
Nej.
Ana:
Ja ja ja. Ja?
Child:
Ja.
Ana:
Ja. [ejbibibibibi'biba]?
Child:
Ja.
Ja? Tack så mycke Ana: Tack så mycke, Pia. Thanks a lot. It is mainly through the use of the polars 'yes' and 'no', addition of nonsense syllables, and shifts in prosody that Ana carries on the conversation. And the other child plays willingly along. The exchange is typical in that Ana does not accept the first reply but continues to request confirmation and reinitiate questions. The playful character of the dialogue is also evident in the next example: An: Va heter du?
What's your name?
Ch: Katarina. An: Katarina, Katarina? Ch: Mm. An: Catalina. A ja. Katarina. Here, Ana has discovered that Swedish Katarina with /r/ corresponds to Spanish Catalina with /1/. In another exchange, Ana substitutes the original sounds of the reply with nonsense syllables, keeping only the stress pattern intact: An:
Va heter du?
Ch:
Katarina.
An:
[tçuju'juju].
What's your name?
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Besides language play, a characteristic of Ana's dialogues with children is conflict. Ana often rejects the child's reply, and Ana's rejection may in turn be rejected, etc.: An:
Stina kommer idag? Nej.
Stina will come today? No.
Ch:
No.
No.
An:
Jo.
Yes.
Ch:
No, Ana.
No, Ana.
An:
Stina inte kommer.
Stina will not come.
Ch:
No.
No.
An:
No?
No?
Ch:
Nej.
Ch2: Jo. An:
Nähä.
Ch2: Joho An:
No. Yes.
Jo.
Ch2: Nähä. Etc. Ana's rejections in many cases seem to be part of a strategy to maintain a dialogue, rather than serious objections to another's views. Exchanges with adults are very different. As mentioned above, adults tend to take over much of the exchange, although it was initiated by Ana in the first place. Ana's contribution may be confined to imitations of the adult's reply: An:
La cola?
The tail?
En svans ja. De har du rätt i, Ana. Adult:Han fick ingen svans.
A tail, yes. That's right, Ana. He didn't get a tail.
An:
[e'vas] [e'svas] [e'svases]
Imitates the word svans (tail).
Ad:
Svans.
Tail.
An:
En svans.
A tail.
Ad: Mm. Mm. When Rina imitates a reply, it is usually a reply from a child, not an adult. And the word imitated is Polish or Persian. It is in many cases the adult who follows up her own reply to Ana: An: Mm? Mm?
Mm? Mm?
Ad: A så på andra hållet. För
And then the other way
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around. For those marks should face dom märkena ska va uppåt. De upwards. That mark should be in that där märket ska va på de hållet. direction. Holmen's (1985:75) remark that native speakers 'consistently get in the last word' is indeed relevant here. The adult may also become a teacher: An:Blomma?
Flower?
Yes. Good. And that flower is called . . . Ja. Bra. Å den blomman heter . . . ros. rose. Rose. Ad:Ros. An:Ros.
Rose.
Ad:Ja. Precis som . . . rosa.
Yes. Just like . . . pink (Sw. rosa).
An:Rosa.
Pink.
Ad:Mm. Ros. Mm. Rose. Another persistent feature of dialogues with adults is negotiation for meaning and more precise information: We will go out? We will go An:Vi ska gå ut? Vi ska gå ut? out? Ad:Ja. Vi ska gå en runda.
Yes. We'll go for a walk.
An:Vi ska gå ut?
We will go out?
No. Only me and Sven and Ad:Nä. Bara ja d Sven å Kalle. Kalle. An:[a'do]?
[a'do]?
Ad:Å ja.
And me.
An:E du ska gå ut?
You will go out?
Ad:Va?
What?
An:E ska pd biblioteket?
Going to the library?
Ad:Nä. De eja . . . å . . .
No. It's me . . and . . .
Nä. Men du . . . du a Sven å No. But you . . . you and Sven An:Kalle biblioteket? and Kalle the library? Ad:Nej.
No.
An:Nej.
No.
Ad:Ska vi gå ner till torget.
We'll go down to the square.
An:[tuwe]?
The square?
Ad:Torget ja.
The square, yes.
An:Ad.
Oh.
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In contrast to Ana, Rina does not play with language and does not argue to the same extent. With children as well as with adults, Rina is concerned with getting at the facts: De e på svenska? En bok pd It is in Swedish? A book in R: svenska? Swedish? Nej. Inte på svenska å inte på No. Not in Swedish and not in Ch: polska. Polish. R: Vilken språk?
What language?
Ch:På ryska.
In Russian.
R: Ja har inte (---) på ryska. I haven't (---) in Russian. This is not so different from Rina's dialogues with adults, such as the one below: Får ja måla den? Får ja måla R: den?
May I paint it? May I paint it?
Ad:Rina, den ska brännas i en ugn. Rina, it will burn in an oven. R: Va e egn?
What is oven?
Den ska brännas i en ugn . . . där de blir varmt varmt varmt varmt. Förstår du? Nästan åttahundra grader varmt . . . så Ad:den blir hård.
It will burn in an oven . . . where it gets hot hot hot hot. Do you understand? Almost eight hundred degrees hot . . . so it gets hard.
R: Men de e hård.
But it is hard.
Ja. Men den går lätt sönder nu. Yes. But it breaks easily now. Ad:Den håller inte så bra. It doesn't hold so well. R: Aha.
Aha.
Ad:Nä. /. . ./ Discussion
No. /. . ./
The foregoing figures and examples have given ample evidence that the learners' questions and contributions to exchanges are indeed different with adults and children. There are also great individual differences between the two learners. One can characterise the learners', especially Ana's, role in interaction with the adults as more passive. This is reflected in the higher proportion of
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questions about own actions to adults, as well as in the higher proportion of incomplete sentences. It would still be an incorrect conclusion that interaction with children is more beneficial to syntactic development; Ana's questions to children may be syntactically more complete, but the same questions recur again and again. With children, Ana gets many opportunities to engage in dialogues as an active partner. She can count upon the other child to play along in dialogues that involve very little exchange of information and put very low demands upon her knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. She works hard at getting into the group. With adults she is more passive, although she and the adult both work at finding out the other's message. This fits in with observations by Peck (1978). Rina is a different case. We do not find such differences between dialogues with adults and with children. Instead, there is a concern about meaning, regardless of the age of the partner. There are several possible explanations for this. Rina is older, and is probably past the age of language play. Her classmates are second language learners like herself, with a restricted language competence, and there is not an existing group that she has to break into. Rina is also a more reserved person than Ana. In a forthcoming report based on the same corpus I will describe these and other (developmental) aspects of second language dialogue in greater detail. Acknowledgements I wish to thank the two learners who willingly let themselves be recorded, as well as all other children and personnel. Thanks are also due to Bengt Sigurd for comments on an earlier draft of the paper. Notes 1. This is a preliminary report from an ongoing dissertation project, 'Invandrarbarms dialoger på svenska' ('Immigrant Children's Dialogues in Swedish'), which will cover the development of dialogue structures during the first year of contact. References Ahrenberg, L. (1987) Interrogative Structures of Swedish. Reports from Uppsala University Department of Linguistics, 15. Bates, E. (1975) Peer relations and the acquisition of language. In M. Lewis & L. Rosenblum (eds), Friendship and Peer Relations. New York: John Wiley. Berninger, G. & Garvey, C. (1982) Tag constructions: structure and function in child discourse. Journal of Child Language, 9, 151-68. Camaioni, L. (1979) Child-adult and child-child conversations. An interactional approach. In E. Ochs & B. Schieffelin (eds), Developmental Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.
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Day, R. (ed.) (1986) Talking to Learn. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Dore, J. (1977) 'Oh them sheriff. A pragmatic analysis of children's responses to questions. In S. Ervin-Tripp & C. Mitchell-Kernan (eds), Child Discourse. New York: Academic Press. Dunn, J. & Kendrick, C. (1982) The speech of two- and three-year-olds to infant siblings. Journal of Child Language, 9, 579-95. Garvey, C. (1977) Play with language and speech. In S. Ervin-Tripp & C. Mitchell-Kernan (eds), Child Discourse. New York: Academic Press. Glahn, E. & Holmen, A. (eds) (1985) Learner Discourse. Anglica et Americana, 22. University of Copenhagen: Department of English. Hatch, E. (1983) Psycholinguistics. A Second Language Perspective. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Hirvonen, T. (1985) Children's foreigner talk. In S. Gass & C. Madden (eds), Input in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Holmen, A. (1985) Distribution of roles in learner-native speaker interaction. In E. Glahn & A. Holmen (eds), Learner Discourse. Anglica and Americana, 22. University of Copenhagen: Department of English. Katz, J. (1981) Children's second-language acquisition. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 28, 53-68. Keenan, E. (1974) Conversational competence in children. Journal of Child Language, 1, 163-83. Larsen-Freeman, D. (ed.) (1980) Discourse Analysis in Second Language Research. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Lloyd, P. & Beveridge, M. (1981) Information and Meaning in Child Communication. London: Academic Press. McLaughlin, B. (1984) Second-language Acquisition in Childhood. Volume 1. Preschool Children. Second edition. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. McTear, M. (1985) Children's Conversation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Nauclér, K. (1985) 'James Borg, det är en duktig man. . .'. Om skillnader i barns samtal med barn och med vuxna. SPRINS-rapport, 29. Gothenburg University. Nemoianu, A. (1980) The Boat's Gonna Leave. A study of children learning a second language from conversations with other children. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Nicholas, H. (1986) Contextually defined queries. In C. Pfaff (ed.), First and Second Language Acquisition Processes. Cambridge: Newbury House. Peck, S. (1978) Child-child discourse in second language acquisition. In E. Hatch (ed.), Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Piaget, J. (1926) The Language and Thought of the Child. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Sachs, J. & Devin, J. (1976) Young children's use of age-appropriate speech styles in social interaction and roleplaying. Journal of Child Language, 3, 81-98. Shatz, M. & Gelman, R. (1973) The Development of Communication Skills. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38. Sinclair, J. & Coulthard, R. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse. The English Used by Teachers and Pupils.
London: Oxford University Press. Snow, C. (1986) Conversations with children. In P. Fletcher & M. Garman (eds), Language Acquisition. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Stenström, A.-B. (1984) Questions and Responses in English Conversation. Lund Studies in English, 68. Malmö: Liber Förlag. Tomasello, M. & Mannle, S. (1985) Pragmatics of sibling speech to one-year-olds. Child Development, 56, 911-7. Tyack, D. & Ingram, D. (1977) Children's production and comprehension of questions. Journal of Child Language, 4, 211-24. van Hekken, S. & Roelofsen, W. (1982) More questions than answers. Journal of Child Language, 9, 445-60. Wong Fillmore, L. (1976) The second time around. Cognitive and social strategies in second language acquisition. Unpublished Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.
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3 Monolingual and Bilingual Children's Foreigner Talk Conversations Tuula Hirvonen University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Abstract The study deals with the question of bilingualism from the point of view of monolingual and bilingual language users' interactive skills when conversing with second language learners. Dyads of 8-10-year-old children (native speakers with learners of English and native speakers with other native speakers) were recorded in free play and game instruction tasks. The data were analyzed quantitatively for a number of syntactic and discourse variables to find out how monolingual and bilingual children modify their speech when talking with learners. The monolingual and bilingual children studied here seem to differ in their discourse approach to the learner: the bilingual children use less obvious modification strategies and resort to modification at the discourse level only. The monolingual children modify both syntactically and at the discourse level. Foreigner Talk and Peer Talk In many schools all over the world, teachers and students alike come into contact with foreign children, most of whom initially have to go through the process of acquiring a new language. Those interested in psycholinguistics and second language acquisition have a special interest in how we communicate with learners and also in how children communicate with learners of their own age. In other words, we are interested in input and interaction patterns between learners and native speakers. From descriptions of native speakers talking with learners we might be able to deduce patterns or ways of communicating potentially helpful to learners. In this study, eight learners of English matched in age with native speakers of English, each learner with both a monolingual and a bilingual child, were
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recorded in dyads in a free play situation and a game instruction task. The control material of native speakers talking with each other was collected from the same children who played with each learner. The study was concerned with two broad questions: firstly, whether children modify their speech when talking with learners and, secondly, whether monolingual and bilingual children differ in this respect. A number of syntactic variables, syntactic discourse indicators and the discourse structure of the conversations were studied quantitatively. The study falls under the general heading of simplified codes or foreigner talk (FT) studies. This type of research started in the 1970s with Ferguson's (1972) and Ferguson & DeBose's (1977) suggestions about FT as a modified, either simplifying or non-simplifying, code. Several studies since (e.g. Long, 1980; Long, 1983; Freed, 1981; Arthur et al., 1980; Hatch, Shapira & Gough, 1978; Hirvonen, 1985) have highlighted the fact that second language learners are exposed to similarly modified input language as first language learners: pauses, limited vocabulary, brevity of syntactic structures and repetitions characterise this register. It has, however, become clear that syntactic modifications are not as consistently observed in FT as interactional modifications. The native speaker's role in child-child conversations has not received much attention, although children receive input not only from adults, parents and teachers, but also from peers (see Katz, 1981; Fillmore, 1976; Hakuta, 1974). Various types of situations between children provide the learner with different types of language learning opportunities. In these situations, the native speaker's role is important, since the native speaker carries the main burden of the conversations. The native speaker's task is to carry on the conversation, but the situations and the native speakers' interactive skills vary and therefore the type of input and interactive situations the learner is engaged in vary from one native speaker interlocutor to another (for differences in children's native speaker-native speaker interactions, see e.g. Foot et al., 1979; in native speaker-learner conversations Gass & Varonis, 1985; Hirvonen, 1986; Leiwo, 1985). Because of the general interest shown in bilingualism recently and the various references to the possible beneficial influence of bilingualism on a child's development as far as metalinguistic awareness and flexibility of language use go, it was decided that bilingual children would be included in the study. Here I shall discuss the results of the monolingual-bilingual comparison. Surface Syntax Variables and Discourse Indicators In general, it was hypothesised that more surface syntax modifications would be shown by the bilingual speakers. The results, however, show that out of
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nearly twenty variables, only five vary significantly between monolingual and bilingual speakers. Of these, four vary seemingly in the direction of monolinguals modifying their speech more. These variables are the following: 1. the number of full verbal groups/utterance, 2. the distribution of surface sentence types, 3. the number of attention-getting devices, 4. the number of vocatives, 5. use of non-immediate reference. The first two variables, however, differ significantly between monolingual and bilingual native talk (NT) as well as between monolingual and bilingual foreigner talk (FT). This indicates that monolinguals use less complex language both in NT and FT. This is also reflected in utterance length, which is shorter for monolinguals. Both groups modify their utterance complexity. It seems that some differences between monolinguals and bilinguals reflect differences in their NT behaviour, and not differences in their FT behaviour. The distribution of surface sentence types also shows clear differences between monolinguals and bilinguals both in FT and NT, and both groups again show modification in FT: fewer statements, more commands and more questions are used when speaking to a learner. The different sentence types occur in different proportions in monolinguals and bilinguals' speech, reflecting their NT style, e.g. the bilinguals tend to use more statements. The other three variables show no significant differences between monolingual and bilingual NT and it is possible, therefore, that they may prove useful in distinguishing between monolingual and bilingual FT. The use of vocatives and attention-getting devices (e.g. Look!, Here!) is significantly modified in monolingual FT, but not at all in bilingual FT. For instance, in monolingual FT, 7% of all utterances contain a vocative as opposed to 1.1% in NT. The corresponding figures for bilinguals are 0.8% in FT and 1.1% in NT. Only the occurrence of fewer utterances with non-immediate reference in bilingual speech supported the hypothesis of differences between monolinguals and bilinguals. The bilinguals use significantly fewer non-immediate references in their FT than the monolingual speakers, who do not seem to modify their reference in the direction of the immediate environment and the present when talking to learners. These features show the different levels from which the native speaker can select modification strategies: the complexity of surface sentence structure; the presence, in this structure, of certain interactional characteristics of the discourse, e.g. the use of vocatives; and the global discourse structure, e.g. the use of reference. Looking at these variables, it seems that monolinguals resort more to the surface syntax strategies than bilinguals.
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The differences proposed may be the result of the different experiences, attitudes and expectations that the two groups of children have. The monolinguals with little FT experience have possibly only one model to follow, that of parents speaking to younger siblings, and some of them do not even have this. Also, because they are faced with a new situation they may resort to the first means available to them, i.e. verbally grabbing the interlocutor. They may expect the learner not to understand and, therefore, feel that obvious strategies are the best. The bilinguals, even with limited FT experience, probably have different expectations. They know that people with limited linguistic skills understand something, and can be made to understand. Some of the children may actually find it difficult to comprehend that the other person does not know the language. Because s/he can communicate in two or three languages, others can as well. They treat the learners more as equals and are perhaps less likely to have stereotypic reactions to them. The bilinguals' attempts at communication seem to be modified more at the discourse level rather than at the obvious interactional level of attention-getting. Bilinguals may, due to their metalinguistic awareness and different experiences, use different patterns of modification. Discourse Structure Discourse Role and Commodity In the descriptive model used, dialogue is interpreted as a process of exchanges involving two variables: the nature of the commodity being exchanged (topic) and the roles of the speakers that are defined by the exchange process. In this Halliday (1984) model, code is defined as 'potential for behaviour', and behaviour as 'the actualization of the potential in a real-life situation'. The model suggested by Halliday (1984) has been used in the Bristol Language Development Project. In this project a large number of Bristol children were studied in their language development up to and including early school age (Wells, 1975; Wells, Montgomery & Maclure, 1979). In these analyses, conversations are considered as 'the formal realization of simultaneous selections from the sets of options available in three major areas of meaning' (Wells, Montgomery & Maclure, 1979). The three areas of meaning are interpersonal purpose, i.e. establishing, maintaining and specifying relations between speakers, ideational, i.e. transmitting information, and textual, i.e. the organization of meanings as a repertoire of discourse options. Two of these, the interpersonal and the ideational, are discussed here. Figure 1 presents the discourse options network.
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Figure 1 The repertoire of discourse options according to Wells, Montgomery & MacLure, 1979 In this network, the discourse role assumed by the speaker is to initiate, continue or respond. Initiating is either giving or requesting a commodity. When responding, the speaker either gives-on-request or acknowledges the commodity received. 'Continue' covers those cases in which the speaker both responds and initiates in the same utterance, e.g. in 'No, you can borrow mine' as an answer to the question 'Should I buy this book?'. The discourse commodity is either goods and services or information. In case of goods and services, the exchange of symbols helps to bring about the exchange, whereas information is realised only through language: the exchange of symbols is the exchange of information. Three types of information are differentiated: display, non-display and textcontingent. In asking for display information, the speaker knows the answer and requests a display of the interlocutor's knowledge, as in classrooms. In exchanging non-display information, speakers are engaged in genuine information exchange. Text-contingent information is information about the discourse itself, which is either specified, confirmed or repeated. The distribution of the discourse role varies significantly between monolingual and bilingual FT, but the same variation can be found in NT as well. The
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monolingual children initiate by making more requests and giving less information or goods and services than the bilinguals. However, both groups modify their FT discourse when initiating conversational exchanges by increasing the proportion of requests, in the case of monolinguals from 24.8% in NT to 33.6% in FT. For bilinguals the corresponding figures are 19.3% in NT and 24.9% in FT. In monolingual FT this change is accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the response roles assumed by the speakers: there are fewer occasions in FT than in NT conversations either to give-on-request or to acknowledge the interlocutor's contributions. In bilingual speakers' conversations there is less variation between NT and FT. Monolinguals and bilinguals do not differ significantly in NT in the type of commodity exchanged, but there are clear differences between these two groups in their FT behaviour: the monolinguals employ more goods and services and less information. That is to say, when they initiate a conversational exchange, we can expect them to request goods and services more often than they either ask for or give information. Of the following two examples, (1) is then the type of exchange to be expected in monolingual FT and (2) is more likely to be found in NT or in bilingual FT: EXAMPLE 1 (NS: a monolingual girl; NNS: an Arabic-speaker, girl) NS: Chazal. NNS:Eh? Listen to all the noise. (Request for goods and services.) Listen to all the noise, NS: listen. It's our class. NNS:What? NS: It's our class making the noise. EXAMPLE 2 (NS: a bilingual girl; NNS: a Malay-speaker, boy) NS: What country do you come from? (Request for information.) NNS:From B. NS: It's down China somewhere. (Request for information.) NNS:Yeah. NS: I come from P. Are you a Muslim? (Request for information.) NNS:I don't know The difference between the two groups can be accounted for by modifications in the monolinguals' FT: the bilinguals again seem to react to the learners in the same way as to other native speakers. The only way they modify the commodity exchanged is by increasing the use of text-contingent information,
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especially repetitions. The same increase can also be found in monolingual FT, as in Example 3: EXAMPLE 3 (NS: a monolingual boy; NNS: a Chinese-speaker, boy) NS:
David, do you know how to play that?
NNS: Eh? NS:
The other game you played. (Specify.) What what game did you play?
NNS: No, I haven't got played games. NS:
What games did you play? (Articulates clearly.) (Repeat.)
NNS: Nothing. NS: Just the Lego? (Confirm.) Display information, in these data, is used exclusively by monolinguals and mostly by one very skilful user of FT in her tutorial sequences. In tutorial sequences the NS takes the role of a teacher and intentionally uses the conversation for didactic purposes. This is what happens in the next example of a tutorial sequence, where the native speaker asks a series of questions about the learner's relation to various Japanese children, although she knows that the learner has one brother and that the other children mentioned are not her relatives: EXAMPLE 4 (NS: a monolingual girl; NNS: a Japanese-speaker, girl) NS:
You got a brother?
NNS:
Yes, short.
NS:
No, Mitsumi: You got a brother, Mitsumi?
NNS:
Yes.
NS:
Little brother?
NNS:
Big brother.
NS:
Big brother. Is Kyoto your SISTER?
NNS:
No.
NS:
Is YUKI your sister?
NNS: No. Sequence structure The texts have been analyzed as sequences to consider stretches of conversation larger than an exchange but shorter than the whole interaction.
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A sequence is defined as 'a stretch of conversation having a unitary topic and purpose' (Wells, 1975:38). There are various criteria for deciding when such a unitary topic and purpose may be considered to have occurred, such as a change in speaking turns and overt marking by utterances which mark a change of topic, or a conclusion, or a change of activity. It has been suggested by Coulthard, Montgomery & Brazil (1981) that sequences can be identified in terms of surface recognition criteria, but no internal structure has been found in the data studied (doctor-patient interviews, committee discussions and broadcast interviews). The following sequences have been suggested in the Bristol Project (Wells, 1975:37-9): 1. Control: controlling the behaviour of one's interlocutor, either by commanding, suggesting, requesting action, etc.; 2. Representational: exchanging information, without the direct indication of an action as a desired goal; 3. Expressive: expressing feelings and attitudes as an affective response to a situation; 4. Tutorial: interactions with a clearly didactic purpose; 5. Procedural: (a subsequence mode) concerned with the channel of communication; used to repair a breakdown in communication or to initiate or to end a sequence. The sequence modes used here are control, representational, expressive, tutorial and play. In addition, a subsequence mode, procedural, is distinguished. Constituents of the subsequences are utterances, each of which realises a particular function in the interpersonal interaction. Play was added as a sequence mode, because it was considered an important mode in child-child speech. Play includes sequences of sound and word play, role play, play routines, etc. Overall, control and tutorial sequences are more frequent in FT, and representational and play sequences in NT. In NT, there is no significant difference between monolinguals and bilinguals, although there is a tendency for bilinguals to use more control mode. Monolingual and bilingual FT, however, differ significantly in the distribution of the sequence types. The difference is clearly apparent in the way the control mode is used: nearly 50% of all utterances in bilingual FT are in the control mode, against nearly 40% in monolingual FT. For both groups, this represents an increase in the use of control mode and a corresponding decrease in the use of representational and play sequences in FT as compared with NT. There seem to be two discrepancies in the result: on the one hand, the monolinguals make more requests for goods and services than the bilinguals
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and this could lead us to expect more sequences whose primary purpose is control in monolingual FT. It may be, however, that what at the discourse role and commodity level is considered to be giving information, at the sequence level can be interpreted as being in the control mode. This is the case in game instructions, which were here interpreted as control mode, if there was an 'indication of an action as a desired goal'. Genuine information, for example, discussions about school and family, were thus separated from control and instructions. This may account for the high proportion of control sequences in the data. The following type of instruction is then interpreted as a control sequence: EXAMPLE 5 (NS: a monolingual girl speaking to a NNS) No no Mona, no you mustn't put it you must put it 'cross there because it's NS:gonna be a wall alongyou're starting now. The difference between the two groups in the use of control and representational modes cannot be explained on the basis of different numbers of game and play interactions: in fact, both groups were engaged in equal numbers of free play and game interactions. On the other hand, it has been argued here that the bilingual children's different attitudes and expectations could result in less modified behaviour. Although one might expect the high proportion of control mode sequences to be a marked modification strategy in FT, what seems to happen is that in FT conversations the bilinguals behave as they do with native speakers. We have seen that bilinguals do modify their speech less than monolinguals in all other respects. Therefore, the increased use of control mode cannot be considered a very highly marked strategy here, rather an indication of the bilinguals' speech style in general. Conclusion The results of the monolingual-bilingual foreigner talk comparison indicate that the monolingual children studied here modify their speech to learners both syntactically and at the discourse level, whereas the bilinguals' modifications are found only at the discourse level. The hypothesis about the bilinguals' heightened sensitivity to problems presented by the foreigner talk situation was not supported by the results. I have suggested that explanations could perhaps be looked for in the speakers' attitudes towards the learner and in their expectations of the speech situation. It is clear, however, that children
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as well as adults can modify their speaking styles and that they use various strategies to keep the conversation going, to involve the interlocutor, and to repair and to check when communication breaks down. Language acquisition takes place in conversations with other speakers and it is important to study the native speaker's contribution to this process. A skilful user of foreigner talk strategies, even in peer talk, may be able to provide the learner with the right kind of interactive encouragement in addition to the required comprehensible input. The differences discussed in this paper are group differences, but individual differences may be a much more important factor in a foreigner talk situation. These data provide material for further analysis of such individual differences, also between monolingual and bilingual children. References Arthur, B., Weiner, R., Culver, M., Ja Lee, Y. & Thomas, D. (1980) The register of impersonal discourse to foreigners: verbal adjustments to foreign accent. In D. Larsen-Freeman (ed.), Discourse Analysis in Second Language Research. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Coulthard, M., Montgomery, M. & Brazil, D. (1981) Developing a description of spoken discourse. In M. Coulthard & M. Montgomery (eds), Studies in Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Ferguson, C. A. (1972) Toward a characterization of English foreigner talk. Anthropological Linguistics, 17(1), 114. Ferguson, C. A. & DeBose, C. E. (1977) Simplified registers, broken language, and pidginisation. In A. Valdman (ed.), Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. Bloomington, IN.: Indiana University Press. Fillmore, L. W. (1976) The Second Time Around: cognitive and social strategies in second language acquisition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University. Foot, H. C., Chapman, A. J., Sweeney, C. A. & Gormly, C. M. R. (1979) Mixed-age effects in children's social encounters. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society in Nottingham, April 1979. Freed, B. F. (1981) Foreigner talk, baby talk, native talk. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Special Issue on Foreigner talk, ed. M. G. Clyne, 28, 19-39. Gass, S. M. & Varonis, E. M. (1985) Variation in native speaker speech modification to nonnative speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 7(1), 37-58. Hakuta, K. (1974) A report on the development of grammatical morphemes in a Japanese girl learning English as a second language. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 3, 18-43. Halliday, M. A. K. (1984) Language as code and language as behaviour: a systemic-functional interpretation of the nature and ontogenesis of dialogue. In R. P. Fawcett, M. A. K. Halliday, S. M. Lamb & A. Makkai (eds), The Semiotics of Culture and Language, Vol. 1, Language as Social Semiotic. London: Frances Pinter. Hatch, E., Shapira, R. & Gough, J. (1978) 'Foreigner-talk' Discourse. ITL: Review of Applied Linguistics, 39-40, 39-60. Hirvonen, T. (1985) Children's foreigner talk: peer talk in play context. In S. M. Gass & C. G. Madden (eds), Input in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. (1987) Discourse structure in children's foreigner talk: indicators of willingness to negotiate. In I. Lindblad and M. Ljuns (eds) Proceedings from the Third Nordic Conference for English Studies, Hässelby, Sept 25-27, 1986. Vol. 1. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. Katz, J. T. (1981) Children's second-language acquisition: the role of foreigner talk in child-child interaction.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Special Issue on Foreigner Talk, ed. M. G. Clyne, 28, 53-68.
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Leiwo, M. (1985) Hur klarar man sig i ett samtal på ett främmande språk? Nordisk tidsskrift for logopedi og foniatri, 10(1), 42-53. Long, M. H. (1980) Input, Interaction, and Second Language Acquisition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. (1983) Native speaker/non-native speaker conversation and the negotiation of comprehensible input. Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 126-41. Wells, C. G. (1975) Coding Manual for the Description of Child Speech. Revised edition. University of Bristol School of Education. Wells, G., Montgomery, M. & MacLure, M. (1979) Adult-child discourse: outline of a model of analysis. Journal of Pragmatics, 3, 337-80.
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4 Turkish Children's Communication Strategies in Danish J. Normann Jørgensen The Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark. Abstract This paper reports a study of Turkish children's communication strategies in Danish, their second or third language. They were all born in Turkey and now attending Danish schools. They were asked to define or somehow describe the meaning of certain Danish words. Their explanations were audio-taped and transcribed. Their Danish vocabulary (or rather, word comprehension potential) was estimated against what is implicitly required by the Danish school. As could be expected, some students scored better than others. This paper presents some of the different communication strategies employed by the students. It also takes a look at the strategies employed by the students who did not succeed in describing the meaning of Danish words, but nevertheless somehow proved that they were familiar with the 'concept' behind at least some words. Communication strategies have primarily been studied in foreign language learners. One pedagogical implication of this study is the need to broaden the scope in order to cover the wider range of language skills that second language learners must acquire, and to adjust communicative second language teaching accordingly. A second implication is that the so-called 'lack of concepts' of immigrant children in Scandinavian schools may be exaggerated. The literature on communication strategies is to a large extent preoccupied with the definition and classification of communication strategies, or with empirical studies, especially with respect to the identification of particular strategies. Furthermore, all the definitions suggested in, for example, the volume edited by Færch & Kasper (1983), look upon communication strategies as 'attempts' or 'plans' to overcome difficulties with 'expression or decoding of meaning', or 'information', or 'content'. (In the Færch & Kasper volume, for example, Tarone et al. describe it as: a systematic attempt by the learner to express or decode meaning in the target language, in situations where the appropriate systematic
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target language rules have not been formed (Tarone et al. in Færch & Kasper, 1983:5); Færch and Kasper (1983:36) as potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal; Tarone, again (p. 65) the term relates to a mutual attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a meaning in situations where requisite meaning structures do not seem to be shared. Later, the following criterion is listed: a speaker desires to communicate a meaning X to a listener (Bialystok, p. 102). and all attempts to manipulate a limited linguistic system in order to promote communication (see also Varadi, p. 82ff). In other words, communication strategies, however difficult they may be to observe and identify, however similar or dissimilar they may be to learning strategies, etc, are primarily considered to be phenomena related to the situation in which a foreign language learner is confronted with the problems of delivering a message with limited linguistic resources in the target language. A somewhat broader notion is presented in an educational perspective by Canale (1983) (see also Canale, 1984). His 'outline of communication objectives' includes 'strategic competence for sociolinguistic difficulties' and 'discourse difficulties' (1983:24). The sociolinguistic and discourse difficulties he takes into consideration, however, all more or less relate to the same type of situation as described above. This limitation of the scope of communication strategies works well enough in the foreign language learning perspective, as it is found in, for instance, Scandinavian classrooms where English, German or French is taught (see e.g. Wagner, 1983; Lammers & Nygaard, 1980). The pedagogical goal of this branch of language teaching may to a large extent be expressed in terms of the students' developing an ability to communicate in a comparatively narrow
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sense of the word. The long-term goal of second language teaching, however, is different. The students in classes in Danish, Swedish or Norwegian as a second language are expected to develop their target language to a nearnative level of competence, at least in most public situations. They are supposed to be able to function linguistically in a much wider range of situations, and perform a much wider range of language tasks, than foreign language learners. They are, in short, expected to 'communicate' in a broader sense of the word. Take, for example, a typical teaching situation. The student is expected to explain something in the target language, that is, to 'convey information' about the topic. This is a comparatively simple, at least unequivocal, language task, or is it? The students may very well perceive the situation as one in which they must demonstrate to the teacher how bright they are, in which case they must rely on a quite different kind of communicative competence. They may also have something quite different on their minds during that particular lesson and therefore wish to focus their attention on something elsewithout the teacher noticing (or at least with a plausible excuse at hand). This calls for yet another kind of communicative competence. The average student in the foreign language classroom will usually be able to draw on his or her native language competence in such cases (it takes quite an advanced teacher, although it is by no means inconceivable, to force the students to use the target language to present their more or less plausible excuses for day-dreaming). The second language student, however, cannot resort to his or her native tongue. This paper is a progress report on a study of Turkish children's communication strategies in Danish. The intention of the study was to compare the strategies employed by the children with their Danish vocabulary (or rather, word comprehension potential, see Jørgensen, 1987). I collected my material in the schools of a working class suburb of Copenhagen. The students were all of Turkish origin, and they were born in Turkey of Kurdish or Turkish parents. In short, the children were asked to somehow define or describe the meaning of a series of Danish words, selected to represent the vocabulary implicitly required by the Danish school. That is, it would be necessary for the children at least to understand the meaning of these words to be able to follow the teaching and to participate in an average Danish school day (see Jørgensen, 1984 & 1985, for details). Their explanations and subsequent conversations with me were audio-taped and transcribed. This created a situation with a comparatively narrow, well-defined communicative goal which is also relevant to the school: 'Explain to an adult Dane the meaning of a Danish word which he knows perfectly well in advance'. This is something students do in schools all over the world every day, so the task was probably not that unfamiliar to them. Fortunately it proved to be more intricate than that, as we shall see.
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There were, of course, numerous instances of strategies that could be expected. Easiest to detect are the achievement strategies, and in the following I shall concentrate on some examples of those. They are described in Færch & Kasper's terms (1983:53). Paraphrase Explaining the Function of the Stimulus Word (worker's union): It is something one eh gets (about fagforening): SD:Det er noget man øh får penge. money NJ: Ja.
Yes.
SD:Man tjener penge.
One earns money.
NJ: Ja, hvornår får man penge?
Yes, How does one get money?
Hm, hvis man har arbejde. Hvis Mm, if one has a job. If one man har arbejde og det bliver has a job and it is finished færdigt så får . . . så går man i then get . . . then one goes to union. SD:fagforening. In fact this was one of the few examples that could be said to be communicatively genuine. This meaning of the word 'fagforening' was in a way new to me. I thought of the workers' union as the body representing workers across the table from the employers, and to a certain extent as a factor in national politics. This is, of course, less than the whole and relevant truth for the immigrant workers with their very low level of economic and political influence and their high unemployment rate. To them the union is the office where they go and get their unemployment benefits. Therefore, the informant SD's grammatically primitive definition works well. Note that the conversation also contains a restructured utterance. (about fagforening): Der man tager YK:penge.
(union): (There one takes money.)
about sygeplejerske Hvis du . . . var syg, ikke også, så du går til YK:sygeplejerske.
(nurse): (If you were . . . ill, okay, then you go to nurse.)
HU:about agurk Man spiser den.
(cucumber): (One eats it.)
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In these three examples the informants explain the meaning of a word by describing the use or function of the phenomenon denoted by the word. This is what could be expected, and not at all unlike dictionary definitions. Defining by Synonyms AC:(about røv): Det er numsen.
(arse): (That's the behind.)
about historie Det er en øh historie man (story): (It is a eh story one eh reaFA: øh læ- eventyr. fairy tale.) These examples represent another typical definition-like strategy. The use of synonyms (perhaps major terms or minor terms) is characteristic of dictionary definitions, crossword puzzles and in everyday language usage as a whole, and it is well known from school tests. Furthermore, here again is an example of a restructured utterance. Exemplifying (about elske): (to love): MK: Altså man kan elske en pige. (So, one can love a girl.) (away, gone): about væk /ha- min øh lillesøster eller ((Long pause) h- my little sister storesø- bror sø- er øh han . . or older si- brother si- he . . . was away) YK: . var væk. Jah, hvad vil det sige, at han (Yes, what does it mean that he NJ: var væk? was away?) YK: //Ikke hjemme. ((Long pause) Not at home) Both informant MK's and informant YK's replies contain the stimulus word used in a sentence. Informant YK does know another phrase with a meaning close enough to that of the stimulus word to pass for a synonym. He does not use it immediately, however, obviously having some kind of problem with 'conveying the meaning'. He finally chooses to illustrate the meaning with a rather useless example. The success of this strategy relies on the co-operation of the conversational partner, although the strategy cannot be described as cooperative (there is no suggestion of co-operation). This strategy is difficult to distinguish from another, very different one (See informant SD about 'smerte' below).
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Non-linguistic Strategies Gesture (about halsen): (the neck): FA: Her hen (points to his neck). (Over here.) about maskine (machine): (points to the tape recorder). ((Long pause) It is a //Det er en machine.) YK:maskine In these two examples a verbal reply has a non-verbal companion without which the answer would make little sense. In fact the gesture alone would be more likely to be accepted as a satisfactory answer than the verbal part alone. This is not just due to characteristically deictic elements (the deictic element of informant YK's verbal reply is indeed very small). It is also because of the use of non-linguistic strategies to deal with communicative problems. Imitation (valve trumpet): (Isn't that . . . (about ventiltrompet): something you can trompe Er det ikke . . . en der man kan trompe med der? Jeg ved (meaningless) with there? I don't know . . . what one does?) SD:ikke . . . hvad man gør? En trompet, hvad laver man (A trumpet, what does one do NJ: med en trompet? with a trumpet?) (Imitating the sound of a SD:Truttruteri trumpet.) The non-linguistic strategies depend on the face-to-face situation of personal conversation. Nonlinguistic strategies are often used, at least as companions to verbal strategies, just as they more often than not accompany un-problematic communication (Ruesch & Kees, 1972:78). They are nevertheless often discarded or played down (see, for example, Haastrup & Phillipson, 1983:157). This is partly due to the fact that it is difficult to describe more elaborate non-linguistic strategies. Just think of the difficulties that linguists trying to transcribe sign languages are faced with. Restructuring See examples above: informant SD about ''fagforening'and informant FA about 'historie'.
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about straf Det er noget straffe . . . man skal . . . hvis man laver noget forkert, så skal man . . . f . . . så får f . . . straf for det . . . så betaler (penalty, punishment): man måske (It is something (to?) punish(ments?) . . . one must . . . penge if one does something wrong, then one must . . . f . . . eller then one g . . . punishment for it . . . then one perhaps pays some money or . . .) SY:. . . Informant SY begins with one structure (det er noget straffe. . .) which is never finished. He gives up in midsentence and tries again with a new structure (man skal . . .) which is not finished either, and so on. The end result is nevertheless something resembling a meaningful reply. The transcription is unkind to restructurings like this one. Code-switching (about elske): (to love): SD: Sevmek (the Turkish word for 'to love'). The Turkish children's opportunities to resort to their native tongue, be it Kurdish or Turkish, are few and far between in Scandinavian schools. The strategy of borrowing from one's native tongue nevertheless appears now and then in my material, even in a few cases where the informant did not appear to think that I knew Turkish. (This presents a methodological problem for me. In some cases I asked an informant who seemed totally unable to form a meaningful reply to a given word in Danish, to give me the Turkish equivalent of the stimulus word. In at least one case that led the informant to believe that this would be a particularly acceptable strategy for the rest of the interview. I have not yet decided how to deal with this problem in my overall analysis of the material.) Cooperative Strategies (saved): (about opsparet): Opsparet . . . det er når man (Saved . . . that is when you save your money, is it not?) AC:sparer penge, ikke? Informant AC frequently guesses (see below about her remark to the stimulus word 'indånding').In the case of 'opsparet' she may guess on the basis of her knowledge of the word 'at spare' (to save). Here she appeals for confirmation of her answer. Note that she does not overtly guess, and therefore
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she is employing a strategy other than the one mentioned below, informant AC about 'indånding' (see also Haastrup, 1985 about lexical inferencing). (textbook): (about en lærebog): (Is it eh about who eh who Er det øh om hvem øh eller hvem kommer eller hvem ikke is coming and who is not kommer, man skriver i den, er coming, one writes in it, is it not?) HK:det ikke det? This girl has confused the word 'lærebog' with 'gæstebog' (visitors' book) which is used exactly as she describes it, but she is aware of her problem and therefore appeals for hints or help. This should suffice to show that the categories of communication strategies suggested by Færch & Kasper are indeed present when the communicative goal is to 'convey information' or something similar. In the following we shall take a closer look at some examples that appear to present problems to the speakers, but in which the strategies apparently used by the speakers do not immediately fit so nicely into the categories. (about straf) Hvis man vil straffe noget, ikke, så er det AC:straf.
(punishment, penalty): If one wants to punish something, okay, then it is punishment.
NJ: Ja, hvad er en straf?
Yes, what is a punishment?
AC:Hvad skal jeg nu sige? What do I have to say now? Shortly afterwards, this exchange follows: (about magt): AC:Magt?
(power): Power?
NJ: Magt.
Power.
AC://m-a-g-t.
(long pause) p-o-w-e-r.
NJ: Ja.
Yes.
øh det . . . hvad skal jeg sige What do I have to say about AC:om den?// that one. The remark 'What do I have to say now?' could be taken as an appeal for help, but hardly in this context. The girl has just, she believes, explained the word 'punishment', and there I go on asking. She seems to be slightly
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dissatisfied with this unexpected turn of events. There may be two reasons for this. Either she may view this session as a situation in which she must perform well (which is certainly likely, considering she is a Turkish girl in a Danish school), or she may be bored with the whole thing and increasingly irritated by every prolongation. The latter interpretation is supported by her reaction to the word magt. (about fagforening): ZC:Jeg lender godt.
(worker's union): I know well.
(about procent): //Ja, den kender jeg ZC:godt.
(per cent): (long pause) Yes, that one I know.
Øhm, du ved det, 10% NJ: og 50 % . . . hm, you know it, 10% and 50%. ZC:Ja, 100 %.
Yes, 100%.
NJ: Hvad?
What?
ZC:100 %.
100%.
Ja, hvad er øh 50 % af Yes, what is eh 50% of 1 kr? Do you NJ: en krone? Ved du det?know that? ZC:(whispering): Nej. No. Informant ZC could be taken to employ a reduction strategy when saying 'I know it'. On the other hand, somehow that does not really cover the situation completely. It becomes evident that she only knows the phrase '100%'as she, perhaps embarrassed, must admit. It is likely that she is trying to make me believe that she knows the word, although she does not and knows that she does notwhich is the communication problem to solve. Therefore avoiding speaking about the 'content' is not merely the potentially conscious plan. It becomes a sub-goal in itself. (inhalation): (about indånding): //Øh//Hvis jeg får tid til at (long pause) eh (long pause) If I can take my time to guess I can do it. AC:gætte, så kan jeg godt. In this example it becomes obvious that informant AC has at least a parallel communicative goal to that of conveying information. She wants to perform well. (about smerte): Smerte. Det . . . noget ting man laver. Det . . . SB: en smerte.
(pain): Pain. That . . . something thing one makes. That . . . a pain.
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Informant SD is here doing something similar to informant MK's reaction to 'at elske' (see above). At first glance he appears to be trying to 'convey information'. But his utterance is so vague, and the sentence he forms so superficial that it gives rise to the suspicion that he does not really know the wordthat he is just trying to give the impression that he knows it. In these examples the informants' 'communicative goals' appear to be quite different from what we stipulated earlier. The children do not always see their task in the interview as communicative in the narrow sense of the word. In some cases their goal is probably to perform well. They do not 'attempt to convey information'; they attempt to appear to be attempting to convey information. Their 'communicative' goal is to convey an image. They are performing a version of the speech act of persuasion, in other words, not communicating in the narrow sense of the word. In these reactions, for example, in informant ZC's reaction to 'per cent', we see unsuccessful attempts to convey an image. As it the case with communication strategies in the narrower sense, they are easier to observe when they falter than when they succeed. Informant AC may have another 'goal' besides wanting to convey an image of herself. In her reactions to 'straf'and 'magt' she seems to want the whole thing over with, without insulting me. Thus she is faced with yet another linguistic task. The situation demands that she takes her turns and speaks. It also demands that she deals with certain subjects in what she says. Although she was a volunteer for the interview, she may at this point be extremely bored. The distribution of power between her and me, however, must appear to be quite lopsided from her perspective. Therefore, she must carry on. Her task is similar to that of the bored dinner conversation participantthat is to maintain good social relations with another human being by means of language. Again we find grounds for our suspicion when she appears to fail to achieve her goal ('What must I say now?'). Both of these possible 'goals' are highly relevant in everyday school life. School life is competitive enough, not the least in this particular area, for the pupils to believe that they are supposed to achieve rather than acquire skills and knowledgewhich in its turn is a perfectly good reason to be bored at times. It is very likely that these tendencies will appear in an investigation like the one I was carrying out. They may also be generalised to be relevant in life in Denmark in the 1980's. Consequently the range of goals a Turkish youngster in Denmark may attempt to achieve by means of language are all subject to failure, difficulty, intervention by contrasting goals, etc. There is good reason to deal with the notion of strategies in this wider context. In order to distinguish between 'communication strategies' in the narrower sense, and strategies in the wider sense, we may use the term 'interactional strategies' for the latter, thereby
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including the communication strategies as one very important class of interactional strategies. It is beyond the scope of this paper to outline the particular strategies that are at the disposal of the dinner conversation participants, etc.,but one merits mentioning, namely the lie. The Dane who accidentally meets his neighbor on the bleachers (cheap seats) a few minutes before kick-off in the traditional soccer game between Denmark and Sweden cannot avoid saying something to him. 'Nice weather today, eh?' is not really enough. He must appear to say something relevant (see Frost Olesen, 1982) and therefore he says 'The Swedes are gonna get one helluva beating today, right?' even though he believes that the Swedes are all but sure to win. (I know how unlikely that may seem these days, but take it s a theoretical possibility.) In other words, this Dane is lying through his teethand still successfully achieving his goals by means of language. Our next problem concerns the students who were unable to describe the meaning of the Danish words presented to them. Take a look at the following examples. (about at elske): FA: Hmm. Når man elsker . . .
(to love): Mmm. When one loves . . .
NJ: Hvad elsker man?
What does one love?
FA: Det ved jeg ikke. Man kan . . .
I don't know. One can. . . .
NJ: Hvad hedder det på tyrkisk?
What is it in Turkish?
FA: Sevmek. Sevmek. The pedagogical value of being able to resort to one's native tongue is evident here. Informant FA does try to explain the meaning of the word 'at elske', or at least to use it in a meaningful utterance, but he fails. Nevertheless, he is perfectly capable of understanding the word, a fact he can only relate by translating the word. (That is, if we discount the option of saying 'Yes, I understand'which is tempting considering what we have seen above.) (about straf): YK:Hvis man . . . laver noget . . .
(Punishment, penalty): If one . . . does something.
Ja, for eksempel? Hvis man NJ: har lavet hvad?
Yes, for example? If one has done what?
YK:Tacklinger øh . . .
Tackles eh . . .
NJ: Hvad hedder det på tyrkisk?
What is it in Turkish?
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YK:Penalti
Penalti (Turkish for penalty kick).
Ja, okay. Ved du, hvad NJ: ceza er?
Yeah, okay. Do you know what ceza (Turkish for punishment) is?
NJ: Ceza, ja.
Ceza, yes.
Hvad hedder det på NJ: dansk?
What is that in Danish?
Det er Ah hvis du øh // Hvis du slår hans pige, YK:ikke også, eller . . .
That is eh if you eh (long pause) If you hit his girl, right? Or . . .
NJ: Ja.
Yes.
så hvis han falder så ska- Then if he falls then mus(interruption) stra- øh nej (interruption) pena- eh, no, not penalty kick (long pause). YK:ikke straffe// NJ: Okay.
Okay.
YK:Ceza. Ceza. This boy simply does not know the Danish word 'straf'.He confuses the stimulus word with the word 'straffe', which is an abbreviated form of 'straffespark' (penalty kick, a soccer term). Nevertheless, there is little doubt that he is familiar with the concept of punishment, or 'straf'.This is similar to informant FA who actually does know what the Danish word 'elske' means, but just cannot explain it. Examples like these appear surprisingly often in the material. This supports the suspicion that the prominent 'lack of concepts' which is supposed to be the cause of so much misery for immigrant children in Scandinavian schools is more likely to be a lack of word knowledge (Jørgensen, 1986). The pedagogical implications of this are not unimportant. The notion of 'lack of concepts' may in this light be seen as a bad excuse for lack of imagination on the part of the school system, more specifically perhaps lack of bilingual personnel. In Scandinavia, where bilingual teachers are very scarce, the relevant way to improve on this could be strategic second language teaching. The term 'strategic' must then be taken in the wider sense suggested here. There are also other pedagogical reasons to teach the immigrant students, for instance, how to avoid a subject, or how to change subjects (e.g. the fact that they are too often confronted by ignorance about their most basic cultural values, an ignorance which makes conversation about these values worthless). The most general goal of the Danish Folkeskole, for example, is formulated in terms of the individual's ability to function socially and otherwise, and
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specifically to participate in political, economic and other kinds of decision-making. Citisens can only achieve real influence on decision-making if they have strategies at their disposal which may help them to avoid certain topics, give a favorable impression persuade and so on. In fact there is no reason why this could not be taught elsewhere also (in foreign language classes, for instance, as suggested by Kasper, 1983). In conclusion: on the basis of the strategies appearing to be employed by Turkish school children speaking Danish to an adult teacher-like Dane, who asked them to describe or define the meaning of certain Danish words, we found that the definition of 'communication strategy' suggested by Færch & Kasper (1983) was useful, provided the term 'communicative goals' was taken in a somewhat wider sense than it has normally been. The pedagogical relevance of this became clear in the light of the evidence that although many of the students had a very poor knowledge of Danish words, their stock of concepts was not necessarily deficient. Teaching of strategies in second language classes (as opposed to foreign language classes) should include teaching of strategies for all goals that can be pursued by means of language. Acknowledgement I wish to express my gratitude to Torben Christiansen, who transcribed a considerable part of the material, and while doing this made numerous valuable suggestions for analysis. References Canale, Michael (1983) From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy. In Jack C. Richards & Richard W. Smith (eds), Language and Communication. London: Longman, 2-27. (1984) A communicative approach to language proficiency assessment in a minority setting. In Charlene Rivera (ed.), Communicative Competence Approaches to Language Proficiency Assessment: Research and Application. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters, 107-22. Frost Olesen, Gunnar (1982) På vej mod kommunikationens grammatik. Aarhus: Arkona. Færch, Claus & Gabriele Kasper (eds) (1983) Strategies in Interlanguage Communication. London: Longman. Haastrup, Kirsten (1985) Lexcial inferencing-a study of procedures in reception. Scandinavian Working Papers on Bilingualism, Vol. 5. Stockholm: University of Stockholm, 63-86. Haastrup, Kirsten & Robert Phillipson (1983) Achievement strategies in learner/native speaker interaction. In C. Færch & G. Kasper (eds), Strategies in Interlanguage Communication. London: Longman. Jørgensen, J. Normann (1984) Fremmedarbejderbørns danske ordforråd; en sociolingvistisk undersøgelse. In K. Ringgaard & Viggo Sørensen (eds), The Nordic Languages and Modern Linguistics. Aarhus: University of Aarhus, 283-90.
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(1985) Fra diktat og regnestykker til planfræsning og undervognsteknik. Om de sproglige krav i folkeskolens ældre klasser og efg-basisår. Skolefag, sprog eller slagmark? Artikler og foredrag om dansk som fremmedsprog i undervisningen. Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism, Vol. 1. Copenhagen: Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, 23-56. (1986) Begreber og sprog. In Jørgen Gimbel & J. Normann Jørgensen (eds), Skolepsykologi 23, (4) 353-65. (1987) Minority language speaking students' first and second language vocabulary. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 8 (1&2) 103-109. Kasper, Gabriele (1983) Kommunikativ kompetence og almendannelse. Fremmedsprogsundervisning. FIFgruppens møde på Magleås Kursuscenter den 19-20. august 1983. Copenhagen: Undervisningsministeriet, 56-61. Lammers, Hans & Flemming Nygaard (1980) Kommunikativ fremmedsprogsundervisning. Copenhagen: Grafisk Forlag. Ruesch, Jurgen & Weldon Kees (1972) Nonverbal Communication. Notes on the Visual Perception of Human Relations. Los Angeles: University of California. Wagner, Johannes (1983) Kommunikation und Spracherwerb im Fremdsprachenunterricht. Tübingen: Günter Narr.
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5 Bilingual Classroom Interaction in Friesland Johannes Ytsma Fryske Akademy, The Netherlands. Abstract The present ethnographic study deals with an indigenous minority language: Frisian in the Netherlands. It is focused upon aspects of language choice and occurrence and functions of code switching within the setting of bilingual classrooms. Four class discussions were audiorecorded and analysed. Three specific aspects of language choice emerged from the scrutinising of the material: a strategic language choice of a teacher, the 'chaining' of language choices and the difficulty in choosing. Furthermore, metaphorical switches, contextually induced switches and 'corrective' switches were perceived. It is shown that the principal equality of Frisian and Dutch as media of communication within the classroom creates a sociolinguistically ambiguous situation, and induces 'linguistic insecurity' among some bilingual pupils. Introduction The present study deals with bilingual classroom interaction in bilingual primary schools in Friesland. The study, in which an ethnographic approach is used, focuses upon language choice and code-switching. Before going into this subject, some background information about the language relationships, and about bilingual schooling in Friesland, will be given. Friesland is one of the northern provinces in the Netherlands. It is a bilingual province, in which the national standard language, Dutch, and a lesser used language, Frisian, are spoken. Both languages are mutually intelligible to a limited extent. Frisian has a formal status, as it is acknowledged by the national Government as an official language, along with the Dutch language. The province has nearly 600,000 inhabitants. Among them, an estimated 400,000 are Frisian-speaking. Although Frisian as a written language is fully standardised, written Frisian takes only a minor place in society. This is
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indicated, for instance, by the fact that less than 5% of the text in the two provincial newspapers is in Frisian. Since 1980, Frisian has been an obligatory subject in all primary schools, and Frisian is permitted as a medium of instruction in all grades. In practice, however, primary schools can easily meet the requirement to teach Frisian, as neither the content and goals of Frisian as a subject nor the amount of time spent per week are legally prescribed. In the school year 1986-87, there were 86 bilingual primary schools in Friesland, which means that about 15% of all primary schools are bilingual. The majority of these bilingual schools, 59, are so-called Opstap schools. Opstap is a new, child-centered approach to bilingual schooling in Friesland. The Opstap model first appeared in 1980. In Opstap schools, the Frisian and the Dutch languages have, at least in theory, an equal position, as subject and as medium of instruction and communication (Ytsma, 1986). The principal equality of Frisian and Dutch as media of communication in Opstap schools means that bilingual speakers, teachers as well as pupils, frequently have to choose between the two languages. This choice between languages causes a great deal of language variation, which is furthermore complicated by the occurrence of codeswitching. However, hardly anything is known about language variation within bilingual classrooms in Friesland, because there has never been any systematic research project dealing with bilingual classroom interaction. Although there is a lack of empirical data, there are, and this seems to be a frequently found evaluation concerning the switching of languages (Grosjean, 1982), negative attitudes among concerned specialists towards phenomena such as code switching (de Jager, 1986). The aim of the present explorative study of classroom interaction in Opstap schools is first to describe, and second, where possible, to interpret language variation in terms of language choice and code-switching. Method The need for gaining insight into what actually happens within the (bilingual) classroom is almost undisputed. This is stressed by many authors (e.g. Baker, 1985; Byram, 1986; Trueba & Wright, 1981). The researcher who wants to undertake research into the actual functioning of classroom behaviour has to face up to the inherent complexity of the subject. In order to deal with this complexity, one might systematically observe classroom behaviour, coding 'on the spot' easily observable and quantifiable variables. This way of conducting research into classroom interaction has become quite popular, a frequently-used observation system being the Flanders Interaction Analysis System (FIAS). Moreover, several systems for the analysis
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of bilingual classroom interaction have been developed, for example the System for Coding Interaction with Multiple Phases, abbreviated as SCIMP (Townsend, 1976). As Stubbs (1976) has already pointed out, observation systems have severe shortcomings. Most important are the fragmentation of discourse and the inevitable loss of the actual language used by teachers and pupils (Edwards, 1976), thus making any qualitative analysis of language use impossible. The latter is, in contrast, characteristic of the ethnographic approach to bilingual classroom interaction. In this approach, the researcher freely observes the interaction process, often making recordings of the data. Both ethnographic ways of gathering data, free observation and (audio) recording were used in the present study. Data were gathered in two higher grades of two Opstap schools in different villages. These schools will be denoted as school A and school B. Classroom interaction was restricted to the situation of class discussion. In this situation, the pupils sit in an open circle. Discourse during class discussion is (and this differs characteristically from other forms of classroom interaction) symmetrical in principle, as every participant has, in theory, the same rights and obligations. Four class discussions were audio-recorded, two at each school, which resulted in about two hours of recorded talk. The recordings were transcribed at word level. As discourse during class discussion is rather orderly, it was possible to code such variables as speaker, utterance and addressee. In this way, some rough quantification could be made, although the analysis of the results, which will be presented below, focuses predominantly upon qualitative aspects of interaction. Results In the following section, a rough quantitative sketch will be given of the language choice patterns of pupils and teachers. Furthermore, some statistics regarding occurrence of code switches will be presented. Then, the abovementioned sketch will be deepened by a qualitative, interpretative analysis of language choice and code switching. Quantitative Sketch Speaker, utterance and addressee could be coded, and thus we can present an introductory impression of the language distribution in terms of the language background of the pupils and the language choice of the bilingual pupils. The relevant figures can be found in Table 1.
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Table 1 Pupils' language background and language choice per school (in percentages) Pupils' language Bilingual pupils' language background choice (% of utterances) FF FD/DF DD F D School A 70 11 19 (n=27) 65 17 School B 58 5 37 (n= 19) 76 11 Explanation: Pupils' language background was defined as the parents' language used at home. Categories: FF = both parents Frisian; FD/DF = one parent Frisian, one parent Dutch; DD = both parents Dutch. The summed percentage of language choice is less than 100, because the table does not include the categories 'neutral' and 'unintelligible'. An important factor regarding language choice is the participants (Gal, 1979). Language background is an important characteristic of the participants. At school A, the percentage of pupils with a Frisian language background is higher than at school B (70 to 58). Therefore, one might expect that the bilingual pupils at school A would choose to speak Frisian to a greater extent, and choose to speak Dutch to a lesser extent, than the bilingual pupils at school B. Table 1 reveals that the opposite is true, however. Seemingly, the language background of the pupils (participants) alone does not determine language choice. Table 2 demonstrates a similar, though even more salient pattern with regard to the language choice of the teachers. At school B, where 37% of the pupils have a Dutch language background, four-fifths of the teacher's utterances are in Frisian. At school A, where 19% of the pupils have a Dutch language background, only 57% of the teacher's utterances are in Frisian. Table 2 Teachers' language choice (in percentages) Language choice Language choice by addressee F D F-FFD-FF F-DD D-DD n.a. F-DF/ D-DF/ FD FD Teacher A 57 30 102 2 10 77 Teacher B 80 12 352 5 7 50 Explanation: The summed percentage of language choice is less than 100, because the table does not include the categories 'neutral' and 'unintelligible'. The category F-FF stands for: teacher speaks Frisian to a pupil with an FF language background, etc. n.a. = no specific addressee.
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Generally, teachers have more turns than any pupil (Atkinson, 1981). This was true in our case. However, both teachers acted as participants in the class discussion to differing degrees. Whereas the percentage of teacher talk was only 15% in classroom A, it was 40% in classroom B. Moreover, as can be seen in Table 2, of 77% of the teacher's utterances in classroom A, the addressee was not specifiable, while for the teacher in classroom B this percentage was 50%. Percentage of teacher talk and specifiability of addressee both indicate that teacher B was actively participating in discourse, while teacher A mainly monitored discourse. Looking at teachers' language choice by addressee shows that the general pattern is that both teachers choose the language of the addressee. Furthermore, teacher B spoke more Frisian to pupils with a non-Frisian language background (DD and DF/FD) than Dutch to pupils with a Frisian language background. The high percentage (35%) of F-FF utterances by teacher B is remarkable. At school A, pupils with a Frisian language background were underrepresented as to proportion of utterances, whereas pupils with a Dutch language background were over-represented as to their proportion of utterances. At school B, this pattern was reversed. All of the above indicates that, although the language relationships within both classrooms might predict the contrary, the 'language climate' at school B is far more favorable towards the Frisian language, when compared to school A. In seeking an explanation for this different climate, it is plausible that the role of the teacher is responsible. However, reference should also be made to the macro-situation of both villages. Village A is a typical commuter's village, where many Dutch-speaking residents in higher-level professions find their work in the provincial capital, Ljouwert. In village A, the difference in status between Dutch and Frisian speakers is probably greater than in village B. The finding that the language choice behaviour of teacher A is even more contradictory regarding the language relationships within this classroom than the language choice behaviour of the pupils suggests that he is even more status-conscious than his pupils. The different status might also explain why, in three households in village A, only Dutch was spoken, although both parents had a Frisian language background. In village B, this form of language shift was not found at all. Regarding the language choice pattern of bilingual pupils, we can differentiate between 'flip-flopping' and 'steadfast' choosers. Although there were no bilingual pupils who produced more utterances in Dutch than in Frisian, a number of them sometimes speak Frisian and sometimes Dutch, while others speak Frisian constantly. Thus far we have dealt only with language choice. At the end of this subsection, some statistics about the phenomenon of code-switching will be presented. The number of code switches depends on how the term is defined.
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For our purposes, code switches are the alternate use of Frisian and Dutch in the same utterance. In total, 31 switches were recorded. This means that about 4% of all utterances (n=830) contained switches between Frisian and Dutch. The switches were equally frequent in both classrooms: 15 in classroom A and 16 in classroom B. Of all 31 switches, 6 were produced by a teacher, 4 by pupils with a Dutch language background and the remaining 21 by bilingual pupils. As can be concluded form the above, this quantitative approach to the study of language choice and codeswitching has some limitations. These are the same as the shortcomings of the systematic observation approach, which were mentioned earlier. As a matter of fact, only a first rough insight into the actual classroom interaction could thus be obtained. To deepen this insight, an interpretative, ethnographic approach is used in the following qualitative analysis. Qualitative Analysis This subsection contains the analysis of some specific aspects of language choice and an analysis of categories of code switches. In the qualitative analysis, the 'macro-distinction' between the two schools will be abandoned. Language choice As the recordings were made within one 'situation' with fixed 'participants' and because 'topic' does not seem to play any important role in our material, we shall not deal with these well-known broad determinants of language choice. On the contrary, we shall deal with three specific aspects of language choice which emerged from the scrutiny of the material. These aspects are first, a strategic language choice of the teacher, second, the 'chaining' of language choices and third, the difficulty in choosing. As can be seen in Transcript I, the choice between Frisian and Dutch can serve a strategic function. TRANSCRIPT I (utterance 3160-66) T:
>eh Mirjam wolst der ek : >er Mirjam would you also say noch wat fan sizze. something about it.
p216:nou eh.
T:
wat fûnsto fan dit stikje wast lêzen () oer dy kapster.
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: well er. : what did you think of this part which you () read about that hairdresser.
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p216:nou eh ging wel.
T:
ging wel, vond je wel mooi, : so-so, you liked it, did you hoe vond jij dat kapsel met dielike the hairdo with that waterpoort erop. watergate on top.
p216:nou eh niet mooi.
T:
: well er so-so
: well er not nice.
niet mooi moai jonges noch : not nice okay kids still a even in pear ik jou noch trije few to go I'll give three beurten. < more turns. <
(Underlined words are Dutch, those not underlined Frisian. Signs: > the preceding text not transcribed; < the following text not transcribed; ()unintelligible.) This transcript has some characteristics of a Complete Correct Response (CCR) interaction (Mehan, 1974). It means that the teacher continues questioning the pupil until an adequate answer is given. The teacher, who spoke Frisian to the group in the first part of utterance 3160 (denoted by >), asks, in general terms, pupil 216 her opinion of an article in a newspaper. The pupil hesitates, and the teacher makes his question more precise. Then the pupil gives an uninformative answer. The teacher gives a further expansion of his question and, at the same time, in order to elicit a more informative reply, changes over to Dutch. This strategy, however, appears to be unsuccessful, as the pupil only repeats her utterance in a modified form, adopting the adjective 'mooi' the teacher used. The teacher repeats in Dutch 'niet mooi', then gives up and switches to Frisian, addressing the whole group. It turned out that the teacher chose, probably quite consciously, to speak Dutch. This choice was made to 'smooth' the interaction, and therefore served as an interactional strategy. Transcript II illustrates a second phenomenon, which is labeled here as the 'chaining' of language choices. TRANSCRIPT II (utterance 3943-45) p202:nou dit was laatst op
: well this was on TV
and then they also said that teevee en toen zeiden ze ook dat in Southern Africa this in Zuid-Afrika kwam die ziekte disease still occurs a lot nog heel veel voor en dat één and that one out of eight op de achthonderd kinderen () hundred children () and 3943: en ze wouden ook ze wouden they
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dat verminderen (). p207:nou dat was gisteren op
would also they wanted to reduce that (). : well that was on TV
tee-vee was van jeugdjournaal <>last night in the news for zouden ook naar Amerika vliegen youth <> would also fly of Afrika dan zouden ze dan heel to America or Africa then veel gaan inenten en dan eigenlijk they would vaccinate a lot over een paar jaar moet het and then in few years it eigenlijk zo zijn dat er niemand should be so that nobody 3944: meer aan doodgaat. dies from it. T:
dat gebeurt nu nog wel
: that's what still often
3945 heel veel he in die landen ja.
happens hey in those countries yes.
<> denotes part of text not transcribed. It must be taken into consideration that both pupils speak Frisian at home. The transcript shows that, as pupil 202 chooses to speak Dutch in utterance 3943, this choice can be seen as the 'choice-setter' for the following utterance of pupil 207, which in turn influences the language choice of the teacher. Pupil 207 not only follows the language choice of pupil 202, but also follows the 'Dutch' vocabulary, in speaking about 'TV'. This suggests that language choices are not independent of one another. Once a bilingual participant has chosen to speak Dutch, this can have a triggering influence on the language choice of the next bilingual participant and this can result in the chaining of language choices. The following transcripts illustrate a third aspect of language choice: the difficulty in choosing. In both transcripts, the same pupil (202) participates. She is a girl who speaks only Frisian at home, and who finds considerable difficulties in choosing between Frisian and Dutch. She uses both languages almost equally often, the choice being mostly dependent on the addressee. Sometimes the teacher teases her when she speaks Dutch, because her parents are supporters of the Frisian National Party. TRANSCRIPT III p209:nou de de remlichten die
: well those those brake
die doen het wel maar dat lights do function but these zien de mensen te laat ja dan people see them too late yes 3868 (). then ().
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nou eh . . . eh . . .nou ja p202: der wie . . .
well er . . . er . . . well yes there was . . .
pxxx: nou wie dat it?
: well that's it?
nou eh . . . wy eh of eh . . . wy hiene ek wolris () wie der ek in kettingbotsing no en eh no dêr wiene allegear plysjes en eh wy moasten dus omhinne want p202: eh dat wie net sa ().
: well er . . . we er or er . . . we also had () there was a pile-up well and er well there were several policemen and er we had to go round because it was not so ().
TRANSCRIPT IV > hond had geweest () p215: Froukje.
: > dog had been () Froukje.
nou eh die eh dat eh die man die had dus gemeld dat eh mag ik het wel in p202: het Fries doen?
: well er that er so that man he had reported that er may I say it in Frisian?
T:
: Yes, sure.
ja hear.
: That man who reported dy man dy dus meldde dat that two of his sheep twa skiep fan him die they were er run over wiene dea eh riden en hy and he one had er ien hie de kop op eh eaten the head well and fretten no en () in grutte () be a big dog Douwe. p202: hûn wêze Douwe. In Transcript III, pupil 202 chooses to speak Frisian, whereas the previous utterance, by a girl with a Dutch language background, was in Dutch. However, clearly because the making of this choice was not easy for pupil 202, her utterance is full of hesitations, which causes pupil xxx to break in. Hereafter, pupil 202 hesitates a while, but ultimately she dives in, definitely proceeding in Frisian. In Transcript IV pupil 215, a girl with a Dutch language background, speaks Dutch and this obviously influences the Dutch language choice of pupil 202. However, the latter's fluency in speaking Dutch is not as good as in speaking Frisian and that is probably why she asks if she may express herself in Frisian. When the teacher, in Frisian, allows her to do so, she continues in Frisian in a more fluent way. In a broad definition of code-switching, this alternation of language choice can also be defined as a code switch. In both conceptions, however, pupil 202's language behaviour seems insecure, and is indicative of the difficulty in choosing.
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Code-switching The distinction of Blom & Gumperz (1972) between 'situational switching' and 'metaphorical switching' is well known. Situational switches are related to the social situation, which includes setting, participants and topic. As the setting and the participants in the class discussion are fixed, and pure 'topic' switches did not occur, we shall not deal with situational switches. Metaphorical switches serve various conversational, stylistic functions (Gumperz, 1982). The same is true for young children's code-switching (McClure & Wentz, 1978). Gumperz (1982) mentions the quotation, addressee specification, interjection, reiteration, message qualification, and personalization/objectivization. The first part of this section deals with the occurrence of some of these functions. Thereafter, some switches which are not stylistically motivated will be dealt with. These are the contextually-induced switches (Giesbers, 1986). The recordings contained, however, a third category of switches which are neither stylistically nor contextually motivated. It will be demonstrated that these switches can be defined as 'corrections of false language choices'. Metaphorical switches The most frequently observed conversational function is the quotation. It almost always concerned Dutch quotations within Frisian utterances. An example is given below. TRANSCRIPT V no mar eh it wie ek in : well but er once it was my kear het myn omke tsjin uncle told me so that was a my sein dat wie in frou dy woman who came from well kaam fan no ik wit net I do not remember where she mear wêr wei en dy sei came from and she said do leggen die eh vogels echt these birds really lay er an p210: eh een ei in een kuiltje in egg in a hole in the ground 3822 de grond dat sei dy that's what she said By quoting in Dutch, the pupil underlines the use of direct speech. However, the pupil still seems unconvinced that the quotation is clear for everyone and so he adds in Frisian 'dat sei dy' (that's what she said). The recordings include only one Frisian quotation, which was made by a girl who speaks only Dutch at home, but whose parents both have a Frisian language background.
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TRANSCRIPT VI > geen een stak de vinger op : > nobody raised their hand en die jonges die zaten maar and those guys they just wat () te grinniken liepen de sniggered () walked out the p327: deur uit no 't is hier bêst in door well over here it is a 4710 moaie skoalle hear. nice school really. The Frisian quotation contained an utterance of a Frisian-speaking school caretaker, and the Dutch element 'hier' might indicate that the girl's command of Frisian was poor indeed. A second conversational function of code-switching is formed by the addressee specification. In this case, the switch serves to direct different addressees. An example was mentioned earlier, and is repeated below. TRANSCRIPT VII p216:nou eh niet mooi.
: well er not nice.
: not nice okay kids still a niet mooi moai jonges noch even in pear ik jou noch trije few to go I'll give three more turns >. T: beurten >. Sometimes the code switch marks an interjection, as was the case in the Dutch 'weet ik veel' (I don't know), which was recorded in an otherwise completely Frisian utterance. In other cases the switch has the function of focusing upon a part of the utterance, as in the following transcript. TRANSCRIPT VIII > en opiens dan gongen wy : > and suddenly we started even eh skellen he no calling names hey Freark er Freark eh afgehakte knie of cut knee or something like p303: sa yts of eh hele fremde that or really strange 5435 skelwurden. nicknames. This reveals that our material contains several metaphorical switches. However, these switches served only certain stylistic functions: quotation, addressee specification, interjection and focusing.
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Contextually Induced Switches Not all switches can be interpreted in terms of their conversational, stylistic function. The transcripts below, for instance, seem to be more contextually induced. This means that they are triggered by the content of an utterance (Giesbers, 1986). TRANSCRIPT IX > de meeste mensen die zagen eh ja die zeiden dat ze wel eh no dat se p202: wol aaisykje koene mar 3753 dat kin se dan net >
: > most people saw er yes they said that they er well that they could hunt for eggs but in fact they can not >
TRANSCRIPT X > en dan gean dy witte : > and then these T: bloedlichaampjes dy geane white blood corpuscles 3937 eigenlik fjochtsjen > they really start fighting > In Transcript IX, pupil 202 starts in Dutch, but when she 'arrives' in the utterance at the typically Frisian phenomenon of 'egg-hunting', she switches to Frisian, probably because this phenomenon characteristically fits into a Frisian context. It is noteworthy that one utterance of another girl contains exactly the same switch. Transcript X contains also a contextually induced switch, as the Dutch term 'witte bloedlichaampjes'is connected to the medical, dominantly Dutch domain. As can be seen, contextually induced switches can be triggered by both a Frisian and a Dutch context. Corrections of False Language Choices The recordings revealed a third category of switches and these can be defined as 'corrections of false language choices'. Examples of such corrective switches are given in Transcripts XI and XII. TRANSCRIPT XI p313: > dus ze kon heus wel gaan : > so she truly could lay 5423 liggen op bed Boukje. down on the bed Boukje. ja eh ze lieten dat famke p326: leau'k dat famke
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allinnich frij at eh dy tsjin har heit < if er she to her father< TRANSCRIPT XII nou mijm vader die let vaak op de prijs maar ook : well my father he often wel op de op de kwaliteit minds the price but also the p422: van eh of het wel gezond is quality of er whether it is 2339 Wytske. healthy Wytske. : well my father he s(- ells) nou mijn vader die k(oopt) myn heit dy let altyd my father he always minds er op op eh no op 'e want ik well er I don't know anymore wit net mear wy hiene at first we always had P403: earst altyd in oare sinas. another orange juice. In Transcript XI, pupil 326 follows the language of the previous pupil in the first part of her utterance, probably because she just wants to add information. Quickly, however, she switches to Frisian. Transcript XII reveals the same pattern: pupil 403 starts with the identical Dutch phrase (nou mijn vader die) and soon switches to Frisian. To interpret these corrective switches, Scotton's theory of 'markedness' (Scotton, 1983) is useful. The general, though tacit, rule in the Frisian community is 'to speak Dutch with someone who speaks Dutch'. Thus, 'asymmetrical language usage' (Gorter, 1987) is quite uncommon. The subconscious application of this norm, which in itself implies an unmarked choice, leads the pupils in Transcripts XI and XII to begin speaking Dutch. In contrast, however, class discussion in Opstap schools is highly nonconventionalised and, within the classroom as a 'micro-community', speaking Dutch would mean a marked choice for some Frisian children. Therefore, the corrective switch can be interpreted as the successive making of opposite, unmarked choices. The corrections of false language choices reflect some pupils' 'linguistic insecurity'. Summary and Discussion In this study, the advantage of the ethnographic approach was seen. Whereas the quantitative approach could give only some rough insight into patterns of classroom interaction, the interpretative approach suggested some aspects of the interaction itself.
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Fasold (1984) distinguishes prediction and interpretation as two different goals of the study of language choice. The present study is focused only upon the more modest goal, interpretation. Interpretation is not just an unequivocal process. The interpretation of language choice and code-switching on the micro-level should ultimately also include aspects of the macro-situation, such as the status of the language and the societal norms of language behaviour. In this way, the 'language climate' in a classroom can be unfavorable to Frisian, exactly because of the higher status of the Dutch language. Moreover, corrective switches can be considered as the result of conflicting 'societal' norms. The use of language choice as a communicative tool was perceived, albeit to a limited extent. In our material, a teacher changed over once to Dutch, clearly to smooth the interaction. This language choice implies convergence (Giles & Smith, 1979). Diverging language behaviour of the teachers, for instance to establish authority, did not occur. Code-switching was also used as a communicative tool, the most frequent stylistic function being the quotation. The full range of stylistic functions of code-switching was not perceived, however. Contextually induced switches seem characteristic of the broad diglossic situation in Friesland. Broadly speaking, there are Frisian and Dutch domains (contexts) in Friesland. Examples are the agricultural and the medical 'world'. These differing contexts trigger contextually induced switches. Furthermore, the recordings contained corrective switches which, together with the observed difficulty in choosing, are indicative of some pupils' 'linguistic insecurity'. A phenomenon which seems related to this insecurity is the chaining of language choices. Following the language choice of a previous participant means a safe choice, which reduces the discomfort of making choices oneself. Linguistically more secure bilinguals, on the other hand, will break a strong language chain. The principal equality of Frisian and Dutch as media of communication in Opstap schools obviously creates a sociolinguistically ambiguous situation which adversely affects the ultimate aim of class discussion, which is 'communication'. Teachers should realise this, and elucidate the unclear situation by discussing it within the educational framework of language awareness. Principal equality also means that some bilingual pupils, the 'steadfast Frisian choosers', will speak Frisian in the classroom almost exclusively, and this might negatively influence their oral command of Dutch. The pupils with a Dutch language background, on the other hand, are almost exclusively monolingual Dutch, speak Frisian very seldom, and thus will not learn to speak the language.
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As was mentioned earlier, the present study is the first systematic research project on bilingual classroom interaction in Friesland. As such, the project fits into an 'interactional framework' of sociolinguistic projects of the Fryske Akademy. Other projects deal with civil servants (Gorter, 1987) and the urban dialect of the provincial capital, Ljouwert. To obtain a more thorough understanding of bilingual classroom interaction, further research is needed in several directions. First, and a beginning has already been made by the author, more recordings of class discussions are needed to enrich the data base. Second, recordings of other interactional situations within Opstap schools must be made. And third, analyses in other types of primary schools are needed. The preliminary results of the present study are encouraging for such an endeavor. References Atkinson, P. (1981) Inspecting classroom talk. In C. Adelman (ed.), Uttering, Muttering. Collecting, Using and Reporting Talk for Social and Educational Research. London: Grant McIntyre. Baker, C. (1985) Aspects of Bilingualism in Wales. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Blom, J. P. & Gumperz, J. J. (1972) Social meaning in linguistic structure: code switching in Norway. In J. J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (eds), Directions in Sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 407-34. Byram, M. (1986) Schools in ethnolinguistic minorities. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 7(2 & 3), 97-107. Edwards, A. D. (1976) Language in Culture and Class. London: Heinemann Educational. Fasold, R. (1984) The Sociolinguistics of Society. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Gal, S. (1979) Language Shift, Social Determinants of Linguistic Change in Bilingual Austria. New York: Academic Press. Giesbers, H. (1986) Functionele aspecten van code-wisseling. In J. Creten, G. Geerts & K. Jaspaert (eds), Werk-inuitvoering (momentopname van de sociolinguistiek in België en Nederland). Leuven/Amersfoort: Acco, 113-125. Giles, H. & Smith, P. (1979) Accommodation theory: optimal levels of convergence. In H. Giles & R. St Clair (eds), Language and Social Psychology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 45-65. Gorter, D. (1987) Aspects of language choice in the Frisian-Dutch bilingual context: neutrality and asymmetry. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 8(1 & 2), 121-32. Grosjean, F. (1982) Life with Two Languages. An Introduction to Bilingualism. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Gumperz, J. J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press. Jager, P. de (1986) Frysk as fiertaal. Ljouwert: M.S.U. McClure, E. & Wentz, J. (1978) Chicano children's code-switching: an overview. In H. Lafontaine, B. Persky & L. Golubchick (eds), Bilingual Education. Wayne, New Jersey: Avery, 180-4. Mehan, H. (1974) Accomplishing classroom lessons. In A. V. Cicourel, K. H. Jennings and S. H. M. Jennings (eds), Language Use and School Performance. New York: Academic Press. Scotton, C. M. (1983) The negotiation of identities in conversation: a theory of markedness and code choice. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 44, 115-37. Stubbs, M. (1976) Language, Schools and Classrooms. London: Methuen.
Townsend, D. R. (1976) Bilingual interaction analysis: the development and status. In A.
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Simoes (ed.), The Bilingual Child (Research and Analysis of Existing Educational Themes). New York: Academic Press. Trueba, H. T. and Wright, P. G. (1981) A challenge for ethnographic researchers in bilingual settings: analyzing Spanish/English classroom interaction. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 2(4), 243-59. Ytsma, J. (1986) The Frisian Language in Primary Education. EMU-project 1. Ljouwert: Fryske Akademy.
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6 Language Strategies in the Home: Linguistic Input and Infant Bilingualism Elizabeth Lanza University of Oslo, Norway. Abstract Parents are often seen in the role of teachers of language and transmitters of culture to their children. The importance of linguistic input in first language acquisition has received considerable attention; linguistic input in second language acquisition has received an increasing amount of attention in recent years. A neglected field of inquiry, however, is the role of parental linguistic input in the simultaneous acquisition of two languages, that is, infant bilingualism. This paper discusses the role of language strategies in bilingual families with a focus on discourse strategies employed by parents in ongoing interaction to promote the acquisition of two languages simultaneously. Introduction Research focusing on language input in second language acquisition has received an increasing amount of attention in recent years (cf. the papers in Gass & Madden, 1985), while the role of 'motherese' as an effective teaching language in first language acquisition still remains an important issue (cf. Snow & Ferguson, 1977; Gleitman, Newport & Gleitman, 1984; and Furrow & Nelson, 1986). The question relevant for both first and second language acquisition studies is what kinds of input does the language learner need in order to acquire the language he is faced with? Studies focusing on infant bilingualism, that is, the simultaneous acquisition of two languages, have given little attention to the examination of the linguistic input these bilingual children receive and how this may promote the acquisition of two languages (and two cultures) simultaneously. In this paper, I would like to (1) give a general introduction to the notion of linguistic input; (2)
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present a brief overview of language strategies used by parents to promote bilingualism in their families, and finally (3) to focus on some specific discourse strategies used by parents in bilingual familiesstrategies which deserve much more attention in studies of infant bilingualism. Linguistic Input Investigation of the role of input in language acquisition involves, as Schachter (1986:215) states, three distinguishable kinds of phenomena: (1) the actual linguistic forms the native speaker uses with the learner: sounds, words, utterances; (2) the manner of presentation of those forms; and (3) the metalinguistic information provided by the native speaker to the learner regarding the learner's linguistic productions. A fourth aspect could be added to this list and that is the cultural content of the input. Saville-Troike (1985) has urged second language acquisition researchers to broaden their inquiry to include the cultural component. Concerning the linguistic forms of the input, we may ask whether the learner's ultimate knowledge of the target language actually relates to this aspect of the input. Are the linguistic forms presented to the learner any different from the forms presented to the non-learner? As for the manner of presentation of the linguistic input, we may ask if the differences lie not so much with the forms themselves, but rather with how these forms are made available to the learner. For example, are they delivered more slowly, or are they repeated more often? Aspects concerning the actual linguistic forms of the input and the manner of presentation of those forms are typically covered in studies investigating varieties such as 'foreigner talk'/'teacher talk' in second language acquisition and 'motherese'/'baby talk' in first language acquisition. The third aspect of linguistic input, metalinguistic input, is, in the form most often presented to language learners, a cue provided to the learner that his utterance was in some way insufficient, unacceptable, inappropriate or incomprehensible to the native speaker or adult. This particular aspect of input research is of special relevance to infant bilingualism. I shall return to this issue after a brief overview of language strategies used in bilingual families. Language Strategies in the Home Reports on language choice strategies promoting the simultaneous acquisition of two (or more) languages date far back in the literature. The classical
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Grammont Formula, une personne/une langue (one person/one language), appeared in the bilingualism literature at the turn of the century (Grammont, 1902). Grammont held that separating the two languages from infancy would help the child learn both languages without additional effort or confusion. This strategy is the one most often reported in the literature on infant bilingualism; however, many other strategies do exist. These have been summarised very well in Arnberg (1987) and Harding & Riley (1986). The strategies vary according to what the individual parent's language is, what the language of the community is and how the child is exposed to the languages. Research findings on the effects of various language strategies on raising the child bilingually have not been very conclusive, as Arnberg (1987) points out, since it is often difficult to ensure that families differ on strategy alone. In general, however, these studies have viewed 'strategies' as uniform phenomena. Thus, as linguistic input, it is either this strategy or that strategy. In order to investigate these parents' strategies, we need to take a closer look at how the parents actually apply a strategy in ongoing interaction with their bilingual child. This involves a careful analysis of their discourse structures or discourse strategies, that is, the functions of the language parents use in their interactions with their children. Discourse Strategies and Infant Bilingualism What can the investigation of discourse strategies tell us about infant bilingualism? The one published study that seriously addresses this question is Döpke's (1986) study of the discourse structures of bilingual German-English families in Australia. In each family, the parents followed the one person/one language strategy. The children, aged 2; 4 (2 years; 4 months) or 2; 8 at the onset of the study, were taped in natural interaction with their parents. Various discourse categories reflecting the functions of particular moves in ongoing interactions were scored. Döpke's analysis revealed that children were more likely to speak the minority language if the respective parent employed a similarly or more child-centered mode of interaction than the parent who spoke the majority language. The children's output was, thus, not directly linked to discourse structures but rather reported on globally in relation to the linguistic input. There is one important aspect of infant bilingualism, however, that Döpke's study does not address, and that is that children who acquire two languages simultaneously need to first distinguish or differentiate between their two languages, that is, undergo a process of language separation. This complex process of language separation is still poorly understood. Investigations of young children acquiring two languages simultaneously consistently report an initial period of language mixing, regardless of the language strategy that is
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used by the parents. Sociolinguistic work in bilingual communities has shown that mixing languages can be a communicative resource in bilingual interactions, showing the bilingual speaker's sensitivity to both linguistic and extralinguistic factors of language use. Reports on this pragmatic strategy of code-switching in adults and older children abound in the literature (e.g. Genishi, 1981; Gumperz, 1982; McClure, 1981; Poplack, 1981). However, younger bilingual children mix languages regardless of interlocutor. This differentiation process the child must undergo requires the development of a form of awareness in the child that he/she is operating with two linguistic systems that are to be used in different situations and with different interlocutors. As Vihman (1985) has pointed out, this metalinguistic awareness is of a psychological or cognitive nature; however, its manifestation is linguistic. By placing this process of language differentiation within the framework of the acquisition of communicative competence (Hymes, 1974), we can thus pose the questionwhat role do parents play in their children's acquisition of the ability to make appropriate language choices in ongoing interaction? To this question, the investigation of the third type of linguistic input mentioned earlier, that is, the metalinguistic input, may provide an answer and thus contribute to our understanding of the complex process of language separation. Metalinguistic Information and Language Separation Metalinguistic information most often signals to the learner that his conversational partner is having trouble with the linguistic form of the learner's message. This information can be provided by confirmation checks, requests for clarification, overt failure on the part of the listener to respond or delays in the listener's response. As for the child, the trouble spot may be that his utterance was unintelligible because it was poorly articulated, because it was low in volume, or perhaps a referent was not specified properly or was vague. The need to revise an utterance is an interactional demand placed upon the child by the adult conversational partner. Using the terminology of conversational analysis, we can say that the unclear behaviour is a trouble source for some participant and that the repair cue attends to the work of repairing or attempting to resolve that trouble (Schegloff, Jefferson & Sacks, 1977). The child, thus, has to locate the trouble spot and repair his utterance in order to keep the talk going, as metalinguistic information from the listener does not necessarily identify the source of the problem for the learner. Investigations of repair sequences in monolingual children have shown a developmental sequence from repetitions to revisions (e.g. Gallagher, 1977; Konefal & Fokes, 1984). What is interesting in the case of bilingual children in the process of language differentiation is how often and when does the bilingual child perceive the trouble spots in conversation to be the inappropriate choice of language?
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Data Let us now consider some examples of how parents provide metalinguistic information to their young bilingual children and how this may promote their simultaneous acquisition of two languages. The data that I present come from an ongoing research project on the early bilingualism of children acquiring Norwegian and English in bilingual families in Norway. My study is longitudinal in design, focusing on the simultaneous acquisition of Norwegian and American English by three first-born children from families in which the father is Norwegian and the mother American, all living in the Oslo area. Each of these children represents a different strategy for language use in the home: (1) the one person/one language strategy; (2) a code-switching pattern of interaction; and (3) the use of English at home with the child exposed to Norwegian outside the home. The starting ages of the children range from 1; 9 to 1;11. Each child is to be followed up over a period of approximately one year, with monthly recordings in a variety of situations. In addition, each mother has been requested to keep a diary on the child's language development. My discussion in the following will concentrate on examples from the data I have on Siri whose parents employed the one person/one language strategy. Metalinguistic Information in Repair Sequences I would like first to examine repair sequences in a thirty-minute recording of Siri (2; 2) in interaction with her mother. In the following, I shall look at repair sequences in which the child's utterance is repairable, that is, something to be corrected; and at the parent's repair cue in which the parent signals that the trouble source is to be attended to. Whether or not the child actually repairs will also be examined. I will use Ochs' (1984) classification of requests for clarification to illustrate the parent's strategies in initiating repairs. Ochs notes that Western white middle class caregivers rely on two related strategies for initiating clarification: (1) the minimal grasp strategy, and (2) the expressed guess strategy. With the minimal grasp strategy, the parent relies primarily on the child to resay the repairable utterance, by stating 'I don't understand', by using a Wh- interrogative (e.g. He went where? Who? What? Huh?), or by requesting the child to repeat her utterance. With the expressed guess strategy, in contrast to the minimal grasp strategy, it is the caregiver who attempts the reformulation of the unclear utterance. The child is asked to validate or confirm the caregiver's guess. In the case of disconfirmation, the child may resay her utterance and the caregiver may continue to supply alternate guesses, thus initiating a 'chain of clarification requests' (Cherry, 1979). The potential types of repair sequences are illustrated in Figure 1.
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Figure 1 As the minimal grasp strategy places a greater demand on the child to repair her utterance, I will focus on that type of adult repair cue. Table 1 illustrates the mother's use of the minimal grasp strategy in the interaction between Siri (2; 2) and her mother: Table 1 Mother's use of minimal grasp strategy Child language mix No mix Total Use of Hm? Huh? 19% (5) 81% (22) 100% (27) Use of wh-interrogative 20% (2) 80% ( 8) 100% (10) In the interaction in question, I located 37 repair sequences initiated by Siri's mother in which she employed the minimal grasp strategy. Of these, 27 involved the use of the question 'Hm?' or 'Huh?' typically uttered with a high rise. Consider Examples 1 and 2 (transcript of symbols used in the examples are given at the end of this paper).
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Page 75 EXAMPLE 1. Siri and her mother are looking at a book. Siri
Mother Where's the kitty cat?
(softly) hop/
Hm? hop/ Uhuh. It's hopped up in the window there. Jumped up in the window.
EXAMPLE 2. Siri has taken out her baby doll. Siri
Mother
clothes on/clothes on/ Clothes? yeah on/ clothes on/ clothes on/
Hm? baby clothes on/ You want the baby to put her clothes on? yeah/
What is interesting is that the same structural cue (Hm?) is interpreted differently by Siri. In Example 1, she interprets it as a signal to repeat as she had uttered the initial utterance too softly. In Example 2, she interprets it as a cue to expand her utterance, thereby making her reference clearer. This interpretation is surely made due to the prior discourse, in which the reference to clothes was already established. It must be remembered that metalinguistic information provided by the adult here in the form of a request for clarification does not locate the trouble source; this is the child's job. When, then, does the bilingual child perceive the trouble spot to be the inappropriate choice of language? In the same interaction, of the repair sequences using the repair cue 'Hm?' or 'Huh?', five sequences (19%) involved language mixes on the part of the child, that is, the child incorporated elements of Norwegian in her utterances. It is important that I point out that Siri's mother was competent in Norwegian, but the role of being a bilingual can be negotiated in ongoing interaction as the mother feigns the role of a monolingual speaker. Siri's mother also recorded in her
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diary for the 2; 2 summary that she used the strategy of asking 'What?' in order to get Siri to use English with her. Example 3 illustrates a repair sequence involving a language mix on the part of Siri: EXAMPLE 3. Siri has been drinking her milk and then puts her cup down on the table. Siri
Mother
mer milk/ (squeals) mer mama/ (mer = more) Hm? (squeals) mer mama/ You want · more milk? (topic shift) When questioned, Siri merely repeats part of her initial turn. It is interesting to note that the mother follows up with the expressed guess startegy emphasizing the word 'more' by the slight pause and the extra stress. Siri, however, responds with a topic shift, thus leaving her mother's question unanswered. Of the five repair sequences initiated by 'Hm?' that involve language mixes, only one is successfully repaired by Siri after her mother's minimal grasp strategy: EXAMPLE 4. Siri has just clapped her hands. Siri
Mother
klappe hand/ (clap) Hm? clap hand/ Did you clap your hands? //mm]/ //Yeah.] Here Siri repairs her utterance by switching from a Norwegian word to the English equivalent. Her mother follows up with the expressed guess strategy reinforcing the lexical item in question. And Siri confirms. A mere confirmation as the child's response to an expressed guess strategy was the most common response when this strategy was used by the mother as a repair cue to Siri's use of Norwegian elements in her speech. This is not surprising as the expressed guess strategy is a yes-no question.
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Of the ten minimal grasp repair sequences employing Wh-interrogatives, two involve language mixes and only one is actually repaired by the child, as in Example 5. EXAMPLE 5. Siri and her mother have been eating a snack Siri
Mother
jeg mett/ jeg mett/ (I full/ I full/) You're mett? What does Mama say? fu::ll/ Full. That's a girl! This strategy of anchoring language separation for the child onto 'what Mama says' and 'what Papa says' is a common one in families in which each parent speaks his/her own language to the child. It typically involves the separation of the child's bilingual equivalents. Notice how Siri's mother first uses the expressed guess strategy, then without waiting for a response follows up with the minimal grasp strategy. By stressing both 'mett' and 'full' (bilingual equivalents), these words are highlighted with the mother giving positive feedback for her daughter's use of the English equivalent. There are many examples of this strategy in other interactions involving Siri with each parent and together with both parents. This type of strategy, a bilingual awareness strategy, provides a forum for such awareness to be made a topic of talk and to be negotiated and reinforced. Interestingly enough, Döpke (1986), whose study was cited earlier, groups 'queries' with other similar conversational moves under the category of 'communication problems'. She states that they are all devices to make a speaker's conversational move more likely to succeed but an accumulation of them indicates communication problems between the interactants. Consequently, in her analysis a low score in the use of these strategies by the minority language-speaking parent was considered to be more child-centred, which, according to her hypothesis, would contribute to the child's being more likely to speak the minority language. Although an overuse of requests for clarification may hinder the flow of conversation and even cause a breakdown, they do seem to play a role in stimulating bilingual awareness in children who are differentiating between their languages. This is especially the case of the bilingual awareness strategy. Döpke's references to structures related to communication problems are all on characteristics of adult speech and monolingual language development, not bilingual development. In order to prevent a breakdown in communication, parents need to resort to other strategies to help their children make appropriate language choices. It must, of course, be remembered that what is considered as appropriate will
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vary from family to family. In the case of Tomas, a little boy in my study whose parents, especially the mother, use a code-switching pattern of interaction, using elements from both languages can be appropriate. However, in Siri's case her parents were quite concerned about being 'consistent' in their language use. Thus, if we return to the conversation between Siri and her mother and isolate each utterance containing an element of Norwegian, we notice a certain consistent pattern. Although there are some instances when the mother moves on, for example, when Siri uses certain typically recurrent Norwegian words such as 'mer' (more) or a Norwegian verbal inflection, the mother's common response is a repetition in English with a falling intonation, sometimes with a syntactic expansion as in Examples 6 and 7. EXAMPLE 6. Siri and her mother are looking at a book. Siri
Mother Is she still in the house?
nei/ut/ (no/out/)
She's outside, yeah.
EXAMPLE 7. Siri and her mother are looking at a book, talking about a dog that has just eaten up all the eggs. Siri
Mother
no mer/ (more) No more. Unhuh. Thus, the overall strategy used by the mother in response to Siri's language mixes is to repeat the utterance in English or to pose a repair cue. That is, the mother does respond, although the repair response is variable on the part of Siri. In interactions with the father, there are some examples of Siri's responding to the father's non-question repair cue as in Example 8.
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EXAMPLE 8. Siri (2; 2) and her father are reading a book. Siri
Father Se så mange pannekaker hun har i maven. Og jeg tror vov-voven og pusekatten også får pannekaker, jeg. Ser sånn ut! (Look how many pancakes she has in her stomach. And I think the doggy and the pussycat get pancakes, too. Looks like it!)
full/ Full, ja. Full, ja. Mett, sier (Full, ) Pappa. (Papa says.) mett/ (full) Ja, se så mette de er. Ja. (Yes, look how full they are.) The father's response to Siri's use of an English word is somewhat interesting. His initial response is to repeat the English word 'full'. Then he employs Norwegian phonology in the second 'full' which, however, renders a false cognate meaning 'intoxicated'! The father then uses the correct Norwegian equivalent for the English 'full' which Siri then repeats. The parents were quite consistent in their responses to Siri's mixes, especially to mixes involving content words, that is, nouns, adjectives and verbs. There is, however, one consistent exception and that involves the use of politeness formulas. The mother accepts, for example, 'takk' (thank you) and the father accepts 'please'. This suggests a certain cultural aspect, that is, that socialization into politeness is more important than language choice. Metalinguistic Information and Bilingual Awareness I would now like to point out some other strategies used by the parents, some of which are related to the bilingual awareness strategy mentioned earlier. Thus, metalinguistic information can be provided to the child in contexts other than the repair sequence. Consider Examples 9 and 10, in which Siri's mother requests her to provide the equivalent in the other language.
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EXAMPLE 9. Siri (nearly 2) has just finished her milk. Siri
Mother
empty/ Empty. daddy/daddy/ Daddy says tom/ (empty) EXAMPLE 10. Siri (2; 1) and her mother are looking at a book. Siri
Mother What's this right here? Siri, what's this right here? Hm? It's a hot dog.
mm/ Mm. Do you remember what Daddy calls a hot dog? Hm? What does Daddy call a hot dog? Hm? pølse/ (hot dog) Pølse. Mm. This strategy of requesting the child to provide the equivalent in the other language is related to the bilingual awareness strategy used in repair sequences by pointing out what each parent says. This focuses the child on bilingual equivalents. The most interesting juxtaposition of equivalents occurs in interactions involving Siri with both parents, where both languages are in 'competition' for the floor. There are many examples in the data where the parents overlap with equivalent utterances in response to Siri, as in Example 11. EXAMPLE 11. Siri (2; 2) has just finished dinner. Siri
Parents
takk/ (thank you) M: You're welcome. finish/ M: You finished? ja/
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M: Wash your hands. takk mama/ M: //You're welcome.] F: //Vær så god.] In reply to Siri's thanks, both parents overlap with the equivalent appropriate response. Investigations of how young bilingual children maintain interaction with their parents when each is speaking a different language is truly a neglected area of research. Consider Example 12 in which Siri switches from English to Norwegian depending on the interactional demands. EXAMPLE 12. Siri (2; 2) and her parents are eating dinner. Siri
Parents F: Å varmt. (oh, hot)
varmt/ (hot) F: Om det var varmt, ja. (Sure it's hot.) ja/ (to M) hot/ M: Hot. Mm. F: Pappa sier 'varm' Var (Papa says 'hot' Is) //varm] / (hot) //varm.] (hot) Siri repeats her father's utterance, saying 'varmt' (hot). Turning to her mother, she switches and says 'hot', which the mother acknowledges. Siri's father follows up, pointing out that he says 'varm', a word that Siri then repeats. Such an interaction truly bears the flavor of a language-teaching episode. The following example also shares the characteristics of a language-teaching episode. However, here Siri is involved more actively in making comments about language use. At the end of the exchange, she corrects her mother's misinterpretation of her telegraphic utterance. Siri's final utterance can be interpreted as 'No, Daddy says mett'.
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EXAMPLE 13. Siri (2; 2) and her parents are eating dinner. Siri
Parents
jeg full/ (I) M: You're full. Mm. daddy full?/ F: Pappa er mett. huh? F: Pappa mett mett/jegmett/ (full/ I full) M: Mm. What does Mama say? finished/ M: Well, I'm finished, I'm' (hesitates, then) finished!/ M: Full. full! M: Full! daddy full?/ M:Hm? daddy full? M: Mm. Daddy's full. nei/ mett!/ (no/ full/) Conclusion
(Mother laughs.)
In order to investigate language strategies in the home, a more careful investigation is needed of the discourse strategies used by parents in interaction with their bilingual children. With young children acquiring two languages simultaneously who are in the process of language separation, the metalinguistic input in various strategies used by the parents may contribute to bilingual awareness in these children. It is by examining the child's contributions to conversations that we may trace this emergent awareness. As Ochs (1984:328) points out,
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if we want to know if language activities have an impact on psychological development, then a most reasonable place to look is the organization of everyday conversational discourse. Social interactions in which the child participates directly in the alternating roles of speaker and listener are among the most important experiences for the child developing communicative competence. The child reported on in this paper was a child who was talkative at home and whose parents were very positive towards bilingualism and their daughter's bilingualism. Every child is an individual and parental strategies will be adapted to their child's personality and needs. Careful study is needed of different parents' discourse strategies and how parental strategies change over time in relation to the child's language development. There is a need to investigate the interweaving of strategies, as the use of the minimal grasp strategy too often may indeed hinder the flow of conversation. I have just scratched the surface in this paper. Quantitative data are needed to show how parental strategies change over time in synchrony with the child's evolving linguistic competence in one or both languages. The parental repair strategies that I described are according to Ochs (1984) typical of Western society, with a preference for the expressed guess strategy. The investigation of language strategies used in families in which the parents come from two quite different cultures would indeed provide an interesting cross-cultural perspective as to how parents teach and help their children learn two languages simultaneously. Transcription Conventions Used in the Examples /
Utterance boundary; placed at end of child utterance.
// ] Overlap; // placed at beginning of overlap ] placed at end of overlapped utterances. ·
Raised dot (·) indicates very slight pause. Marks stress.
::: Marks lengthened syllable (each : = one 'beat'). References Arnberg, L. (1987) Raising Children Bilingually: The Pre-school Years. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cherry, L. (1979) The role of adults' requests for clarification in the language development of children. In R. O. Freedle (ed.), New Directions in Discourse Processing, Vol. 2. Norwood: Ablex. Döpke, S. (1986) Discourse structures in bilingual families. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 7 (6), 493-507.
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Furrow, D. & Nelson, K. (1986) A further look at the motherese hypothesis: a reply to Gleitman, Newport and Gleitman. Journal of Child Language, 13, 163-76. Gallagher, T. (1977) Revision behaviours in the speech of normal children developing language. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 20, 303-18. Gass, S. & Madden, C. (eds) (1985) Input and Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Genishi, C. (1981) Code-switching in Chicano six-year-olds. In R. Durán (ed.), Latino Language and Communicative Behaviour. Norwood: Ablex. Gleitman, L., Newport, E. & Gleitman, H. (1984) The current status of the motherese hypothesis. Journal of Child Language, 11, 43-79. Grammont, M. (1902) Observations sur le langage des enfants. Paris: Melange Meillet. Gumperz, J. (1982) The sociolinguistic significance of conversational code-switching. In Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harding, E. & Riley, P. (1986) The Bilingual Family. A Handbook for Parents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hymes, D. (1974) Foundations in Sociolinguistics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Konefal, J. & Fokes, J. (1984) Linguistic analysis of children's conversational repairs. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 13 (1), 1-11. McClure, E. (1981) Formal and functional aspects of the code-switched discourse of bilingual children. In R. Durán (ed.), Latino Language and Communicative Behaviour. Norwood: Ablex. Ochs, E. (1984) Clarification and culture. In D. Schiffrin (ed.), Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1984. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Poplack, S. (1981) Syntactic structure and social function of code-switching. In R. Durán (ed.), Latino Language and Communicative Behaviour. Norwood: Ablex. Saville-Troike, M. (1985) Cultural input in second language learning. In S. Gass & C. Madden (eds.), Input and Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Schachter, J. (1986) Three approaches to the study of input. Language Learning, 36 (2), 211-25. Schegloff, E., Jefferson, G. & Sacks, H. (1977) The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language, 53, 361-82. Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (1977) Talking to Children: Language Input and Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vihman, M. (1985) Language differentiation by the bilingual infant. Journal of Child Language, 12, 297-324.
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7 A Critique of the Distinction Between 'Academic' and 'Communicative' LanguageFrom a Pragmatic Point of View Hans Vejleskov The Royal Danish School of Educational Studies, Copenhagen, The Netherlands. Abstract The assumption of the existence of two language levels, a cognitive academic language and a basic communicative language, has particularly been maintained in the field of bilingualism in children. This 'theory of two languages' is criticised on the basis of some studies on utterance functions in pre-school children that take part in various conversations (Vejleskov, forthcoming). In particular, the activity of role play illustrates the difficulties faced when distinctions between 'intellectual' and 'social' language functions and between a 'cognitive' and a 'communicative' language are maintained, even when one distinguishes between analyses on the levels of language, conversation and utterance respectively. Further, children's experiences with social and intellectual uses of language are considered in terms of linguistic and communicative awareness, and the relevance of role play to the reading and writing instruction of minority children is discussed. Academic versus Communicative Language in Migrant Children Although Cummins (1984) no longer maintains the strict distinction between cognitive academic language (CAL) and basic communicative (BIC) language,
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he still maintains that a distinction must be made between second language (L2) academic and conversational skills. In that connection he introduces the two dimensions of context independency and cognitive difficulty, cf. Figure 1. By means of these, the following issues are supposed to be explained: 1. The fact that peer-appropriate conversational proficiency is acquired sooner than peer-appropriate academic proficiency in the second language. 2. The fact that context-embedded initial instruction in writing and reading facilitates children's learning a second language 3. as well as disabled students' progress in learning to read and write their mother tongue. 4. The fact that comparisons between oral and written language proficiency are often unclear. Although we agree as regards these four facts, and also with regard to the relevance of the two dimensions, we think that the explanation is hardly satisfactory for the following reasons:
Figure 1 Two important dimensions according to Cummins (1984). Horizontal: Context independency; Vertical: Cognitive difficulty
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(1) The lefthand side of Figure 1 clearly represents the 'social' language, i.e. the context of the communication will often be a predominantly social context, cf. the term 'peer appropriate'. It is not clear, however, what is meant by 'conversational proficiency' (Martin-Jones & Romaine, 1985). (2) The vertical axis is not clearly defined. Thus the cognitive difficulty of a certain phenomenon may well be due to the fact that it is a socially complicated phenomenon. (3) The characteristics of written language as compared with oral language are not only connected with context independency and cognitive difficulty. The activity of role play which was studied in our observations of pre-school children's conversations briefly reported elsewhere (Vejleskov, forthcoming), forms an obvious example of the fact that it may be quite impossible to characterise a certain conversation as a conversation that implies either cognitive language skills or communicative language skills. On the contrary, the very episodes of role play and conversation were characterised by frequent shifts between the level of reality with the ordinary interplay of the children in the group, and, on the other hand, the level of fantasy with the interplay between those role persons that the children were pretending to represent. In addition, a considerable number of the utterances made by the children were propositions about the speech and behaviour of these role persons. With regard to individual utterances, we were able to observe frequent shifts between social and intellectual functions (speech acts). Thus, the conversation during such episodes is partly context embedded and partly context independent. Furthermore, it is also impossible to determine whether it is a demanding or an undemanding situation from a cognitive (and linguistic/communicative) point of view (cf. Vejleskov, forthcoming). This suggests that neither the two-dimensional model, nor the distinction between 'conversational' and 'academic' language is relevant to this very frequent kind of verbal interaction with pre-school children. However, our analyses performed so far seem to indicate that participation in role play is a stimulating and challenging activity for pre-school children. Although some of the children observed were in fact bilingual children, we have not made special studies of them, because we found that, in general, there was no correlation between the formal and the functional qualities of the children's speech. Thus monolingual as well as bilingual children with rather poor pronunciation and grammar, and with a small and 'childish' vocabulary in Norwegian, might well be comparatively active and efficient speakerlisteners. These facts lead to the preliminary conclusion that the activity of role play furthers the linguistic and communicative development of
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bilingual as well as monolingual children. It is natural to assume that both the quantity and the quality of this activity should be taken into consideration when the effect of daycare centres on the development of migrant children is studied. Role Play, Awareness and Literacy As mentioned elsewhere (Vejleskov, forthcoming), participation in role play gives rise to linguistic and communicative awareness as well as social cognition. Thus, by playing roles while using their second language, bilingual children must inevitably cope with their own social interplay and with the interplay of fictional characters, too. With respect to the former, they can use language in an ordinary, unreflected way, but in fictive interplay they often have to reflect on the form and the content as well as on the functions and effects of utterances. This kind of activity is therefore assumed to further migrant children's linguistic and communicative awareness of the second language that they have to acquire in order to be reasonably successful in the educational system of their host country. We must, however, also discuss migrant children's acquisition of written language,which is the main problem faced by Cummins (1984) (cf. his remarks on the advantage of a context-embedded initial instruction in reading and writing mentioned above). Some of the many attempts by teachers to make writing and reading 'functional' or 'context embedded' or close to the processes of speaking and listening may fail because of the gap between young children's knowledge and cognitive capacities on the one hand, and, on the other, their poor performance in writing. In addition, it is difficult to establish a situation which is concrete and natural with respect to communication and use of language as well as with respect to subject matter and learning. In fact, children may find such situations unnatural, since they know that the true objective of the activities is that they learn writing and reading. However, the activity of role play has the advantage of integrating conversational and academic use of language. A gradual transition from free role play by way of acting given parts to the writing and performing of small plays may, in a natural way, further the children's linguistic and communicative awareness, and also introduce written language so that it becomes closely connected with oral language and very much like the language in stories for children which often contain many dialogues.
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Conclusions The distinction between 'academic 'and' 'communicative' language is inappropriate because (a) it is not clear whether it refers to the level of language, the level of conversation, or the level of utterance; (b) cognitive difficulty may well be difficult social cognition; (c) communication may well take place on different levels, and it easily becomes the object of reflection on the part of the child. The activity of role play illustrates these facts, and it is supposed to be a useful point of departure for a functional introduction of reading and writing. Although the context is fictive rather than realistic and social rather than objective, it may well be 'concrete' to the children. References Cummins, J. (1984) Bilingualism and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. Martin-Jones, M. & Romaine, S. (1985) Semilingualism: a half-baked theory of communicative competence. Applied Linguistics, 7 (1). Vejleskov, H. (forthcoming) Social and intellectual functions of language: a fruitful distinction? Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 9 (1 & 2). Special Issue with proceedings from the Fifth Nordic Conference on Bilingualism.
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25 Språkmöten i Minoritetslitteraturen Kjell Herberts Institutet för finlandssvensk samhällsforskning, Finland. Abstract Fiction has seldom been used in the study of the encounter between language and culture. This paper presents a project in which this encounter is thoroughly studied. The material consists of one hundred Finland-Swedish fictional works. Do the writers state that the environments described are bilingual? There seem to be three different models: (1) non-existence (no indication that language and culture meet), (2) consensus (peace and consensus in the language encounter), (3) conflict (conflict and opposition in the language encounter). The three models seem to be equally frequent. Similar studies could even be included with some advantage in school syllabuses as a basis for further discussion about the conditions of language and culture in a polyglot society. Mötet mellan språk och kulturer i flerspråkiga samhällen har undersökts med många olika metoder. Vanligast förekommande är enkäter och intervjuer, varför undersökningar på individ- och organisationsnivå är tämligen högfrekventa. Aven genom innehållsanalyser av massmedia har tvåspråkigheten i samhället studerats. I ett försök att med hjälp av skönlitteratur undersöka flerspråkighetens olika dimensioner har jag funnit ett tämligen outforskat område inom tvåspråkighetsforskningen. Litteratursociologiska och litteraturpedagogiska undersökningar har endast ytligt berört denna dimension av kulturellt liv; mötet mellan olika språk och mellan olika kulturer. Litteraturen i Samhället och Samhället i Litteraturen Ett genomgående tema för litteratursociologer har varit den dubbla relationen mellan litteratur och samhälle. Två skolor kan härvidlag urskiljas. Den första, 'reflection theory', utgår från att författarna är en del av samhållet. Författarna reflekterar således olika aspekter av samhälleligt och mänskligt liv, till stor del
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8 Assessing Comprehension Skills in Pre-school Bilingual Children Lenore Arnberg Institute of Linguistics, Department of Research on Bilingualism, Stockholm, Sweden. Abstract An important consideration in the placement of pre-school immigrant children in various types of bilingual education programs is language assessment. This paper reports on a method which has been developed for assessing listening comprehension in a natural communicative context where, in particular, speaking rate has been investigated. A Tandberg TCR 555 tape recorder having a built-in compression and expansion function with a correction for voice pitch has been used in prestudies with three bilingual English-Swedish speaking children, ranging in age from 4;0 to 7;0 years. The children listened individually to taped stories, once in each language, in connection with which they were required to follow a series of instructions. The results indicated that the children enjoyed the method and, furthermore, that the test discriminated among the children with regard to age factors as well as bilingual proficiency as reported from parental interviews. The paper also discusses some potential areas of application for the method. Background This paper focuses on the area of language assessment in the pre-school immigrant or minority-language child. Although language assessment, especially among pre-school bilingual children, has not received a great deal of research attention, such work is felt to be extremely important. Among other reasons it offers an objective basis on which decisions concerning the placement of immigrant and minority language children in various types of pre-school language programs can be made. In terms of language assessment in general, as McLaughlin (1985) has pointed out, in the 1950s and 1960s assessment practices reflected the structural
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view of language which then prevailed. This resulted in assessment instruments' being focused on the measurement of discrete language components such as syntax, morphology, phonology and the lexicon. There were various reactions against this approach, however, as it was felt that discrete-point tests did not give adequate information concerning the child's overall skill in using language for natural communicative purposes. Thus, an integrative or holistic approach to language assessment began to receive greater attention in the 1970's. Much of the discussion and methods development of integrative tests has focused on production rather than comprehension, however. For example, a typical listening comprehension test for children might involve a series of pictures, and the child's task is to identify the picture corresponding to the words, sentences or groups of sentences presented orally (McLaughlin, 1985). Such methods do not give a picture of the child's ability to understand running discourse, particularly under conditions when limited processing time is available, which is the case in most real-life communication tasks. A further limitation with regard to communicative relevance is the frequent lack of consideration of context in listening comprehension tests. With reference to further developments in the area of listening comprehension tests, McLaughlin (1985:207) thus suggests the following: To provide an accurate index of the child's listening comprehension in natural oral communication, the test should assess comprehension relative to a single communication episode. The test should be straightforward, without subtle linguistic traps. Finally, the test should be constructed so that the problem of comprehending the message but being unable to select the correct answer should be eliminated by making the student's response as simple as possible. This paper presents some exploratory work in designing a listening comprehension test which meets some of the above criteria. The test focuses on pre-school children and investigates language which is context-embedded (see Cummins, 1981). The reason for the latter is that context-embedded language is typical of the type of language used in the pre-school setting, where language use reflects concrete activities emphasizing the here and now. Thus, the assessment of the child's ability to understand a given language in this particular context may give some indication of how well he or she will be able to manage a classroom situation in that language. The following definition of listening comprehension has been used as a point of departure, adapted from a definition by Groot (1975): The ability to understand language spontaneously produced at normal conversational tempo by native speakers, dealing with common, everyday topics of interest.
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This definition also introduces the factor of conversational tempo or speaking rate. Thus, deficiencies in listening comprehension could be defined as an ability to understand the content of a given message only at highly reduced rates of delivery. A second aim of this study, then, has been to investigate the role of speaking rate in listening comprehension. This factor is often difficult to investigate in naturalistic settings, as a reduction in speaking rate is often accompanied by other adaptations which the speaker makes to the listener, such as simplifications in vocabulary and syntax, and shorter sentences (see Krashen, 1981). Some researchers have investigated speaking rate alone by having the input material read into a tape recorder at various speeds by a trained speaker and testing the child's comprehension at these various speeds (see, e.g. Berry & Erickson, 1973). However, this method has practical difficulties and offers no opportunity to study the child's own monitoring in connection with speaking rate. In the present study a different method has been employed, using a special tape recorder having a built-in compression and expansion function with a correction for voice pitch. In this paper I shall briefly describe the method which has been developed and report some preliminary findings from pre-studies with several bilingual children. Some minor problems in the method as well as potential areas of application will also be mentioned. Method Equipment A Tandberg TCR 555 cassette tape recorder has been used in the study, having a compression and expansion function ranging from approximately 50 to 250%. A special dial having ten positions was built, which was easy to grip and manipulate by young children. Texts An important consideration in developing the method used was that there be a feedback system appropriate for use with young children which would indicate whether the child had really comprehended the message. As Brown (1986:285), in a paper entitled 'Investigating listening comprehension in context', has suggested: Obviously we have no access to what is going on inside the student's head, so we have to look at external signals to monitor whether or not the student has understood the text. It is not enough for the student simply to nod from time to time in a sociable manner to
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signify understanding. Such nods may indicate anything from perfectly adequate understanding to total confusion. We need some way of checking that the student's understanding is, indeed, perfectly adequatethat she has succeeded in constructing a coherent mental representation which is adequate for her purposes in listening to the text. Typically, the check that is devised is to have the student produce some output which will manifest an understanding of the text. Two simple story texts were constructed in English, entitled 'Mr. Blue' and 'Emma's Breakfast'. In the first story the child's task was to build a small figure, following a series of instructions. The second story focused on a doll's house scene in which the child was required to carry out instructions for the preparation of a meal for the doll's house family. Both of the texts were then translated into Swedish. The two stories and their translations were approximately equal in terms of total length, sentence length and sentence complexity. The texts were then read by native speakers of each language who had experience of working with young children. In addition, the texts from two story books, one in each language with additional questions added to the actual text, were also read by the two native speakers. These were used for training purposes. Subjects Three English-Swedish bilingual children served as subjects. Two of the children lived in Sweden while one lived in the United States. The age ranges of the children were from 4;0 to 7;0 years. Information on the children's language backgrounds was obtained from a short interview with each child's mother. All the children were acquainted with the experimenter prior to the study. Procedure Each child was tested individually. The child listened to one of the stories in English and the other in Swedish, the order of the languages and of the stories being randomised across the children. Prior to this, however, a short training period was carried out in each language, using story books in which the child practiced answering questions from the tape and regulating the speed adjustment dial. The instructions given to the child were to start at the maximum speed and to move the dial just until the text was understood. Thus, a production method was employed in the test in which the child himself decided at which speed
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the story was to be listened to. This was felt to be important in order to increase the child's motivation for and interest in the task. Whether or not the child had in fact understood the text at the speed selected was then monitored by the child's response pattern with regard to the instructions given on the tape. Results Suitability of the Task The older children in particular seemed to enjoy the task greatly, asking to repeat the stories. An interesting finding concerned the suitability of a taped story as a 'communication' task. Surprisingly, all the children interacted with the taped voice as if it were a real person, giving verbal responses to questions asked on the tape. Speaking Rates Selected Table 1 shows the selected speaking rates for each of the three children presented both in words per minute and percentage of normal speaking rate (estimated at 200 words per minute). The results indicated, firstly, that the test discriminated between older and younger children, that is, the youngest child, A, selected slower speeds in both languages than did either of the older children. Secondly, the test discriminated among the children with regard to their language proficiency as reported in parental interviews. For example, the eldest child, D, had moved from Sweden to the United States at age four, at which time English became her strongest language. Swedish was maintained, Table 1 Selected speaking rates for three bilingual children Child Age Sex English Swedish WPMa %b WPMa %b A 4.0 M 100.3 50.1 148.5 74.2 M 6.8 F 238 119 228 114 D 7.0 F 280 140 228 114 a, Words per minute; b, Percentage of normal speaking rate estimated at 200 words per minute.
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however, through conversations with her Swedish-speaking mother and annual visits to Sweden. Also, in the case of the youngest child, Swedish was felt to be the strongest language at present as the child began attending a Swedish-speaking day nursery from the age of 15 months, as well as the fact that the child spent more time with Swedish-speaking siblings and playmates than he did with his English-speaking parents. Discussion Although much work remains to be done, including more extensive testing of the method, the initial results concerning the development of a measurement instrument for assessing listening comprehension in a naturalistic context have proved promising. The results have indicated that the method works well and that children enjoy it. Furthermore, the test discriminates among children having different degrees of proficiency in their two languages. Some Remaining Problems Several minor problems have occurred in connection with the method which I would like to mention briefly. These include the following: 1. The difficulty of using the method with young children; 2. The need for a computer for data registration; 3. The difficulty of determining the true proficiency level. Firstly, although the texts were originally designed for use with three- to four-year-old children, the method has proved difficult to use with children under approximately four and a half years. Prior to the pre-studies, pilot studies were carried out with three monolingual Swedish-speaking children, aged 3;3, 4;9 and 6;0 years of age. Although the method worked well with the two oldest children, it worked rather poorly with the three-year-old, who had difficulty understanding the purpose of the task and in concentrating on it. Although the four-year-old in the present study was able to concentrate on the story, it was difficult to make him understand the task of moving the speed regulation dial. Finally, the dial had to be moved by the experimenter, step by step, until the child was able to follow the instructions on the top. Another difference between older and younger children which may influence the reliability of the measure are differences in selective attention abilities in younger and older children. For example, younger children, once having selected a speed, tended to forget about the speed regulation dial, perhaps
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because they have difficulty in dividing their attention between listening to the story and regulating its speed. Older children, on the other hand, were observed to readjust the speed frequently throughout the task. Thus, for the older child, by averaging the various speeds selected throughout the task, the method may give a more accurate picture of listening comprehension in relation to speaking rate than is the case with the younger child. Although it is felt that methods can be devised for solving some of these problems, it is difficult to know whether it will be possible to use the method with children under approximately age four. Another issue concerns the need for data registration by computer. As was earlier mentioned, the older children tended to move the dial continually throughout the task. A related finding applicable to all the children was that they sometimes initially selected very different speeds in the two languages, perhaps reflecting the confidence they felt in using the languages, although they ended up with the same ratings. It is extremely difficult to follow all of the children's movements by manual observations. Thus, registering the child's speed regulation activities with the aid of a computer would greatly increase the quantity and accuracy of the information obtained. A final potential problem, especially when using the method with somewhat younger children, is the possibility that the children choose a speed which is comfortable for them rather than one which reflects their ultimate proficiency with regard to speaking rate. Of course, information about 'comfort levels' is in itself also interesting, but it needs to be supplemented with information about ultimate proficiency levels. There are a number of ways in which this problem can be solved, for example by: 1. Repeating the texts but varying the order of the instructions. This may have the effect of increasing the children's familiarity with the task, thus causing them to select higher listening speeds. 2. As in (1) but also introducing a game situation in which the children have to try and compete with their previous scores, winning a small prise if this is accomplished. 3. Having a separate test following the children's own ratings in which a similar task is carried out but at pre-set speeds, thus offering a basis of comparison for their own speed selection levels. Potential Areas of Application I would like to conclude with some suggestions concerning potential areas of practical application for the method. These include the following:
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1. Decisions concerning placement in bilingual programs for immigrant and minority language children; 2. Assessment of progress in learning a second language; 3. Feedback to teachers about language input. Firstly, the method can be useful in language placement decisions concerning pre-school programs for immigrant and minority language children. Frequently assessment in this context, if it occurs at all, is limited to production measures. It is felt, however, that the assessment of both production and comprehension skills is necessary in obtaining a full picture of the bilingual child's language abilities in each of the two languages. A direct practical application of the method would thus be that if a child is unable, even at highly reduced speaking rates, to comprehend a given language, he/she should be placed in an alternate language program, or a bilingual program if one is available. Similarly, with further research it may be possible to predict what levels of listening comprehension upon entry to a program are minimally necessary in order to function successfully in a specific language environment. Furthermore, if language assessment is to be extended to a large number of children, there is a need for measurement instruments which are quick and easy to use, which at the same time give an accurate picture of the child's abilities. If it can be shown that listening comprehension is correlated with other language skills, a simple test of listening comprehension such as the present one may, alone, have good predictive value. This is supported by Spolsky (in Jones & Spolsky, 1975:58) who suggested that: Presumably because listening comprehension is the closest to underlying competenceor has the fewest kinds of other performance factors involvedit is least dependent on learning experience. With a certain amount of limited experience or exposure to a language, listening comprehension is going to be the one that is closest to the most basic knowledge of a language. It's the first kind of thing that gets developed. It would be unusual to find somebody who is more proficient in speaking than in understanding. If we take a test of listening ability, one would expect to find that it correlates more highly with almost every other test than anything else. A second application area is the assessment of progress in learning a second language. In an increasing number of countries throughout the world a common problem is the large number of minority groups represented in the population, with relatively few speakers of each language. Thus in many cases
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it is difficult to meet the specific linguistic needs of all children, necessitating that children with little or no command of the minority language be placed in mainstream programs. Having a means of assessing the child's progress in an objective way and on a continual basis would seem important in order to be able to identify, at an early stage, children who were failing to learn the new language, for example for social, psychological or even physiological reasons. In other words, a learning curve for each child could be established which could be compared with norms for monolingual and bilingual children. A listening comprehension measure also has important implications here, especially with regard to the Silent Period (see Gibbons, 1985) which many children may go through in the initial stages of learning a second language. A third area of application is related to the possible need for feedback to teachers about the language input they provide to learners of a second language. Krashen's (1982) Input Hypothesis was perhaps the first formal attempt to emphasise the role of comprehensible input to second language learners. Krashen also raised the issue concerning whether teachers need to consciously try to simplify their speech when they speak to students. Should they, for example, 'think about slowing down, using more common vocabulary, shorter sentences, less complex syntax with less embedding, etc.?' (p. 65). He concluded that these adjustments are made automatically when the speaker focuses on comprehension and communication. This strategy may function well with the young child acquiring a first language, on the basis of which hypotheses concerning the importance of comprehensible input have been based. Such adjustments may not be entirely automatic, however, in the case of child second language learners where there is a discrepancy between skills in the second language and the child's age or intellectual level. Cantillo & Nauclér (1986) in a study of children learning Swedish as a second language in a pre-school setting have, for example, suggested that it is not always easy for the pre-school teacher to judge what language skills the child does and does not have. This is further complicated by the fact that many situations in the pre-school are of a routine nature and the second language learner can appear to comprehend the language when what the child is actually doing is interpreting non-verbal signals or imitating others. Thus, it would be valuable to study what speaking rates children prefer and can manage at various stages of their acquisitional history and to compare these with typical speaking rates used by pre-school personnel in various preschool activities. Finally, in addition to its practical application, the method may also be able to make some contribution to theoretical issues. For example, here questions may be investigated such as how long it takes for a second language learner to be able to understand common, everyday language at normal speaking rates.
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Investigation of the relation between comprehension and production skills is also of interest, that is, the extent to which these skills are independent of one another. An interesting issue here concerns the passive bilingual child (see Arnberg, 1981) who is able to comprehend one of the languages, although this language is not spoken. Whether comprehension skills are as developed in such children as they are in children who use the language more actively remains an intriguing question. References Arnberg, L. (1981) Early Childhood Bilingualism in the Mixed-Lingual Family. Linköping Studies in Education, Dissertations No 14. Linköping University. Berry, M. D. & Erickson, R. L. (1973) Speaking rate: Effects on children's comprehension of normal speech. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 16, 367-74. Brown, G. (1986) Investigating listening comprehension in context. Applied Linguistics, 7(3), 284-302. Cantillo, E. E. & Nauclér, K. (1986) 'Quemado också är bra'. Om svenska som andraspråk i förskolan. SPRINSrapport 34. Göteborgs Universitet. Cummins, J. (1981) The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. Schooling and Language Minority Students: A Theoretical Framework. Los Angeles: California State University, Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center. Gibbons, J. (1985) The silent period: An examination. Language Learning, 35(2), 255-67. Groot, P. J. M. (1975) Testing communicative competence in listening comprehension. In R. L. Jones & B. Spolsky (eds), Testing Language Proficiency. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics. Jones, R. L. & Spolsky, B. (eds) (1975) Testing Language Proficiency. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics. Krashen, S. D. (1981) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. (1982) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press. McLaughlin, B. (1985) Second-Language Acquisition in Childhood: Volume 2. School-Age Children (second edn). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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9 What's the Question? Investigating Questions in Second Language Classrooms Gisela Håkansson Department of Linguistics, University of Lund, Sweden. and Inger Lindberg Department of Research on Bilingualism, University of Stockholm, Sweden. Abstract The aim of this paper is to discuss a model for the analysis and classification of questions that can be used for investigating the role of questions in second language learning and teaching. In this context the correspondence between teacher questions and learner responses is of special interest and an important task is to investigate the characteristics of such teacher questions that generate the most creative target language production. For this purpose a multidimensional model is proposed, in which aspects such as cognitive level, communicative value, communicative orientation and learner relevance of teachers' questions are taken into account. Background During the 1950s and 1960s the most prevalent function of teachers' questions in foreign language classrooms was to trigger the reproduction of structures in mechanical drills and exercises. The underlying learning theory of such teaching was behaviouristic, building on the assumption that learning a language, like learning in general, was a matter of stimulus and response.
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The teachers' questions were, in other words, the stimuli to which the learners were supposed to react in terms of given structures in the foreign language. The questioning and answering in such classrooms did not involve any exchange of information. This means that the function normally associated with questions, that of requesting information in order to bridge information gaps, was eliminated. Moreover, it is important to stress that the answers that the learners were to produce were merely reproductions of structures earlier presented by the teacher or in the textbook, leaving very few opportunities for the learners to produce any utterances of their own, and to use the language in any creative way. On the contrary, such language use should be avoided, since it could result in erroneous structures which were considered detrimental to learning. The structural view of language dominant during this period stressed the phonological, morphological and later also the syntactical aspects of language. The breakthrough of cognitive learning theory was to change the view of language acquisition in a crucial way, first in the field of first language acquisition and later also in second language acquisition. The learner is now given an active role in the learning process in which the testing of hypotheses forms an essential part. The process of second language acquisition is looked upon as developmental in terms of one interlanguage system succeeding the other in the direction of the target language. A prerequisite for such a process to take place is that the learner has access to the target language at a comprehensible level so that hypotheses about the target language can be formed and tested. As regards the general view of language, there has been a shift towards semantic, pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects. The impact of these shifts of paradigm on the teaching of foreign and second languages has been considerable and today most teachers seem to agree on a more communicative approach to language teaching, leaving the learners rich opportunities to use the second language in different types of communicative activities in the classrooms. Language is no longer seen as merely a set of structures but as a means of communication by which people can encode their meaning and perform various language functions. Teachers now encourage their learners to grope their way along the paths of the new language and to find their way by the use of various kinds of communication strategies. The focus is on the process of generating new structures rather than on the utterances as products. An important function of teachers' questions in such classrooms is to initiate communication and to inspire and support the learners when trying out their interlanguage system in various communicative situations. The questions should trigger a creative production of utterances as opposed to the mechanical reproduction of structures that was the main function of questions in the behaviouristic frame-work.
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Aim of the Paper In this paper we shall discuss the role of questions in second language teaching and the relevance of different question typologies when trying to establish a relation between type of question and the kind of learner response they generate with respect to quantitative as well as qualitative aspects. Our empirical data is taken from nine recorded lessons in Swedish as a second language (SSL) taught to adult immigrants in Sweden. The total number of questions occurring in the data is 560. Question Typologies The concept of question is in no way unambiguous. In this context, however, we shall only discuss questions that are asked with the aim of provoking some kind of verbal response from the interlocutors. Form and Function One could perhaps argue that the most obvious and clearcut classification of questions would build upon the form of the questions. In fact, there is no way of isolating the form from the function in such classification since the form of a question is very closely linked to its response possibilities. Ahrenberg (1987) presents a taxonomy which is built upon three major classes of questions in Swedish, nexus questions, alternative questions and X-questions. Within these three major classes there are different sub-types. A nexus question as defined by Jespersen (1924:303) is a question by which 'the speaker wants to have his doubts resolved whether it is correct to connect this particular subject with this particular predicate'. For this type of question, the unmarked form in Swedish is with the finite verb in an initial position followed by the subject. An alternative question, according to Ahrenberg, 'can be characterised with reference to the fact that it contains a disjunction of two or more specifications of the same domain' (p. 95). In X-questions we have an unknown 'quantity', as in an algebraic equation. Jespersen therefore suggested the use of the symbol X for the unknown and the term X-question for questions asked to find out what the X stands for. In Swedish this type of question is initiated by an interrogative word or phrase equating the 'X' followed by the finite verb. A modified version of Ahrenberg's taxonomy of interrogative structures is summarised in Figure 1.
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Figure 1 EXAMPLES (1)
Bor han i Köpenhamn?
Lives he in Copenhagen?
(2)
Han bor i Köpenhamn?
He lives in Copenhagen?
(3)
I Köpenhamn?
In Copenhagen?
(4)
Bor han i Köpenhamn eller i Århus?
Lives he in Copenhagen or Aarhus?
(5)
Var bor han?
Where lives he?
(7)
Var?
Where?
(8) Han bor i . . .? He lives in . . .? In a study by Long (1981) conversations between native speakers of English (NS-NS) were compared to conversations where one interlocutor was nonnative (NS-NNS). One of the features that was investigated was forms of questions. The results show that the frequency of inverted nexus questions was more or less the same in NS-NS interaction as in NS-NNS, whereas the inverted X-questions were far more frequent in the NS-NS interaction (49%) than in the NS-NNS (33%). The most frequent question type in conversations where a non-native interlocutor was involved was uninverted questions (37%). These results, however, are very difficult to interpret since the questions in NS-NNS conversations are asked by native speakers as well as by non-native speakers. In the case of the native speakers one could assume that these constructions were used to facilitate learner participation, while the use of uninverted questions by language learners is more likely to mark a certain stage in their interlanguage development. Therefore, it is impossible to compare the proportion of inverted and uninverted questions in NS-NS discourse with NS-NNS discourse on the basis of these results.
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In foreign and second language teaching the X-questions are probably favored by many teachers on the assumption that they generate longer learner responses than nexus-questions, that can be responded to by a single 'yes' or 'no'. To our knowledge, no investigations have been made to show that this is necessarily the case. In our data the proportions among different forms of questions is 44% nexus questions, 3% alternative questions and 53% Xquestions. Cognitive Level Another way of classifying teacher questions is on the basis of the logical operations that the answering of the questions requires. Cole & Williams (1973) have modified a category system to classify different operations of intellect originally developed by Gallagher & Aschner (1963). Ranging from the least to the most complex operations, they propose the following primary categories: 1. cognitive memory, 2. convergent thinking, 3. divergent and evaluative thinking. (1) Cognitive memory operations are the ones that require solely the reproduction of information. The following are examples taken from a SSL classroom: Hur gammal är du, Ali?
How old are you, Ali?
Hur stavar man till 'sjuk'? How do you spell 'ill'? (2) Convergent thinking represents the analysis and integration of given or remembered data within a tightly structured framework. We find an example of that in the second teacher question in the following dialogue: T:hur lång e du, Paul?
How tall are you, Paul?
ungefär eh ungefär ett meter en meter meter åttitre centimeter, tror About eh about a meter a meter meter eighty- three centimeters, I think. L: ja. ja lyssna på mej 'ja e en å sjuttifem Yes listen to me 'I am one and seventyT: ungefär' hur lång e du? five more or less'. How tall are you? L:ehh en d åttitre.
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Ehh one and eighty- three.
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(3) Divergent and evaluative thinking is stimulated by questions which permit the individual to generate data freely and independently out of an individual or personal perspective. Evaluative thinking has to do with judgement, value and choice: om dina barn slåss vad T: skulle du göra då?
If your children are fighting what would you do?
tror du att de har nånting Do you think it has anything to do with the age of the parents me föräldrarnas ålder å göra om dom e auktoritära whether they are authoritarian or democratic? T: eller demokratiska? In a survey of North American studies of teachers' questioning practices, Gall (1970) concludes that about 60% of teachers' questions require students to recall facts while 20% require students to think. The remaining 20% are procedural questions. Even if very little research has been carried out so far to establish the relationship between the cognitive level of teachers' questions and the cognitive level and other features of students' responses, there are some results that support the hypothesis that there is a strong correspondence between question and response level. In studies by Dillon (1981) and Smith (1978) reported in Brock (1986), the results suggest that responses to questions of the level of cognitive memory are shorter than responses to higher level questions. In a study by Cole & Williams (1973) where data were gathered from social studies, science and health lessons in grade 2 to grade 6, the results show a strong positive correlation between cognitive level of teachers' questions and cognitive level, length and syntax of students' responses. To our knowledge there are no studies of this kind carried out so far in second language classrooms. Communicative Value A distinction which is closely interlinked with the notion of cognitive level is the one between 'known information questions' (also termed pseudoquestions, exam questions, test questions, display questions) and 'information seeking questions' (genuine questions, real questions, referential questions). We discuss this distinction here in terms of the communicative value of the answer to the questions. In a classical article by Mehan (1979) the two types of questions are described in the following way:
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When a 'known information question' is being asked, the questioner already has the answer, or at least has established the parameters in which a reply can properly fall. The questioner is testing the knowledge of the respondent. The respondent to a 'known information question' is placed in the position of trying to match the questioner's predetermined knowledge, or at least fall within the previously established parameters. When, in contrast, 'information seeking questions' are being asked, the questioner does not have the information, assumes that the respondent has the information, and has an immediate need for the information. (pp. 285-86) An important difference, as Mehan points out, between the two types of questions can be seen in the reaction to the answers. Answers to known information questions are followed by evaluations (1) whereas answers to information seeking question are followed by acknowledgements (2): (The examples here are taken from Mehan's article.) (1)
(2)
Speaker A:
What time is it, Denise?
Speaker B:
2:30
Speaker A:
Very good, Denise
Speaker A:
What time is it, Denise?
Speaker B:
2:30
Speaker A: Thank you, Denise The absurdity of the first sequence in any other context than a teaching situation illustrates this very special use of questions typical of classrooms all over the world. Searle (1974) explains the difference between known information questions and information seeking questions as a difference in illocutionary force. A question like 'What is the capital of Sweden?' when asked by a teacher of Swedish is despite its ostensibly pure information seeking form, equivalent in force to a request like 'Tell me the name of the capital of Sweden!' In a study by Long & Sato (1983) questions asked by teachers of English as a second language and questions asked by native speakers in conversations with second language learners were compared. 51% of the classroom questions were known information questions whereas hardly any questions of this kind were found in the native/non-native speaker conversations. The information seeking questions constituted 76% of the conversation questions and only 14% of the classroom questions. In our material we have found great differences between different types of activities in this respect. In a lesson during which the learners were asked
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questions about a text, 59% of the questions were pseudo-questions while during a free discussion with the same group of learners there were only 17% pseudo-questions (cf. Lindberg, 1987). In another study by Brock (1986) the results showed that responses to information seeking questions were significantly longer and syntactically more complex than responses to known information questions. Communicative Orientation In second language classrooms the second language is not only the goal of learning but also the medium through which the language is taught and the medium of communication between teacher and learners, as well as among the learners. It is only natural that communication in a situation like this, where the medium actually is the message, is often focused upon the language itself. In an article on the teaching of communication, Butzkamm & Dodson (1980) propose the term medium-oriented for communication focused mainly on language. Communication in which the learner can satisfy needs other than those of language they call message-oriented. It is a well-known truth that many of the questions asked in second language classrooms are medium-oriented, aiming at making the learners produce correct linguistic responses although they are often disguised as messageoriented. These questions also tend to be known-information questions, since the teacher is the one in control of the language and the information about the language. Stevick (1976) makes a distinction between productive and reflective language production and includes all kinds of language drills as well as the retelling of stories, answering questions about a dialogue, discussing a reading section, etc. in the latter category. Characteristic of productive performance, on the other hand, is, according to Stevick, that the learner starts with something that he wants to say and with a person to whom he wants to say it. He then draws on the models that are available within himself, in order to fulfil his purpose. (p. 107) It is quite clear that the distinction between medium-orientation and message orientation can be very difficult to make and that the two orientations should be seen as extreme poles of a continuum rather than absolute opposite categories (Figure 2).
Figure 2.
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EXAMPLES (1)
Vad är motsatsen till 'vid'? What is the opposite of 'wide'?
(2)
Ar det en buss eller en gitarr?
(3)
Who is the tallest person in the Vem är längst i klassen? class?
Is it a bus or a guitar?
Hur är förhållandena i (4) Chile? How are the conditions in Chile? Example 1 above is a pseudo-question about the target language with a clear medium orientation. Example 2, however, is medium-oriented in a disguised form, and could be superficially regarded as message-oriented. In this case the absurd alternatives given reveal the true identity of the question. Example 3 is classified as being more medium-oriented than Example 4 since the former question is asked in a context where the teacher wants to expose a specific structure. It is also the case that what was meant to be medium-oriented by the teacher could be treated as message-oriented by the learners and vice versa (cf. Gustavsson, 1987). In the following example the teacher asks the learners about their weight, height and hair colour during a lesson when comparison of adjectives is discussed. Although it is the form rather than the content of the answer that is focused on here, the teacher most likely has chosen adjectives by which learners in the class can be compared to make the presentation more learner-centred and to be able to avoid pseudo-questions about objects in a picture. The learners, however, get more involved in the conversation than was perhaps intended. They discuss the message and ignore the teacher's medium-oriented questions and thus manage to change the orientation of the discourse: How do you say that? Miriam's hair is short and hur sager man de? Miriam Alfonso's is short too / almost har kort hår å Alfonso har T: också kort hår / ungefär . . .? . . .? L1:samma.
The same.
L2:lika.
As.
L3:dom har.
It is.
L2:lika kort.
As short.
T: just de dom har lika . . .
That's it it is as . . .?
L4:LIKA KORT.
AS SHORT.
L5:MIRIAM HAR kortare.
MIRIAM's is shorter.
L3:korta hår.
Hair is shorter.
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L6:tror inte.
Don't think.
L6:tror inte?
Don't think?
L6:man drar inte.
One pulls not.
ja bryr mej inte om de. L3: (SKRATTAR)
I don't care. (LAUGHS)
Miriam / Miriam kan du dra Miriam / Miriam can you pull L5: ut håret? / dra ut lite? your hair? Pull it a little? L6:oj. (SKRATTAR)
I say. (LAUGHS)
L2:ooooj de blev fel här.
Oh dear we made a mistake here
L4:ja ja säger de.
Yes that's what I said.
inte kortare / kor inte kortast Not shorter / shor not the L2: hår. shortest hair. de e ja som har den kortaste I'm the one with the shortest L5: håret. hair. jasså e're Mehmet som har T2: kortast?
So it's Mehmet' who has the shortest?
ja vet'e sjutton allså / har Alfonso kortare hår än Miriam eller har Miriam T: kortare hår än Alfonso?
I really don't know I must say / is Alfonso's hair shorter than Miriam's or is Miriam's shorter than Alfonso's?
L2:ja så så ja tror.
Yes it is I think.
T: du har kortare hår?
Yours is shorter?
du har kortare hår än dom L5: andra.
Yours is shorter than the others'.
L4:därför datt.
Because
T: vem?
Whose?
L5:du.
Yours
T: jag?
Mine?
ja ja tror javisst javisst. L4: (ALLA SKRATTAR)
Yes that's what I yes. (ALL LAUGH)
mest ja e bäst. (skriver på I'm the best. (Writes on the T: tavlan.) blackboard). There is also evidence in our data that discussions about the target language itself can be as interesting and animated as any other discussiona fact that further complicates the distinction between medium and message-oriented communication.
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Learner Relevance Another important aspect of teacher questions, greatly affecting the learners' responses, is the relevance of the question from the point of view of the learner. If the question is conceived as relevant to the learner it is likely to generate a more elaborate response than a question of no obvious relevance. Examples from our data show that the same question can generate quite different responses, depending on the varying degree of relevance perceived by individual learners. A Multidimensional Model for the Classification of Questions As we have seen, there are other dimensions than the form/function distinction that have to be accounted for in a model for the classification of questions in second language classrooms. For the purpose of establishing a correspondence between question type and answer we have chosen to base our analysis on a multidimensional model, where features referring to cognitive level, communicative value, communicative orientation and learner relevance are used in the characterization of the questions. As for the form/function classification, it can be made on the basis of the formal structure of the question, whereas the feature analysis must be built upon semantic, communicative and contextual considerations. Although the feature characterization of questions that we propose consists of a combination of distinctive features from a binary system, the values should not be looked upon as absolute clear-cut values, but rather as marks of orientation on a continuum ranging from one polar end to the other. The system of distinctive features is used in the following way: Cognitive levelQuestions classified as being at a high cognitive level are marked +COGN. Communicative valueQuestions classified as information seeking are marked +COMM. Communicative orientationQuestions classified as message oriented are marked +MESS. Learner relevanceQuestions classified as relevant to the learner are marked +REL.
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EXAMPLES FROM OUR DATA (5) Bor Bo Ek i Stockholm? (Does Bo Ek live in Stockholm?) -COGN -COMM -MESS -REL (6) (Bodde du i Santiago? (Did you live in Santiago?) -COGN +COMM +MESS +REL (7) Vem är längst i klassen? (Who is the tallest person in the class?) -COGN +COMM -MESS +REL (8) Kan man säga 'Bolivia lider av diktatur'? (Can one say 'Bolivia is suffering from dictatorship'?) -COGN +COMM -MESS +REL (9) Vilket system skulle du välja om du hade barn? (Which system would you choose if you had any children?) +COGN +COMM +MESS +REL Examples 5-9 illustrate different combinations of features. Example 5 is a question about a fictional person in a textbook, whereas the question in Example 6 is put to a person in the class. In the context where Example 7 occurs, the teacher wants the learners to produce a certain structure. Example 8 is a medium-oriented question with high communicative value put by one of the learners. The last question might be an example of an optimal combination of features according to this model. A closer look at the response which followed this particular question reveals that it extends over several turns. This leads us into another important aspect in this context, namely the discourse structure.
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Discourse Structure The interest and involvement in the learner's response shown by the teacher by means of feedback signals and follow-up moves may in fact be decisive for the quantity and quality of the learner response as a whole. Consequently the whole sequence must be taken into account when analyzing the relation between question and response. According to Sinclair & Brazil (1982) the classroom interaction is characterised by the following moves: Initiation (I), Response (R), Follow-up (F). A classroom exchange with a characteristic distribution of the moves is one where the teacher both initiates and follows up, while the learner responds. Of course, this interactional structure has an immense impact on the distribution of questions, since questions mainly fit into teacher moves. A discourse-based analysis also calls for a distinction between initiating and follow-up questions. When analyzing recorded lessons in Swedish as a second language, 61% of the teacher questions were classified as initiating questions and 39% as follow-up questions. This means that there were 0.64 follow-up questions to each initiative question. The uninverted nexus questions constituted 30% of the total number of nexus questions. These occurred with one single exception only as followup questions and constituted no less than 57% of these questions. Follow-up questions often function as conversational adjustments by means of which the interlocutors ask for clarification and confirmation and check comprehension. By using those questions the interlocutors can negotiate instances of non-understanding that occur in the discourse. In conversations where non-native speakers are involved the discourse is often interrupted by such instances of non-understanding, and the negotiation of meaning is crucial to the success of the interaction. By using follow-up questions both interlocutors may adjust the discourse in search for an optimal level of understanding where mutual comprehension can be reached. Negotiation of Meaning Varonis & Gass (1985) propose a model for the negotiation of meaning where these negotiation sequences are seen as vertical sequences in a horizontal progression or sequences that are embedded in the main flow of conversation. According to this model, follow-up questions can be seen as initiators of embedded sequences. The following structure: I + R (I + R) F, is illustrated by an example from a SSL classroom:
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hur e r'e där du kommer ifrån i What's it like where you come from in Turkey? Which Turkiet / vicken metod method is used when you bring använder man där när man uppfostrar barn e 're också den up children? Is it also the authoritarian? T: auktoritära? L:ja de varierar.
Well it varies.
T:de varierar? hur då?
It varies: In what way?
jo ibland föräldrarna slår barnen ibland dom uppfostrar demokratisk familj / de varierar man kan inte säga L: nånting.
Well sometimes the parents hit their children sometimes they bring up democratic family / it varies one can't say anything
T:de finns båda metoderna. Both methods are used. When comparing our data from different SSL classrooms we find great differences in the degree of negotiation due to different teaching styles as well as different teaching activities. In a comparatively free discussion, like the one from which the transcript above is taken, we found a high degree of negotiation as measured in percentage of turns including adjustment signals (16%). In this free conversation 43% of the questions are follow-up questions. A comparison with a more controlled lesson where a grammar structure was presented shows that the latter had a much lower degree of negotiation (8%) and also fewer follow-up questions (35%). It has to be pointed out, however, that the teacher performs a great deal of the negotiation work in all the teacher-fronted activities that we have studied, and that it is only by engaging in different small group activities that the learners get any real chance to practice negotiation routines. Learner Questions This leads us to some remarks on learner questions. Although the variation here is considerable, depending on teaching style, activity type and learner personalities, a general conclusion is that learner questions are few in teacher-fronted classrooms. Seventeen per cent of all the questions are learner questions in our data, and in the most tightly structured lessons there are hardly any learner questions at all to be found. Fifty-three per cent of all the learner questions are follow-up questions, which means that very few initiatives are taken by the learners by means of questions. Since one of the most important functions of questions is to initiate discourse and keep conversation going (cf. Holmen, 1985) the learners' possibilities of developing their interlanguage in
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verbal interaction with native speakers are dependent on their ability to produce questions in the target language. As we have seen, the possibilities of training this ability in traditional teacher-fronted classrooms are very restricted, partly because of limitations due to the interactional structure (cf. Håkansson, 1983). As is pointed out by Goody (1978), the traditional role of the teacher has been associated with respect and obedience and although many relations in society have changed towards equality and democracy, status differentials are still preserved in many classrooms, which means that questions from students will tend to function as questions from subordinates to superiors and may be perceived as threatening by the teacher (cf. Goody, 1978:42). The teacher questions tend to be perceived as examination questions used by the teacher to control the learner. The teaching of Swedish as a second language to adult immigrants is organised within a tradition of adult education that is built upon democratic principles and respect for the individual participants and their prior experience and knowledge. However, it is quite clear that the traditional pedagogical interactional pattern still rules in many of these teaching situations, which is unfortunate for the learners' second language development. When analyzing learner questions in our material we made some interesting observations confirming the earlier mentioned statement that learner questions are not perceived as fitting into the traditional pedagogical interaction pattern. First of all, we found that some of the learner questions were ignored by the teacher. Secondly, some of the learner questions were introduced by some kind of pre-utterance with the function of asking permission to ask a question. Finally, some of the learner questions were received with an embarrassed laugh from the teacher, which indicates that something quite unusual and unexpected was taking place. Conclusions We have been discussing different aspects of teacher questions with the aim of investigating the correspondence between different types of teacher questions and the responses that they give rise to. The underlying assumption is that a creative production of utterances in the target language is favorable to language acquisition and that questions which generate such production should be encouraged. A multidimensional model is proposed by means of which such questions can be characterised. We intend to use this model to go deeper into the role of teacher questions in our research on communication in SSL classrooms. References Ahrenberg, L. (1987) Interrogative Structures of Swedish. Aspects of the Relation between Grammar and Speech Acts. Reports from Uppsala University, Department of Linguistics No 15. University of Uppsala.
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Brock, C. A. (1986) The effects of referential questions on ESL-classroom discourse. TESOL Quarterly, 20 (1) 4759. Butzkamm, W. & Dodson, C. J. (1980) The teaching of communication: From theory to practice. IRAL, XVIII, 289-309. Cole, R. A. & Williams, D. M. (1973) Pupil responses to teacher questions: Cognitive level, length and syntax. Educational Leadership, 31, 142-5. Dillon, J. T. (1981) Duration of response to teacher questions and statements. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 6, 1-11. Gall, M. D. (1970) The use of questions in teaching. Review of Educational Research, 40, 707-21. Gallagher, J. J. & Aschner, M. J. (1963) A preliminary report on analyses of classroom interaction. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behaviour and Development, 9, 183-94. Goody, E. N. (1978) Towards a theory of questions. In E. N. Goody, (ed.), Questions and Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gustavsson, L. (1987) 'I know what it is but it's so awfully hard to tell'. SIC, 13, 91-102. University of Linköping. Håkansson, G. (1983) Makt och maktlöshet i klassrummeten analys av topikval. SIC, 6:19-33. University of Linköping. Holmen, A. (1985) Analyses of some discourse areas in the PIF data and in classroom interaction. In E. Glahn & A. Holmen (eds) Learner Discourse. Anglica et Americana 22. Department of English, University of Copenhagen. Jespersen, O. (1924) The Philosophy of Grammar. London: George Allen & Unwin. Lindberg, I. (1987) Om Kommunikation i andraspråksundervisning. Sum-report 4, Institute of Linguistics, University of Stockholm. Long, M. H. (1981) Questions in foreigner talk discourse. Language Learning, 31, 135-57. Long, M. H. & Sato, C. J. (1983) Classroom foreigner talk discourse: Forms and functions of teachers' questions. In H. W. Seliger & M. H. Long (eds), Classroom-oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Mehan, H. (1979) 'What time is it Denise?' Asking known information questions in classroom discourse. Theory Into Practice, 18, 285-94. Searle, J. R. (1974) Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sinclair, J. & Brazil, D. (1982) Teacher Talk. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Smith, C. T. (1978) Evaluating answers to comprehension questions. The Reading Teacher, 31, 896-900. Stevick, E. W. (1976) Memory, Meaning & Method. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Varonis, E. M. & Gass, S. (1985) Non-native/non-native conversations: a model for negotiation of meaning. Applied Linguistics, 6, 71-90.
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10 Metalinguistic Knowledge and Understanding in Adult Language Learning Maija Kalin Institutionen for nordiska språk, Jyväskylä universitet, Finland. Abstract The paper presents some findings in a pilot study of the metalinguistic knowledge of four Finnish migrant workers in Sweden. The study is focused on these workers' problems in understanding Swedish input and their means of indicating the difficulties and solving them. Basically the informants' metalinguistic knowledge seems to be poorly structured and they have difficulties in making use of it. Metalinguistic Knowledge of Learners Language teaching in the classroom provides the learners with a considerable amount of metalinguistic knowledge (e.g. Felix, 1981; Sorace, 1985). This knowledge has, however, mostly been limited to the grammar of the written language and consequently cannot always be easily applied when using language in spoken interaction. The communication situations in which learners in classroom instruction practise the new language vary relatively little and they seldom contain totally unexpected moments. New language minorities, resulting from the migration of workers to and within Europe, experience learning conditions that differ from traditional language teaching situations (e.g. Klein, 1986; Perdue, 1984). They acquire most of the language they learn outside the classroom. They have very little or no systematic guidance in putting up a framework for metalinguistic knowledge and their learning situations are real communication situations. These learners demonstrate metalinguistic knowledge that differs from that gained in formal instruction alone. They can be expected to show a more natural choice of strategies for managing problems in communication because succeeding in real-life situations is a real challenge.
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In many countries, for example Sweden, the migrant workers almost without exception receive at least some formal instruction. This does not bring the migrant's learning conditions much closer to the traditional formal learning of a second language (L2) because both the character of the instruction and the results differ from the traditional language instruction situations. Most migrant workers have limited schooling in their first language and limited or no experience of theoretical studies, and this places special demands on the teaching methods. Another problem is the lack of qualified teachers and the fact that even the qualified teachers mostly do not speak or even know much about the structure of the students' native languages. This very often means that the teachers are unable to encourage the students to make metalinguistic analyses of areas that are relevant for them in learning L2. In contrast to traditional second language learners the migrant workers hear and are obliged to use natural language every day in the society. This exposure to natural language, of course, fills many gaps in their limited formal instruction and gives the learners more data to be analyzed. Several questions arise about the learning situation for the migrant workers. To what extent do learners develop metalinguistic knowledge in learning conditions where they have to analyze input and linguistic behaviour without the help of explicit rules? In real-life communication there is a great need to manage problems in understanding. What kind of strategies are used by these learners in order to manage understanding? What kind of awareness can they demonstrate of their own linguistic behaviour? This paper presents some results of an exploratory stage of a study of learners' problems in understanding and their ways of indicating and managing them. Learners' Problems in Understanding Understanding is always a dynamic cognitive process, but the dynamic character is particularly clear in interactional situations with language learners who have moved to a new country and acquire L2 there. In each speech situation the learner receives information about the conventions and values of the new culture. This means that s/he must continually check and change the frame of the background information with which s/he must combine the new input into a meaningful whole. The learner must also continually check and change his/her criteria for understanding and work on the semantic conventions s/he has acquired in the new language. (See e.g. Allwood, 1986; Gumperz, 1982; McLaughlin, Rossman & McLeod, 1983.) In analyzing problems of understanding, three important goals come to light which at times conflict with one another. In most situations the speakers have
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(1) to understand what the interlocutor says, which means information processing in various ways on different levels; (2) to save face; and (3) to keep the conversation going without making too many interruptions. In addition to these goals, a learner may feel a pressure to use communication situations as learning tasks. Informants and Data The informants used in the study reported here are four Finnish immigrants in Sweden. They are informants in the international project, Ecology of Adult Language Acquisition, financed by the European Science Foundation. The goal of the project is to study adult language acquisition outside the classroom in five European countries (e.g. Perdue, 1984). All the four informantsmale, Leo, and 3 female speakers, Mari, Rauni and Tarja,have about the same educational background: 8 or 9 years of elementary school and 1-2 years of vocational education. They all come from a social environment with a very low motivation for L2 learning. Their ages vary between 17 and 29 years at the beginning of the project. At the start of the longitudinal project the informants had been in Sweden only a few months. Interaction with Swedish native speakers was audio- and video-recorded at intervals of a few months, so that the informants participated in the same activities in roughly the same order in three cycles. The data chosen for this study consist of role plays and conversations, mostly with the target language (TL) researchers, in some cases with professionals in real-life speech situations. A source language (SL) researcher was present on some occasions. The data used for this paper were not gathered primarily for studies in metalinguistic knowledge, but they include many discussions between the researchers and the informants that aim to focus on the metalinguistic knowledge of the informants. The four informants show some differences in their interactive styles. Managing problems in understanding is a vital part of the interactive style. Because this study is focused on the learner's metalinguistic knowledge and problems in understanding we shall only look at the means the learner uses in order to indicate and manage nonunderstandings. The term nonunderstanding is here used for all instances of lacking understanding, both partial and total. Misunderstandings are omitted here.
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Minimal Feedback Minimal feedback is the most frequent interactional reaction of the informants in the data. The use of minimal feedback items mm, mhm, ja, a, jå,etc. can be divided into two main functions. Firstly, they are used in a backchanneling function, to express willingness to go on listening and in that way to keep the conversation going. In some cases this can mean that the speaker does not want to take more active responsibility for maintaining the conversation. Although the informants are expected to interact actively, most of them tend to take a backchanneling role. This is a quite natural consequence of their deficient L2 proficiency and the power structure in a researcher-informant relationship (e.g. Darnell, 1985). Leo, for instance, very easily falls into a verbally passive role and uses only minimal feedback. For him, obviously, the goal of keeping the conversation going without interruptions is more important than getting all the details of the information offered. Despite his limited verbal activity Leo mostly has a seemingly very smooth and co-operative interactive style which is shown in his generous back-channeling. The monotonous back-channeling is, however, unnatural in many conversations and makes the interlocutor feel uneasy. The other function of the minimal feedback items is a matter of managing problems in understanding through facesaving and wait-and-see strategies. Face saving is important in real-life situations, but seems to have less weight in the situations studied. The role plays are not as challenging as similar tasks in real life and a status as L2 learner in conversations with the researchers and other persons engaged in the project gives the informant permission to have problems in communication. In fact, this is an expectation of the researcher. The function of minimal feedback as a wait-and-see strategy means that the interlocutor hopes that s/he can gradually get enough information about the meaning of an utterance or a part of an utterance that s/he could not understand. The cognitive task becomes more complicated because the listener must keep an unanalyzed language sequence in his/her mind and check all the new- input against it. The wait-and-see strategy often fails, which means a serious risk of losing face: an attempt to cover non-understanding has a stronger face-losing effect than a simple non-understanding. Another way to use the wait-and-see strategy is to withhold up-taking totally (Faerch & Kasper, 1983), but it has a very marginal role in the data studied. Example 1 demonstrates problems caused by use of minimal feedback only. This example shows how strong an impact the learner's unclear reactions have on the interlocutor and, on the other hand, how insecure Leo is about his interpretation of the utterances. It also demonstrates how closely sending and receiving are tied together. The receiver's reactions control the production of
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the interlocutor (e.g. Bachtin, 1979). The situation is uncomfortable for all participants. Leo is obviously expected to solve the problem by telling where his difficulties lie, but he is not able to do that. He either feels too powerless to take a more active role or he is unsuccessfully using the wait-and-see strategy. Finally, the SL researcher intervenes and resolves the nonunderstandings. The Finnish L1 elements in the examples below are distinguished by * from the surrounding Swedish L2 discourse. For short pauses + is used and + + or + + + for longer pauses. The examples below are relatively long. In order to make it easier for the reader, the features in focus are underlined. EXAMPLE 1 Conversation at home, Cycle 1. L, Leo; T, TL researcher; K, SL researcher. Four months after arrival. T:. . . farligast å stå i mål.
most dangerous to stand in the goal.
T:de har du inte råkat ut för? That hasn't happened to you? L:va?
What?
du har inte fätt nån puck + på dej ++ når du stått i You haven't got a puck + on you + + when standing in the goal? T: mål? L:jå.
Yes.
T:har du de?
You have?
L:jå.
Yes.
T:hu gick de?
How did it happen?
L:fick de? Did it get? T:hur gick de?
How did it happen?
L: T:va hände?
What happened?
L:hände.
Happened.
T:mm ++.
Mm.
L:ajajaj.
Ouh.
du stog i målet + du stog + You were standing in the goal + du stog e + å skydda målet standing + standing eh + to protect the goal like this. T: så här.
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L: jå.
Yes.
T: så kom de en puck.
Then a puck came.
L: jå.
Yes.
T: va hände då?
What happened then?
L: *en tiedä* + ja förstår inte.
*I don't know* + I don't understand.
T: fick du den nånstans på dej?
Did it hit you somewhere?
L: mm +
Mm.
T: hu gick de? + +
How did it happen? + +
L: a::
Yes well.
T: blev du skadad? +
Were you hurt? + +
L: äh mm mm
Eh, mm, mm.
K:*mitä sä haluat sanoa?*
*What do you want to say?*
fick du den på huvet eller fick du Did you get it to your head or T: den + på örat eller? did you get it + to the ear or? + m m ++ T: när ja när ja.
When I when I . . .
*mitä sä luulet että se ajaa takaa? K:* *What do you think he means?* *mä luulen et + jaaha + vaikea sanoa + + että + onko niinkö + kiekko tullu minuun + sattunu L: jotain + semmosta*
*I think that + well + hard to say + + that + if it like + puck has hit me + something happened + like that*
K:*aha + sä ymmärsit ihan oikein* *Well + you got it quite right* L: *ymmärsinkö?*
*Did I?*
K:*joo*
*Yes*
*Yes + just a lot of + new L: *joo + paljo vain + uusia sanoja* words* Frequent use of minimal feedback gives the interlocutor doubts about the learner's ability to understand even in situations when s/he has no problems.
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EXAMPLE 2 Role play with an external TL speaker, Cycle 1. A, Tarja; T, TL speaker; eight months after arrival. du har vi har fria arbetskläder You we have free work clothes and T: och + skor har vi + också + shoes we have got + also. A:jå
Yes.
du behöver inte betala nånting You don't need to pay anything + T: + sånt ++ like that + + Here Tarja was supposed to ask the TL speaker about a job she was interested in. Because of a very limited activity from her side the TL speaker gives most of the answers without any questions. The nonverbal behaviour and, for example, the reformulations made by the TL speaker show that he is not sure if Tarja has understood what he said. Thinking Aloud A very interesting metalinguistic behaviour is shown by Rauni. Her Swedish is very limited at the beginning of the project. It was characterised as 'practically none'. She does all the tasks she is asked to, but uses mostly Finnish in the first tasks even when talking to Swedes with no knowledge of Finnish. Rauni frequently thinks aloud, especially in the beginning when her Swedish is very poor. She is not the only one to do that but no one else does it to the same extent. Thinking aloud and other metalinguistic sequences are distinguished from the discourse by lowering the voice and moving the gaze from the interlocutor. In most cases the language is also changed into Finnish. The main use of thinking aloud by Rauni is editing her Swedish utterances, but she also thinks aloud when faced with problems in understanding. EXAMPLE 3 Route description, Cycle 1. R, Rauni; T, TL researcher; eight months after arrival R: å *sanotaan et* kanal + *kanaali*
And *let's say that* canal + *canal*
T: mm
Mm.
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å *kanaalin + siitä vaa + And *canal's + just along + katua pïtkin ja * å + *sit me along the street and* and *then we nähtii* å * nähtiin + kirkko + saw* and *we saw + a church + mikähän kirkko on ruotsi/ ?* what could a church be in swed/* sh- church R: s-kyrka T: mm.
Mm.
EXAMPLE 4 Conversation about a trip, Cycle 3. R, Rauni, T, TL researcher. Thirty months after arrival mhm + va ni till stan nånting + Mhm + Did you go to the town at T: ti ti michel? all + to to mikkeli? R:ah? Did you go to the TOWN at all åkte ni till STAN nånting SEDAN nä du VAR + hemma + THEN when you WERE + at home + did you visit town? T: besökte du stan? R:åhm.
Ouh.
T: eller va du sjuk?
Or were you ill?
R:åjh.
Ouh.
T: hela tiden.
All the time?
R:å nu inte förstår.
And now not understand.
Did you go from uh + from your åkte du från ehm + från ditt HEM till MICHEL + nånting + HOME to MIKKELI + at all + while you WERE there? T: medan du VAR där? åhm dah nej vi bara + + mh Uh dah no we only + + mh *now *ny mä sekaannu oikee* nej vi I got really confused* no we only R: åkte bara michel och min hem. went mikkeli and my home. T: nehej.
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The first example illustrates Rauni's main use of thinking aloud. The second example shows her problems in understanding as late as 30 months after her arrival in Sweden: when she gets very frustrated by not understanding the interlocutor she falls back on thinking aloud in Finnish. There were no special stress factors in the situation and the researcher was quite well known to her. Spontaneous thinking aloud gives more direct information about the mental procedures than elicited thinking aloud, which has been used in several studies of metalinguistic awareness (Cohen & Hosenfeld, 1981; O'Malley et al.,1985). Minimal Metalinguistic Items Explicit metalinguistic comments and questions in role plays and conversations are rare. Only when really forced to react in a situation do the informants explicitly say that they do not understand. This is done by means of very short and holophrastically used metalinguistic expressions. They are here called minimal metalinguistic items, because using them does not mean any metalinguistic analysis or elaboration of the problem. Rauni takes a very active role in the interaction although she had the poorest language to begin with. She has the largest number of explicit expressions for non-understanding. In the beginning she uses 'nu inteförstår' (now not understand) as a holophrase which occurs even later when her Swedish has considerably improved (e.g. Example 4 in Cycle 3!). Mari demonstrates a similar holophrastic use of 'säg en gång till' (say once more). EXAMPLE 5 Conversation on the way to a coffeehouse, Cycle 1. R, Rauni; T, TL researcher; ten months after arrival R: m: ja kom m: skolan.
M: I come m: the school . . .
I see where do you go to a T: jaha var går du på kurs? course? R: a?
What?
var nånstans går du på T: kurs?
Whereabouts do you go to a course?
R: nu inte förstå +++
Now not understand +++
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The most frequent direct way to indicate non-understanding by all informants is by short questions 'va?' (what?). These are also used for checking understanding or gaining more information when the interlocutor has expressed him/herself briefly or to express astonishment, etc. The interpretation is often difficult both for the interlocutor and for the analyzer but the following uses of 'va?/a?' are unambiguous expressions of nonunderstanding. EXAMPLE 6 Direct continuation of Example 5 ja ska bara ta min cykel här I'll just take my bike here <pause> it's a beautiful day <pause 50 sec> de e fint today? T: väder i dag? R:a?
What?
T: de e fint väder + +
It is a beautiful day + +
R:joo <pause 45 sec>
Yes <pause>
eh:: + hur ska vi gå? + + så tror ja <pause 45 sec> en sån här da vill man inte T: arbeta
Eh:: how should we go? + + then I think <pause> a day like this you don't want to work.
R:eh ++ va?
Eh ++ what?
T: en sån här fin da
A fine day like this.
R:mm
Mm.
när de e så fint väd/ + så vill When it is this fine weath/ + I T: ja inte arbeta don't want to work. R:aha
Uhu.
vill hellre va ute å promenera Would rather be out taking a T: walk. å:: varför + Kalle kan inte Oh why + Kalle can not R: komma? come? The encounter consists of 201 turns. Rauni meets the TL researcher in the city and they go to a coffeehouse and have a cup of coffee. In 12 of her totally 96 turns Rauni indicates explicitly that she does not understand by simply saying that she does not understand or by asking 'va?' (what?), but the majority of her turns are minimal feedback items like 'mm,' 'aha,' etc. used just to keep the conversation going, although she does not understand what the interlocutor says. The researcher has great difficulties
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in finding ways to communicate with Rauni. At the end of the episode above Rauni becomes frustrated by the problems of understanding and makes an opening by asking why the SL researcher did not come. The next example illustrates use of short metalinguistic questions by a more advanced learner. Twenty-two months after arrival Leo has a good general command of Swedish but he demonstrates more frequent use of explicit indications of non-understanding. At the beginning of the learning process he had to settle for partial understanding because clearing up all problems would have been against the social goal of the conversation. Later, when he has better ability both to understand and produce utterances, he can manage higher levels of processing understanding. EXAMPLE 7 Conversation with TL researcher, Cycle 3. L, Leo; T, TL researcher; K, SL researcher; twenty-two months after arrival K:*jutelkaa vain autoista mä menen**You just go on talking cars I go* T: ja du kör ju bil?
Well you drive a car don't you?
L: va?
What?
T: du du kan ju köran bil ju?
You you can drive a car can't you?
L: jaa.
Yes.
nej ja tycker inte om att köra me L: Volvo.
I don't like to drive with a Volvo.
T: kö kör du en sådan nu?
D do you drive one now?
L: va?
What?
den bilen du brukar låna + va e T: de for nånting?
The car you usually borrow + what's that a car?
L: de e Golf. It is Golf. The question with 'va' is not the only item Leo uses to indicate nonunderstanding in this phase. He also repeats the sequence just before a trouble source or he tries to repeat the word or sequence he has not understood.
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Metalinguistic Comments and Questions The most important source of analytic metalinguistic comments in the data are the introspective interviews, or selfconfrontations as they are called within the project. Self-confrontations were not made for all interactions studied. The form they have taken has ranged from short discussions just after the activity to encounters where the researcher watches the video recording together with the informant, stopping after very short sequences for analysis. The success of this kind of forced introspection depends greatly on the researcher's ability to ask the right questions or to find other fruitful ways in eliciting metalinguistic comments from persons who are not used to that kind of analyses. Introspection has been successfully used in studies of L2 learners with relatively high general education (Cohen & Hosenfeld, 1981; Glahn, 1980). In the direct discussions about how the learners feel about certain situations and why they acted the way they did, the informants explain their linguistic behaviour in very general terms: 'I don't know, I haven't thought of that'; 'It was difficult because there were so many new words'; 'I did not understand what he said'; 'I don't have words to express what I mean'; or 'The numbers are difficult to remember'. The low analytic level of the answers can be attributed to the minimal training in verbal elaboration the informants had had, and sometimes to a noticeable uneasiness and lack of motivation in the informant in the interview situation. In instances with clearly focused questions about, for example, feedback and understanding, the informants seem to be more confident in giving elaborate answers in comparison to questions about morphology and grammar in general. All the informants say that they give positive minimal feedback even if they do not understand what is said. Each informant is motivated in a slightly different way. EXAMPLE 8 Sometimes I just say 'yes' and try to guess, but I don't succeed in it always. Tarja:
If I say I didn't understand they change everything they said
I don't want to speak in Swedish because it is so difficult if a Mari: Swede comes to talk to me. I just say 'yes yes' all the time. Tarja analyses both her own strategy as guessing and reports use of a strategy to avoid new reformulations of the trouble source, whereas Mari gives a vague description of the difficulties.
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Indirect Indications of Non-Understanding When the learner understands an utterance only partially he nevertheless forms hypotheses about the speech act category of a partially understood utterance. One strategy in dealing with these could be called 'avoiding involvement or obligation'. If the informant makes a hypothesis that the utterance means an obligation or involvement in an unknown activity, s/he answers with a no. In a post office role play several informants react in the same way when the clerk asks if s/he wants to have a parcel insured. EXAMPLE 9 Role play, Post Office, Cycle 1. L, Leo; T, TL researcher; four months after arrival okej + fint a:: + vill du T: försäkra + paketet?
OK + fine eh do you want to insure + the parcel?
L:vill du?
Do you want?
T:försäkra paketet.
Insure the parcel
L:forsäka paketet + nä tack nej + No thank you no. Here Leo does not understand the meaning of the word 'forsäkra' (insure) and in order to be on the safe side says 'nej' (no). The understanding of the whole utterance is partial; he only understands that the interlocutor is suggesting something. The difficulty he is facing here is purely a matter of one lexical item. It cannot be a question of cultural difference or lacking knowledge of mailing routines, because both in Finland and Sweden insuring a parcel is not necessary in normal situations. Another case of indirectly indicating non-understanding is taken from the Post Office role play as well. The strategy is common among most Finnish informants in the data. EXAMPLE 10 Post Office, role play, Cycle 1. L, Leo; T, TL researcher . . . flygpost eller vanlig T: befordran?
. . .air mail or normal delivery?
L: flygpost Air mail. The example looks quite unproblematic: Leo answers a disjunctive question by choosing one of the two possible ways of sending a parcel to Finland.
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Other informants do the same, they either choose air mail or say 'inte flyg' (no air). The reaction can be interpreted as understanding, although there are two factors that speak for an interpretation as partial understanding. Firstly, the Swedish word 'befordran' (delivery), is not normally one of the first words in Swedish a foreigner learns. Secondly, Finland and Sweden are neighboring countries with good mail services which means that there is no real need to use air mail as if the parcel is to be sent to another continent. The strategy could be called 'take the alternative you are familiar with'. The feature that these two strategies have in common is risk-avoiding, which is a feature often used in discussing learner characteristics. On the other hand, it must be kept in mind that in a role play a person can do something s/he would not do in real life. Choosing air mail can also depend on the fact that the 'customer' knows that s/he does not need to pay for it. Developmental Profiles Of the four informants Rauni openly shows the greatest number of the metalinguistic activities taking place in her mind at the beginning of the longitudinal project. This she does in a non-analytical way by presenting raw data in thinking aloud and giving direct reactions when she either does not understand something or when she cannot express herself in Swedish. Later, when her Swedish is improved, her behaviour becomes more 'sophisticated', which means that she no longer expresses directly that she has had problems in communication. Mari frequently makes half-analytical comments and poses questions in the self-confrontations. In the role plays and conversations that are not focused on the language she strictly follows a plan she has put to herself in order to perform the given task. She does not pay too much attention to the interlocutor's reactions or the amount of coherence between her own and the interlocutor's communicative behaviour. Thus the interlocutor often thinks that she has not understood what has been said. Tarja's and Leo's strategies in facing problems in understanding are confusing for the interlocutor in another way. Their frequent uses of minimal feedback give the interlocutor the impression that they understand. Unexpected failures in understanding (e.g. Example 1, Leo) then make the interlocutor suspicious even in situations in which Leo or Tarja has in fact understood. The informants' proficiency in Swedish clearly improves during the almost three years of the project but there is no clear qualitative development to be found in the means of indicating and managing problems in understanding among any of the four informants. Rauni and Leo, however, show a
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quantitative change in the use of means of indicating non-understanding. Rauni's use of explicit indicators of nonunderstanding diminishes over time, whereas Leo uses more explicit indicators in the third cycle than in the first and second cycles. Despite the progress in L2 learning most informants in the data reported here do not get means for more sophisticated analysis of the problems. They settle for partial understanding, which has a negative effect on the L2 learning process. The language becomes fossilised despite the informants' access to a large amount of linguistic input from society. The informant's communicative behaviour has a clear impact on the chances for getting help in learning the language. Rauni's frequent indications of problems in the beginning phase result in a fruitful activity in the interlocutors. They also report that it is easy to talk with her. The interlocutor is encouraged to take the role of a resource which gives the learner explicit information on matters s/he feels are problematic. On the other hand, Leo's almost mechanical back-channeling hampers the interlocutor from elaborating on the topic discussed. Discussion Mentalistic data on all levels can only be studied indirectly. Metalinguistic knowledge can be expressed in actual language use; for example, by modifying one's own language behaviour according to the interlocutor and situation and by using the interlocutor as a resource for learning new aspects of the language. Another area in which one can study metalinguistic knowledge is the spontaneous and elicited judgements of language and language use. (See e.g. Chaudron, 1983; Cohen & Hosenfeld, 1981.) The data from which the pilot study data are drawn are extensive and contain a great variation of spoken interaction between native speakers and non-natives. Analyzing it, however, includes many problems that are common for most studies of language in interaction. The most severe problem is that of uncontrolled variables, often discussed in the literature (e.g. Long, 1983). Strictly controlled tests have, of course, a strong internal validity, but there are many very central phenomena in interaction that can never be reduced to a laboratory situation. Combining the two methods can certainly be fruitful in most cases. In a study of interaction between migrant workers and researchers two problems come to light which seem to influence the amount and quality of information of the metalinguistic knowledge of L2 learners. The power structure of the recording situations seems to hamper the informants in giving judgements of linguistic phenomena. The other problem is the limited
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proficiency in the target language: 'I don't say what I think but what I can'. This problem is solved if SL speakers are used in all introspective interviews. The groups of migrant workers show that in addition to learning conditions, learning abilities and learner characteristics previous education and living conditions play a considerable role in L2 acquisition. There is a great need to broaden studies of prerequisites of language learning in this direction. References Allwood, Jens (1986) Some perspectives on understanding in spoken interaction. In Logic and Abstraction M. Furberg, T. Wetterström & C. Aberg (eds). Acta Universitatis Gothoburgiensis. Göteborg: Göteborgs universitet. Bachtin, Michail M. (1979) Die Asthetik des Wortes. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Chaudron, Craig (1983) Research on metalinguistic judgments: a review of theory, methods, and results. Language Learning, 33 (3). Cohen, Andrew D. & Hosenfeld, Carol (1981) Some uses of mentalistic data in second language research. Language Learning, 31 (2). Darnell, Ragna (1985) The language of power in Cree interethnic communication. In Language of Inequality. N. Wolfson & J. Manes (eds). Berlin: Mouton. Faerch, Claus & Kasper, Gabriele (1983) Strategies in Interlanguage Communication. New York: Longman. Felix, Sascha W. (1981) The effect of formal instruction on second language acquisition. Language Learning, 31 (1). Glahn, Esther (1980) Introspection as a method of elicitation in interlanguage studies. Interlanguage Studies Bulletin, 5. Gumperz, John J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Klein, Wolfgang (1986) Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Long, M. (1983) Native speaker/non-native speaker conversation and the negotiation of comprehensible input. Applied Linguistics, 4 (2). McLaughlin, Barry, Rossman, Tammi & McLeod, Beverly (1983) Second language learning: an informationprocessing perspective. Language Learning, 33 (2). O'Malley, J. Michael, Chamot, Anna Uhl, Stewner-Manzanares Gloria, Kupper, Lisa & Russo, Rocco, P. (1985) Learning strategies used by beginning and intermediate ESL students. Language Learning, 35 (1). Perdue, Clive (ed.) (1984) Second Language Acquisition by Adult Immigrants. A Field Manual. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Sorace, Antonella (1985) Metalinguistic knowledge and language use in acquisition-poor environments. Applied Linguistics, 6 (3).
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11 Bidialectalism in the United States Barbara J. Boseker Moorhead State University, U.S.A. Abstract This paper focuses on the dialect differences between Black American English and Standard English. Included is an historical overview of the treatment of Black English in the literature, including the Verbal Deprivation Theory. The true origins of the dialect are discussed, as well as the verbal component of Black American culture. A description of the linguistic features of Black English is presented, examining lexical, phonological and syntactical differences between Black English and Standard English. Strategies for teaching Black English speakers to read and write are also explored, including an example from the writer's own teaching of Black American children. Introduction There are many children in the United States who do not come to school speaking what may be called Standard English (SE); instead, they arrive speaking a dialect of their own known as Black English (BE). American teachers have complained for a long time that there is a problem of communicating with speakers of Black English. Several researchers have noted that teacher expectations of inner city children have been low (Rist, 1970; Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1974; Haskins and Butts, 1973). Failure in school for these children has become a selffulfilling prophecy and a national disgrace. Teachers develop expectations about the academic potential of children based on superficial attributes. The use of Black English is one of those attributes which is stigmatised in American school settings and leads to negative evaluations. An Historical Overview When Black English (BE) speakers attend the public schools of the United States, they are taught in Standard English. During the 1960s, researchers
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noticed that these BE speakers were experiencing reading failure to an alarming degree. The causes of reading failure provoked heated arguments. Educational psychologists attempted to explain the language problem with what came to be known as the Verbal Deprivation Theory. Deutsch, Whiteman, Katz, Bereiter, Englemann and others (see Deutsch et al., 1967 and Bereiter & Englemann, 1966) insisted that Black children came to school and could not talk, could not form complete sentences, could not conjoin noun and predicate properly and could not follow logic. The research for their arguments was based on the assumption that the home environment of these children was particularly deprived. No father was present (or so they said), there was very little communication or stimulation from the mother, and there were no books available. However, these researchers based their argument on very little observation of Black homes. Most research was between interviewer (white researcher with a Ph.D.) and interviewee (Black child) conducted in a lab with the interviewer merely asking questions about the child's home life. Needless to say, the child felt threatened in this environment and said as little as possible because no matter what s/he said, it was demoralizing and degrading to herself/himself as a human being (Labov, 1972). Some proponents of the Verbal Deprivation Theory took an extreme view that the child had no language at all (see Bernstein, 1967). They claimed that the child uttered sounds that were merely emotional accompaniments to a here and now situation. Many psychologists endorsed the Verbal Deprivation Theory that the language of Black children was impoverished as a consequence of deficiencies in their early environment. As a result of the alleged failure of enrichment programs, an alternative view developed. That view attributed lack of educational success to genetic defects in certain children. Thus the Verbal Deprivation Theory led to an even more devastating contention: that Black genes were inferior (Jensen, 1969; 1-123). Jensen claimed that the reason that Black children had not shown greater improvement in enrichment programs was because they were genetically inferior. The basic fallacy of the whole Verbal Deprivation Theory was that it focused attention on the so-called 'deficiencies' of the children rather than on the real problemthe inability of the schools to educate them and come to grips with their language. When programs like Head Start failed, children were blamed for not taking advantage of opportunities (Labov, 1972). It was a classic example of blaming the victim. Linguists and anthropologists disagreed with both the Verbal Deprivation Theory and the genetic inferiority theory. They maintained that Black children had a wealth of verbal resources untapped in schools because of the ignorance of teachers and children (Labov, 1983: 30).
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Some authors pointed to the class nature of bidialectalism. Knowles & Resnikoff (n.d.) argued that language has been used as a device to separate people into classes. It has been used to divide worker from worker, worker from employer, etc. They pointed out that in literature language differences have been used to denote prestigious and non-prestigious groups (for example, in Shaw's Pygmalion).But some great authors such as Twain, Hemingway and Faulkner have used dialects ironically, associating the 'low' prestige dialect with the high character of the person. (For example, in Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson the most sterling character, Roxy, speaks a low prestige dialect.) Knowles & Resnikoff maintained that if one removes the prissy requirement of speaking SE, then one removes one of the bastions of upper class dominance. Sledd (1969) saw bidialectalism as a political instrument. He, too, was concerned with the class nature of dialects. He felt that bidialectalism was merely another form of exploitation. One cannot change the color of the skins so one changes the color of the vowels. The teacher forces the BE speakers to speak SE. Sledd further maintained that the reason Blacks speak differently from whites is a history of slavery and segregation. Furthermore, white Northern U.S. employers and labor leaders did not like Black faces so they used language as an excuse. For BE speakers who do manage to learn to change their dialect to SE the reward is not great. They may obtain only a little better job or climb a little higher on the ladder of 'success', but they give up a good part of their culture (Sledd, 1969). Based on the efforts of sociolinguists such as Dillard, Fasold, Labov and Stewart, the decade of the 1970s heralded the emergence of the consideration of Black English as a legitimate linguistic system complete with a phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of its own. The deficit arguments of the sixties seem to have faded away (Taylor Delain, Pearson & Anderson, 1985; 156). The Ann Arbor Decision An important court decision in the legitimization of Black English was handed down in 1979 in the famous Ann Arbor Decision. Attorneys for Michigan Legal Services in Detroit filed suit in U.S. District Court on behalf of eleven black children who lived in the Green Road Housing Development project of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and attended, or were scheduled to attend, the Martin Luther King, Jr, Elementary School, a public school (Brasch, 1981: 283). The complaint was based upon Section 1706 of Title 20 of the U.S. code, which permits individuals to bring civil suit against school districts and other agencies which deny 'equal educational opportunity'. The complaint alleged that the district discriminated against speakers of BE by not providing them with special programs to assist them to learn SE (Brasch, 1981: 283).
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The basic issues presented to District Judge Charles W. Joiner were whether the children had a language barrier, whether that barrier impeded their participation in the instructional program offered, and whether, if the school district had not taken appropriate action, this failure denied equal educational opportunity on account of race (Brasch, 1981: 283). The school board tried to prove that, although the students may have spoken a language or dialect other than SE, it was not a barrier to effective learning and that if the students encountered any difficulties in the classroom, they were caused by social, cultural or economic factors, not the policies of the school district. The plaintiffs argued that BE was a system of formalised language rules, that the dialect or language impeded educational progress, and that the teachers failed to take that dialect/language into account when teaching the essentials of reading (Brasch, 1981: 283). Judge Joiner ruled that BE had been shown to be a distinct version of English with definable language patterns, syntax, grammar and history. He further ruled that BE is used by a significant number of blacks in oral communication, but it is not an acceptable method of communication in the educational, commercial, art or science world, or among professionals. He stated that BE is largely a system used among the poor and less educated. The instruction in standard English of children who use 'black English' at home by insensitive teachers who treat the children's language system as inferior can cause a barrier to learning to read and use standard English. (Decision reported in Brasch, 1981: 284). The judge further stated that there were fewer reading models for the child who uses BE. No matter how wellintentioned the teachers, they are not likely to be successful in overcoming the language barrier unless they are helped to recognise the home language system and use that knowledge to assist children to learn to read SE (p. 285). The judge ordered the school board to present an acceptable program to acquaint all teachers with the principles of BE and with concepts of teaching which take into account a student's home language. To comply with the ruling the district implemented a twenty-hour instructional program on BE. This suit had a vast and far-reaching impact on the mass media throughout the United States and, through that mass media, the public. The local newspaper, the Ann Arbor News, published more than 60 articles or features on the topic, 30 letters to the editor and six editorials. The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press published more than 50 articles between them. Soon the nation's leading newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, The
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Washington Post, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer,the Chicago Tribune, the Kansas City Star,the Saturday Review, Time, and U.S. News and World Report published articles about the trial. The trial became a hot-bed of controversy, with some blacks calling the ruling a return to 'plantation mentality' whereby blacks were still basically inferior and must be treated differently (Brasch, 1981: 286). The ultimate outcome of the decision was that a court had finally ruled that BE was not a language but a dialect of English; that it probably had a creole base; that it, although not 'inferior' or 'substandard', was not acceptable in American society, especially in the educational arena; that there is a linguistic barrier to learning to read SE; and that this dialect was spoken primarily by lower-income blacks (Brasch, 1981: 287). A consensus concerning both the origins of BE and the causes for reading failure in the schools emerged at the Ann Arbor trial. Three factors led to the consensus. First, having weighed the evidence advanced by the other side, linguists and dialectologists achieved a certain consensus by the time of the trial. There were no witnesses for the defense since by that time defense attorneys could not find anyone who would argue that there was no such thing as BE, or that it was only a regional dialect, or that it was just the bad English of non-standard speakers (Labov, 1983: 30). Second, the existence of BE became recognised as a social fact, partly through the legitimization of the Black experience and of the term 'Black', and partly through the publication of scholarly works such as Dillard's Black English (1972). Third, a new generation of young Black linguists entered the field in the 1970s and deepened our knowledge of BE and its educational implications. 'For all these reasons, the testimony given at the trial carried far more weight than if the proceedings had taken place ten years earlier' (Labov, 1983: 31). The Origins of Black English In the past, violent controversies raged over the origins of Black English (BE). Dialectologists argued that Blacks spoke regional dialects no different from white speakers of the same southern region. Furthermore, these dialectologists attempted to trace features of BE to British dialect patterns. Creolists familiar with the creoles of the Caribbean argued that BE was a creole language with an underlying structure very different from other dialects and quite similar to the English-based creoles of the Caribbean (Labov, 1983: 30). Black English originated as a maritime Pidgin English spoken along the coastal areas of West Africa. Due to the multiplicity of West African languages
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(scores, if not hundreds, of languages), the adoption of English along the West African coast (as well as Portuguese and French) was a natural occurrence which facilitated communication between West Africans and Europeans since the sixteenth century. At the same time the new West African speakers of these European languages modified them to fit their new linguistic and cultural environments. Subsequently, just as forms of white English were carried to America by European settlers, so forms of black English were carried there by West African immigrants, thus providing American English with a dual heritage. (Dalby, 1972: 171) Unfortunately, because of a history of racism and discrimination in the New World, the West African stream of English and the European white stream of English never fused, even after four centuries of co-existence. West African Pidgin English became a 'Plantation Creole' spoken primarily by West African slaves brought to the United States. Thus 'Plantation Creole' was once the general language of black slaves (Conklin & Lourie, 1983: 206). The Plantation Creole 'decreolised' (i.e. changed on the model of more 'standard' dialects) in fairly recent times to form the BE vernacular (Dillard, 1977: x). 'Today the language of most black Americans has been decreolised by contact with standard English' (Conklin & Lourie, 1983: 206). An exception to this is Gullah, the most significant creole language in the United States. Gullah was, and still is, spoken only in the coastal and island regions of South Carolina and Georgia. Gullah has remained in the creole stage because its speakers live in an isolated relic area where the ratio of blacks to whites was sometimes twenty to one and where slaves continued to be imported directly from Africa until 1858 (Conklin & Lourie, 1983: 206). In Gullah about 250 items survive from West African languages and a number of these still occur in Black English (Turner, 1974 cited in Conklin & Lourie 1983: 206). Some of these words are: 'buckra' (white man) (compare Ibibio and Efik /mbakara/, (he who governs or surrounds); chigger (compare Wolof /jiga/ (insect); 'goober' (compare Kimbundu /nguba/, (peanut); 'gumbo' (compare Tshiluba /tsingcmbc/ (okra); 'samba' (compare Hausa /sambale/, (a dance); 'tote' (compare Kimbundu and Umbundu /tuta/, (to carry); 'voodoo' (compare Ewe /vodu/, (a tutelary diety or demon); 'yam' (compare Mende /yam/, 'sweet potato'). (Conklin & Lourie, 1983: 208).
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Many of these words have entered into the general vocabulary of American English. Even such a common word as 'OK' really may have begun as an African word used in Africa and by some of the African slaves who came to America. 'OK' is possibly from the Wolof word 'waw kay',meaning 'all right, certainly', which is the same meaning it has in American English. It is speculated that this particular word was not found originally in British English except after the British had borrowed it from American English, where its origins were likely African (see Dalby, 1969, 1972). Afro-Americans were the largest non-British ethnic group to come to the North American colonies. Furthermore, they arrived here at the time when American English, as a distinct dialect of English, was taking shape. There have been four hundred years of contact between America and Africa, and these four hundred years of contact have resulted in changes in American English due to the likely borrowings from African languages. Some possible examples of Africanisms which have entered into the general vocabulary of American English are: FOODS 'banana' (possibly originated from Wolof /banäna/ for the same fruit); 'okra' (likely originated from several West African languages for the same vegetable; akin to Twi /nkuruma/). MUSIC 'jive' (original meaning in Black American English of 'misleading talk', possibly from Wolof /jev/, 'to talk disparagingly'); 'jam' and 'jamboree' (original meaning in Black American English of 'revel' or uninhibited playing of jazz music possibly from Wolof / jaam/, meaning 'slave'); 'banjo' (probably of African origin and common in many West African languages today for essentially the same instrument played in modernday America; akin to Kimbundu /mbanza/, a similar instrument); SLANG 'dig' (possibly from Wolof /dega/, 'to understand'); 'guy' (possibly from Wolof /gay/, pronounced between English 'gay' and 'guy', meaning 'fellows'); 'hip', 'hep', 'hipster', 'hippy' (meaning 'aware', 'wise', 'alert', or 'alive to what is going on', possibly from Wolof verb /hipi/, meaning 'to open one's eyes'); 'fuzz' (meaning 'policeman', possibly from Wolof/fas/, meaning 'horse', possibly originating from the days when runaway slaves were hunted down on horseback);
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'sock' (meaning 'to strike', as in 'sock it to me', is akin to a similar sounding verb in Wolof meaning 'to beat with a pestle'); 'bug' (as in 'jitter-bug', denotes a person with an enthusiastic desire or liking for something; in Wolof a similar sounding form means 'to desire, like'); 'honkie' (an abusive term meaning 'white man' may compare to Wolof /hong/, meaning 'red, pink', since whites are often described as 'red' in African languages); 'sambo' (an abusive term meaning 'black man', is similar in form to a common Wolof family name, Samb or Samba, existing also in the neighboring Mandingo languages as /sambu/); 'cat' (meaning 'person', possibly from Wolof/hipi-kat/, meaning 'a person who has opened his eyes'); INTERJECTIONS 'uh-huh' (meaning 'yes', possibly from several African languages with the same meaning); 'uh-uh' (meaning 'no', possibly from several African languages with the same meaning. These last two are also used much more frequently in Afrikaans, South African Dutch, than in Netherlands Dutch, pointing to an African influence in both cases). (Dalby, 1969: 9) (One of the writer's friends, a Nupe from Nigeria, was astonished to discover upon his arrival in the United States that words such as 'okra' and 'banjo' were phonologically and lexically the same in American English as in his mother tongue of Nupe in his village of Lafiagi, Nigeria.) The above list reveals only a sample of the likely borrowings from African languages by American English. The list could go on and on. Indeed, one researcher has continued to expand the list of carefully researched Africanisms (see Dalby, 1972: 170-86). One thing is certain: these words do not make their initial appearance in British English. Contrary to the belief of many dialectologists, BE does not represent some archaic British or Anglo-Irish usage of SE (Dillard, 1977: x). Dillard, an expert in BE, is amused by those dialectologists who have spent their lifetimes trying to prove that BE is an archaic British form (p. x). Dillard (1977: ix) reports that prior to the work done by Wolfram and, especially, by Dalby, there was a deeply ingrained attitude by U.S. scholars that anything shared by BE and white dialects must have been transmitted to the Black from the white. But it is now known that southern whites borrowed very much vocabulary, especially intimate vocabulary used in less formal styles, from BE during the period of slavery. White teenagers have borrowed much Black slang during the past three decades (Dillard, 1977: ix). The writer
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speculates that these borrowings emanate from the contacts between whites and blacks during the Civil Rights era and the rock and roll age. Indeed, the term 'rock and roll' has its origins in BE itself with a clear sexual connotation (see Dillard, 1977: 26). This does not mean, however, that every term in the lexicon of BE is an Africanism or that it originated with blacks. In some few cases, the evidence even indicates that particular terms originated with whites. For example, 'ho' is merely a dialect pronunciation of 'whore' from SE used by some Blacks who do not always speak an 'r'-less dialect and who might say 'whore' in different contexts (see Dillard, 1977: 88). Dillard speculates that BE has retained more of its own vocabulary in the areas of religion, sex and music than in any other facets of life (1977; 61). Black English as a Dialect A dialect is a variety of a language which is socially and/or regionally recognizable as distinct. All languages with sufficient numbers of speakers have dialects, and everyone who speaks a language speaks one or another dialect of that language (see Burling, 1973). 'Although each dialect is characterised by some distinct features, it also shares a great number of features with other dialects of the language' (Farr & Janda, 1985: 70). English has many dialects of which BE is merely one. Other dialects include varieties of British English, Canadian English, Australian English, Midwestern American English, Appalachian English, Boston English, Philadelphia English and Jamaican English. Moreover, no one, to the writer's knowledge, has yet been able to tell us what 'Standard English' really is. There is not yet a really good description of it (see Burling, 1973; Baratz & Shuy, 1969). Black English as a dialect of English has a structure, a system, and a logic of its own. It is not a primitive language; indeed, there are no primitive languages. Chomsky has taught us that every language is equally adequate for its purposes. It should also be noted that there are more similarities than differences between BE and SE. This is true despite the fact that a distinct origin is postulated for BE, which is going through a decreolization and a relexification stage now (see Burling, 1973 for further discussion of this process). It should be noted that not all Black children speak BE. There is considerable inter- and intra-speaker variability among BE speaking children. Not all produce the same number of SE or BE forms in their speech. Some use more SE at one time than another depending on age, social situation, and previous exposure to SE (Harber & Beatty, 1978; 3). It is estimated that 80% of Black Americans use, or have used, BE at one time or another (Sledd, 1982: 242).
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Bidialectal means having competence in two dialects of the same language. According to one dialectologist, however, linguists have never succeeded in defining dialect (Underwood, 1974: 46). We do not know what people have to learn in order to acquire competence in a second dialect because we do not know, except in the most trivial ways, how dialects differ. It is not that we do not have complete systematic comparisons of dialects; it is that we do not have an adequate theory to make the comparisons. When people learn their native dialect, they learn the rules of that dialect. When they proceed to attempt to learn a second dialect, they may transfer rules from their first dialect to their second. When people attempt to speak one dialect with features from another, the result is called 'interference' (Underwood, 1974: 48). But we have come a long way from viewing all variation in spoken English as mistakes. We now know that nonstandard varieties of English, or of any language, are as complex and as regularly patterned as are standard varieties. (Farr & Janda, 1985: 63) The Verbal Nature of Black American Culture Black American culture itself is very verbal, with activities such as boasting, toasts and 'playing the dozens' based on verbal ability. 'In the black community a great deal of emphasis is placed on verbal skill. Often it is not so much what you say but how you say it' (Taylor Delain, Pearson & Anderson, 1985: 156). But the Black child cannot transfer what is important on the street to what is important in the classroom. The Black child has a language but that language does not fit the school system. It is different, not deficient, and schools, as we know them in America, have a problem in dealing with diversity. (See such classic works as Jonathan Kozol's Death at an Early Age, Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land, and Dick Gregory's Nigger.) The power relationships of the school are so asymmetrical as to prevent the freedom of the child's true expression (Labov, 1972). The highly verbal nature of Black American culture can be traced to its African origins. Lyrical lampooning was an African custom highly regarded. All the African kings had in their entourage court jesters who functioned in the same way as the court jesters of Europe. Some had the ability to improvise
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songs, particularly with satirical verses which could either praise or ridicule members of the royal court (Haskins & Butts, 1973; 52). Legends of the griots (bards) of West Africa abound, and griots still ply their trade to eager listeners. The writer witnessed in Benin, Nigeria, the presence of a court 'speaker' who spoke the praises and the lineage of the Oba (king) of Benin. Taylor Delain and her colleagues (1985) set out to determine whether positive benefits to school learning followed from a competence in the highly verbal BE dialect. 'In other words, what can Black English do for the black child that Standard English cannot do for either the black or white child?' (p. 156). Would black children who used figurative language outside school in such verbal events as 'playing the dozens' or other verbal activities be at an advantage in understanding the figurative language used in educational settings (such as the metaphor)? Black verbal art forms such as idioms, preacher style, proverbs and sayings, folktales, signifying, marking and sounding (playing the dozens) have intricate rule systems which require children as young as eight or nine years old to manipulate language with complexity and sophistication. All these verbal forms are highly figurative expressions. 'If teachers could find a way to capitalise on these verbal skills, they might find a gold mine for enhancing academic achievement'. (Taylor Delain, Pearson & Anderson, 1985: 161) An example of 'playing the dozens', or what Labov calls 'ritual insults', follows: Man, you so ugly that when you walk down the streets the dogs Jesse: die! Well, man you so ugly that when you walk down the streets blind Duane: folks turn their heads! Well, you so ugly that when you were born the doctor slapped your Jesse: face! Well, you so ugly that when you were born the doctor slapped your Duane: momma! Well at least my momma don't look like she snorted a basketball! Jesse: (Taylor Delain, Pearson & Anderson, 1985: 155) This verbal exchange is also called 'sounding', 'cappin', 'smashin' (Central Illinois) or 'snappin' (Harlem). After testing both black and white subjects using tests which included BE and black verbal skills such as sounding (playing the dozens), Taylor Delain and her colleagues concluded that for white subjects, understanding of figurative language is accounted for by general verbal ability. But for black subjects the
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Page 144 understanding of figurative language is explained by a combination of skills in general verbal ability, sounding and BE. Black English ability affects sounding skill which in turn affects figurative language comprehension. Thus verbal skills acquired 'in the streets' can transfer to school settings, and teachers need to develop a respect for, rather than a bias against, the use of such language (Taylor Delain, Pearson & Anderson, 1985: 170-1). Characteristics of Black English Let us examine a few characteristics of BE. Black English has some obligatory rules where other dialects have optional rules, some optional rules where others have obligatory ones, and some rules that do not exist in any other dialects of English (Labov, 1983: 34). It is the writer's contention that lexically and phonologically BE is not very different from SE, but that the most significant differences are in the grammar (see Burling, 1973). Lexically, BE may substitute such words as 'bread' for 'money' or 'bad' for 'good'. (See Kohl, 1967 for an interesting discussion of 'bad'.) Phonologically, BE speakers may pronounce 'ask' like 'ax' or 'test' like 'tes'. Words such as 'pin' and 'pen' may be homonyms in BE. But aren't 'marry'/'Mary'/'merry' homonyms for some SE speakers and not for others? It is in the grammar that the major differences lie, and it is here that teachers complain of most difficulties with BE speakers. Some of the differences may be diagrammed thus: LINGUISTIC FEATURE SE
BE
(1)
Possession
-'s
F
(2)
Plural
-s
F
(3)
Third person singular
-s
F
(4)
Past tense marker
- ed
F
is
F
(5) Copula Examples of each follow: SE examples
BE examples
(1)Tim's book.
(1)Tim book.
He have many car. (Also note the difference in the verb (2)He has many cars. (2)'to have'.) He goes to the (3)store.
(3)He go to the store.
She walked (4)yesterday.
(4)She walk yesterday.
(5)He is a cop.
(5)He a cop.
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The writer encountered innumerable examples of these dialect differences on every written assignment she gave to her students. Some other grammatical features are: (6) the double negative: He don' know nothin'. (7) the habitual 'be': He be workin' every day. (8) the double subject: John he do it. (9) the 'if construction I ask did he do it. (Also phonological feature'ask' pronounced like 'ax'.) The habitual 'be' is especially important because it does not exist in any other American English dialect (Labov, 1983: 35). The habitual 'be' is part of the aspect system of BE, a difficult system for speakers of SE to understand. While tense situates an event in time, aspect communicates the shape of the event in time. Aspect represents ways of looking at things which are not always clear and distinct. Did something happen all at once (punctual), at many separate times (iterative or habitual), or was it spread out in time (durative)? Was it just beginning (inceptive), or was it finished and done with (perfective)? (Labov, 1983: 35). Aspect is common in many African languages. For example, in Swahili: 'Ninasema kiswahili' means 'I speak Swahili' or 'I am speaking Swahili'. 'Husema kiswahili' means 'I always speak Swahili' (habitually). In Kikuyu the aspect system is so complicated (to Standard English speakers) that there are seven aspects intersected by six tenses. The tenses are the far future (tomorrow onwards), the near future (later today), the present (now), the near past (earlier today), the recent past (yesterday), and the far past (before yesterday). These tenses are intersected by the following aspects: the habitual (action normally happens), the continuous (action is going on at the moment specified), the projected (action is about to take place), the normal (action happened, no comment on how), the initiative (action has taken place and not been reversed), the experiential (action has at some unspecified point happened), and the completive (action has been completed). The BE aspect system consists of six words: do
go
done
gon'
be
been
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'Be' refers to existence, 'do' to action, and 'go' to movement. But in the auxiliary, 'be' indicates habitual, 'do' emphasises other actions, and 'go' senses movement toward confrontation, as in SE 'go and' (Labov, 1983: 36). The BE tense and aspect system has been summarised by Labov (1983: 39) 'habitual', applied to events that are generally so 'be' 'remote present perfect', conditions that were so a long time ago, and are still so 'been' 'perfective', events that are completely and/or really so 'done' 'future perfective', events in the future that are completely, really so 'be done' 'past perfective', events in the past that are accomplished and really so 'been done' 'persistently, consistently, and continuously so' (with a lawful character) 'steady' 'future and less really so' 'gon' ' Examples follow: 'He be workin' every day.' 'be' 'She been knowin' him a long time.' 'been' 'I done got drunk.' 'done' 'I be done knock(ed) that dude upside the head.' 'be done' 'He steady hustlin'.' 'steady'
'I'm a gon' kill him.' 'gon' Closely akin to 'gon' ' is 'come' as in 'She come bringing me that little baby girl.' which is also the title of a children's book written in BE (see Greenfield, 1974). In terms of inflections, many final consonants tend to disappear in BE speech, not only in the auxiliary, but also at the ends of all words. Examples of consonants which are more often missing than present are: /1, s, z, r, d, v,/ and often, but not always, /n/. But some inflections are present more often in BE than in other dialects of English. Words in SE like 'deer', 'sheep' and 'fish' become 'deers', 'sheeps' and 'fishes' in BE. Other examples are 'mens' for 'men' and 'womens' for 'women'. Thus while it is said BE has no plural, some words are pluralised while others are not (Labov, 1983: 39).
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The past tense marker '-ed' is often dropped. It disappears less often before a vowel, but more often in difficult consonantal combinations like 'mixed batter'. When '-ed' follows a /t/ or /d/ as in 'wanted', and a vowel breaks up the cluster, the final '-ed' is always present. Even where the '-ed' is dropped in speech, there is every indication that BE speakers still have linguistic knowledge of it. However, the rate of deletion is so high that BE speakers may not recognise '-ed' on the printed page as a carrier of past tense meaning (Labov, 1983: 40). The copula 'to be' is sometimes present in its full form, sometimes contracted, and sometimes absent altogether. The dropping of the copula is simply a contraction process found in other dialects and in BE as well (Labov, 1983: 40). Thus a black child will often say: 'She a teacher.' meaning 'She is a teacher.' 'She's a teacher.' Interestingly, young children use the full forms more than adults. In school it is the contractions which cause problems (to be discussed shortly). The third person singular '-s' is occasionally present in the speech and writing of BE speakers, but studies show that it is not present in the underlying linguistic knowledge that children bring to school (Labov, 1983: 41). It is more difficult for BE speaking children to acquire usage of the third person singular '-s' than for them to learn to use the past tense marker '-ed' consistently. (The writer can attest to the fact that its usage is almost never found in the classroom speech or writing of BE students.) This is because the notion of agreement between subject and verb is barely represented in the grammar. This makes learning the SE form harder for BE students than for Hispanics, since subject-verb agreement is critical in Spanish (Labov, 1983: 41). In the same category is the possessive '-s' which is absent for most BE speakers, except in its absolute form: 'This is mines.' or, as the writer has heard exclamatorily, 'This be mines!'
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'In most of the language families of the world, words gradually become worn away at their ends' (Labov, 1983: 42). The principle of least effort is involved, as well as the fact that the first sounds or letters of a word are most helpful to the listener in determining meaning. Also the ends of words do not carry as much information as the beginnings. For example, in Kikuyu, the inflections at the beginning of the verb convey most of the meaning of that verb. Standard English has lost most of its inflections through the wearing away process at the ends of words. Black English loses information at the ends of words in a more extreme form than do other dialects of English. Because of the BE tendency to delete final consonants, the relationship between spelling and speaking is much harder for BE speaking children when learning to read and write SE (Labov, 1983: 42-3). There is some evidence that BE speakers tend to use their knowledge of the alphabet more for decoding the beginnings of words than their endings. When it comes to decoding the last few letters of a word, they tend to lose all confidence in the value of the alphabet (Labov, 1983: 44-5). Contractions are another problem area for BE speakers learning to read and write SE. Although BE speakers use some contractions, they are less common in BE than in other dialects of English. This is because the contractions alternate between zero forms as well as full forms. Younger children use the full forms more often than older children but often misinterpret them such as in: 'Yes, I'm am.' instead of 'Yes, I am.' When a teacher says, for example, 'They'll be there.' the child hears it as 'They be there.' and interprets it as either the future (which it was meant to designate), or the conditional, or the habitual 'be' (aspect). Contractions which are common and understood among white children are thus not common and may be misunderstood by black children (see Labov, 1983: 46-7). These are just a few of the features of BE but they are some of the most 'troublesome' to teachers.
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Teaching Reading to Speakers of Black English What can be done in teaching a speaker of BE to read? Since our ultimate goal is to graduate literates, can literacy be achieved? These are questions of great import to teachers, since teachers have been having great difficulty in providing these needs. The teacher can develop some strategies for teaching in a classroom with BE speakers. Many strategies have been proposed to minimise the possible interference of BE on beginning reading instruction. These alternatives include: (1) dialect-based readers and transition materials to gradually introduce Standard English; (2) neutralization of dialect differences; (3) dialect renderings of conventional materials; (4) language experience to introduce children's language into the classroom; (5) phonics emphasis; (6) foreign language teaching techniques (or an adaptation thereof) for teaching Standard English; (7) teaching Standard English before beginning reading instruction; (8) teaching Standard English at an age when there is an increasing awareness of the social consequences of non-standard speech features; (9) not teaching Standard English at all; or (10) a combination of any of the above. (Harber & Beatty, 1978: 31) There is no agreement in the literature, however, on how best to teach BE speaking children to read. Several of the above approaches have been tried with small samples and for short time periods, but longitudinal studies are needed to test these alternatives (Harber & Beatty, 1978: 31). Studies done in West Africa indicated that the best way to begin a reading program was to start with the mother tongue, then gradually phase into whatever language may be the national goal of the literacy program. That is why some authors advocated converting initial reading materials into BE (see Baratz in Baratz & Shuy, 1969). Several readers written in BE have been developed. (See, for example, Shearer's I Wish I Had an Afro, Steptoe's Stevie, and Greenfield's She Come Bringing Me That Little Baby Girl.) However, community resistance to their use has been considerable, and there is no empirical evidence of their effectiveness (Harber & Beatty, 1978: 31). Community people feel that using such materials dooms their children to a 'second-rate' education and that it is just another form of white patronizing. According to some researchers, the most acceptable practice is to permit dialect renderings of conventional materials together with a multiple approach to reading instruction. That multiple approach
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includes language experience, phonics, literature, lively use of oral language, development of abstract thinking, listening and perceptual skills, structured sequential program, and multi-ethnic materials (Harber & Beatty, 1978: 31). Goodman maintained back in the 1960's that children do not have to speak SE in order to read it. Instead, the teacher should accept the Black child's pronunciation and grammar as he/she reads the SE materials (1969: 27). This means that in teacher training there needs to be an increased emphasis on training reading teachers to identify real mistakes in reading from dialect differences. Teachers will become accustomed to hearing BE pronunciation, and they must facilitate their own knowledge of its grammar. In essence, the child is going through a translation process, translating SE into BE. 'Research has shown that BE speaking children often translate into their own dialect parts of what they read aloud' (Harber & Beatty, 1978: 5). Labov (1983: 29-55) suggests five strategies for teaching reading to speakers of BE. First of all, teachers need to recognise reading errors. This means that teachers need to distinguish mistakes in reading, which truly are mistakes, from features of pronunciation typical of BE. If a teacher has children read aloud, corrections by the teacher have great impact on both readers and listeners. Teachers should seek to have enough knowledge about consonants and vowels in BE to decide whether the reader has truly understood the passage. Thus in the sentence 'When I passed by, I read the posters.' the teacher can determine if the child understood the sentence by his/her pronunciation of 'read' since the /st/ cluster of 'passed' is variable (p. 49). Success in reading is not dependent on pronunciation, and the teacher should not demand the /st/ sound of 'passed'. Practice in imitating the teacher's pronunciation will not necessarily add to children's underlying knowledge of the language, since it has been shown that such superposed dialects do not develop systematic knowledge. (Labov, 1983: 49) Thus the teacher should not correct the child when he/she says 'men' for 'mend' or 'tes' ' for 'test', or if the child inserts an uninflected 'be'. Too many teachers are concerned with the form and not the function of language. Too much correction prevents the child from expressing himself/herself freely; the child may remain docile for the rest of the term.
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Labov's second strategy is to pay attention to the ends of words. The loss of information at the ends of words is a critical factor for BE speakers in the use of the alphabet. 'Yet reading programs pay far more attention to the use of the alphabet for decoding letters at the beginnings of words' (p. 49). Labov reviewed several phonics texts in current use and found only one that gave equal time to stressing the ends of words in comparison to their beginnings. Whether the reading program stresses phonics or not, teachers should put emphasis in their teaching on final consonants such as the /st/ in 'test' or the /d/ in 'child' or the /ed/ in 'talked' while not criticizing the child for his/her dialect differences. The third strategy is to introduce words in the most favorable contexts. The most common way of introducing a new word is in citation form, either in isolation or at the end of a short presentative sentence: 'This is a desk.' Unfortunately, for BE speakers locating the new word in this position of the sentence is not the best way to introduce it. Research has shown that BE dialect differs from other dialects of English in that consonant cluster simplication is relatively high before a pause, and lowest before a following vowel. Labov suggests the following context: 'There is a desk in this room.' Here a following vowel brings out the form of the word more clearly. Using this mid-sentence positioning would not handicap other speakers since every speaker of English pronounces final consonants more often before a following vowel than before the next word that begins with a consonant (p. 50). The fourth strategy for teaching reading to BE speakers is to use the full forms of words. It is therefore best to avoid contractions in beginning reading. Thus 'This is Spot. He's my dog.' becomes 'This is Spot. He is my dog.' Although more stilted and traditional, this uncontracted form is more clear and natural to BE speakers learning to read.
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Particularly difficult is the possessive 'This is Rex. He's my brother's dog.' which involves two /s/ signals. Labov suggests 'The name of this dog is Rex. He is my brother's.' The writer's experience would suggest an even more simplified 'The name of this dog is Rex. My brother owns him.' or 'The name of this dog is Rex. He belongs to my brother.' This avoidance of contractions does not mean that BE speakers do not use contractions in their speech. (They do use contractions frequently.) Nor does this mean that BE speakers will never need to learn to read contractions. The strategy suggested is merely for beginning readers, not more advanced. The fifth strategy, for somewhat more advanced readers, is to relate full forms to contracted forms (pp. 51-2). The relation between full, contracted and deleted forms of the copula follow: 'He is on my side of the room.' 'He's on my side of the room.' 'He on my side of the room.' Although Labov does not suggest what may be done in the classroom with this comparison, it is the writer's experience that discussing the relationship is appropriate even for secondary BE speakers. These strategies are not the only ones which can be directed to the process of teaching reading by the classroom teacher, but, to the writer's knowledge, they are the most linguistically sound. Teaching Writing to Speakers of Black English An important problem facing the classroom teacher is the relationship between speech and writing. Must children learn to speak SE before they can learn to read it? Must oral competence in a dialect precede written competence? The answer is a resounding 'No'. A person need not have oral
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competence in SE in order to write the language in the standard form (Underwood, 1974: 47). Geneva Smitherman discovered that her black students in Detroit did not write as they talked. Indeed, their writing adhered more closely to SE than did their speech (Smitherman cited in Underwood, 1974: 48). There is also little evidence that BE significantly interferes with learning to write (Markham, 1984: 19). Both oral language and written language should be viewed holistically because they originate from the same source: one's communicative competence (Farr & Janda, 1985: 63). Shuy (1981) has argued that language is language, whether written or listened to. Farr & Janda claim that we have been looking at oral and written language too much as a dichotomy. Actually, even in highly literate societies like the United States, 'a sharp distinction between speech and writing rarely exists' (1985: 64). 'Literate strategies' can be observed in some spoken language (e.g. formal speeches) while 'oral strategies' are found in some kinds of writing (e.g. written narratives). How the language is being used (i.e. what function it serves) is more important in the employment of these strategies than whether it is oral or written. (Farr & Janda, 1985: 64) One of the recent discoveries about teachers' effectiveness is their ability to use conversational style in the classroom rather than stilted teacher talk (Shuy, 1981: 110). Why not extend this premise and bring that conversational style to the process of composition, in this case, to speakers of BE? Language learning takes place in a holistic manner in which meaning and function, not just decoding, are stressed (Shuy, 1981: 108-10). This applies not only to learning a foreign language, but also reading and writing one's own. Both Herbert Kohl, a white man who taught in Harlem and the author of 36 Children, and Pat Conroy, also white, who taught in the Gullah speaking areas of South Carolina's Sea Islands and wrote The Water Is Wide, reached the same conclusion about teaching black childrenthat BE must be acknowledged and not destroyed. Kohl and Conroy, although naive about language and linguistics when they entered the teaching profession, nevertheless soon accepted a premise that for education to be effective, the language of the childwhether Harlem Black English or Gullahcould not be destroyed. (Brasch, 1981: 266) Is there something which a teacher can do in order to honor BE? Can a teacher show black students that there is a place for BE in the classroom?
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Perhaps such usage of the students' own dialect would enhance self respect, since much has been written about a lack of self-esteem among inner city students. Billiard (1986) calls for an 'acceptance of and respect by the teacher for the child's language' (p. 372). The following is an example of one of the activities the writer used in teaching urban BE speakers in an inner city secondary school. One portion of the ninth grade English curriculum for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, public schools was the study of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. This curricular requirement was identical for both middle class, white, suburban ninth graders and lower class, black, inner city youngsters. No variation was permitted in the set curriculum to allow for differences in setting, dialect/language usage, relevance to daily life, etc. The writer pondered using West Side Story as a substitute for Romeo and Juliet since it is the same story set in a modern, urban, Puerto Rican American background. (There were a number of Puerto Rican Americans in the school.) When the writer asked permission from her department chair to make the substitution, the response was, 'Why, Ms Boseker, how could you?' Thus the writer was faced with the dilemma of teaching BE speakers the original Elizabethan English version of Shakespeare's play. Both the instructor and her students stumbled through the original version and groped with vocabulary words such as 'solemnity', 'enjoined' and 'princox'. We endured torturous checks on reading ('Who died first, Romeo or Juliet?') and Elizabethan constructions ('Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so?'). When the instructor's frustrations with endless corrections to SE became unbearable, she decided to try a new approach: why not translate Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into BE? Such an activity would honor BE while at the same time testing the students' comprehension of the play. Translating would also make the work more relevant to their lives by using their dialect; a great literary piece would really come alive. Students were asked to translate their favorite scene into BE. What follows is a ninth grade student's BE version of the scene (Act I, Scene 5) in which Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time: What fox's hand reaches out to those slingers over Romeo: there, man? Servant: I don't dig. Romeo: She really turns me on. That stud in the corner is a Montague. Get my switchTybalt: blade, flunkie. I'm gonna leave my mark on him. Capulet:Romeo, is it? Tybalt: Yeah. It's that punk-ass, funky-smelling Romeo.
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Shaddup. No kin of mine is gonna talk like that. He'll dust you right quick. Keep your cool, and get him Capulet: after the party. Tybalt:
I'm gonna blade him right now.
Capulet: Shaddup, boy, or I'll kick you out. Romeo: Say, baby, where you been all my life? Juliet:
Waitin' on you, honey.
How aboutlet's go in the corner over there and have Romeo: some sugar. Juliet:
I'm with you, baby.
Let's get to it. (They kiss.) Instant replay, baby. (They Romeo: kiss again.) Nurse:
Hey! Julie, baby, your old lady wants to jive with you.
Romeo: Who's her old lady? Nurse:
Her mother is a fine woman.
Romeo: Shea Capulet. Benvolio:(to Romeo) Let's get going, man. Juliet:
Nurse, who is that man?
Nurse:
Son of Tiberio.
Juliet:
Who's that fox with him?
Nurse:
I don't know.
Find out his name. If he's married, my grave will be Juliet: my wedding bed. The student's version of Romeo and Juliet is conversational and flowing, not stilted, just as Shuy has advocated (1981: 110). It is also abundantly clear that the student has comprehended what Shakespeare had written. The writer found, just as Smitherman and others have found, that the students' writing was not quite like they talked, but, instead, approximated SE more closely than did their speech. The principle remains the same: to make use of the student's own knowledge of language by exploring the relation between the language s/he uses in everyday speech to that used in classroom English. By using this technique the writer, in essence, honored BE in the classroom. The black secondary students the writer taught could finally transfer what was important on the street to what was important in the classroom. Instead of trying to destroy their dialect, the writer decided to acknowledge and utilise it. What the writer stressed in this assignment was the students' communicative competence. Taylor (1983: 137) argues that the goal in teaching BE speakers to read and write should be 'communicative
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competence'. This should address the speaker-listener's knowledge not only of what is grammatically correct, but also what is socially appropriate and acceptable. Could these students communicate with a SE-speaking teacher by using their own dialect? Indeed, they could. This technique also supports Hartwell's contention that writing instruction, for all students, ought to be broadly rhetorical, stressing voice, audience, and purpose, rather than narrowly grammatical, stressing surface detail and its presumed connection with a spoken standard. (1980: 114) Using such a strategy for composition did not mean that the writer abandoned the study of SE. To do so would have meant that these students would have received a second-rate education. The writer spoke SE in the classroom and asked for it in certain written assignments. 'Models of clear communication in Standard English can be provided by teachers through their own speech' (Markham, 1984: 20). Standard English, in the writer's opinion, should still remain the target of instruction. But the social setting, the appropriateness and the legitimacy of BE should also be acknowledged and promoted. Sledd (1982) has lamented that linguists talk a great deal about the damage teachers' attitudes can do, but they offer little practical advice to teachers about what they can do because linguists speak in generalities (p. 245). The writer's model for utilizing BE in secondary level composition is therefore offered as an initial effort in remedying that problem. Conclusion In this article various aspects of Black English have been discussed, including the history of thought concerning the topic, the Ann Arbor Decision legalizing the teaching of BE, and the distinct origin of BE as a creole. Also presented were the conception of BE as a dialect of English, the verbal nature of Black American culture, and the characteristics of BE which a classroom teacher of urban Black American children will likely encounter. Finally, strategies for teaching reading and the writer's own model for utilizing BE in secondary level composition were described. One thing is certain: Black American students still find it difficult to achieve academic success in school, because if a student reads or writes the way s/he thinks or talks, the teacher considers it wrong. Goodman (1981) found that dialect differences between the learner and the language of the
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text were not in themselves a barrier. Problems are caused by teachers misinterpreting dialect differences. The barrier, essentially, was the negative attitude and lack of understanding of the schools as expressed through teachers, curriculums and programs. (p. 177) The writer has concentrated on promoting BE in composition since evaluation of performance in the secondary level English classroom rests so heavily upon written work. If the national disgrace of the failure of Black American children is to end, additional efforts are needed in this regard. Teachers should begin to think of other, more reliable evaluation criteria for their black students, ones that bear in mind the discourse system by which they operate. (Abrahams & Gay, 1975: 166) References Abrahams, R. D. & Gay, G. (1975) Talking black in the classroom. In P. Stoller (ed.), Black American English: Its Background and Its Usage in the Schools and in Literature. New York: Delta, 158-67. Baratz, J. C. (1969) Teaching reading in an urban Negro school system. In J. C. Baratz & R. W. Shuy (eds), Teaching Black Children to Read. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 92-116. & Shuy, R. W. (eds) (1969) Teaching Black Children to Read. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics. Bereiter, C. & Engelmann, S. (1966) Teaching Disadvantaged Children in the Preschool. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Bernstein, B. (1967) Social structure, language, and learning. In J. I. Roberts (ed.), School Children in the Urban Slum. New York: Free Press, 134-53. Billiard, C. E. (1986) Correlates among social dialects, language development, and reading achievement of urban children. In M. B. Montgomery & G. Bailey (eds), Language Variety in the South: Perspectives in Black and White. University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 365-72. Brasch, W. M. (1981) Black English and the Mass Media. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press. Brown, C. (1965) Manchild in the Promised Land. New York: Signet. Burling, R. (1973) English in Black and White. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Conklin, N. F. & Lourie, M. A. (1983) A Host of Tongues: Language Communities in the United States. New York: Free Press. Conroy, P. (1972) The Water Is Wide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Dalby, D. (1969) Americanisms that may once have been Africanisms. London Times, 19 July, 9. (1972) The African element in American English. In T. Kochman (ed.), Rappin' and Stylin' Out: Communication in Urban Black America. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 170-86. Deutsch, M. et al. (1967) The Disadvantaged Child. New York: Basic Books.
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Dillard, J. L. (1972) Black English: Its History and Usage in the United States. New York: Random House. (1977) Lexicon of Black English. New York: Seabury. Farr, M. & Janda, M. A. (1985) Basic writing students: investigating oral and written language. Research in the Teaching of English, 19, 62-83. Goodman, K. (1969) Dialect barriers to reading comprehension. In J. C. Baratz & R. W. Shuy (eds), Teaching Black Children to Read. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 14-28. (1981) Linguistic diversity, teacher preparation and professional development. In G. Smitherman (ed.), Black English and the Education of Black Children and Youth. Detroit: Wayne State University, 171-89. Greenfield, E. (1974) She Come Bringing Me That Little Baby Girl. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. Gregory, D. with Lipsyte, R. (1964) Nigger. New York: Pocket Books. Harber, J. R. & Beatty, J. N. (comps) (1978) Reading and the Black English Speaking Child: An Annotated Bibliography. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Hartwell, P. (1980) Dialect interference in writing: a critical view. Research in the Teaching of English, 14, 10118. Haskins, J. & Butts, H. F. (1973) The Psychology of Black Language. New York: Barnes and Noble. Jensen, A. R. (1969) How much can we boost IQ and scholastic achievement? Harvard Educational Review, 39, 1123. Knowles, M. T. & Resnikoff, B. (n.d.) Who(m) does standard English serve? Who(m) does standard English hurt? What should be done? (mimeographed) Kohl, H. (1967) 36 Children. New York: Signet. Kozol, J. (1967) Death at an Early Age. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Labov, W. (1972) Academic ignorance and black intelligence. The Atlantic Monthly, 229, 59-67. (1983) Recognizing Black English in the classroom. In J. W. Chambers, Jr (ed.) Black English: Educational Equity and the Law. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Karoma, 29-55. Markham, L. R. (1984) 'De dog and de cat': assisting speakers of Black English as they begin to write. Young Children, 39, 15-24. Rist, R. C. (1970) Student social class and teacher expectations: the self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Harvard Educational Review, 40, 411-51. Rosenthal, R. & Jacobsen, L. (1974) Teachers' expectations as self-fulfilling prophecies. In G. A. Davis & T. F. Warren (eds), Psychology of Education: New Looks. Lexington, Massachusetts: D. C. Heath, 259-66. Shearer, J. (1970) I Wish I Had an Afro. New York: Cowles. Shuy, R. W. (1981) A holistic view of language. Research in the Teaching of English, 15, 101-11. Sledd, J. (1969) Bi-dialectalism: the linguistics of white supremacy. English Journal, 58, 1307-15, 1329. (1982) Review article: The Ann Arbor Black English case. English World-Wide, 3, 239-48. Steptoe, J. (1969) Stevie. New York: Harper and Row.
Taylor, O. L. (1983) Black English: an agenda for the 1980's. In J. W. Chamber, Jr. (ed.), Black English: Educational Equity and the Law. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Karoma, 133-43. Taylor Delain, M., Pearson, P. D. & Anderson, R. C. (1985) Reading comprehension and creativity in black language use: you stand to gain by playing the sounding game! American Educational Research Journal, 22, 15573. Underwood, G. N. (1974) Bidialectal freshman handbooks-the next flim-flam. Florida FL Reporter, 12, 45-8, 97, 99. Wolfram, W. and Clarke, N. H. (eds) (1971) Black-White Speech Relationships. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.
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12 Bidialectism and the School with Special Reference to the Shetland Experience Gunnel Melchers Department of English, University of Stockholm, Sweden. Abstract This paper sets out the teaching situation in a clearly bidialectal community, i.e. where there is a discrete rather than continuous difference between the local dialect and the national/regional standard. Although bidialectism is, in reality, largely synonymous with bilingualism, it does involve some specific problems connected with the implementation of mother tongue teaching, such as the lack of a spelling convention, the scarcity of written texts, andusuallythe want of an adequate linguistic description of the non-standard variety. This paper is chiefly based on data collected within the framework of the project 'The Scandinavian Element in Shetland Dialect', undertaken by the Department of Linguistics, Trondheim University, and the Department of English, Stockholm University. Work for the project has included the use of questionnaires, interviews and participant observation. Some Notes on the Concept of Bidialectism Some time ago I received a letter from one of our informants, from the first page of which I quote the following: Diss is twartree lines aleng wi' da peerie booklet o' Frisle wirds dats been published. I toitht du wid likk ta höy een o dem. . . . Am been skrivan a lokk a auld wirds diss winter, and hiv gottin aboot a thoozan doon. . . . We hiv got some recordings of dialect done too (I think I had better write in English!!). I have been meaning to write for a while but being me I never got down to it.
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Although a close analysis of the language would probably reveal interference phenomena, especially in the local variety, it would seem obvious that the writer commands two varieties of English and that he is conscious of doing so. The distinction between language and dialect is a notoriously difficult one, and this is not the place to elaborate on the various definitions put forward in textbooks. Suffice it to say that dialect is here simply taken to be a regionally determined sub-variety of a language. One well-known criterion for dialect as opposed to language is, however, especially worth mentioning here: it is 'characteristically spoken'. Nowadays speakers of non-standard dialects usually accommodate to their interlocutors. In most areas, such accommodation can be characterised as fairly slight, being realised along a continuum. Examples of such areas are Yorkshire today (but not in Joseph Wright's time) and Hälsingland in Sweden. True bidialectism, on the other hand, comparable to bilingualism, is characterised by discrete, definable choice between two forms of speechone a form of standard and the other what Wells in Accents of English (1982) calls 'traditional-dialect'. In addition to a special vocabulary and grammar, traditional dialect also differs from the standard phonologically, in an unpredictable way, i.e. the phonemes are distributed differently over the lexicon, 'lexical incidentally'. Wells argues that there are now very few examples of such bidialectism in the Englishspeaking world. In Britain, Scots certainly comes up to the definition, but looking at English world-wide, it is difficult to think of any other area than Newfoundland. In Sweden, traditional dialect areas are found especially in Dalarna and on the island of Gotland. It is symptomatic of such areas that the speakers themselves are aware of commanding two distinct varieties and that they have names for these varieties. In Hammermo, Strömquist & Molin (1981: 15f) Gotland schoolchildren are reported to refer to the standard as 'rikssvenska' (Standard Swedish) or 'fastländska' (Mainland Swedish). However, some informants came up with variants, such as 'ordinary Swedish', 'radio and TV Swedish' and 'Stockholmish'. In answer to the question 'What do Shetland people speak when they don't speak dialect?', Shetland schoolchildren taking part in a survey conducted by our project (cf. Melchers, 1987) wrote English or Scottish. Incomers, locally referred to as 'sooth', tended to give ironical, sometimes derogatory descriptions: 'a mixture of Scottish and English', 'broken English', 'an attempt at English'. Shetland children, too, often expressed critical attitudes, but rather to the effect that speaking 'English' can be a sign of affectation: 'they imitate English to impress soothmoothers', 'proper', 'knapping' or 'they kanap'. 'Knap' is defined in the Shetland Dictionary (Graham, 1984) as 'to speak with affectation, especially Shetlander trying to speak ''proper'' English', and is usually given by our informants as the opposite of 'Shetland'.
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ShetlandThe Linguistic Background Shetland traditional dialect as spoken today is a variety of Scots with a substantial component of Scandinavian. This component differs from the Scandinavian linguistic heritage in other parts of Britain (with the exception of Orkney and, possibly, Caithness), not only in sise but also in structure and history. The Norse invaders of Yorkshire, for example, met a native Anglo-Saxon population with whom they could communicate. They influenced the Anglo-Saxon language and some of this influence has survived. In Shetland, on the other hand, a Scandinavian variety known as 'Norn' was the first Germanic language to be spoken there, and it was the dominant language for about 500 years. If the islands had remained under Scandinavian rule, the language of Shetland today would probably have been a variety close to Faroese. In an earlier study (1983) I have described the history of Shetland Norn as 'a case of never-accepted language death', arguing that the Scandinavian element is kept alive largely through the positive attitude to things Scandinavian. It should be borne in mind, however, that what is known as 'Shetland dialect' is not a pure descendant of Norn, but has a base of Lowland Scots (through which, in turn, some Scandinavian words have been introduced) and contains quite a few loans from Dutch and French. There seems, nevertheless, to exist an intuitive knowledge in most Shetlanders as to what elements in their dialect are Scandinavian. Our informants, none of whom are linguists, often suggest various words as 'possibly being one of "your", i.e. Scandinavian, words'. They are always right. Preliminary results from our project show that the knowledge of Scandinavian words is still quite impressive, even among young people. In testing a group of adjectives denoting human qualities and characteristics, it was found that a large percentage of 12- to 15-year-olds were able to give synonyms for ancient Norn words such as 'döless (indolent), 'vyndless' (awkward), and 'uploppm' (boisterous) (cf. Melchers, 1982). As exemplified by the exotic-sounding words above, it is in the lexicon that we find the most striking characteristics of Shetland dialect. In addition to 'emotional' adjectives, the following categories are particularly rich in dialect words: flora and fauna, weather terminology, tools, colour terminology. The best-known 'indexical' for Shetland dialect is 'peerie' for 'small', which is quickly acquired by incoming children. As always in contact languages, there are countless examples of semantic shift, mostly narrowing, such as 'hent' for 'collecting wool, shed by sheep on the hills', originally 'fetch', 'bring home', and 'makkin' for 'knitting'. As to grammar, the following points may be mentioned: there is an abundance of non-standard irregular verb forms, such as 'jamp' for 'jumped';
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'be' is used instead of 'have' as the perfective auxiliary throughout the verb system, i.e. not only with verbs of motion (cf. Melchers, 1987); two forms of address are expressed through second person pronouns, viz. 'du' and 'you'. Our investigations show that the rules governing the distribution of these two forms are still quite setShetland children will, for example, say 'du' to their friends but 'you' to their parents. The phonetics/phonology of Shetland dialect shares many of its features with other Scots accents: the centralised short /i/ as in 'finger', the lack of vowel length distinction, the unaspirated initial plosives. Truly Shetland, however, is th-stopping (cf. Wells, 1982), i.e. there are no dental fricatives, there is palatalisation of final /d,l,n/ after certain vowels, and the vowel system is exceptionally rich, including an /Ö/. Complicating the matter further, especially from a teaching point of view, there is also considerable regional variation within Shetland. Initial wh-, for example, as in 'when', 'whisky', is realised as /kw/ in western Shetland but as the normal Scots /hw/ elsewhere. Some /kw/ speakers also have a hypercorrect /hw/ as in /hwin/ for 'queen'. The islands of Whalsay and Skerries, seen as deviant speech communities by Shetlanders in general, have accents with palatalisation/fricativisation of /k,g/ before front vowels. The local pronunciation of 'Skerries' is thus /stjÆris/. As seen from the letter on the introductory page of this paper, Fair Isle speech includes an /öy/ diphthong. On the island of Foula, an /y/ vowel corresponds to the /ö/ elsewhere, which means that 'she' is pronounced as /shy/ rather than /shö/. Speakers from Unst, the northernmost island, are known to speak 'clippet', i.e. there is extreme vowel reduction and assimilation. In code-switching from Shetland traditional dialect to Shetland English, speakers will generally avoid the broad lexical items and most of the nonstandard grammar. 'Be' as a perfective auxiliary can be quite persistent, however. Phonetic/phonological features change variably-most speakers will have dental fricatives in their 'English' variety, whereas there is no change in the pronunciation of final /d,l,n/. /ö/ and /y/ vowels are seldom heard in the standardised variety, simply because they chiefly occur in Scandinavian-based vocabulary. Mother Tongue Teaching in the School: Policies Not surprisingly, the variety that is taught as 'English' in Shetland schools, during 'English' lessons and by 'English' teachers, is the standard. It is also the chief medium of instruction. Such has been the situation from the very beginning of the educational system in Shetland. However, in some of the earliest schools, founded by the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, it took an extreme
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form, in that the purpose was explicitly said to root out the dialect. Yet reflections of such attitudes are reported by Shetlanders today: And of course to speak in a Shetland accent in school would have been absolutely forbidden. It would have been regarded as rudeness, I suppose, if you had addressed your teacher in Shetland. (Living Memory, 1986: 14). Although attitudes have changed dramatically over the last few decades towards regard and concern for the native dialect, it would be somewhat romantic to argue for a complete revision of mother tongue teaching. The fact is that in many Shetland schools, such as The Anderson High School, where the survey mentioned above was conducted, only a good 50% of the children are 'all Shetland', i.e. with both parents from the islands, and there may be 25% or more who are 'non-Shetland'. It should also be mentioned that more than 50% of the 'English' teachers are nonShetlanders. And, more importantly, everyoneincluding a reluctant Trudgill (1975)will agree that command of Standard English is essential, at least in some domains of interaction and in writing. As to 'the other mother tongue', there now exists a conscious policy, as expressed by John Graham, native Shetlander, author of The Shetland Dictionary, 'English' teacher and former headmaster of The Anderson High School. This policy can be studied in a unique document entitled Shetland Dialect, directed to schoolteachers. It starts off as a general plea for 'conservation of dialect'. It is said that people who retain a mode of speech which differs in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation form the dominant norm have a source of identity and security which can act as a psychological bulwark in an era of constant change and stress. Furthermore, it is pointed out that these people should be made 'proud of their speech forms and conscious of the historical roots of their dialect'. The latter half of the document sets out the school situation more specifically and will be quoted in full: Oral language is of the greatest importance in the learning process and maximum use should be made of the pupils' linguistic resources. These will include their native dialect which, for many of them, is the most natural form of expression and as such, the most immediate way of asking questions and engaging in exploratory talk with teachers and other pupils.
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Opportunity for speaking in the dialect will occur most frequently in informal situations, e.g. during practical or experimental work, guidance interviews, social education. At the same time it should be recognised that pupils must develop a facility for using a recognisably standard form of English which they can learn to use appropriately in different situations. Dialect should not be condemned but regarded as a valid form of speech appropriate to certain situations. If a clearly defined policy of bilingualism is cultivated by the school, pupils should automatically know when to use dialect and when Standard English. This document was produced in the 1970's. However, a few months ago, a group of teachers at The Anderson High School, apparently worried about the implementation of the language policy, called a meeting and agreed on a further action/policy specification, viz.: teaching specifically about local dialect and historical background, grammar, idiom, district variants, etc. Pupils should be encouraged to take a pride and an interest in their local dialect; teaching of relevant topics in certain subjects using dialect as the medium of instruction. This would have to be approached gradually. Most Shetland teachers would find it fairly difficult to conduct a lesson consistently in dialect; use of dialect in the classroom situation in general. It is thought that certain teaching situations lend themselves particularly well to a policy of allowing pupils to use the form of language that comes most naturally to them, e.g. drama, practical work in science, discussion periods in social education; day-to-day contact between pupils and staff in the school. Standard English, it is felt, should be the normal mode of expression for pupils/teachers making requests, delivering messages, etc. But it is quite possible that in certain circumstances, engaged in certain tasks, a teacher might feel it entirely natural to communicate in dialect, and be responded to in the same form. NB: It is nevertheless recognised that the school has a responsibility to promote pupils' ability to express themselves in standard English and that in our attempts to encourage dialect we are not in the least neglecting this responsibility. Pupils should, ideally, be bilingual, and the best way of achieving this would be through a clear demarcation between dialect and standard, on the grounds, not of correctness, but of appropriateness to a particular situation.
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Mother Tongue Teaching in the School: Implementation This section is largely based on data from the attitude survey mentioned above. This survey was carried out in the spring of 1983, at The Anderson High School, Lerwick. 352 pupils, 12 to 18 years of age, completed a questionnaire on family background, future plans, dialect usage at home and in various other domains, awareness of regional variation locally as well as nationally, attitudes to varieties of English, and experiences from the classroom as to usage and encouragement of Shetland dialect. A complete account of the results was published by Melchers in 1987. The following presentation, which is, to some extent, also based on interviews with Shetland teachers and participant observation, is organised in accordance with the action/policy programme quoted above. Linguistic Knowledge The only text available is a 2-page introduction to Nordern Lichts, an anthology of Shetland verse and prose, put together by John Graham and the poet T. A. Robertson (1964). The purpose of the linguistic introduction is simply to facilitate the reading of the texts. There is no textbook trying to relate Shetland dialect to Old Norse and Norwegian dialects, nor is there any account of district variants. However, quite a few children have made their own investigations in this field, taping and analysing speech from various districts. Some teachers of English have certainly encouraged this type of project work. As to pupils' pride in their local dialect, the answers to the questionnaire generally radiate affection and concern. In answer to the question 'Are there occasions when it is not "proper" to speak dialect?', one pupil wrote 'no, none', adding 'Because Shetland has its own dialect, so why should we use English?'. An attempt at finding out more about the connotations of Standard English (described as 'BBC English') and Shetland dialect gave the following positive profile for the traditional dialect: friendly, warm, clever, quick, smooth, strong. The only dominant 'positive' adjectives for Standard English were: smooth, careful. Fifty-six per cent of the children thought that the use of dialect should be encouraged in all or certain situations, and only 6% thought that people should be discouraged from speaking dialect. It should be kept in mind that only a little more than 50% of the children were 'all Shetland'. Dialect as the Medium of Instruction An obvious problem here is the fact that so many teachers are non-Shetlanders. It is worth mentioning that in answer to the question 'How do
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you react when people who do not really master your dialect try to speak it anyway?', 60% of the pupils wrote that it made a ridiculous impression or that they felt insulted. There is, in fact, very little evidence for the implementation of this particular point, and it would seem that further specification is required herewhat is, for example, a 'relevant topic'? Use of the Dialect in the Classroom Situation Not surprisingly, the results from the questionnaire show that Shetland dialect is spoken more often in other classes than English classes, particularly during practical work, such as woodwork, machine- or hand-knitting, and sailing classes. One pupil wrote: 'In English you should be taught to speak English and not be encouraged to speak Shetland'. Although not mentioned in the action/policy programme, there is, however, a growing interest in dialect writing, and we have found many non-Shetland teachers to take a particular interest in it. As to the pupils themselves, they have impressed us a great deal by being conversant with either code. These are some of their answers to the question 'Do you sometimes use dialect words and phrases in compositions and written texts?': 'I use dialect if it is a Shetland-based piece of writing'; 'I never use dialect, but if it was a story about Shetland and the teacher told us to, I would'; 'Depends if you are meant to write in Shetland. Stupid question'. On one occasion, attending a lesson for 10 year-olds at the Symbister school on Whalsay, we observed a teacher giving special instruction as to 'writing Whalsa'. She told the children that there are four ways of spelling some words: the English way, the Scots way, the Shetland way and the Whalsay way. It was an interesting effort, though not very consistent: 'cake', for example, was said to be 'tyÆik' in Whalsay but 'cake' in all the other variants, whereas 'game' was given as 'gem' in Scots, 'geym' in Shetland, and 'dyemm' in Whalsay. Although Whalsay palatalisation/frictavisation was correctly observed, the stressed vowel in 'cake' should come out differently as well as in 'game'. On the whole, the 'rules' provided were, if not incorrect, certainly incomplete, and linguistically naive. Nevertheless, this introduction by the teacher certainly did not intimidate the children, who appeared to produce pieces of dialect writing quite effortlessly. Here is a sample of such a piece, written during the very lesson describedan autobiographical note by Elizabeth, age 10: I bide apun a peerie isle caad Whalsa Hits wan a Shetlan Isles Whalsa is a boanie place ta bide in Hits lent is aboot seevin miles I bide at da sooth end a Whalsa
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Doon near da pier Sometimes I walk round da ness An sit an watch da maas an da shalders In addition to using a few dialect words ('peerie' for 'small', 'bide' for 'live', 'maa' for 'seagull', 'shalder' for 'oystercatcher'), Elizabeth pays attention to th- stopping (cf. above) in 'lent' and 'da', and to longish vowels in 'boanie' and 'seevin'. Day-to-Day Contact Between Pupils and Staff In answer to the question 'How common is it thatduring an English lessona pupil speaks to the teacher in broad Shetland?', 22% of the Anderson High School children claimed that it was very common, and 52% that it was rather common. A follow-up question on teachers' reactions to this showed that 65% were of the opinion that there was usually no reaction by the teacher. Asked to specify 'when it is not "proper" to speak dialect', 11% mentioned 'teachers', and 5% 'the headmaster'-the leading category was, however, 'job interviews'. As to the two forms of address described above, the majority claimed to use you, i.e. the polite form, in speaking to teachers. Concluding Remarks: Some Problem Areas An obvious difficulty in 'preserving' the traditional dialect would seem to be the changing demographic situation. On the island of Foula, for example, only one of the present schoolchildren is a native speaker of the dialect. However, the results from our survey show a positive attitude to Shetland life, including the dialect, among 'sooth' children as well. For one thing, almost 50% of them stated that they did not want to leave Shetland. They also did remarkably well in the adjective test described above. As already pointed out, there are also many incomers, 'soothmoothers', among the teachers. Yet the teacher's attitude is perhaps more important than her/his linguistic background. One of the most energetic and enthusiastic propagators of dialect writing and dialect studies at The Anderson High School is a native Gaelic speaker from the Hebrides, who sees the bidialectal situation in Shetland as reminiscent of his own bilingual experience. Motivation on the part of teachers and pupils is all very well, but to make bidialectal teaching a real success, access to detailed and structured knowledge of both varieties is essential. As yet there is no adequate grammar of Shetland dialect, nor of any other non-standard variety of British English, as apparent from a report by Trudgill, Edwards & Weltens (1981). Awareness-of-language programmes have so far concentrated on immigrant varieties-it is symptomatic
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that none of the Shetland teachers we interviewed had heard of these programmes. The spelling constitutes a particular problem, in that there are at least three competing systems: the orthography of Standard English, the Scots convention as codified in the Scots Style Sheet, established in 1947 by a group of Lallans writers, and the Shetland convention, to some extent codified in John Graham's dictionary. A more systematic, water-tight Shetland convention is now being worked out for an extended version of the dictionary. Obviously, Shetland dialect needs its own written conventionconsider the /ö/ vowel, for examplebut catering for the regional variation remains a problem. Another notorious problem is the degree of 'phonetic completeness'. The Scots Style Sheet, for example, does not pay attention to quantity characteristics, and the Shetland convention does not show initial /kw/ in the writing. Clearly, however, a speaker of any accent will apply her/his own rules of pronunciation when reading out a text, even though it may be in standard orthography. It really all depends who the text is written for! A threatened language variety can never be kept alive exclusively through school policies, as many studies in Scotland, Ireland, Finland and elsewhere have shown, but it needs to be used in various other domains. I would argue, however, that schools in Shetland, in particular The Anderson High School, have a unique position in this respect. The high school, which also caters for further education, functions as a cultural centre for the whole population and its activities are well covered in the local media. Its concern for the living dialect, recently manifested in the action/policy programme, should be a bulwark against total surrender to the dominant norm. References Graham, J. J. (1984) The Shetland Dictionary. Lerwick: The Shetland Times Ltd. Hammermo, O., Strömquist, S. & Molin, R. (1981) 'Vi har inte lust att prata nån jäkla rikssvenska!'. Uppsala: FUMS rapport No. 94. Living Memory. A Photographic and Oral History of Lerwick, Gulberwick and Sound (1986), collected and edited by I. Mitchell, A. Johnson & I. Coghill. Lerwick: The Shetland Times Ltd. Melchers, G. (1982) 'Döless, inbigget, uploppm'-om några shetländska ord av nordiskt ursprung. Rapport över resa till Shetland och Orkney. Stockholm: Institutionen för nordiska språk (unpublished). (1983) NORN-A Presentation of the Project. Stockholm: Engelska institutionen. (1987) 'Shetland has its own dialect, so why should we use English?'. NORN Report No. 3. Stockholm: Engelska institutionen. Nordern Lichts. An Anthology of Shetland Verse & Prose (1964), compiled and edited by J. J. Graham & T. A. Robertson. Lerwick: The Education Committee of Shetland County Council. Trudgill, P. (1975) Accent, Dialect and the School. London: Edward Arnold. Trudgill, P., Edwards, V. K. & Weltens, B. (1981) Grammatical characteristics of non-standard dialects of English in the British Isles: A survey of research. A report to the SSRC. Wells, J. C. (1982) Accents of English 1-3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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13 Obstruents and Their Development in the Population DO7. In the Archive for Diaspora Languages Miodrag Stankovski University of Lund, Department of Slavonic Languages, Sweden. Abstract The paper describes the development of the obstruents of Serbocroatian/Croatian in seven speakers residing in Sweden. They were children belonging to the group of informants of the JUBA Project of the Slavonic Department of the University of Lund. It is shown that the so-called central series of phonemes were established in a native-like system before the periphral series. When compared with similar results from investigations of the development of obstruents in speakers of Slavic languages this can be used to shed light on Jakobson's (1941) and Jakobson & Halle's theory of phonological development. The DO7 group of children consists of the following Serbocroatian/Croatian (S-C)-speaking individuals: DO7.03, DO7.05, DO7.09, DO7.13, DO7.14, D07.16 and DO7.17. Four of them were tested five times during the period 1981-85 and have five records each. Two of them have four records each and one has two records. Because of the short personal diachrony the last one, child DO7.17, was excluded from the investigation. All the children were born in Sweden, so that we can say that their home language acquisition has taken place in an alien linguistic environment, i.e. in diaspora monitoring conditions. All the children have 2 hours per week of home language tuition 1 during school time. Both the children and their parents want to have such an arrangement (home language tuition is organised on the basis of the child's and parents' explicitly expressed wish). The children visit their home country once a year during the summer holidays.
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Page 170 Table 1 Informants DO7 tested during the period 1981-85 Code Age during Test year the first test 1981 81 82 83 84 D07.03 7 yr 8m + + + + D07.05 7 yr 9m + + + D07.09 7 yr + + + + D07.13 7 yr 3m + + + + D07.14 7 yr 8m + + + + D07.16 7 yr 8m + + + D07.17 7 yr 2m + + I use the term monitoring with the following two meanings:
85 + + + + + + -
(a) the total social pressure to which an individual is subjected in order to learn the language; and (b) the total social pressure to which an individual is subjected in order to keep the system in the frame of what the group ('society') feels is the norm. The diaspora monitoring is by its nature weaker than that experienced in a genuine mother tongue environment; weaker because of the factors that define itthe immigrant country's policy and cultural heritage, the immigration group's social and cultural heritage in a new course of development caused by the new environment. For example, many Yugoslav immigrants used to live in big families consisting of at least three generations of speakers; they live now in kernel families consisting of only parents and children. Very often the parents speak two distant dialects and even two different Slavonic languages (Stankovski, 1986). All these factors that influence the monitoring motivate a special concept, 'diasporal monitoring', which was proposed and used by our investigation project. The language of the group D07 differs from the standard. This differentiation undergoes some changes during a period of five years and it gives us the possibility of following the process of stabilisation in the language of these children. On the other hand, the differentiation, the 'distance', from the standard consists of both the child's dialectal features, his personal 'corruptions' and uncertainty, and finally the influence from the Swedish-speaking environment; i.e. all features which are the result of diaspora monitoring (Stankovski, Durovic & Tomasevic, 1983; Stankovski, 1986).
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Page 171 The investigation concentrated on the development of the obstruents in the children's language (Table 2). During the years of work with texts from the archive I noticed some regularities in the manifestations of some phoneme series. The percentage of the 'normally' manifested phonemes was always much higher than the percentage of the 'erroneously' manifested ones. The small number of incorrect manifested phonemes seemed to be structured with regard to place and mode of articulation. During 1985 I tried to test the validity of this supposition on a personal diachrony of an extremely deviating child from the archive, D10.03 (Stankovski, 1985). Although the diachrony did not cover a period longer than three years, it seemed to me that the material confirms my supposition, so I finally chose the group DO7, as the children in it had longer diachronies. Table 2 Serbocroatian/Croatian obstruents Lab Dent Expl vl p t vd b d Fric vl f s vd z Affr vl c vd I shall start from the following facts:
Alv
Pal
s z c 3
c 3
Vel k g x
(1) In all individual systems two series of phonemes have constant manifestations: the labials and the velars. (2) Unstable systems of manifestation rules appear in the dental, alveolar and the palatal series, where the fricatives and the affricates are affected. (3) The instability possibly arises from a system of parallel phoneme manifestations, 'diasporal', alongside the 'normal' ones. The speech material in the personal diachronies of the children, the phoneme manifestations through the texts, have been divided into two parts: (A) 'Correct' manifestations, i.e. manifestations according to the S/C norm; and (B) 'Incorrect' manifestations, i.e. all manifestations which deviate from the S/C norm.
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Page 172 The 'wrong' manifestations can be divided into the following sub-groups: (1) Phoneme manifestations due to allegro tempo,i.e. word forms which deviate from the norm but are accepted as normal in the spoken language, e.g.: mos*mozes 2 osla*otisla jena*jedna or forms such as: ovadva*obadva iso*isto truge*druge obet*opet which can appear once or twice in the text and could be taken as slips of the tongue. Phonemes resulting in such manifestations are marked with the symbol 'a' in Table 3. (2) Phoneme manifestations due to various dialectal forms of words, e.g.: oces*hoces dovati*dohvati do3em*do3em pecurke*pecurke nece*nece Table 3 Obstruents DO7.03 in 1981 Lab Dent Alv Expl vl pa t vd b d Fric vl f sb sb vd z zb Affr vl Cb cc vd (3) a, allegro manifestations alongside the normal ones; b, diasporal manifestations alongside the normal ones; c, dialectal manifestations; (), the phoneme does not appear in the texts.
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Pal
Vel k ga x
c 3c
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Phonemes resulting in such dialectal manifestations are marked with the symbol c' in Table 3. (3) Phoneme manifestations due to the diaspora situation when the speaker uses models other than the above mentioned, e.g.: dossli*dosli where /s/ is manifested as Swedish allophone [fi]; kazze*kaze where /z/ is manifested as a new invented allophone [fi] i.e. [fi] plus distinctive feature [+ voiced]; magara cs *magarac where the allophone [c] is pronounced with a prolonged fricative part; josse*jase where /s/ is manifested as geminated [s] i.e. [s:]; magartsa*magarca where /c/ is manifested as a sequence of two allophones [ts], etc. Phonemes resulting in such manifestations are marked with the symbol 'b' in Table 3. These examples do not give a full list of diasporal manifestations. It is this part of the 'wrong' manifestations that gives us an insight into the processes of home language acquisition in diaspora conditions. During the first testing the child DO7.03 has an obstruent system illustrated in Table 3. As we can see the outer parts of the system are stable. The term 'outer' is used here to cover the border series of the phonemes as they are usually presented in tables. Here the term covers three series: the explosives (concerning the mode of articulation), the labials and the velars (concerning the place of articulation). The only 'corrupted' manifestations of the phonemes /p/, /d/ and /g/ are allegro forms of words (see Table 4). And in all forms of the word 'jedan' the child uses dialectal forms 'jean, jena, jeno', etc.
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Table 4 Allegro forms of words DO7.03, 1981 a/p/[b] obet*opet (DO7.03, 81:347) 3 once /g/[k] dukacku*dugacku (DO7.03, 81:424) once The D07.03's dialectal features in 1981 consist of loss of the opposition /c/:/c/, a well-known tendency in many S/C dialects (Table 5). The diasporal corruptions during the test year 1981 are seen in the manifestations of the phonemes /s/, /s/, /z/ and /c/ (Table 6). Going through all the records of D07.03 during the period 1981-85 (Table 7) shows that the diasporal manifestations appear in a narrow section of the system: the dental fricative and affricate, the alveolar fricatives and affricate and the palatal affricate. If we then go through the other children's phoneme systems during the same period and compare them with D07.03 we find some similarities (see the Appendix). As it can be seen even here, the diaspora features appear in a small area in the central parts of the system; i.e. in the series of dentals, alveolars and palatals. It would perhaps be useful to look at the percentage of the right manifestations of these groups of phonemes during the same period of time, 1981-85 (Table 8). The percentage of the right manifestations of the phoneme series arranged according to articulation mode (Table 9) shows a different picture from the one shown in Table 8. Table 8 shows a kind of structured development towards a 'standard' system. The percentage of right manifestations is higher as the years pass and a special order of series preference can also be noticed: first palatals, then dentals and last alveolars. Table 9, on the other hand, shows a structured development only in the opposition of the series: explosives:fricatives/affricates. This is most clearly seen in Figure 1, where the whole group's (DO7) percentage is placed Table 5 Dialectal features DO7.03, 1981 bdecici*decici (DO7.03 81:414) decak*decak (81:451) dojcis*devojcica (81:353) dukacku*dugacku (81:424) rucak*rucak (81:398) c-*covek (81:162) cove-ka*coveka (81:164) covek*covek (81:4, 17, 73, 94, 96, 110, 114) coveka*coveka (81:91) copsse-*coveka (81:56)
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Table 6 Diasporal features with DO7.03, 1981 [s] 69 = 97.2% licica*lisica (81:341) /s/ [c] 1 za*sa (81:390) [z] 1 total: 71 [c] /c/ [cs] [s] [ts] total:
10 = 55.6% lisicsa*lisica (81:307, 323, 336) 3 dojcis-*devojcica (81:353) 1 magarats*magarac (81:8, 130, 140, 184) 4 18
[s] /s/ [h] [s] total:
29 = 69.1% 9 4 42
dosso*dosao (81:30) jassao*jasao (81:27) jase*jase (81:23, 101, 120) miss*mis (81:384) missove*misove (81:512) ussi*usi (81:372, 375) dosi*dosli (81:106) sta*sta (81:173) sto*sto (81:472, 475)
[z] 16 = 81.0% kade*kaze (81:115, 124) /z/ [3] 2 tezzak*tezak (81:334) [h] 1 total: 19 in co-ordinate systems where the X-axis represents time. The development of the opposition fricatives-affricates is not so clear and must be examined further. Another classification of phoneme sub-classes organised according to place of articulation shows that the opposition fricative:affricate is of secondary importance and that its development takes place either after the stabilisation of the opposition dental/palatal: alveolar in the classes of dentals and palatals, or during the same time that the opposition dental fricative:dental affricate is being constituted. This can be seen in Table 10 and Figure 2. It seems reasonable to conclude that a stabilisation process in the development of the obstruents among the children constituting the D07 group takes place. The process has its internal order. It starts in the 'outer' parts of the system and moves towards the central parts (Figure 3). Some kind of pressure establishes the oppositions: (a) concerning the place of articulation in the 'outer' regions (labials and velars) and (b) concerning the mode of articulation explosives as primary; and as secondary the oppositions in the 'inner' regions.
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Page 176 Table 7 Diasporal phoneme manifestations DO7.03 during the period 1982-85 1981 1982 1983 1984 /s/ [s] 69=97.2% [s] 71=98.6% [s] 97=99.0% [s] =100% [c] 1 [cs] 1 [cs] 1 [z] 1 /z/ [z] =100% [z] 8=98.9% [z] =100% [z] 12=92.3% [z] 1 [3] 1 /c/ [c] 10=55.6% [c] 11=73.3% [c] 27=90.0% [c] 34=89.5% [cs] 3 [cs] 4 [cs] 2 [cs] 1 [s] 1 [s] 1 [s] 3 [ts] 4 /c/ [c] =100.0% [c] 11=91.7% [c] 12=80.0% [c] = 100.0% [c] [c] [c] [c] [c] 1 [c] 1 [s] 1 [s] 1 /s/ [s] 29=69.1% [s] 35=89.8% [s] 65=83.3% [s] 53=96.5 [h] 9 [h] 1 [s] 11 [h] 1 [s] 4 [s] 3 [s:] 1 [c] 1 [z] 1 /z/ [z] 13=81.3% [z] 8=80.0% [z] 18=69.2% [z] =100.0% [3] 2 [z] 2 [z] 6 [h] 1 [b] 1 [h] 1 /3/ [3] 2=66.7% [3] = 100.0% [3] = 100.0% [3] = 100.0% [s] 1
1985 [s] =100% [z] 12=92.9% [s] 1 [c] 31=92.9% [s] 1 [ts] 1 [t] 1 [c] 14=77.8% [c] [ts] 2 [cs] 2 [s] 62=98.4% [s] 1 [z] =100.0%
[3] = 100.0%
Two other enquiries confirm this hypothesis. Terho Paulsson, (1987) on a smaller body of material from Polish children living in Sweden (without personal diachronies), shows four stages in the development of the Polish obstruents of the 'inner' regions (even in his material the labials, velars and the dental explosives are already established as the D07 children's were): (1) a stage of establishing the dental and palatal fricatives, (2) a stage of establishing the dental and palatal affricates, (3) a stage of establishing the alveolar fricatives, (4) a stage of establishing the alveolar affricates.
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Table 8 Percentage of 'right' manifestations in the 'central' series of phonemes for the whole group DO7 and individually. The figures represent mean values DO7. 07.03 07.05 07.09 07.13 07.14 07.16 palatals 81 93.2 66.7 100.0 95.0 100.0 100.0 82 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 83 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 84 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 85 99.5 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 97.1 100.0 dentals 81 95.8 92.8 94.2 100.0 96.8 95.5 82 96.5 92.0 98.4 99.5 100.0 92.8 83 97.6 97.7 100.0 100.0 99.4 99.0 90.2 84 98.2 96.4 98.5 98.9 99.8 97.9 98.0 85 98.4 97.1 98.1 98.7 99.1 99.4 87.8 alveolars 81 92.2 83.4 97.0 88.6 100.0 95.5 82 95.8 89.9 95.8 100.0 100.0 93.3 83 88.2 87.2 94.7 100.0 94.6 99.0 64.6 84 94.0 98.8 99.1 98.1 97.0 97.9 79.4 85 93.8 97.0 100.0 100.0 99.4 99.4 71.1 Table 9 Percentage of 'right' manifestations in the series of phonemes systematised according to articulation mode: the fricatives and the affricates DO7. 07.03 07.05 07.09 07.13 07.14 07.16 fricatives 81 96.3 91.3 94.5 100.0 99.5 96.1 82 96.7 94.5 98.7 99.5 100.0 95.3 83 95.2 91.9 98.1 100.0 97.3 94.3 89.4 84 95.8 98.1 99.6 98.7 94.2 94.6 89.6 85 97.2 98.5 100.0 100.0 97.8 98.1 89.1 affricates 81 92.1 80.6 94.7 89.2 97.3 94.4 82 95.9 91.2 96.9 99.6 100.0 92.0 83 93.8 92.5 95.5 100.0 99.3 98.6 71.1 84 98.4 97.4 98.5 98.9 100.0 98.1 97.8 85 96.3 92.2 98.1 98.8 99.6 97.7 91.7
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Figure 1 The development of the 'central' series of phonemes classified according to place of articulation and mode of articulation for the whole group D0 during the period 1981-85 The parallelism of these conclusions with the diachrony of the D07 group is not accidental. Both materials point out that the stabilisation process of dental fricatives takes place before the process of stabilisation of the dental affricates (Figure 2). The S/C palatal chain has no fricatives, while the Polish chain of palatals is complete and gives a better opportunity to observe the stabilisation of this mode of articulation. The development in the S/C alveolar chain (Figure 2) does not give the same clear picture as the Polish material, but on the other hand the global view of the phonemes classified according to their place of articulation (Figure 1) shows that the alveolars are slower in their development when compared with the palatals and the dentals. In other words-both the Polish material and the diachrony of D07 children confirm this process. As I said, the Polish system of obstruents compared with the S/C system is nearer completion in the series of dentals and palatals; nevertheless, it seems right to conclude that the same principles govern the stabilisation processes in both systems.
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Table 10 Percentage of 'right' manifestations in the sub-groups of phoneme series of palatals, dentals and alveolars DO7. 07.03 07.05 07.09 07.13 07.14 07.16 Palatal affricates 81 95.7 83.3 100.0 95.0 100.0 100.0 82 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 83 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 84 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 85 99.5 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 97.1 100.0 Dental fricatives 81 98.2 98.6 93.7 100.0 98.6 100.0 82 99.2 98.7 99.2 100.0 100.0 100.0 83 99.2 99.5 100.0 100.0 100.0 99.4 96.3 84 98.8 96.1 100.0 99.5 99.7 98.4 99.1 85 98.8 96.4 100.0 100.0 98.6 98.6 99.2 Dental affricate 81 81.0 55.6 84.7 100.0 86.7 77.8 82 86.6 73.3 94.0 97.9 100.0 68.0 83 90.3 90.0 100.0 100.0 97.2 96.4 58.4 84 93.5 89.5 92.6 95.5 100.0 92.6 91.0 85 94.0 91.2 90.5 93.8 98.3 100.0 90.0 Alveolars fricatives 81 91.8 75.2 95.5 100.0 100.0 88.5 82 94.3 84.9 96.8 100.0 100.0 90.0 83 87.4 76.2 95.8 100.0 91.9 88.4 71.9 84 92.0 98.2 98.7 97.1 94.2 89.8 74.2 85 93.7 99.2 100.0 100.0 99.1 95.8 68.2 Alveolars fricatives 81 93.2 100.0 100.0 66.0 100.0 100.0 82 97.0 91.7 93.7 100.0 100.0 100.0 83 87.9 80.0 92.4 100.0 100.0 97.9 50.0 84 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 85 95.8 77.8 100.0 100.0 100.0 97.2 77.0 The second body of material which concerns the development of the S/C language in a French-speaking environment (Vasic, 1984; Knaflic & Peter, 1984) is also synchronic and does not reflect a diachronic development of the S/C in the French-speaking environment. The authors give a synchronic description of a group of children heterogeneous in age (the authors operate with school grades instead of age) but it is obvious that it is a question of children between 7 and 14 years of age.
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Figure 2 The development in the sub-groups of the phoneme series of palatals, dentals and alveolars In spite of these facts, the comparative tables in their articles show that the most unstable parts in the system of obstruents are the alveolars, followed by the palatal affricates, the dental affricates and the dental fricatives. Another picture of the development of the S/C sound system in a bilingual S/C-Hungarian speaking environment is given by Melanija Mikes (Mikes, 1974). 4 The investigation is based on material gathered at the end of the 1950's and the early 1960's from two children aged 0-2 years. Her analysis of the material shows the development of the obstruents in another light. She claims that the process of stabilisation starts with the opposition labials:dentals to be followed by the opposition explosives:affricates and, after a consolidation of the opposition dentals:alveolars:palatals, the process of stabilisation then continues with a consolidation of the opposition fricatives:affricates and for the first time at the end of the process of acquisition of the sound system the stabilisation of the opposition dentals/alveolars/palatals:velars takes place. This order is deduced by a qualitative analysis of the quoted examples.
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Figure 3 The stabilisation order in the system of S/C obstruents In 1939 Trubetzkoy in his article on artificial languages suggests that some fundamental phoneme series are the same in all languages all over the world; i.e. the chain of explosives p - t - k. He proposes, therefore, that the phonological system of an artificial language should be constructed on such phonological universals. This idea was later developed by Jakobson (1941) in a phonological developmental theory, an order of acquisition of phonological oppositions as well as an order of their disappearance in cases of aphasia. Later on he developed the theory of binary oppositions (Jakobson & Halle, 1952). Jakobson's developmental theory was never empirically proved on more extensive material. Jakobson's theory could possibly be proved on a corpus like the Archive for Diaspora Languages, by taking the number of incorrect phoneme manifestations as a base. The material allows both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis. Ten years ago, on the basis of some material I had gathered by that time, I proposed a slightly different hypothesis (Stankovski, 1978) about the development and the destruction of the S/C phonological system in a Swedishspeaking environment. The hypothesis suggested that the S/C-speaking children
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in Sweden primarily acquire the phonological oppositions which belong to the intersection of both systems and that this kernel system of oppositions is later completed with the S/C specific phonological oppositions. In cases of forgetting the language the oppositions disappear in reverse order. At that time I overestimated the importance of the absence of the opposition /s/:/z/, which in Swedish is of no importance, since the opposition as such does exist in the Swedish system in the chain of explosives. At that time even my understanding of the nature of the Swedish phoneme /h/ was different (see 2.7.1. pt. 4). On the basis of the presented material we may draw the following conclusions: (1) The system of the S/C obstruents first becomes stable in those oppositions which belong to the intersection of the oppositions existing in both systems, which in this case are labial/velar:dental/palatal. (2) Swedish has no alveolar chain and therefore the majority of the children develop this chain much later. (3) The absence of the opposition voiced:voiceless in Swedish fricatives does not affect the development of the S/C fricatives and affricates because the opposition as such exists in the Swedish system in the series of explosives which are the base for the development of the fricatives. (4) The Swedish fricative /fi/ (with fluctuating place of articulation) does not belong to the intersection system by not being an alveolar and in relation to the other fricatives (s-6-h) is in opposition [+ labialised]: [- labialised]. These conclusions mean that a loss of S/C language phonology in Sweden can be expected to start with the destruction of the alveolar chain. Appendix 1 The obstruent systems for the whole group D07 during the period 1981-85. b, denotes phonemes which have diasporal manifestations (at least one); ( ), denotes that the phoneme does not appear in the texts; and Æ, denotes an empty place in the system; it is consequently substituted by other phonemes.
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Table 11 Child DO7.03 obstruents during the period 1981-85 O7.03 81 7 yr 8ma O7.03 84 10 yr 3 m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f sb sb h f s sb h z zb zb zb cb c c cb c c (3) 3b (3) 3 O7.03 82 8 yr 8m O7.03 85 11 yr 3 m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f sb sb h f s sb h zb zb zb z cb cb c cb cb c (3) 3 (3) 3 O7.03 83 9 yr 2m lab den alv pal vel p t k b d g f sb sb h zb zb a, 7 yr 8m etc. denotes the cb cb c child's age-7 years and 8 (3) (3) months.
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Table A2 Child DO7.05 obstuents during the period 1981-85 O7.05 81 7 yr 9m O7.05 84 10 yr 9m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g fb sb sb hb f s sb ø zb z z z cb c c cb c c (3) (3) 3 3 O7.05 83 9 yr 9m O7.03 85 11 yr 3 m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g fb s sb (h) f s sb h z z z z c cb c cb cb c (3) (3) (3) 3
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Table A3 Child DO7.09 obstruents during the period 1981-85 O7.09 81 7 yr O7.09 84 10 yr 1 m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f s s h (f) sb sb h z z z z c cb cb cb c c (3) 3 (3) 3 O7.09 82 8 yr O7.09 85 11 yr lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f sb sb h f s sb h z zb z z cb cb c cb c c (3) 3 (3) O7.09 83 9 yr 2m lab den alv pal vel p t k b d g f s s h z z c c c (3) (3)
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Table A4 Child DO7.13 obstruents during the period 1981-85 O7.13 81 7 yr 3m O7.13 84 10 yr 4m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f sb s h (f) s s h z z z z cb c c c c c 3 3 (3) 3 O7.13 82 8 yr 3 m O7.13 85 11 yr 3 m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f s s h f s s h z z z z c c c c c c 3 3 (3) 3 O7.13 83 9 yr 5 m lab den alv pal vel p t k b d g f s sb h z zb cb c c (3) 3
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Table A5 Child DO7.14 obstruents during the period 1981-85 O7.14 81 7 yr 8 m O7.14 84 10 yr 9 , lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f s sb h f sb sb h z z z zb cb c c cb c c (3) 3b (3) 3 O7.14 82 8 yr 8 m O7.14 85 11 yr 9 m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f s s h f s sb h z z zb zb c c c c cb c (3) (3) 3 3 O7.14 83 9 yr 8 m lab den alv pal vel p t k b d g f sb sb h z zb cb (cb) c (3) (3)
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Table A6 Child DO7.16 obstuents during the period 1982-85 O7.16 82 7 yr 8 m O7.16 84 9 yr 11 m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f sb sb (h) f sb sb h z z z zb cb c c cb c c (3) 3 (3) 3 O7.16 83 8 yr 9 m O7.16 85 10 yr 9 m lab den alv pal vel lab den alv pal vel p t k p t k b d g b d g f s sb (h) f sb sb h z zb z zb cb cb c cb cb c (3) 3 (3) 3
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Notes 1. The term 'home language' is used as a substitute for the Swedish term 'hemspråk', (LGR 80) which means the language of the home (alternatively the language of the family). 2. The examples quoted in the form mos*mozes are directly cited from the archived material. The * marks a phonetical deviation from the standardthe child says [mos], but should say [mozes]. When transcribing from the tapes the transcribers use two signs to mark deviations from the norm: the sign * for phonetical and the sign & for morphological deviations. In order to make a computational analysis easier, the speech material is stored on three levels: (a) the phonetical level of the text (F-text), (b) the level of standard pronunciation (S-text), (c) the level of standard grammar (G-text). In this article examples from the children appear only on F- and Stext levels. 3. The examples are identified by DO7.03 81:347 where the DO7.03 denotes the code of the child in the archive, 81: the test year and 347 the running number of the word in the child's text from the same year. The running number is established in a listing which in the archive is named 'CLIST'. In order to avoid too frequent child codes, whenever it is clear to which child the examples are referred, the code for the child is omitted and thus only the test year and the running number of the word appear i.e. 81:347. 4. In Melanija Mikez's dissertation: 'Glasovni razvoj govora dvojezicne dece' the discussion on special oppositions can be found in the following places: labial:dental voiced:voiceless
p. 88 pp. 51-2
explosive:affricate
p. 53
dental:alveolar:palatal
p. 53
affricate:fricative
p. 65
dental/alveolar/palatal:velar References
p. 57
Dahlstrand, I. (1983) Data processing in the JUBA project. In Lingua in Diaspora (=Slavica Lundensia 9), Lund 107-20. Jakobson, R. (1941) Kindersprache, Aphasie und allgemeine Lautgesetze'. Uppsala Universitets årsskrift, Uppsala.
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Jakobson, R. & Halle, M. (1952). Fundamentals of Language,Janua Linguarum series minor 74, sec. printing (1972), The Hague, Paris; Mouton. Knaflic, V. & Peter, S. (1984) Mogucnost odrzavanja maternjeg jezika u uslovima L2 (u francuskoj sredini izgovor glasova, Uspeh u ucenju sa stanovista psiholingvistike, Beograd. LGR 80: Läroplan for grundskolan, 1980 Stockholm: Skolöverstyrelsen. Mikes, M. (1974) Glasovni razvoj govora dvojezicne dece, Novi Sad. Paulsson, T. (1987) The acquisition of Polish fricatives and affricates by children living in Sweden. Child Language in Diaspora (= Slavica Lundensia 11), Lund. 33-49. Stankovski, M. (1978) Procesi redukcije fonoloskog sistema srpskohrvatskog kod djece doseljenika u Svedskoj jezicnoj sredini. Lund Contributions to the Eighth International Congress of Slavists in Zagreb-Ljubljana (= Slavica Lundensia 6), Lund, 21-49. (1985) The development of the Serbocroatian/Croatian sound system in the speech of the child D10.03 in the JUBA-corpus. Slavica Lubomiro Durovic sexagenario dedicata (= Slavica Lundensia 10), Lund, 201-13. (1986) Inget självklart. Invandrarspråken-ratad resurs? C=Källa/25), Stockholm: Forskningsrådsnämnden, 17-24. Durovic, L. & Tomasevic, M. (1983) Development structures in the family language of Yugoslav children in a Swedish language environment. Lingua in Diaspora (=Slavica Lundensia 9) Lund. 7-20. Trubetzkoy, N. S. (1939) Wie soll das Lautsystem einer künstlichen internationalen Hilfssprache beschaffen sein?. Travaux du cercle linguistique de Prague 8., Prague. Vasic, S. (1984) Mogucnost odrzavanja maternjeg jezika u uslovima L2. Uspeh u ucenju sa stanovista psiholingvistike, Beograd, 53-100.
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14 Tvåspråkiga barns ordförrådinterferens och integration Ulla Laurén Vasa högskola, Institutionen för språk, Finland. Abstract Starting from W. F. Mackey's point of view, the concepts of interference and integration of elements from one language to another will be discussed. As interference is usually studied from a synchronic point of view and integration is a diachronic phenomenon, the analysis of interference and integration presents some methodological problems. This paper deals with the occurrence of interference and integration from Finnish in the choice of words and phraseology in bilingual students' free written production in Swedish, compared to the written production of a matched control group of the same sise, with a monolingual Swedish background. Both groups attend a Swedish primary school in Finland, and live in a bilingual environment. Of errors related to choice of words and phraseology, including prepositional errors, a considerable part derives from the influence of Finnish. The influence from Finnish on the choice of words and phraseology occurs both in the language of the bilingual students and in that of students with a background more Swedish in nature. This influence is more noticeable with the bilingual students, about 50% of whose errors are due to interference from Finnish; whereas this applies to about a quarter of those of the monolingual students. Practically all the interference errors produced by the monolinguals are of the kind which over the years has been integrated into Finland-Swedish language use (but not accepted in the written language). The number of both interference errors and integrated interference errors is considerably larger with the bilingual than with the monolingual students. Interferens är en förutsättning för integration av element från ett språk till ett annat. Relationen mellan interferens och integration erbjuder emellertid en rad problem i metodiskt hänseende, när man skall undersöka förekomsten av dessa fenomen i praktiken. Innan jag redogör för mitt konkreta material skall jag först kortfattat gå in på denna problematik.
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Interferens brukar definieras som förekomsten av observerbara drag från ett språk vid användningen av ett annat på fonologisk, morfologisk, syntaktisk eller lexikalisk nivå (jfr Baetens Beardsmore, 1982: 39-40; Sjögren, 1979: 123; Mackey, 1976: 397). Definitionerna av interferens har getts en snävare eller vidare tolkning. Enligt en generösare tolkning är interferens den samlade inverkan mellan två språk i kontakt. Haugen (1968: 40) har en mer begränsad tolkning av interferens. Han skiljer mellan kodväxling (code-switching), interferens ('the overlapping of two languages') och integration ('the regular use of material from one language in another, so that there is no longer either switching or overlapping, except in a historical sense'). Mackey har i flera publikationer diskuterat relationen mellan interferens och integration (Mackey, 1976; 1980; 1983). Han anser att ett av de svåraste problemen i studiet av tvåspråkighet är att kunna skilja integration i koden från interferens i yttrandet. Han föreslår också metoder, genom vilka man kan mäta förekomsten av främmande element i ett språk, utgående antingen från yttrandet eller från koden. Följande förenklade figur (figur 1) bygger på Mackeys synsätt och får åskådliggöra något av problematiken. Mackey (1980: 157) framhåller att den språkliga kod som utvecklas i ett tvåspråkigt samhälle är svår att beskriva och
Figur 1 Relationen mellan interferens och integration
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mäta. Koden kan liknas vid ett tvådimensionellt kontinuum, som å ena sidan kontinuerligt förändras, dvs. tidsmässigt, och å andra sidan vacklar på ett ojämnt sätt. Denna vacklan beror på hur många språkbrukare som omfattar denna kod med inslag av främmande element, på vilka språkliga domäner och med vilka personer, tvåspråkiga eller enspråkiga, som de gör det. Problemen i studiet av interferens och integration kan alltså anses gälla i huvudsak tre områden, som är inbördes beroende av varandra: (1) konfrontationen mellan ett synkroniskt och ett diakroniskt synsätt. lakttagandet och diagnostiserandet av interferens sker genom kontrastiv analys av avvikelserna från normen. Den kontrastiva analysen, sådan den tillämpas inom felanalysen, har ett synkroniskt perspektiv, utgår från en synkronisk kod. Integrationen igen är, som vi har sett, ett diakroniskt fenomen. (2) normfrågan, dvs. när ett element från ett främmande språk i det studerade språket kan anses accepterat (3) i direkt anslutning till normfrågan ett statistiskt, mätningsmässigt problem: hur många språkbrukare använder det främmande elementet i fråga, är de enspråkiga eller tvåspråkiga? hur fördelas användningen på och inom olika talsituationer eller texttyper? Hela denna problematik har gjort sig påmind på ett synnerligen påtagligt sätt i det konkreta undersökningsmaterial jag skall presentera här. Någon patentlösning på hur problemen skall tacklas kan jag inte ge, utan min undersökning får tjäna som illustration till det ovan sagda och resultaten måste tolkas med de implikationer som problematiken medför. I min framställning utgår jag först från ett synkroniskt synsätt, dvs. betraktar all influens från det andra språket som interferens, och anlägger sedan ett diakroniskt perspektiv genom att analysera integrationens roll i denna influens. Min diskussion rör förekomsten av interferens och integration i ordförrådet i tvåspråkiga elevers fria skriftliga produktion på svenska. Undersökningen gäller den svenska som talas och skrivs i Finland. Principiellt är normerna för finlandssvenskan de samma som normerna för sverigesvenskan. Eftersom svenskan i Finland i århundraden levt vid sidan av finskan finns det givetvis en ömsesidig påverkan mellan språken, men orsakerna till att svenskan i Finland i viss mån skiljer sig från svenskan i Sverige kan också vara användningen av äldre ord eller dialektala ord. I finlandssvenskan förekommer också en egen utveckling så att vissa ord fatt en annan betydelse än i sverigesvenskan, eller egen nybildning av ord t.ex. inom administrationen (figur 2). Ibland kan det dessutom vara svårt att avgöra vad som är källa till finlandismen, påverkan från finskan eller ett äldre svenskt språkbruk kan vara
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Figur 2 Typer av finlandismer och några faktorer som har samband med acceptabiliteten förklaringen. Olika finlandismer har också olika stilistiskt värde. En del tillhör enbart talspråket, och är inte accepterade i skriftspråket. Det finns också regionala skillnader. Finskinfluerade uttryck är allmänt taget mer accepterade i Helsingfors än i Vasa i talspråket. I stort sett är de allra flesta finskinfluerade finlandismer ändå inte accepterade i skriftspråksnormen, men sett ur språkbrukarens synvinkel är en del finlandismer mycket frekventa. Materialet i min undersökning utgörs av fri skriftlig produktion producerad av elever i årskurserna 3, 6 och 9 i de svenskspråkiga grundskolorna i Vasa. 86 tvåspråkiga elever, som talar både finska och svenska i hemmet, har jämförts med en lika stor matchad kontrollgrupp, som talar enbart svenska hemma och som i övrigt har en så svensk bakgrund som möjiligt. Matchningen har skett mot variablerna årskurs, kön, allmän begåvningsnivå och socioekonomisk status. Eleverna i den tvåspråkiga undersökningsgruppen är alltså vad man kan kalla tidigt, naturligt tvåspråkiga i finska och svenska. I jämförelse med sina mer enspråkiga kamrater i kontrollgruppen levde de också i en mer finskdominerad omgivning och använde mer finska med kamrater. De uppgav
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själva att de kunde svenska och finska lika bra och hade också betydligt högre vitsord i finska än eleverna i kontrollgruppen. De hade alltså i hög grad möjlighet att bli utsatta för finskans inflytande i sin svenska. I Vasa, som är en tvåspråkig stad med ca 70% finsktalande och ca 30% svensktalande, finns det en ömsesidig påverkan finskan - svenskan. Denna ömsesidiga växelverkan gör sig speciellt kännbar i tvåspråkiga familjer. Kontrollgruppen saknade givetvis inte heller kontakter med finskan, utöver undervisningen i finska som ämne, men i relativt liten grad och i betydligt mindre utsträckning än de tvåspråkiga eleverna. I stort sett var kontrollgruppens milijö svenskdominerad i fråga om massmedier, kamrater o.a. kontakter. Det skriftliga materialet, ca 30 000 löpord i vardera elevgruppen, har undersökts genom felanalys. Genom felanalys framträder fall av öppen interferens i svenskan, dvs. direkt observerbara drag. Däremot framträder inte fall av dold interferens, t.ex. undvikandestrategier, lexikal överanvändning och ofta inte heller betydelseutvidgningar. Interfererbarheten av element från ett språk till ett annat har bl.a. att göra med språkens typologiska avstånd. Svenskan och finskan är i lexikalt avseende mycket olika varandra och benägenheten för interferens borde därför vara låg. I närbesläktade språk kan däremot förekomsten av interferens i ordförrådet vara mycket stor (se t.ex. Søndergaard, 1984: 225-226). I detta sammanhang diskuterar jag enbart förekomsten av interferens i ordförråd och fraseologi. Det bör observeras att jag betraktar prepositionerna som lexikala enheter även om de också har en syntaktisk funktion. Deras motsvarigheter i finskan utgörs vanligen av morfologiska uttrycksmedel, dvs. kasus. Andelen fel inom ordval och fraseologi i relation till felen inom ortografi, morfologi, syntax och morfosyntax framgår av följande tabell (Tabell 1). Vi kan alltså se att felen inom ordval och fraseologi inte utgör någon stor felgrupp, endast 16% av alla fel hos de tvåspråkiga eleverna och 9,3% hos de mer enspråkiga eleverna. Att närmare studera dessa typer av fel är ändå intressant. När skillnaderna mellan tvåspråkiga och enspråkiga elever signifikanstestades (med Wilcoxon 2-sample test), och hänsyn alltså togs till individuella skillnader mellan eleverna, visade det sig nämligen att de tvåspråkiga eleverna gjorde signifikant flera fel än de enspråkiga genomgående i alla årskurser inom just ordval och fraseologi. Också inom de andra felgrupperna gjorde de tvåspråkiga eleverna i vissa fall signifikant flera fel än de enspråkiga, men inte genomgående beträffande alla feltyper och alla årskurser. Vilken roll spelar då interferens och integration bland dessa fel inom ordval och fraseologi? Eftersom jag jämför felen hos tvåspråkiga och hos mer enspråkiga elever med varandra kan förekomsten av fel som beror på finskans inflytande också hos de mer enspråkiga eleverna tyda på att vissa uttryck integrerats i ordförrådet. Eftersom felmaterialet är så litet, och dessutom gäller
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Tabell 1 Fördelning av fel i skriftlig produktion på svenska bland tvåspråkiga (=T; N = 86) och enspråkiga (= E; N = 86) elever i årskurserna 3, 6 och 9 i de svenska grundskolorna i Vasa Fell Absoluta % 100 löpord frekvenser T E T E T E Ortografi 3,58 2,53 1090 790 53,5 62,5 Morfologi 0,58 0,38 176 120 8,6 9,5 Syntax och morfosyntax 1,48 0,76 447 237 21,9 18,7 Ordval och fraseologi 1,07 0,38 326 117 16,0 9,3 Totalt 6,70 4,05 2039 1264 100,0 100,0 ett stort antal olika slags typer som ibland uppträder endast hos enstaka elever, är det givetvis ändå otillräckligt att enbart jämföra de två elevgrupperna med varandra. På basen av enbart detta material kan man inte dra slutsatser om hur integrerade vissa uttryck är i språket. För att kunna avgöra om det föreligger tendenser till integration av enskilda typer av interferens stöder jag mig dessutom på den litteratur om regionalismers förekomst och utbredning som finns (Bergroth, 1917; Bergroth & Pettersson, 1960; Ahlbäck, 1971; Liljestrand, 1985; Stenmark, 1983, m.fl.) och på min egen kunskap om språkbruket i Vasatrakten. Det saknas däremot en heltäckande beskrivning av det nuvarande finlandssvenska språkbruket, som givetvis på grund av de stora geografiska skillnaderna varierar mycket från region till region, och som i de olika regionerna är utsatt för olika stark påverkan från finskan och från rikssvenskan. Att beskriva interferensen inom ordval och fraseologi med hänsyn till någon sorts kategorisering enligt gemensamma nämnare är svårt, men vissa slutsatser kan ändå dras om förekomsten av interferenstyper. Nedan följer exempel på relativt vanliga typer av interferensfel, som dels förekommer hos både tvåspråkiga och enspråkiga elever, dels enbart hos tvåspråkiga elever. Exempel med beteckningen TE anger att samma ord eller uttryck uppträder hos både tvåspråkiga och enspråkiga elever. Exempel med beteckningen T anger att samma ord eller uttryck förekommer bara hos tvåspråkiga elever. En stor andel av interferensfelen utgörs av prepositionsfel. Felaktig preposition när prepositionen styrs av ett verb förekommer oftare hos T än hos E. Exemplen 1(a) och (b) utgör belägg på sådan interferens: EXEMPEL 1 (a) Vi har inte berättat någonting åt (:för) våra föräldrar. (fi. 'kertoa jollekulle jotakin) TF
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(b) Med (: för) pengarna så skulle jag köpa en begagnad bil. (fi. 'Rahoilla ostaisin käytetyn auton') T I många fall har preposition satts ut, trots att den inte skall finnas med, t.ex.: EXEMPEL 2 (a) Sen frågade jag också av dem som jobbade där. (: frågade jag dem) (fi. 'kysyä joltakin jotakin') TE (b) Jag ska ta hand om dig om det hender någånting åt dig. (: händer dig någonting) (fi. 'jokin tapahtuu, sattuu jollekulle') T Berätta åt och fråga något av någon i l(a) och 2(a) är vanliga finlandismer. De kan förklaras med hänvisning till finskans konstruktioner, men de är också samtidigt exempel på finlandismer, som har stöd i äldre svenska (Ahlbäck, 1971: 53-54). Också vid lokala och temporala relationer där prepositionen inte direkt styrs av ett verb, förekom det i materialet betydligt fler fall av felaktig preposition hos T än hos E. Interferens förekommer t.ex. i följande belägg: EXEMPEL 3 (a) Han går på andra klassen. (: i) (fi. 'toisella luokalla') TE (b) I matbordet sade mamma att jag skulle fara och hjälpa våra grannar. (: Vid) (fi. 'ruokapöydässä') T 3(a) är en mycket vanlig finlandism. Exemplet 3(b) är däremot inte integrerat. En annan typ av fraser där de tvåspråkiga eleverna hade betydligt fler fel var vid partikelverb. Svenskans partikelverb motsvaras ofta av enbart verb i finskan. Den betydelseaspekt som anges genom verbpartikeln kan uttryckas t.ex. genom objektskasus i finskan, eller genom avledda verb. Utelämnandet av verbpartikel kan då i många fall tolkas som interferens från finskan (men kan givetvis också ses som en utvecklingsstruktur, dvs. förenkling i form av analogibildning). Sådan interferens uppträdde enbart hos T-elever, t.ex. EXEMPEL 4 Tarzan hoppar _____ på Numas rygg. (: hoppar upp på Numas rygg) (fi. 'hyppää Numan selkään') T
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Interferensfelen i fråga om partikelverb brukar inte betraktas som finlandismer. De har alltså inte trängt in i det finlandssvenska språkbruket, såsom en del av prepositionsfelen har gjort. En annan betydande grupp av fel inom ordval och fraseologi utgjordes av regionalismer, dvs. mer eller mindre etablerade finlandismer (vid sidan av de tidigare behandlade prepositionerna) och talspråksord. Som regionalismer har jag kategoriserat sådana ord som tas upp i något av de nämnda verken (Bergroth m.fl. arbeten) och som talspråksord ord hämtade från dialekt eller lågspråk och som ofta har en regional anknytning men inte direkt omnämns som finlandismer i Bergroth m.fl. Regionalismer som har uppkommit genom finskans inflytande förekom hos både de tvåspråkiga och de mer enspråkiga eleverna, men var klart mer frekventa hos de tvåspråkiga eleverna. Några exempel: EXEMPEL 5 (a) Vi önskade att klockan skulle snabbt bli 15.00 så att vi skulle slippa hem. (: få gå hem) (fi. 'päästä kotiin') TE (b) Jag försökte stänga ögonen men det gick inte. (: sluta ögonen) (fi. 'sulkea') T Vanliga talspråksord finns t.ex. i följande belägg: EXEMPEL 6 (a) Han lämnade på stranden tillsammans med sin kamrat. (: blev kvar) (fi. 'jäädä johonkin') TE (b) Har man egen mopo skruvar man på den. (: moped) (fi. 'mopo') T Vissa feltyper, som inte är prepositioner, regionalismer eller talspråksord, har jag kategoriserat som ordvalsfel. Det är sådana fel, där det använda ordet har ungefär samma betydelse som det sökta men inte riktigt passar in i en viss kontext. Som ordvalsfel har jag också betraktat vissa felaktigt bildade ord eller översättningslån. Också av ordvalsfelen finns det flera fall bland de tvåspråkiga eleverna än bland de enspråkiga, och en orsak till detta är att det hos de tvåspråkiga finns interferensfel bland ordvalsfelen. Några exempel: Exempel 7 Vi hade beslutat att Hendrik den store skulle alltid hålla sitt slott. (: få ha, få behålla) (fi. 'pitää') T
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EXEMPEL 8 Så fick vi reda på att de var tjuvar och att de hade tjuvat kistan från Åbo slott. (: stulit) (fi. 'varas' = tjuv, 'varastaa' = stjäla) T Exempel 9 (a) Och jag hade till hemdjur 2 hundar och två kattor. (: som husdjur) (fi. 'kotieläin) T (b) Vi går in där i huvud dörren sa Bill ivrigt. (: huvudingången) (fi. 'pääovi') T En uppfattning om interferensens och integrationens betydelse inom ordval och fraseologi och om förhållandet mellan dem kan man få av följande tabell (tabell 2). De siffror som ges i tabellen far inte tolkas som helt exakta. I vissa fall kan nämligen andra förklaringar än interferens vara tänkbara, t.ex. generalisering och analogibildning med intralingvala orsaker (se t.ex. ex. 8, tjuva). I fråga om de siffror igen som ges för integrerad interferens, stöder jag mig som nämnt på de källor som finns om finlandismer och på den kunskap jag själv har om språket i Vasatrakten, men vissa fall kan tolkas olika. Jag tror ändå att tabellen återspeglar de klara tendenser som finns. Tabellen visar alltså att påverkan från finskan inom ordval och fraseologi förekommer både hos tvåpråkiga elever och hos elever med mera svensk bakgrund. Denna påverkan är mera märkbar hos de tvåspråkiga där nästan hälften (49,1 %) av felen kan förklaras som interferens från finskan mot ca en fjärdedel (24,8 %) hos de enspråkiga. Av interferensfelen hos de enspråkiga är nästan alla sådana fel som under årens lopp har blivit integrerade i det Tabell 2 Interferens och integration bland fel i ordval och fraseologi (= lexfel) hos tvåspråkiga och enspråkiga elever Integrerade interferensfel % av Totalt Interferensfel lexfel av lexfelen % av f % f lexfel f lexfel Tvåspråkiga 326 100 160 49,1 72 22,1 Enspråkiga 117 100 29 24,8 25 21,4
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finlandssvenska språkbruket (men inte accepterade i skriftspråket). Integrerade fel förekommer också hos de tvåspråkiga, men endast i fråga om hälften av interferensfelen. Både interferensfelen och de integrerade interferensfelen är ändå betydligt fler (också omräknat i fel/100 löpord) hos de tvåspråkiga än hos de enspråkiga eleverna. Det tycks vara så att de tvåspråkiga eleverna ofta väljer det uttryckssätt som ligger närmare deras andra språk, finskan. Samtidigt får tabellen åskådliggöra den process som integrationen utgör. Det är ju de tvåspråkiga i samhället som med sin kännedom om två koder spelar en central roll i överförandet av i detta fall finska språkliga element till svenskan. Resultatet av felanalysen måste också ses mot skolans målsättning och skolans språkliga normer. I detta fall gäller det tvåspråkiga elever i det finlandssvenska skolsystemet. Skolan ställer samma krav på språkbehäskning i fråga om de tvåspråkiga som i fråga om de enspråkiga eleverna, dvs. svenskan skall behärskas som modersmål. Litteratur Ahlbäck, Olav (1971) Svenskan i Finland. Andra upplagan. Stockholm: Skrifter utgivna av Nämnden för svensk språkvård 15. Baetens Beardsmore, Hugo (1982) Bilingualism: Basic Principles. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. Bergroth, Hugo (1917) Finlandssvenska. Handledning till undvikande av provinsialismer i tal och skrift. Helsingfors. Bergroth, Hugo & Pettersson, Björn (1950) Högsvenska. Kortfattad hjälpreda vid undervisningen i modersmålet. Sjunde omarbetade upplagan. Helsingfors. Haugen, Einar (1968) Bilingualism in the Americas. A Bibliography and Research Guide. Alabama: American Dialect Society. Liljestrand, Birger (1985) Juttu och sammetsfarmare. Notiser om finlandssvenskt tidningsspråk. Umeå: Nordsvenska. Skrifter utgivna av Institutionen för nordiska språk vid Umeå universitet. Mackey, William F. (1976) Bilinguisme et contact des langues. Paris: Editions Klincksieck. (1980) Comparing languages in contact. Reprint from York Papers in Linguistics 9, 151-71. Heslington, York: Department of Language, University of York. (1983) Sociolinguistics and the synchronic fallacy. Overdruk uit Academiae Analecta. AWLSK, Klasse der Letteren, Jaargang, 45 (2), 79-89. Brussel: Paleis der Academien. Sjögren, Peter A. (1979) Termer i allmän språkvetenskap. Stockholm. Stenmark, Harry (1983) Finlandssvenska ord och uttryck. Tredje reviderade och utvidgade upplagan. Stockholm. Søndergaard, Bent (1984) Language contact in the German-Danish border region: the problems of interference. Reprinted from P. Sture Ureland & lain Clarkson (eds) Scandinavian Language Contacts, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 221-9.
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15 Fackslang i Tvåspråkiga FöretagSvensk Eller Finsk? Solveig Strömman Vasa Högskola, Institutionen för språk, Finland. Abstract This investigation aims at finding out whether the technical jargon in bilingual firms is predominantly Swedish or Finnish. It comprises five minor printing works in the bilingual town of Vasa in Finland. Apart from the technical jargon, there are terms which are always used in either Swedish or Finnish, regardless of the language spoken. These common terms may be technical terms in one language and slang terms in the other, or slang terms in both languages. The common terms are predominantly Finnish, regardless of the language structure in the firm. In the case of slang terms, the linguistic dominance is obvious; in the Swedish dominated firms it is Swedish only, while it is predominantly Finnish in the others. In the Finnish firms a number of originally Swedish terms are used which have been modified for Finnish pronunciation and conjugation. Even in these cases the correct Finnish terms are used when talking to a third party. The technical jargon is primarily related to each individual printing work but some slang terms are used in all five printing works. Avsikten med denna undersökning är att försöka ta reda på om fackslangen i tvåspråkiga företag, i detta fall tryckerier, är övervägande svensk eller finsk. Undersökningen omfattar fern mindre tryckeriföretag i den tvåspråkiga staden Vasa i Finland. Den kompletteras med en enkät om språkkunskaper, språkbruk samt attityder till språk och språkbruk. Tryckerierna har sammanglagt 176 anställda med följande fördelning enligt språk: D
6,anställda,
alla
svenskspråkga
H
9
''
5svenska
M
18
''
3
"
"
15
"
F
43
"
42
"
"
1
"
och
4finska
L 100 " 55 " " 45 " (D, H, M, F, L står för begynnelsebokstaven i tryckeriets namn.)
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Tryckerierna har således sammanlagt 111 svenskspråkiga och 65 finskspråkiga anställda. Finlands lagstiftning beträffande tvåspråkighet är internationellt känd men det finns knappast någon lag som reglerar språkbruket internt i privata företag, Det enda som stipuleras i lag finns i en lag från 1979 om samarbete inom företag där det stadgas att företag i tvåspråkiga områden regelbundent måste ge information till representanter för de anställda på deras eget språk beträffande företagets verksamhet, men endast om den språkliga minoriteten är minst tio personer och utgör mer än 10% av de anställda. Denna lag om språkbruk berör endast kommunikation mellan ledning och anställda och endast frågor om lön och anställningstrygghet. Det finns ingen lag som reglerar språkbruket internt i arbetsrutiner. Resultatet är att företagen i allmänhet saknar uppgift om antalet svenskspråkiga respektive finskspråkiga anställda och endast kan ge en grov uppskattning. I Vasa är de svenskspråkigas andel av stadens befolkning (ca. 50.000 personer) något under 30 %, men svenskans ställning i staden är starkare än så av flera anledningar. Vasa är den centrala staden i Vasa län, ett område som innesluter det s.k. Svenska Osterbotten. Det finns också en väl utvecklad färjtrafik mellan Vasa och två städer i Sverige med flera dagliga turer. Då svenskan är så viktig i Vasa väljer finskspråkiga skolungdomar i Vasa svenska som första främmande språk i mycket högre grad än man annars gör i landet. Våren 1982 valde 66% svenska som första främmande språk medan procenttalet för hela landet de senaste åren varit 7-8 %. Den tvåspråkiga omgivningen torde ha betydelse för det interna språkbruket i företagen. Förutom för fackslangen har jag intresserat mig för huruvida det finns termer som alltid används på svenska eller finska oberoende av samtalsspråk. Facktermer är uttryck som används inom ett visst fackområde och som där har en klart definierad betydelse, d.v.s. är avgränsade från närbesläktade termer. Med fackslang och slangtermer avser jag här termer som utvecklats på respektive företag och som har ett högt informationsvärde på arbetsplatsen, men vilkas innebörd oftast kan vara oklar eller okänd för personer utanför den egna arbetsplatsen även om personerna finns inom den berörda yrkesgruppen. Slangtermerna är arbetsplatsspecifika. Med fackjargong avser jag då 'fackslang' som är yrkesspecifik och förstås på många arbetsplatser inom samma yrkesområde. Arbetssituationen i tryckerierna ger inte stora möjligheter varken till arbetsrelaterat samtal eller till allmänt småprat. I sätterierna slamrar tryckpressar, stiftmaskiner, skärmaskiner och andra maskiner så mycket att ljudnivån avsevärt försvårar samtal. Dessutom använder många arbetare hörselskydd. Långt utvecklad automatik kräver även stor påpasslighet av arbetarna, det går inte att lämna maskinen för att prata med någon vid grannmaskinen.
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Sättarna arbetar individuellt med sina arbeten och kan inte samtala samtidigt som de arbetar, i varje fall inte om de skall hålla en snabb arbetstakt. Som utomstående iakttagare blir men helt fascinerad av hur snabbt sättarna arbetar, deras fingrar rör sig som lärkvingar. Litograferna arbetar vanligen individuellt men kan ibland hålla på med samma projekt och då förekommer självfallet en del arbetsrelaterat samtal. Undersökningen, som fortfarande pågår, har jag främst utfört så att jag besökt de fem tryckerierna upprepade gånger och talat med de anställda, antingen individuellt i arbetet eller kollektivt under kaffepauser och matpauser. Vid första besöket presenterades jag av någon i ledningen och jag gav en allmän information om mitt arbete. Vid mitt första besök delade jag även ut ett enkelt frågeformulär med frågor om ålder, språk, kön och anställningstid samt med utrymme att skriva in slangtermer. Dessa frågeformulär returnerades dåligt och gav klent resultat, men diskussionerna vid mina besök gav bättre resultat. Den första reaktionen var dock 'vi har nog inte några sådana ord' eller 'inte använder vi finska ord då vi talar svenska' eller 'inte pratar vi här, vi arbetar'. Trots att de inte ansåg sig använda slantermer eller ord på 'fel' språk bemöttes jag i allmänhet positivt och en del anställda uttryckte sitt stora intresse. Slangtermerna används omedvetet och självklart så att reaktionen 'vi har inga sådana ord' verkligen var befogad. Inte heller var de medvetna om att de faktiskt använder svenska ord då de talat finska eller tvärtom. Ett belysande exempel: Jag frågade vad 'haitaritaitto' var på svenska, en term som de uppgett att de alltid använder på finska. Den som skulle förklara det sade att de aldrig använder annat men att han kan visa hurudan vikning det är och började med att säga 'så här ser "käärötaitto" ut'. Han märkte inte att han använde ytterligare ett finskt ord. 'Haitaritaitto' och 'käärötaitto' är olika sätt att vika papper, t.ex. en broschyr. Den procentuella andelen svenskspråkiga och finskspråkiga varierar kraftigt mellan de undersökta tryckerierna, från svenskspråkiga i D till 83 % finskspråkiga i M. Svenska och finska används internt i samtliga förutom i tryckeriet med enbart svenskspråkiga där samtalsspråket och språket i alla rutiner är svenska. Men även där talar man finska sinsemellan om t.ex. en finskspråkig kund är närvarande. Här har jag givit bakgrunds information bl.a. om språkförhållandena och nedan skall jag närmare redogöra för de slangtermer som används. Förutom slangtermerna finns gemensamma termer, d.v.s. termer som alltid används på svenska eller finska oberoende av samtalsspråk. Dessa gemensamma termer kan vara facktermer i båda språken, fackterm i det ena språket och slangterm i det andra eller slangterm i vartdera språket. Det första alternativet, fackterm i vartdera språket, torde kunna uteslutas emedan svenskan och finskan är så olika. De två andra alternativen, fackterm i det ena och slangterm i det andra språket eller slangterm i vartdera språket, förekommer däremot.
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Jag tar tryckerierna i storleksordning och börjar med det minsta, D, som har sex anställda, alla svenskspråkiga. Som man kan anta är slangtermerna här övervägande svenska, ett trettiotal termer. Som exempel kan nämnas 'röd vätska' och 'svart vätska' för fixeringsvätska, respektive framkallningsvätska. En annan term är 'klocka' som har två olika betydelser och därför inte fyller kraven som ställs på en term, d.v.s. att vara entydig. Med 'klocka' avses dels ett numreringsverk för löpande nummer och dels en timlista. Timlistan fylls i med 15 minuters noggrannhet och om någon t.ex. kl. 16 säger att min klocka är 14.15 förstår de andra att vederbörande inte fyllt i sin timlista, inte att klockan sänkt sig eller stannat. Termen 'klocka' med två betydelser ät ett undantag; fackslangtermer har på arbetsplatsen lika entydig betydelse som facktermer. Situationen på arbetsplatsen, vem man talar med, i vilken kontext termen 'klocka' används avgör entydigt betydelsen. Inom D används ett femtontal gemensamma termer, alla finska. De flesta av dessa är facktermer på finska men då de används i samtal på svenska är de slantgtermer. T.ex. 'otsikko' är fackterm på finska men slangterm på svenska. Utanför arbetet används den normala termen 'rubrik'. Exempel på slangterm i båda språken är 'leipis', som dock har större likhet med den finska termen än med den svenska. 'Leipis' kommer från 'leipäteksti', på svenska 'brödtext' och avser text förutom rubrik och ingress. Det finska terminslaget är sålunda rätt stort även i detta helsvenska företag och förklaringarna härtill är flera. Dels är många kunder och leverantörer finskspråkiga och kontakterna med dem sker på finska. Frekventa termer används då på finska även då man internt talar svenska. Dels har man tidigare haft även finskspråkiga anställda och dels har en del av de anställda på tidigare arbetsplatser haft även finskspråkiga arbetskramrater. Tryckeriet H har nio anställda, fem svenskspråkiga och fyra finskspråkiga. Aven här används ett femtontal termer alltid på finska oberoende av om man talar svenska eller finska men här är övervägande delen av de gemensamma termerna slangtermer på båda språken. Några av termerna är dock fackterm på finska, t.ex. 'tynnyripyöritys', ett sätt att vända pappersarken vid tryckning. Någon svensk översåttning fick jag inte. Exempel på term som är slangterm på båda språken är 'juorukone' för en stationsstiftare. 'Juorukone' betyder skvallermaskin och termen har uppstått därför att den som sköter maskinen kan prata samtidigt som han arbetar d.v.s. står och övervakar maskinen, och har någon annan tid då söker man sig dit för en pratstund. Ett annat roligt exempel är 'Brigitte Bardot' som används då man talar om ett lim Planatol BB. De flesta gemensamma termerna är som sagt finska men det finns några svenska, t.ex. 'låt e rasa' som betyder 'ok, sätt igång maskinen'. Då man talar finska används ett tjugotal termer som ursprungligen är svenska men som har modifierats för finskt uttal och finsk böjning. För dessa används korrekta finska facktermer då man talar med utomstående. Några
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exempel: 'stiftaus, stifti' från svenska stiftning och stift, medan de korrekta finska termerna är 'niittaus' och 'niitti', Eller 'montteeraus' från montering, medan den korrekta termen är 'asemointi'. I dessa 'förfinskade' termen kan ses ett gammalt inflytande från den tid då det svenska språket hade en betydligt mera dominerande ställning än nu. Tryckeriet M har aderton anställda, tre svenskspråkiga och femton finskspråkiga. Tidigare har det svenska inslaget varit betydligt större. Inom M används ett trettiotal termer alltid på finska oberoende av om man talar svenska eller finska. Endast några svenska termer används även då man talar finska. I allmänhet är dessa gemensamma termer facktermer på finska och slangtermer på svenska. Ett exempel på detta är 'ympäriheitto', ett sätt att vända pappersark vid tryckning. Vid samtal på finska används även här en del från svenska förfinskade termer i stället för de korrekta finska termerna, t.ex. 'perforointi' för perforering i stället för 'reijitys'. Den finska dominansen inom M syns tydligt i det att praktiskt taget alla gemensamma termer är finska och att inga svenska slangtermer förekommer. Tryckeriet F har 43 anställda, 42 svenskspråkiga och endast 1 finskspråkig. Här råder samma förhållande som inom D, d.v.s. att mera finska talas internt än vad språkförhållanden skulle förutsätta. Såväl svenska som finska används internt. Inom F används ett tiotal termer alltid på finska oberoende av samtalsspråk och de är i huvudsak slangtermer på vartdera språket, t.ex. 'seka' for blandad, adresserad tidningsbunt. Vid samtal på finska används här endast ett fåtal 'förfinskade' ord, trots att man med anledning av den stora svenska dominansen kunde ha vantat sig ett stort antal dylika ord. Ett exempel är 'orderinumero' från det svenska ordernummer, medan den korrekta finska termen är 'tilausnumero'. Personalen vid F har ett femtontal svenska slangtermer som verkligen är arbetsplatsspecifika och närmast har karaktären av namn. Några exempel: 'grodan' är en liten gammal handpostningsmaskin, som hoppar som en groda vid användningen. 'Trikantin' är en skärmaskin som skär tre sidor samtidigt, trikantin är en dialektal form av trekant i bestämd form. 'Skråttin' är som namnet säget någonting smått och är här en liten skärmaskin. 'Stora ofreden' är en stor gammal tryckmaskin som skramlar förskräckligt. 'Ludde' är en maskin för gjutning av bokstäver och namnet kommer från tillverkarens namn Ludlow Typograph Co. 'Ludde' har köpts begagnad och kallades Ludde redan på sin gamla arbetsplats. Här syns den starka svenska dominansen i det stora antalet svenska slangtermer, men även här finns ju finska termer som används även vid samtal på svenska.
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Det största tryckeriet L har 100 anställda, 55 svenskspråkiga och 45 finskspråkiga, således den jämnaste språkfördelningen. Här finns drygt 20 gemensamma termer, samtliga finska och de allra flesta slangtermer på båda språken, t.ex. 'Sinari' för 'sinikopio' respektive 'blåkopia' eller 'millari' för millimeterfilm på ljusbord. Några av de gemensamma termerna är dock facktermer på finska och slangtermer på svenska, t.ex. 'kalvopuoli' och 'ladonta' är korrekta termer på finska, men borde på svenska heta 'skiktsida på film' respektive 'sättning'. Vid L som vid de andra tryckerierna finns en del 'förfinskade' termer då man talar finska i stället för de korrekta finska termerna, här ett tiotal. Exempel är 'sortteerata' för sortera i stället för 'lajitella' eller 'viikaus' för vikning i stället för 'taitto'. Här har maskinerna egna namn, antingen härlett från tillverkarens namn eller från den huvudsakliga användarens namn. Man talar t.ex. om Albert eller Harris härlett från tillverkarnamnet, eller om Margits maskin och Leas maskin, på finska 'Margitin kone' eller 'Lean kone' då det är Margit och Lea some använder maskinerna. Trots att L har 55 % svenskspråkiga anställda är det finska inslaget i slangtermerna och i de gemensamma termerna stort. Det svenska inflytandet kommer främst fram i de frän svenska 'förfinskade' termerna. Ovan har jag redogjort för arbetsplatsspecifika termer, men det finns även en del termer som används i alla fem tryckerierna och som då enligt min definition är fackjargong. Dessa termer är ganska få och som exempel kan nämnas 'mackel', finska 'makkeli' för makulatur och på finskal 'ooli' och 'plootu'. De två sistnämnda kommer från svenskan, 'ooli' från 'al', finska termen 'naskali' och 'plootu' från plåt, den finska termen 'pelti'. Undersökningen pågår som sagt ännu och fler slangtermer torde finnas. Visserligen har de anställda vid mina besök sagt att 'nu har du fått alla våra ord', men då jag envist kommit ännu en gang har skörden vanligen varit ett eller två nya ord. Sammanfattningsvis kan man säga att de gemensamma termerna är övervägande finska i alla fem tryckerierna oberoende av hurudan språkstrukturen är. Detta beror sannolikt dels på inflytande från en dominerande finskspråkig omgivning och dels på att finskan i samtal mellan svenskspråkiga och finskspråkiga oftare överväger än svenskan. Då jag i de två svenska tryckerierna D och F frågat varför de använder finska termer då de talar svenska har jag fått olika förklaringar. Ibland vet vederbörande helt enkelt inte vad den svenska termern skulle vara, man har kommit i kontakt med ifrågavarande begrepp på finska på arbetsplatsen och då man talar om det endast där behöver man ingen svensk version. Ibland anses det bero på rena lättjan och på slentrian. Man använder den finska termen som slangterm och reagerar överhuvudtaget inte för att den är finsk. Typiskt för detta är att man
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vid mitt första besök sade att man inte använde finska termer då man talade svenska eller tvärtom. I de tvåspråkiga tryckerierna anses de gemensamma termerna göra kommunikationen mellan arbetarna snabbare och enklare, ingen behöver översätta och risken för missförstånd minimeras. De många termer som är förfinskade från svenskan och som används vid samtal på finska i stället för korrekta finska termer tyder på att svenskan tidigare varit mera dominerande än nu inom utbildning och på arbetsplatser. En del av dessa ord är gemensamma för alla fem tryckerierna, vilket är helt naturligt eftersom de utvecklats från svenska facktermer. Då det gäller slangtermer kan den språkliga dominansen i tryckeriet tydligt ses. I de två svenskdominerade är den enbart svensk medan den i de andra är nästan övervägande finsk. När och hur termerna uppstått är svårt att få reda på. Svaret på den frågen är vanligen att 'man har alltid använt just de här termerna', 'de användes då jag kom hit' eller i något fall har man vetat att den eller den personen haft termen med sig från en tidigare arbetsplats. För något enstaka ord vet man hur det uppstått. Inom D används t.ex. 'ehkäisyväri' både på svenska och finska; det riktiga vore 'suojaväri' repektive 'skyddsfärg'. 'Ehkäisyväri' har man börjat använda efter det att den speditionsfirma man anlitar upprepade gånger använt det. Varför använder man då slangtermer och gemensamma termer? Vårt sätt att kommunicera med andra människor är beroende av vad vi tror att de vet om det vi talar om och vi väljer vår beskrivning på basen av vad vi vet att de vet. Inom ett företag och speciellt inom en avdelning har de anställda ett gemensamt termförråd och en gemensam kunskap som utgör bakgrund for kommunkationen. Bullerivån och den snabba arbetstakten är sannolikt av stor betydelse för uppkomsten av slangtermerna och de gemensamma termerna. Dessa uttrycker komprimerat det man vill säga och skapar samtidigt en känsla av samhörighet.
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16 Spelling Errors in Danish Loan Words or on the Changing Linguistic Dominance and Consciousness of Language History Niels Haastrup Roskilde University Centre, Denmark. Abstract The spelling of international loan words in official Danish orthography (Spelling Dictionary) and in the Danish used by ordinary Danes reveals the shifting dominance of international languages, the Danes' consciousness of language history and the cultural influence the Danes have received. The following paper discusses a small empirical study of this. A panel of university students of Danish in their first semester had to decide upon a number of spellings, of which one is official and the other influenced by English, and further answer the question from which language Danish has borrowed these words. The investigation explores whether there is any connection between the choice of an English-type spelling and knowledge of the origin of the word. This paper does not deal with immigrants or refugees, but with another minoritythe Danes, as a minority in Europe. Well educated members of the upper classes have for centuries been, if not true bilinguals, then close to it. This is why we have many loan words in the Danish language and these are the topic to be discussed here. Though the paper is not about immigrant children, it is about their Danish schoolmates.
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Principles for the Spelling of Loan Words in Danish In Danish, the spelling of loan words is, on the whole, based on the orthography of the foreign language in question. In Denmark, less weight is put on the pronunciation than in Norway and Sweden. According to the old regulations from around the turn of the century, which still form the legal basis for the orthography of loan words, we should in fact spell them in Danish as they should be spelt in the foreign language, for example, in Latin, German, French or English. The regulation of 1892 has a special section from which it is evident that loan words in fact already exist in other languages, but that in some cases they are spelt differentlythat is when they are used as loan words in a Danish text. Dependence on Knowledge of Language History As a consequence, the spelling proficiency of Danes must, to a certain extent, depend on their knowledge of foreign languages and language history, when deciding how to spell a foreign wordif the word is not found in the dictionary or if a dictionary is not at hand. If fundamental principles are to be used for reconstructing or supplementing the orthographic dictionary's ruling, the writer must knowor be able to find outfrom which language the loan word actually derives. This is not always such an easy task. Loan words do not always come directly into Danish from the original language but through other languages, such as Swedish and German. It is, for example, natural to assume that our neighbours to the East and South taught us to say come-back, drive-in, knock-out, make-up, pull-over and sit-in with the stress on the final syllable, even though the spelling clearly shows that the words can only be English, in which the stress should be on the first syllable: 'come-back, 'drive-in, 'knock-out, 'make-up, 'pull-over, 'sit-in. But Knud Sørensen, (1973), who has worked with English loan words in Danish, puts forward a strong argument for explaining this through Danish stress patterns in combinations such as stå 'op, gå 'hjem and slå 'ud. 1 There is rarely only one explanation, but where does that leave us if a word, on its way to Danish, has changed its spelling? These difficulties do not alter the fact that the Regulation of 27th February 1892 obviously presumes that a historical criterion is unequivocal in cases such as doubling a letter after an 'unstressed vowel': The doubling of a consonant after an unstressed vowel is normally retained when it is found in the foreign language (Allé, Ballon,
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abonnere, Buffet etc); but a single consonant is always used where common practice has introduced this: Bajonet, Kanel . . . 2) The rule quoted is an exception to the general rule that a double consonant after a vowel indicates that this vowel is to be pronounced short. 'Ressource' as Example Let us take as an example the French loan word 'ressource', which the English pronounce in their way and spell with a single -s-. There is no doubt that we Danes have this word from French. 'Ressource' came into the Danish language along with many other French loan words in the eighteenth century (Skautrup, 1944: vol. III, 402, ODS), when French was the dominant language in Europe, and before the revision of 1986 the French spelling was the only acceptable one in Danish (Retskrivningsordbog,1955; 1986). But an ordinary 'good speller' of today, who has not necessarily had French in school, as was previously the case, could easily believe that it came from English and was spelled with a single -s-. The stress is certainly not the same as in English: ''resource (Danish: 'res' source'),but, as noted above, Danes do sometimes alter the stress pattern, as e.g. in 'make-up,which we pronounce make-up, stressing the last component. Only those with expert knowledge know that such changes are mainly found in particular word types. Most French loan words have been in the language so long that their spelling is slowly being adapted to Danish orthographic rules. For example, the Regulation of 1892 states: On the contrary, it is normal for the French sounds 'ai' and 'eu' to be written 'æ' and 'ø'e.g. 'Karantæne', 'Inspektør'.3 The Dominance of the English Language Many new loan words come from British English and American English, which are the dominant languages today all over the world. In Denmark, English plays an important role in everyday life as well as in school, where English is a compulsory subject for all pupils, whereas other modern languages, such as French, are now optional in primary education. English is now our first foreign languageand for many, their only foreign language. What is more, the continental European languageseven French (Franglais)have been flooded with English loan words. The overwhelming number of English loan words can be seen from the many columns in the dictionary called New Words in Danish (Riber Petersen, 1984).
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We Danes even make pseudo loan words to keep up with the fashion. The most striking examples listed by Knud Sørensen (1973) include 'cotton coat'and 'stationcar', which the English would disown, but which are both included in the Orthographic Dictionary (Retskrivningsordbogen, 1986) as the good Danish words they are. 4 The Consequences of Shifting Dominance Consequently, one would expect to find a tendency for loan words originating from French to be spelled as if they came from English, e.g. the French 'ressource' spelled with a single -s-. It is not difficult to find examples which illustrate this point. A series of French loan words in English is spelt quite differently from the French originals, whereas the very same words in Danish have preserved an orthography much closer to the French.5 Design of the Study I have two hypotheses to advance to explain why old French loan words in Danish sometimes are spelled as if they were borrowed from English: The first rests on the dominance of English in general in the living history of language, in which all speakers take part. The second is more specific and rests on a lack of knowledge and consciousness of where our loan words come from, as registered in scholarly works and dictionaries. In order to test these two hypotheses, I drew up a questionnaire which was presented to two groups of Danish students studying Danish in their first semester in the university. I received 33 answers out of a possible 50 or so, probably the best. The form comprised three sets of questions, and I shall take the last one first. The First Set of Questions in the Study It concerned which dictionaries the students had at hand when they were studying at home. They were students of Danish, and many had, of course, acquired a number of Danish-Danish dictionaries. But when it came to foreign languages and loan words, the answers show quite clearly that an English dictionary was an essential. This was the only foreign language dictionary possessed by many of them. Of the many dictionaries available to them at
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High School, this was the only one they bought. I have the impression, though I have not made an investigation, that the High Schools always ensure that their pupils have access to dictionaries for the languages they are taught, but not always to a dictionary of foreign loan words. We must assume that consulting an English-Danish or an English-English dictionary might have promoted the tendency to spell loan words as the same words are spelt in English, wherever they come from, since the English dictionary serves as a dictionary of foreign loan words. The Second and Third Sets of Questions The next two sets included series of words. The first series simply concerned the origins of a number of well known loan words: 'kirke', biskop', 'argument', 'jugement', 'gendarm', 'sjus' and 'gespenst'. 6 The questions were: Where does the word come from originally? Through which other language have we borrowed it? My optimistic hypothesis was that most of the students would answer correctly here, at any rate as far as the original language was concerned. They did not. In particular, the Greek origin of the ecclesiastical words seemed to be a closed book; the students referred to German or Norse. There were also problems with French words, even 'jugement' was often considered English, so we must assume that they did not know that the Danish standard pronunciation is like the French. I believe that many young Danes would pronounce this word in English, if they were asked to read aloud a text including this word. 'Argument', which would have been considered Latin with considerable certainty in the past, was now often thought to be an English loan word, although the Danish standard stresses the last syllable as opposed to English: argument. The third set also brought a series of words. The same questions of origin were asked.7 This set, however, also included a choice between two spellings, the orthographic dictionary's and a wrong spelling influenced by English. There were 11 words, mostly old French loan words which had retained their similarity to the French spelling. In Table 1 the French spelling is given in brackets underneath the dictionary spellings (column A), and the English one underneath the wrong spellings (column B). This information was, of course, not given in the questionnaire, and the columns were well mixed, made random. It should be possible, therefore, to gain some indication of any connection between the choice of the correct spelling on the one hand, and knowledge of historic origin and routes into the language on the other.8
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Page 214 Table 1 Test results B A Orthographic Wrong spelling influenced by Dictionary, English 1955 refleksion reflektion (réflexion) (reflection) pavilion paviljong (pavilion) (pavilion) adresse addresse (adresse) (address) bassin basin (bassin) (basin) ressort resort (ressort) (resort) ressource resource (ressource) (resource) stencilere stencillere (stenciler) (stencil-led) komité kommitté (comité) (committee) litteratur literatur (littérature) (literature) guerilla guerrilla (guérilla) (guerrilla) desorienteret disorienteret (désorienter) (disorientated) Results of Sets 2 and 3
Chosen as correct
English origin
A B 12 13
8
Don't know
Yes Maybe Other 6 6 21
32
0
1
0
0
33
26
4
3
8
10
15
27
3
3
1
2
30
9
13
11
8
4
21
13
18
2
4
5
24
23
7
3
9
0
24
28
3
2
4
3
26
31
2
0
7
4
22
27
4
2
4
4
26
32
0
1
4
4
25
We will now look at the results of this investigation, which naturally cannot lead to any great generalisationand which in fact does not confirm a number of the tendencies I have indicated above on the basis of other observations. As mentioned previously, the series comprised old French loan words, but one of these has come to Danish through English, that is 'stencilere', which was probably borrowed into English from French. If we compare the answers for this word with the answers for e.g. ressort we shall see that nearly the same number chose English for the two words, and 24 suggested other languages or 'don't know' for 'stencilere'. On the whole it is remarkable how many chose English, particularly if the 'maybes' are also included. It must be noted, however, that no-one was trapped
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by the 'Swedish' influence of the control example 'paviljong',which clearly reflects the nasal pronunciation in French. Not one person chose English for this, but otherwise, the students guessed English, presumably when they did not actually know the correct answer. All the words are in fact to be found in English. Only in three cases was there a majority who chose the form influenced by English as against the form of the dictionary: 'reflektion' for 'refleksion', 'resort' for 'ressort' and 'resource' for 'ressource'.It is surprising that more regarded 'ressort' than 'ressource' as an English loan word. 'Ressort',in 'cultured pronunication' probably sounds more French, but many people pronounce the final -t. Ressource looks more French, but -ou- is pronounced -u- in Danish, not -å- as in English. This is contradictory, so we have to go a step further. Comparison of the Questions from Sets 2 and 3 We have now demonstrated from the investigation that there is a clear tendency to consider a number of words as originally English, even though they actually come from another language. We have demonstrated, too, that an English spelling form for some words is clearly preferred to the form in the dictionary. But are these two tendencies connected? Do the people who consider a word English in origin also spell the word like English as against the dictionary form? We examine the three words which had a majority vote for the English spelling form in Table 2. Result of the Comparison of Set 2 and Set 3 The figures in Table 2 show, despite their small sise, that there is no connection for these three critical words between origin and spelling. There has to be another explanation. We could look at the structure of the Danish language, or for analogies in adaptation to other loan words. 'Reflektion' could reflect the verb 'reflektere'. 'Ressource'and 'ressort'are uncommon words and could easily be influenced by the many other loan words beginning with re-. It would, however, be wrong to disregard the fact that it is not the history of language to be found in books and dictionaries which is important here, but the living history of language in which we all are a part. We are living at a time when English is in high regard and dominates many of the media used by well educated young people. It is not, therefore, surprising if English-writing patterns in 'common use' stick better than the Danish and prevail unconsciously when a writer chooses a particular spelling. So 'ressource' is spelt with ones as in English.
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Page 216 Table 2 Test result. Spelling as against origin Maybe From from English English refleksion 2 3 -ks2 0 -kt2 3 ved ikke 6 6 ressource 2 4 -ss2 1 -s0 0 ved ikke 4 5 ressort 2 1 -ss1 3 -s5 0 ved ikke 8 4 Conclusion
Other/ Don't know
Total
7
12
11
13
3
8
21
33
7
13
15
18
2
2
24
33
6
9
9
13
6
11
21
33
What can a teacher do with this? Above all, he must not attach too much importance to the examples used, but to what they, as exceptions to the rule, are indicative of. The two differing theoretical positions which language authorities could choose between can be formulated thus: it is the old conflict between de Saussure's two perspectives - the synchronic and the diachronic. We cannot educate all schoolchildren as etymologists, so it follows that the synchronic principle must be the foundation for teaching. This principle is, however, administered differently in, for example, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. As mentioned above, the Danish principle differs from that of the other two countries in that Danish spelling tends to insist that international words should be spelt in the same way as in the international context. There are many advantages in this, if only the international language always remains the same. But it does not. Two hundred years ago, it was French, now it is English, which is not only changing constantly itself, as all living languages do, but has two standard forms, British and American.
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If we put ourselves in the shoes of the language commission (Dansk Sprognævn) and consider the most practical choice of obligatory spellings, arguments could run like this: there are two obvious choices within the limitations set by the synchronic principle: (1) If we follow the argument on which Danish orthography officially is based, that is, that we grosso modo retain the international spelling of international words, why do we not then adopt the English spelling of international words?or, introduce variant forms so that pupils could choose between the French or the English spelling, the two international forms which already exist. In other words, the variant forms 'ressource'and 'resource'could both have been recommended by the language commission as variant spellings. A choice of this kind would give room for the phenomenon that words which for older people, like me, are French loan words, for young people are actually English loan words, borrowed from abroad for a second time by a new generation. (2) If we follow the Norwegian and Swedish principle, that is disregard the international aspect and establish one spelling based on Danish pronunciation, we would recommend 'resurse'. Or, this could be adopted as a variant form alongside the historical French form. This is in fact what the language commission did in the revision of 1986 (Retskrivningsordbogen, 1986): both 'ressource' and 'resurse' are now acceptable. A third possibility would have been to follow the diachronic argument, which is what happens in many cases where Danish orthography is more conservative than many language teachers care for, in other words to retain one and only one spelling, the historical French form 'ressource'. But if the diachronic argument is to be used, we must give our pupils a historical consciousness, so that they apreciate that the use of language is a historical issue in constant change, as we who use the language also are - and this does not apply only to our mother tongue but to the international language, too. It can change from Latin, to French to English, but these foreign languages are also changing all the time, just as our mother tongue is. The choices made in the orthographic dictionary have direct consequences for the educational strategies available. Danish orthography presumes a historical consciousness and a general education, including spelling education, which contributes to its formation. There are indications that, at least officially, Danish teaching in primary schools will be more historically orientated when the new regulations for primary schools are implemented. This will assist in
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giving the pupils a greater awareness of the many cultural influences which enrich our Danish culture, and at the same time create a greater understanding of the value of fellow pupils with other cultural and language backgrounds. Perhaps some day, the registration of new words in Danish will also comprise loan words from Turkish or even Urdu. Notes 1. 'at std op' (English: to get up), 'at gå hjem' (English: to go home), 'at slå ud' (English: to knock out). 2. 'Allé' (French: allée; English: avenue), 'ballon' (French: ballon; English: balloon), 'abonerre' (French: abonner;English: subscribe), 'buffet' (French: buffet;English: sideboard). 3. 'Karantæne' (French: quarantaine; English: quarantine). 'Inspektør' (French: inspeteur; English: inspector). 4. 'Cotton coat'(English: raincoat); 'stationcar' (English: station waggon). 5. In Canada, where English and French exist side by side, it has obviously not been considered of importance to run simple data researches on the difference in spelling of international words. I must thank Kirsten Haastrup, lecturer, for searching for such lists in Toronto, and Canadian participants at the conference for confirmation that such lists do not exist. In particular Trescasses, 1981-83; articles in the Canadian Modern Langauge Review 1979; Dow, 1976; Emery, 1975; Pechon et al., 1979. 6. 'kirke' (Greek: kyrioikos; English: church), 'biskop' (Greek: episkopos;English: bishop), 'argument' (Latin: argumentum; English: argument), 'jugement' (French: jugement;English: judgement), 'gendarm'(French: gendarme; English: gendarme), 'sjus'(French: jus;German: Schuss; English: juice-'whisky soda), 'gespenst' (German: Gespenst;English: ghost). 7. 'Where does the word come from originally? Through which other language have we borrowed it?' 8. The words were quite common for university students, but not the types which appear on the top of frequency lists, apart from 'adresse'(Maegaard, Bente et al., 1986). I shall not give the questionnaire here. For the purposes of this paper, I have rephrased the question concerning the origin and have only included references, made by the students, to English as the parent language. Deletions, alterations and question marks, etc. have been included under 'maybe'. There was no column for 'Don't know'. References Bekendtgørelse af 27.2. 1892. Cahiers de lexicologie 1983-1 (Trescasses). Canadian Modern Language Review, 1979,Ontario. Dow, F. D. M. (1976) Partially Naturalised French Words in Modern English,Edinburgh. Emery, D. W. (1975) Variant Spellings,National Council of Teachers of English, USA. Maegaard, Bente and Ruus, Hanne. (1986) Hyppige Ord i Danske Aviser, Ugeblade & Fagblade Bd 1-2, Københaun. Ordbog over det danske Sprog vol. 1-28, København, 1918-56. Péchon, A. and Howlett, F. (1979) French in Disguise, Ontario. Yale Book Company. Regulations 1892 = Bekendtgørelse af 27.2.1892. Retskrivningsordbog (1955) København: Dansk Sprognævn.
Retskrivningsordbogen (1986) København: Dansk Sprogævn. Riber Petersen, Pia (1984) Nye ord i dankse 1955-1975, København: Dansk Sprognævn. Skautrup, Peter (1944sqq.) Det danske sprogs historie I-V,København: OSL, Cyldenal. Sørensen, Knud (1973) Engelse løn i Dansk, Dansk Sprognævns Skrifter 8,Kbenhaun. Trecasses, P. (1983) Aspects du mouvement d'emprunt à l'anglais reflétés par trois dictionnaires de néologismes. Cahiers de Lexicologie,Vol. XLII, pp. 86-101. Paris: Bernard Quemada, Didier-Erudition.
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17 Leaning to the Right: Hemispheric Involvement in Two Immigrant Groups Edith Mägiste Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden. Abstract Changes in the lateralisation pattern of the brain were followed in two immigrant groups in Sweden. By using a crosssectional approach with length of residence in Sweden as main independent variable, second language (L2) proficiency in Swedish could systematically be varied. Various linguistic measures were taken in the visual and auditory modality. The results indicate more left hemisphere involvement in German monolingual students on arrival in Sweden than in German-Swedish bilinguals at any stage. As proficiency in L2 improves, a gradual shift to the right hemisphere occurs, so that the left hemisphere lateralisation becomes less pronounced. This effect of bilateral involvement was observed in L1 and L2 with young students and to the same extent in both early and late bilinguals, varying in strength depending on task and gender. A comparable pattern was found in Polish adult groups, although, as regards L2 only, indicating age differences in the state of brain maturation during first versus second language acquisition. The results provide clear evidence against the stage hypothesis and extend the L2 effect hypothesis: at least for similar languages as German and Swedish, right hemisphere involvement is about equivalent in both languages. Introduction There seems to be evidence that the acquisition of a second language (L2) in some way influences the lateralisation pattern in the human brain (Albert & Obler, 1978; Vaid, 1986). Lateralisation means localisation of functions to the left or right hemisphere; that is people can be more or less lateralised depending on which hemisphere dominates in a certain situation. In
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verbal processing of monolinguals, scientists from different disciplines have convincingly demonstrated that the left hemisphere is dominating. In bilinguals, however, the results are somewhat confusing. About a dozen studies indicate that bilinguals use the right hemisphere to a greater extent than monolinguals. This has been shown for L1 (e.g. Gordon, 1980), L2 (Sussman, Franklin & Simon, 1982), or both languages. But there are at least as many studies where no laterality differences were found based on bilingualism (e.g. Galloway & Scarcella, 1982; Piazza & Zatorre, 1981). Gender seems to be an important factor which may override parameters of bilingualism (Earle & Pikus, 1982). For verbal stimuli, left hemisphere dominance is generally more pronounced among men, while women show more bilateral involvement. The chief determinant of the lateralisation pattern in the brain is handedness (Bryden, 1982; Hugdahl & Franzon, 1985), followed by several other factors such as proficiency level and familiarity with a task, gender, bilingualism, age and context of acquisition of L2. These factors seem to interact in one way or another (Vaid, 1983). At least three main hypotheses have been proposed to account for the differential lateralisation pattern in bilinguals: (1) The second language effect hypothesis, according to which a second language, learned once a first has been acquired, will have greater representation in the right hemisphere, quite regardless of age or level of performance. (2) The age hypothesis, according to which a language acquired after puberty will be less lateralised due to a greater functional independence between L1 and L2 when L2 is acquired later in life. (3) The stage hypothesis, according to which the right hemisphere will be maximally involved in language processing at the beginning of L2 acquisition and then a gradual shift to the left hemisphere will take place as proficiency in L2 increases. This should be due to processing differences between the competent language performer and the language learner. The early acquirer, with an undifferentiated knowledge of novel linguistic data, relies to a greater extent on holistic strategies, the characteristic mode of the right hemisphere (RH). The active speaker perceives the complex linguistic elements in a more differentiated way and thus uses an analyticalsequential approach characteristic of the left hemisphere (LH). As regards the stage hypothesis, another explanation is possible: Learning a second language also means adapting to a new culture with different, sometimes conflicting, norms. For many people this adaptation process is a stressful situation leading to relatively more participation of the right hemisphere where the emotional centres are localised.
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The purpose of the present study was to follow the developmental changes in the lateralisation pattern of L1 and L2 in different immigrant groups. Such a developmental study has so far not been done and is expected to cast further light on the somewhat contradictory hypotheses. An excellent opportunity to measure the developmental changes in bilingual proficiency is provided by the German school in Stockholm, which offers German-Swedish bilingual schooling from pre-school to high school levels. What makes this school especially interesting is that each grade includes students with a wide range of residence times in Sweden, so that all degrees of bilingual proficiency can be found. It is also a great advantage to study a 'small' language like Swedish since no instruction exists in Swedish as a foreign language in public schools outside Scandinavia. This means that the students from German-speaking countries are all in the same situation on arrival in Sweden: they do not know any Swedish; they start from zero so that residence time in Sweden becomes an important variable for L2 proficiency. Generally, students from this school show a native proficiency in German and Swedish languages after 4-6 years of residence in Sweden (Mägiste, 1979; 1980; 1984a; 1986). By using a cross-sectional approach with length of residence in Sweden as the main independent variable, the differential laterality pattern was studied in the visual and auditory modality. In the visual tasks, a Polish adult immigrant group in Sweden participated to allow further testing of the age hypothesis and to include languages that are more dissimilar than German and Swedish. The hypotheses gives rise to the following predictions: (1) With increasing bilingualism the LH dominance in German-Swedish high school students will decrease for Swedish (L2) when compared to German (L1), that is late bilinguals would show a lateralisation pattern that differs from monolinguals and early bilinguals. (2) Early German-Swedish bilinguals should show a lateralisation pattern which is similar to German monolinguals. (3) Both early and late bilinguals should show less pronounced LH dominance for L2 when compared to L1. (4) Polish-Swedish adults should show more RH participation in Swedish, L2, than in Polish, L1. Identification of Words in the Visual Modality A tachistoscopic study was carried out with words varying in degree of verbal information. Three types of words were chosen and expected to result in decreasing LH lateralisation. With the verbal centres mainly located in the LH, the most marked LH dominance was predicted for abstract words, since these words contain verbal information in its purest form. Less marked
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dominance was predicted for concrete words due to the dual code entailed in these words, the verbal and the imagery. Least marked LH dominance was expected for preverbal coding, a condition leading to a motor response which also should involve the RH. Method Subjects Thirty right-handed subjects (15 boys, 15 girls) in the age range 15-17 years participated. They were divided into three groups: a German monolingual group with a stay of 1-5 months in Sweden; a German-Swedish late bilingual group with 2-7 years of residence in Sweden; a German-Swedish early bilingual group who had resided in Sweden between 14-17 years. For both bilingual groups the language at home was German. Swedish was acquired outside the home in a natural context, that is the languages were acquired in both informal environments and formal teaching situations in school. These rather exclusive groups have achieved a very high degree of proficiency in their two languages. On five-point scales most of these subjects rated their skills in German and Swedish as about equal in terms of reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. As to age, social and language background, the three groups may be considered homogeneous. Further, 28 Polish subjects (14 males, 14 females) aged 20-40 years participated. They were divided into two groups: a Polish monolingual group with a stay between 1-5 months in Sweden and a Polish-Swedish bilingual group with a residence time of 3-16 years in Sweden. These groups are very heterogeneous as to age, social and language background. Workers as well as university professors participated. No subject handled Swedish with the competence of a native speaker. When they came to Sweden as political refugees, they were adults and, apart from a short course in Swedish upon their arrival, they have not received any formal bilingual training. However, they use Swedish in their daily work and their bilingualism can be considered functional. Material In each language (German, Swedish, Polish) there were two conditions: (1) identification of 20 abstract 4-5 letter nouns, (2) identification of 20 concrete 4-5 letter nouns. In German and Swedish a third condition was included where pre-verbal coding was expected by subjects' motor response to 20 4-5 letter nouns representing objects and animals. Only high-frequency nouns were used. They
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were chosen from Eaton's (1961) and Battig & Montague's (1969) word norms. The tachistoscope for presentation of the stimuli was a three-field model G 1132 T-3 B 2 Serial 38301. The luminance was kept constant at 12 lux. Presentation time varied between 150-320 ms and was individually applied. Procedure Each subject started the session by filling in the questionnaires about handedness and language background. To find the most appropriate individual presentation times, some practice trials of 12 words were given. When a subject was able to identify 8-10 of these words, the exposure time was judged as adequate. The words occurred randomly in the left or right visual field relative to a fixation point in the centre. Each word was 2 or 2.5 cm long, 7 mm high and written in block capital letters. The distance of each word from the fixation point in the centre was 3.5 cm, which subtended a retinal angle of approximately 2.30º. All words were repeated twice in mirror-reversed order, first in one language and then in the other with a short rest between languages. The German and Polish monolingual groups, however, were given words in their first language only. Subjects were instructed to concentrate on the fixation point in the centre and to press a button which elicited stimulus presentation. Subjects started with the motor-response condition for concrete nouns where they were asked to demonstrate the answer: clapping both hands indicated that the stimulus was an animal, stamping by feet on the floor indicated that the stimulus was no animal, and remaining silent that the subject could not identify the stimulus. Then the abstract and concrete nouns were presented in counterbalanced order. Subjects were instructed to answer verbally by saying the word loudly. Results Table 1 shows the mean percentages of words correctly identified in the left and right hemisphere and the mean differences between the hemispheres. On these differences, separate analyses of variance were carried out for each language. When Swedish was the language of response, the ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of groups, F(2,24) = 3.41, p < 0.05, indicating that bilingualism affected the laterality pattern. In both early and late bilinguals, the laterality differences are clearly less pronounced than in German monolinguals. This decreasing lateralisation is evident in all conditions, and is most marked in abstract words. Whereas monolingual subjects identified 41% more abstract words in the LH, the corresponding percentages for the two bilingual groups are 20% and 18%, due to greater RH involvement.
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Table 1 Percentage of correctly identified words in the LH and RH and mean percentage difference between the hemispheres as a function of group and task German monolinguals Early bilinguals Late bilinguals LH RH Diff. LH RH Diff. LH RH Diff. German words 76.0 35.0 41.0 76.5 53.0 23.5 78.0 49.5 28.5 abstract 71.0 50.5 20.5 70.5 62.0 8.5 68.5 58.5 10.0 concrete 75.0 56.5 18.5 76.0 72.5 3.5 69.0 67.5 1.5 demonstration Swedish words 80.0 60.0 20.0 74.0 56.0 18.0 abstract 72.0 66.5 5.5 68.0 56.0 12.0 concrete 77.0 67.5 9.5 77.5 70.5 7.0 demonstration
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In line with the hypotheses, the abstract condition led to most pronounced laterality differences in all three groups as also indicated by a significant main effect of conditions, F(2,48) = 11.2, p < 0.005. According to comparisons with Tukey's post hoc test, other differences between the concrete and the demonstration conditions did not reach significance in any group. The main effect of gender was significant, F(1,24) = 5.75, p < 0.05, which means since no interaction effects were found - that the girls in all groups and conditions showed relatively more bilateral involvement than boys. A similar effect of decreasing lateralisation with increasing bilingualism was observed when German, L1, was the response language as indicated by a significant main effect of groups, F(2,24) = 4.13, p < 0.05, and conditions, F(2,48) = 17.8, p < 0.01. The decreasing lateralisation is found in both bilingual groups to about the same degree, with no particular effect for the abstract condition. The main effect of gender was highly significant, F(1,24) = 14.58), p < 0.001, but there is no simple relation as indicated by a significant triple interaction of group x gender x condition, F(4,48) = 2.9, p < 0.05. Whereas girls in all groups show a less marked LH dominance than boys for abstract words, the pattern is the reverse for the concrete and demonstration conditions, with boys showing less LH involvement on these tasks than girls. Table 2 shows the results for the Polish-Swedish adult groups. In line with German monolingual subjects, Polish monolinguals show a clear LH preference for concrete and abstract words. This pattern does not change due to bilingual proficiency: in Polish, Polish-Swedish bilinguals show about the same LH dominance on the two tasks as Polish monolinguals. In Swedish, L2, the differences between the two hemispheres are less pronounced. However, the percentages of correctly identified words in the LH are clearly much lower compared to the percentages for Polish words in both the monolingual and bilingual group, indicating that Swedish is the Table 2 Percentage of correctly identified words in the LH and RH and mean percentage difference between the hemispheres as a function of group and language Polish monolinguals Polish-Swedish bilinguals LH. RH Diff LH. RH Diff Polish words 81.8 45.0 36.8 75.0 40.7 34.3 abstract 79.6 53.9 25.7 73.9 46.1 27.8 concrete Swedish words 59.6 41.4 18.2 abstract 63.2 47.1 16.1 concrete
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bilingual's weaker language. The laterality differences between the monolingual and bilingual group were marginally significant, F(1,24) = 3.58, 0.10 > p > 0.05, and the main effects of conditions were insignificant in both languages. The main effect of gender reached significance in both Polish, F(1,24) = 6.1, p < 0.05, and Swedish, F(1,24) = 5.84, p < 0.05, indicating more bilateral involvement in females than in males on all tasks. Dichotic Listening for Words and Sentences Method Subjects Fifty right-handed subjects (25 boys, 25 girls) in the age range 15-17 years participated. All were normal hearing students from the German school in Stockholm, which offers bilingual schooling. Residence time in Sweden varied between 5 months and 16 years. Material Handedness was assessed by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971), language proficiency in German and Swedish by self-ratings on five-point scales as regards reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. The dichotic listening tasks consisted of words and sentences in both German and Swedish languages. Forty pairs of nouns like 'Köter - Kater' (German) and 'lampa - limpa (Swedish) were presented binaurally across two channels and heard through a stereo headset at 85 dB with a noise ratio of 60 dB. The pairs of nouns differed only by the vowel in the middle of the word. Likewise, 24 abstract five-word sentences were presented in German and Swedish. One example of a German sentence was 'Das Gesetz bedeutet das Ende der freien Meinung'. Only high-frequency nouns were used. The sentences presented binaurally were matched on surface structure and were semantically similar. They were recorded in the same voice and with the same precautions to control for variations in intensity, pitch and timing. Procedure Subjects were tested individually. Each subject started the session by filling in the questionnaire about handedness and language background. The dichotic listening tasks were presented on four different tapes, two for each language. Each of the 20 dichotic word pairs was presented twice, the second time with the assignment of stimuli to ears reversed. There was a total of 80 word pairs. Two pairs of words were presented successively with a 20 second inter-
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stimulus interval. Subjects were instructured to repeat the four words from both ears if possible and to name first that word within each pair which they perceived best. Subjects had 10 seconds for their answers, which were taperecorded. In the case of sentences, subjects listened to two pairs of sentences successively with the instruction to repeat two of the sentences presented to one ear as correctly as possible in any order during 20 seconds. For half of the sentences, subjects were instructed to concentrate on the right ear, for the other half on the left ear. There was a total of 48 sentences. Conditions and languages were counterbalanced across subjects. At the start of a new condition, subjects were given some practice trials. Subjects with a short residence in Sweden had, of course, difficulties with the Swedish tasks. They were encouraged to repeat the stimuli anyway, which was often accomplished on a phonetical basis with poor comprehension of words' and sentences' meanings. Results For each language, the laterality scores were calculated as a function of length of residence in Sweden. Laterality scores are correct right ear responses minus correct left ear responses divided by the number of stimuli. A right ear advantage means LH dominance, a left ear advantage RH dominance. The data were treated by regression analysis, and the regression lines were drawn separately for boys and girls. Each point represents a different individual. The left panel of Figure 1 shows the laterality scores for words in Swedish. Most subjects with a recent arrival in Sweden identified more words correctly in the right ear than in the left ear, indicating LH dominance. With increasing proficiency in Swedish, the LH dominance decreases, which is more pronounced for girls than for boys. The slope of the regression line is significant for girls, t(23) = 2.95, p < 0.005, significant for boys, t(23) = 1.96, p < 0.05, and significant for boys and girls taken together, t(48) = 3.31, p < 0.005. A corresponding development was obtained for words in German, the subjects' first language. As indicated by the right panel of Figure 1, there is a slight LH dominance for most subjects with a short residence in Sweden. After 14-16 years in Sweden, about half of the subjects show LH dominance, the other half RH dominance. The slope of the regression line is significant for girls, t(23) = 2.26, p < 0.02, but not for boys, t(23) = 0.77, p > 0.05. However, the slope for boys and girls taken together reaches significance, t(48) = 2.13, p < 0.02. The most sensitive measure of lateralisation in the present study was to ask subjects which word from both ears they perceived best. Despite great
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Figure 1 Laterality scores for words in Swedish and German as a function of length of residence in Sweden. Crosses and broken lines, boys; dots and full line, girls; asterisk, sign.
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individual variations, a clear LH preference for both languages was found in all subjects with a short stay in Sweden, as can be seen in Figure 2. It is interesting to note that there is not any subject with a residence time in Sweden of 4 years or less who perceives words best in the left ear. Such a left ear advantage is quite usual in bilingual subjects with a longer residence in Sweden. Generally, LH dominance decreases continuously for both languages with increasing bilingualism as a long lasting effect in early as well as in late bilinguals. The slope of the regression lines is clearly significant for boys in German, t(23) = 3.32, p < 0.005, and Swedish, t(23) = 2.53, p < 0.01, as well as for girls in German, t(23) = 2.79, p < 0.01, and Swedish, t(23) = 2.21, p < 0.02. Girls show less pronounced LH dominance than boys at all stages. The results for repeating Swedish sentences are in line with the results obtained for words: the preference for the LH decreases with increasing bilingualism as indicated by Figure 3. The slope of the regression lines is significant for girls, t(23) = 1.71, p < 0.05, insignificant for boys, t(23) = 1.14, p > 0.05; however, it is significant for boys and girls taken together, t(48) = 2.55, p < 0.01. Repeating German sentences was the only condition that did not lead to a change in the laterality pattern and under which girls showed a slight tendency of more LH dominance than boys. The slopes of the regression lines for both boys and girls did not reach significance. In the case of sentences, it has to be kept in mind that apart from the difficulties in constructing equivalent sentences in two languages the memory load in repeating them is great. The task places demands on concentration and motivational factors that do not exist in the repetition of single words. Discussion The results across modalities provide evidence for more bilateral involvement with increasing bilingualism. This seems to be a long-lasting, not a temporary, effect observed in both early and late bilinguals to the same extent. Thus, on the basis of the present results there seems to be no evidence for the stage hypothesis which suggests that RH involvement is more likely in the beginning than in the advanced stages of second language acquisition. There might be some evidence for the age hypothesis. Polish-Swedish adults showed a greater representation in the RH for Swedish, L2, but not for Polish, L1. Whether this is due to age or language dissimilarity it is impossible to know. A developmental study with, for example, young
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Figure 2 Laterality scores for Swedish and German words best perceived in one hemisphere. For both boys and girls decreasing LH dominance with increasing bilingualism. Crosses and broken lines, boys; dots and full lines, girls; asterisk, sign.
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Figure 3 Laterality scores for Swedish sentences as a function of gender and residence in Sweden. For German sentences no significant change in the laterality pattern due to bilingualism. Crosses and broken lines, boys; dots and full lines, girls; asterisk, sign.
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Finnish immigrants in Sweden could easily be done and would cast further light on the relative importance of age and language similarity. The second language effect hypothesis is confirmed but should - if the present results are valid - be extended to include L1, at least as regards similar languages like German and Swedish. It seems reasonable to assume that bilinguals show a comparable pattern of hemispheric involvement across their two languages the more similar the languages are, as is the case with German and Swedish. Conversely, the more dissimilar the languages, as in the case of Polish and Swedish, the greater the likelihood that the pattern of hemispheric involvement will differ across the two languages. Such a differential participation of the two hemispheres determined by degree of similarity between languages could also explain other phenomena in connection with second language learning. It is well known that related languages are much easier to learn at receptive levels than unrelated languages (Mägiste, 1984b), while at productive levels related languages may cause considerable irritation due to interference (Ringbom, 1985). These special difficulties could be a result of greater proximity in cerebral representation for similar languages. There are, nonetheless, wide individual differences in the number of bilinguals showing the expected bilaterality as compared to monolinguals. According to analysis of variance on the present data, between 8 and 11% of the variance is explained by bilingualism, 10 and 15% by gender. In line with previous results, gender is a more important factor than bilingualism in determining RH processing and certainly not many people who know foreign languages will show this effect of more bilateral involvement. What seems to be crucial is the active use of languages. These German-Swedish students are daily actively dealing with their languages (including two or three other foreign languages), which means a continuous confrontation and switching between different language and norm systems, probably leading to a general, higher level of arousal which is not necessarily existing in people who are mainly concentrating on one language. The present findings might help to explain other research results in connection with bilingualism. Carringer (1974), Lambert (1973) and Ruke-Dravina (1971) found a greater flexibility and originality in creativity tests in part of a group of bilinguals as compared to monolinguals. Genesee, Tucker & Lambert (1975) found greater sensitivity to communicative needs; Cohen, Tucker & Lambert found a greater level of perceiving new sounds. References Albert, M. L. & Obler, L. K. (1978) The Bilingual Brain.New York: Academic Press. Battig, W. F. & Montague, W. E. (1969) Category norms for verbal items in 56 categories:
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A replication and extension of the Connecticut category norms. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Monograph, 80, 1-46. Bryden, M. P. (1982) Laterality: Functional Asymmetry in the Intact Brain. New York: Academic Press. Carringer, D. (1974) Creative thinking ability of Mexican youth: The relationship of bilingualism. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology,5, 492-504. Earle, J. B. B. & Pikus, A. (1982) The effect of sex and task difficulty on EEG alpha activity in association with arithmetic. Biological Psychology, 15, 1-14. Eaton, H. S. (1961) An English-French-German-Spanish Word Frequency Dictionary. New York: Dover. Galloway, L. & Scarcella, R (1982) Cerebral organization in adult second language acquisition: Is the right hemisphere more involved? Brain and Language, 16, 56-60. Genesee, F., Tucker, G. R. & Lambert, W. E. (1975) Communication skills of bilingual children. Child Development,46, 1010-14. Gordon, H. W. (1980) Cerebral organization in bilinguals: I. Lateralization. Brain and Language,9, 255-68. Hugdahl, K. & Franzon, M. (1985) Visual half-field presentations of incongruent colourwords reveal mirrorreversal of language lateralization in dextral and sinistral subjects. Cortex, 21, 359-74. Lambert, W. E. (1973) Cognitive and attitudinal consequences of bilingual schooling. Journal of Educational Psychology,65, 141-59. Mägiste, E. (1979) The competing language systems of the multilingual: A developmental study of decoding and encoding processes. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour,18, 79-89. (1980) Memory for numbers in monolinguals and bilinguals. Acta Psychologica, 46, 63-8. (1984a) Stroop tasks and dichotic translation: The development of interference patterns in bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition,10, 304-15. (1984b) Learning a third language. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development,5, 415-21. (1986) Selected issues in second and third language learning. In J. Vaid (ed.), Language Processing in Bilinguals: Psycholinguistic and Neuropsychological Perspectives.pp. 97-122. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum. Oldfield, R. C. (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh Inventory. Neuropsychologia,9, 97-113. Piazza, D. & Zatorre, R. (1981) Right ear advantage for dichotic listening in bilingual children. Brain and Language,13, 389-96. Ringbom, H. (1985) Foreign Language Learning and Bilingualism.Abo: Abo Akademi. Ruke-Dravina, V. (1971) Word associations in monolingual and multilingual individuals. Linguistics,74, 66-84. Sussman, H., Franklin, P. & Simon, T. (1982) Bilingual speech: Bilateral control? Brain and Language, 15, 12542. Vaid, J. (1983) Bilingualism and brain lateralization. In S. Segalowitz (ed.), Language Functions and Brain Organization. pp. 315-39. New York: Academic Press. (1986) Language Processing in Bilinguals: Psycholinguistic and Neuropsychological Perspectives. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum.
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25 Språkmöten i Minoritetslitteraturen Kjell Herberts Institutet för finlandssvensk samhällsforskning, Finland. Abstract Fiction has seldom been used in the study of the encounter between language and culture. This paper presents a project in which this encounter is thoroughly studied. The material consists of one hundred Finland-Swedish fictional works. Do the writers state that the environments described are bilingual? There seem to be three different models: (1) non-existence (no indication that language and culture meet), (2) consensus (peace and consensus in the language encounter), (3) conflict (conflict and opposition in the language encounter). The three models seem to be equally frequent. Similar studies could even be included with some advantage in school syllabuses as a basis for further discussion about the conditions of language and culture in a polyglot society. Mötet mellan språk och kulturer i flerspråkiga samhällen har undersökts med många olika metoder. Vanligast förekommande är enkäter och intervjuer, varför undersökningar på individ- och organisationsnivå är tämligen högfrekventa. Aven genom innehållsanalyser av massmedia har tvåspråkigheten i samhället studerats. I ett försök att med hjälp av skönlitteratur undersöka flerspråkighetens olika dimensioner har jag funnit ett tämligen outforskat område inom tvåspråkighetsforskningen. Litteratursociologiska och litteraturpedagogiska undersökningar har endast ytligt berört denna dimension av kulturellt liv; mötet mellan olika språk och mellan olika kulturer. Litteraturen i Samhället och Samhället i Litteraturen Ett genomgående tema för litteratursociologer har varit den dubbla relationen mellan litteratur och samhälle. Två skolor kan härvidlag urskiljas. Den första, 'reflection theory', utgår från att författarna är en del av samhållet. Författarna reflekterar således olika aspekter av samhälleligt och mänskligt liv, till stor del
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18 Literacy in a Second Language: A Study of Text Construction in Near-Native Speakers of Swedish 1 Christopher Stroud University of Stockholm, Institute of Linguistics, Department of Research on Bilingualism, Sweden. Abstract In this paper attention is focused on the acquisition of literacy in the advanced second language learner of Swedish, who phonologically and grammatically exhibits near-native ability in the language. Data have been elicited from 36 students attending second year courses at the Swedish 'gymnasieskola' (senior high school). The population comprised 12 speakers of Finnish, 12 speakers of Spanish, and 12 matched Swedish controls. Each student was invited to participate in a set of oral and written tasks. For the bilingual students, data from both languages were collected. Only the Swedish written material will be considered here. The present work reports on an explorative, quantitative study of selected aspects of text organisation, and summarises some qualitative data on macro-level text structure. The results suggest that the Spanish writers differ consistently from the other two groups in how they approach the writing task. They choose text parameters that are more interactive, more involvement oriented, and less reportative. This pattern is discussed in terms of possible differences in cultural preferences for textual organisation. Introduction The acquisition of literacy in second language contexts, and especially among advanced second language learners, has hitherto been accorded scant interest.
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Indeed, serious work on facets of literacy as such has only recently been conducted by linguists, anthropologists and cognitive psychologists. As is often the case with new fields of research, there are almost as many definitions of central terms as there are researchers interested in the topic. The notion of literacy is no exception and an adequate approach to literacy acquisition is notoriously difficult to specify. The approach taken in the present paper is based on the insight that an integral part of acquiring literacy is learning to display the appropriate social behaviours associated with 'being literate'. Literacy is thus viewed as a social construction; individuals are socialised into norms of literate behaviour through participation in interaction exchanges and meaning negotiations in various contexts, and demonstrate knowledge of these norms in situations that require 'literacy'. As an example of what literacy behaviour may entail, Heath (1984) details such characteristic modes of language use found among the North American literary élites as metalinguistic awareness, attention to selection and use of words, and extensive talk about how meanings are achieved through texts. In general, a literate person is one who is in the possession of a metacognitive process that 'makes other cognitive and social developments possible' (Cook-Gumperz, 1986; 3). Literacy, then, is more than mere literacy skillsthe ability to read and write. Of relevance to the present study is the work which demonstrates cultural and sub-cultural differences in how the speech event of literacy is constructed and perceived (e.g. Gumperz, 1986; Tannen, 1984; Clyne, 1987; Heath, 1982). According to Collins & Michaels (1986), 'community based differences in discourse style may lead to different assumptions about constructions of meaningful and coherent texts'; children from different cultural contexts may need to acquire new ways of marking thematic relationships in written discourse. Gumperz (1986) has shown (as have Collins & Michaels, 1986) how oral styles prevalent in American Black discourse are less transferable to writing than those of white middle-class children and argued that a mismatch between teacher and student experiences of literacy may have detrimental consequences for the individual pupil's literacy acquisition (see also Heath, 1982). Such cultural differences are not only influential in practices of early literacy socialisation, but can also be found to contribute to how texts are organised at more advanced levels. Tannen (1984) compared oral and written narratives from Greek and American students, finding some suggestive differences in how the two groups performed the task; Greek speakers tended to interpret film segments in personal terms, whereas Americans took the stance of 'film critic', commenting on the film's cinematic techniques, Greek speakers provided more interpretation when describing scenes than did Americans, and the Greek subjects also used more interpretative naming than Americans, that is choice of
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a noun to refer to a character that contained more information than the film gave. In a similar vein, Clyne (1987) found on a comparison of English and German written academic discourse that whereas good English essay writing was organised around a discourse pattern of linearity and relevance, German texts that were highly valued tended to exhibit linguistic features such as nominalisations and participle forms that gave the text a higher level of abstraction. Clearly, perspectives on literacy acquisition that incorporate interactional and cultural dimensions may prove to give us useful insights on subtle problems confronting the bilingual student in educational contexts. Background Today, an increasing number of pupils in Swedish schools are of immigrant background. Many pupils with home languages other than Swedish proceed to further education after the nine year obligatory schooling. Higher levels of education inevitably place greater demands on the abilities of these students to work with and through texts. Knowledge is increasingly transmitted, displayed and evaluated in literacy related ways. At present, we do not know whether immigrant pupils perform in the same way as Swedish monolinguals in situations requiring literate behaviour. Consequently, we have no conception of whether the teaching contexts of advanced education, characterised in terms of language interaction and meaning negotiation, are appropriate for these pupils, nor whether norms of academic evaluation do justice to their capabilities. In many cases, teachers would not seem aware of these potential problems. This is not surprising; when confronted with a student who shows no perceivable structural difficulties with Swedish, it is not immediately obvious that more subtle sociolinguistic problems may hamper his/her academic performance. Few teachers, unfortunately, have the linguistic or methodological training needed to diagnose and assist advanced pupils in aspects of Swedish as a Second Language that go beyond sentence, word or sound. 2 We have seen above that literacy may be many things. An important aspect of school based literacy, however, is its emphasis on written skills, the presentation of decontextualised content in well-organised texts. Hultman & Westman (1977) investigated the linguistic means by which highly evaluated texts are constructed in the Swedish 'senior high school' context by pupils with Swedish as their native language. These authors list an extensive catalogue of linguistic variables implicated in text construction, and correlate the type and frequency of the variables in student essays to grade level. In this manner,
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they sift out a picture of what constitutes the Swedish norm for essay writing: variation in lexical expression and compactness in text structure. The following linguistic features (given here in a somewhat more simplified and schematic way than in Hultman & Westman's study) would seem to be among the best criteria for distinguishing 'high-grade' from 'low-grade' writers in formal expository prose production: (1) type and proportion of post-modifying elements, (2) proportion of nominalisations, (3) proportion of supine verb forms (a 'participle' form used after the temporal auxiliary ha = 'have'), (4) proportion of subjects as sentence-initial elements, (5) proportion of pronominal subjects. Hultman & Westman suggest that post-modifiers, especially prepositional phrases, and nominalisations contribute significantly to text integration and compactness. With respect to use of non-finite supine verb forms, the authors argue that, since these elements play an integral role in the tense system, they allow 'a logical sorting of arguments, a marking of the before and after in the flow of thought'. Frequent use of these devices is thus a marker of a wellwritten text. The authors also found that essays containing a higher proportion of subjects as sentence-initial elements were rated higher than those that contained larger proportions of adverbials in this position. Finally, they claim that a high proportion of pronominal subjects is characteristic of a less integrated language use. Hultman & Westman interpret these variables in terms of a dichotomy between spoken and written language; certain variables, such as use of pronominal subjects, are claimed typical of speech, and others, such as nominalisations, characteristic of writing. However, it is clear from recent research that there are few consistent differences between speech and writing, and Biber (1986: 385), referring extensively to published research, claims that 'no single dimension adequately accounts for the range of linguistic variation across spoken/written texts'. On the basis of a factor analysis of English text corpora,Biber (1986) tentatively identifies three fundamental textual dimensions: The first dimension, Interactive versus Edited Texts,subsumes such linguistic phenomena as general hedges and emphatics, unspecified nominal and verbal referents (it/do), features marking interpersonal interaction (I/you, yes-no questions) and four subordination measures (that- clauses, if- clauses, wh- clauses and other adverbial subordinators). The second dimension, Abstract versus Situated Content, is characterised by use of linguistic features such as nominalisations, prepositions, and passives that mark an abstract, nominal content, and place
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and time adverbials that signal concrete content with high reference to physical and temporal parameters of the situation. The third dimension, Reported versus Immediate Style, implicates features that refer to a removed, narrative context such as past tense, perfect aspect and third person pronouns and features that are used for immediate reference, such as present tense. 3 To all intents and purposes, then, the combination of textual parameters identified by Hultman & Westman as characteristic of highly evaluated prose manifests a specific text-type, viz. that of a highly edited, reportative, nominal style with little reference to situational context. Present Study Given the background in the previous sections, it is clearly of interest to investigate whether advanced bilingual pupils produce similar text types to Swedish monolinguals in response to identical literacy tasks. This question can be examined by studying how bilingual students structure texts both with respect to the quantitative distribution of text variables and the manner in which these are used to organise content. In the present study, the focus is restricted to a quantitative comparison of select textual parameters in written compositions from monolinguals and bilinguals. Any significant differences on such measures between natives and near-natives require explanation. One possible explanation entertained here is that the choice and distribution of text-structual parameters may be a reflex of how the bilinguals approach the literacy task and interpret its requirements with respect to the type of text to be produced. Quantitative differences will then mirror macrostructural facets of text construction. Appended to the quantitative emphasis of this study, therefore, is an impressionistic analysis of how the students choose to 'present' the writing task to the reader; what perspective or stance the writer takes to the material, what sort of interpretations of events, characters, etc. is given, how much detail is included, etc? Methodology Subject selection Data were elicited from 36 students attending second year courses at the Swedish gymnasium (senior high school). The population comprised 12 speakers of Finnish, 12 speakers of Spanish and 12 Swedish controls. All subjects were between the ages of 17 and 18 years.
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The criteria for subject selection were the following: (1) the students were not to have any perceptible accent in phonology, grammar or lexicon, i.e. they should pass as native speakers of Swedish in everyday conversation; (2) they were to use their first language on a daily basis; (3) they were to represent the whole range of grade levels; and (4) they were to be composed of individuals who had immigrated to Sweden both before and after the age of 10. 4 The Swedish controls were matched for grade level. To ensure that the 24 bilingual students selected really were 'native-like' in their Swedish, 100 teachers of Swedish as a Second Language were asked to judge tape excerpts from 26 monolingual and bilingual students from our population. Their task was quite simply to determine if each subject was a native Swedish speaker or a bilingual. With one or two exceptions, they could not separate the bilinguals from native speakers of Swedish. All subjects were requested to complete a questionnaire on language use in different contexts,their parents' languages and parents' occupation. The bilingual pupils were also asked to estimate their degree of proficiency in different modalities for each language against a five-point scale. It proved difficult to find completely equivalent groups on these criteria. The Finnish group is composed mainly of females; their average grades in Swedish are higher (3.7) as opposed to (3.1) for the Spanish group and (2.8) for the Swedish group; most of these subjects were born in Sweden and many of them have bilingual parents or parents of different language backgrounds. The Spanish group has a more varied composition with smaller grade differentials within the group and a larger spread of age on arrival in Sweden. In most cases both parents are native speakers of Spanish. The social indices, worked out on the basis of parents' occupation, were similar for all three groups, although the Spanish speakers did tend to have slightly higher values for socio-economic status. Data gathering Each student was invited to participate in a set of oral and written tasks that involved the oral retelling of four texts (written and spoken) and a written summary of the first 20 minutes of Charlie Chaplin's film Modern Times. Linguistic data were gathered in both the students' vernacular and in Swedish. Each oral text was transcribed using the conventions of conversation analysis. The written material was elicited in one group session. Subjects were given 1½ hours to write their summary. They were also encouraged to comment on the film in any way they saw fit.
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Analysis The data are currently being analysed from a wide range of perspectives (see Hyltenstam & Stroud, in preparation). For the purposes of this paper, each student essay has been quantified on the textual level with respect to use of the variables: (1) type and proportion of sentence-initial element, (2) proportion of nominalisations, (3) proportion of non-finite supine verb forms, (4) proportion of subjects as sentence-initial elements, (5) proportion of pronominal subjects and (6) proportion of different finite verb forms (cf. Hultman & Westman, 1977). Currently under way is an analysis of the qualitative use of these variables and an investigation of how referential devices are used. The written material has been analysed into frames in a way similar to that of Tannen's 1984 analysis. We have examined how the film was introduced, the type and amount of detail supplied in the individual scenes and character descriptions, if and how scenes and/or the film as such were interpreted, and the general narrative stance taken on the film. Results In the following, only the results from the quantitative study of textual variables and the frame analysis from written data will be presented. Quantitative Measures of Text Construction As baseline measures, the average number of words and the average length of T-units were estimated for each group. In Table 1 we see a slight tendency for the Swedish (Sw) students to use fewer words and employ shorter T-units in their written production than either of the two bilingual groups. The differences are not significant, however. We can also observe a fairly large variation on these measures for individuals as this is expressed in the range value, with the Spanish (Sp) group showing exceptional variation here. The extreme figures in the Spanish group can be accounted for by an individual writer who produces by far the longest essay with the shortest T-units. We cannot account at present for the Swedish group's most sparse production. Quantification of the text parameters studied is given in Table 2. The figures in the table allow us to deduce the following: On average proportion of post-
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Table 1 Baseline measures Fi Average no. of 420 words Range 210 Average length of 12.2 T-units Range 4.1
Sp 430
Sw 362
692 12.6
349 10.8
12.3
2.2
Table 2 Proportions for text variables Fi Sp Sw Post-modifiers 13.31 12.87 9.6 Relative clauses 50.79 66.48 43.73 Sentence-initial 71.17 68.5 70.79 subject 28.31 30.61 27.63 adverbial Pronominal 55.52 61.67 59.01 subject Nominalisations 2.23 2.61 3.42 (118/5037) (124/5157) (145/4346) Supine vb form 3.92 1.73 3.97 Present ts verb 62 87 76 modifiers per head noun, the Finnish bilinguals have the highest number of modifiers and the Swedish monolinguals the lowest, with the Spanish group using modifiers to an intermediate extent. The differences between the Swedish control group and the two bilingual groups are statistically significant. If we turn to the proportion of post-modifiers that are relative clauses we see that more of the modifiers used by the Spanish group consist of relative clauses and the least number of relative clause post-modifiers are found in the Swedish group. The differences are statistically significant for the Spanish-Swedish and the Spanish-Finnish groups; there is almost a significant difference for the Finnish-Swedish groups. From these two measures, it is possible to tentatively draw the following conclusions: The large number of postmodifiers employed by the Spanish
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group consists to a large extent of relative clauses. The Swedish group, although using few post-modifiers overall, have proportionately more post-modifiers of other types in their texts. The figures for the Finnish group suggest that they use more post-modifiers than the Swedish group, that proportionately more of these are relative clauses, but that they have proportionately fewer relative clauses than the Spanish group. There are no significant differences between groups on either of the two measures sentence-initial subject/adverbial or proportion of pronominal subjects.However, there is a slight, but noticeable, tendency for the Spanish speakers to employ more sentence-initial adverbials and more pronominal subjects than either of the two other groups. 5 With respect to our figures for the proportion of nominalisations,we can note that the difference between the Finnish and Swedish groups is significant, although this is not the case for the differences between the SpanishSwedish or Finnish-Spanish groups. We should bear in mind when interpreting this finding that the Swedish group has approximately 700 words less than the other two groups, although the actual figures for nominalisations produced by the Swedish writers, 145, is by far the highest score of any group. In other words, we might expect that a larger body of material might accentuate this difference, giving a clear statistical significance on this parameter between the Swedish controls, on the one hand, and the two bilingual groups, on the other. We find a significant difference between use of the non-finite supine form between the Spanish group and the Finnish and Swedish groups. Finally, an examination of all finite verb forms in the material shows that the Spanish group uses more present tense forms than any other group. It is important to note that all writers in each group use present tense forms to a large extent; the figures given for the Spanish group suggest that a 'present tense strategy' is more prevalent here than for the other two groups. To sum up so far: There are few clear differences between the two bilingual groups, on the one hand, and the Swedish controls, on the other, with respect to quantitative use of the text parameters investigated. We do, however, find that the bilingual groups use significantly more post-modifiers than the Swedish group, and that the majority of these modifiers are relative clauses in the case of the Spanish writers. Swedish writers employ significantly more nominalisations. Finnish and Swedish writers are more alike in how they construct texts. The Spanish writers, however, exhibit a different text organisation from the other two groups. We have noted that the Spanish group shows a tendency to use more adverbials as sentence-initial elements, and more pronominal subjects, although the figures are not significant. Spanish writers use significantly fewer non-finite forms, and choose the present tense more often than writers in the other two groups.
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In summary, one could say that the Spanish group is distinguished from the others by employing more devices typical of the interactive textual dimension (i.e. more pronominal subjects and fewer nominalisations), by emphasizing situated dimensions (e.g. adverbs), and by choosing variables that manifest an immediate style such as present tense, and fewer supine forms. In order further to substantiate this characterisation, we would need to investigate how text variables are used qualitatively. However, it would seem worthwhile to see if there is any indirect evidence that the Spanish group emphasises different poles in the textual dimensions. Frame Analysis In order to see whether the quantitative profile for the Spanish group might bear some relation to their choice of text organisation at a macrolevel, i.e. their 'general' stance on the production of texts, a rudimentary analysis similar to Tannen's 1984 frame analysis was conducted. Introducing the Film The beginning of a film-telling can be accomplished in different ways. In the present data, the strategies chosen most frequently were, (a) to formulate an abstract, (b) to refer to some aspect of the scene or setting shown in the film, or (c) to refer to a central character or sequence of events depicted. An abstract serves to summarise the main trend of a story, as in Example 1. EXAMPLE 1 The film is about industry and Filmen handlar om industrin o people's search for happiness in the människans jakt efter lycka i det computerised society. datoriserade samhället. An example of an introductory emphasis on scene/setting is given in Example 2: EXAMPLE 2 Filmen visar miljön i ett företag The film shows the mileu in a for några tiotal år sen. company a number of years back.
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A beginning that utilises an event sequence depicted in the film is given in Example 3: EXAMPLE 3 It's 8 in the morning. The street Klockan är 8 på morgonen. lamps go out in both streets and Gatubelysningen slocknar både på lanes. gator och gränder. The number of subjects in each language group that chooses one of the three strategies is shown in Table 3. Table 3 Choice of film introduction Abstract Scene Character/sequence Fi 6 4 2 Sp 1 6 4 Sw 4 5 2 Of noteworthy interest is that the Finnish and Swedish speakers are alike in choosing an initial abstract almost as often as a scene presentation. On the other hand, the Spanish speakers prefer a presentation of either scene or character/sequence. Amount of Detail The amount of detail given was analysed for one central scene in the film only; a scene where Charlie Chaplin is used as a guinea pig and object of demonstration for an automatic feeding machine. An account of this scene was considered detailed if it comprised a description, however rudimentary, of the different events involved in trying out the machine that were highlighted in the film. The following two examples, (4 and 5), illustrate a detailed and non-detailed account respectively. EXAMPLE 4 When everything was ready, the När allt är klart börjar m.m. sitt f.m. started its work, first the arbete: först soppan. Sopptalriken höjs till mun-nivå och lutar lite så att soup. The plate of soup is lifted to soppan rinner ner i Chaplins mun. mouth level and tipped slightly so that the soup runs down into Nästa steg är köttet. Skivan där Chaplin's mouth. The talrikarna står roterar en bit,
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next step is the meat. The disc on which så att köttbiten kommer framför Charlie. Talriken the plate stands rotates slightly so that the höjs, och en spad-liknande meat is in front of Charlie. The plate is sak puttar in köttbitarna i lifted and a spade-like thing pushes the Chaplins mun. Mellan varje meat into Chaplin's mouth. Between each course . . . rätt . . . EXAMPLE 5 När de skulle presentera den här When they were going to present this lunch-machine, they were to eat lunchapparaten, de skulle äta medans de jobbade. Det är ett while they worked. This is a clear starkt exempel på hur chefen pd example of how the director of the company wanted to produce larger företaget ville tillverka större quantities . . . kvantiteter . . . The number of writers who provide accounts of this scene, separated into those that give detailed and non-detailed presentations, are given in Table 4. Perhaps the most remarkable figure in the table is that not one detailed account is given by a Swedish writer. A typical approach for Swedish subjects is to summarise the scene in general terms. Table 4 Amount of detail Fi Sp Sw Detailed 5 5 0 Non-detailed 7 4 12 Another interesting finding is that three Spanish writers lack any mention of this scene altogether in their textsa peculiar lapse considering the centrality of the scene in the film as a whole. On the whole, the two bilingual groups resemble each other in that a number of individuals do give a detailed presentation of this scene. Interpretation of Character, Scene and Film A presentation of a scene or character was considered to contain interpretative detail if more descriptive elements were used in writing about the character or scene than were apparent from the film itself. For example (6) in contrast to (7) illustrates interpretation of a scene, (a scene immediately preceding the introduction of the feedingmachine), and (8) exemplifies interpretation of a character.
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EXAMPLES 6-8 Alla sitter tysta och smäller i sig Everybody is sitting quietly and maten som om de inte ätit på dr shovelling in food as though they had not eaten for ages. But not och dar. Men alla har inte så mycket mat med sig. Det är en everyone has that much food with anställd vars namn vi kan kalla them. There is one employee whose name we can call Charlie Chaplin för Charlie Chaplin som bara sitter med ett äpple i munnen och who just sits with an apple in his mouth, looking very hungry. ser väldigt hungrig ut Chaplin väljs så klart ut som försöksdjur.
Chaplin is of course chosen as a guinea pig.
Personligen tror jag att han har flyttat från landet till storstaden i Personally, I think he has moved förhoppningen att få ett bra och from the country to the city in the hope of getting a well-paid job. välbetalt arbete. It has proven difficult to generalise between groups on this parameter, and a further, stricter, analysis is necessary. There are some individuals who provide interpretative detail in each group, although they do so to different extents. Our opinion is, however, that the Spanish group contains more individuals who consistently attempt to 'talk around' scenes and characters in an interpretative manner, but this impression needs to be corroborated. Neither have we found any tendencies in the present material for the content of the interpretations given to differ in any systematic manner between groups. But once again, a deeper analysis of this parameter is necessary. A parameter that may deserve even more exploration is that dealing with the modes or conventions of giving an interpretation or evaluation of the film as a whole. In the present material, nine of the 12 Swedish and seven of the 12 Finnish subjects give some interpretation or evaluation, whereas only four out of the 12 Spanish subjects do so. Thus, a substantial number of Spanish writers do not bother to provide any summary whatsoever. For Swedish and Finnish writers, four and three subjects in each group respectively evaluate the film as a technical product, commenting on the quality of the film, its scenographic construction, etc. Not one single Spanish writer refers to the film in such terms. The four Spanish subjects who do provide a summary interpretation, phrase it in terms that deal with the message purportedly carried by the film. This is also the strategy chosen by the five Swedish and four Finnish subjects who do not view the film as a technical product.
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There is a very slight but definite tendency for the content of the interpretation to show some inter-group variation. The majority of the Swedish writers who give a message summary do so by highlighting the conditions in the factory and the implications these have for union activity; alternatively they mention that many of the scenes depicted have relevance/ do not have relevance for the workers' situation today. The Finnish writers, on the other hand, prefer to phrase their interpretations of the film in terms that emphasise the importance of the individual in societal development. These subjects take what happened to Chaplin as a point of departure to discuss individual happiness, the importance of the individual and his identity in a computerised society and similar themes. The Spanish writers are not as easily summarised as they are more varied in what they take to be the point of the film, showing elements similar to both the Swedish and the Finnish group. However, there is one type of interpretation that can be found among the Spanish writers that does not occur in the other two groups; namely, a focus on 'existential' themes, which highlight the general human condition in what the film protrays (e.g. 'The human creature is a stupid animal'). In future work, it might be fruitful to study the strategies chosen for interpretation and evaluation of films in more detail. It would appear as though there do exist cultural conventions on what the point of a film may be. In this context, it might also be worthwhile to look closer at how apparently similar intepretations and evaluations with respect to content are constructed. Stance and Style The final parameter in the analysis concerns what general 'narrative stance' the students take towards their writing; i.e. whether they attempt a narrative, or whether they are content to report the information in an unmarked style, and what common stylistic means they use in their expositions. These are, of course, questions too large to be given anything but a cursory treatment here. Consequently, only the following variables have been examined as evidence for stance and style, (1) marked lexical choice and conventionalised structures, (2) digressions and parenthetical comments, and (3) 'gestures'. Marked lexical choice, in the sense of implying more information than an alternative word, can be found in Examples (9)-(11):
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EXAMPLES 9-11 vår hjälte
our hero
smäller i sig maten
shoving food
gator och gränder alliteration: streets and lanes Conventionalised structures typical of a non-reportative style, with 'literary' aspirations, are illustrated in Examples (12)-(14): EXAMPLES 12-14 sen har vi de stora kugghjulen och de små arbetarna.
then we have the big cog-wheels and the small workers.
Det är en anställd vars namn vi kan kalla för Charlie Chaplin.
There's one employee whose name we can call Charlie Chaplin.
Klockan är 8 på morgonen. Gatubelysningen slocknar på gator och It's 8 in the morning. The street gränder. lamps go out in streets and lanes. Digressions and parenthetical comments, as in Example 15, also contribute to a personalised, interactive involvement between reader and writer that goes beyond a mere factual account. EXAMPLE 15 . . . Precis så dr känner jag ibland. . . That's exactly how I feel when everybody gets off the bus in the när alla går ur bussen på morgonen och går disciplinerat morning and walks disciplined to till skolan. Förlåt att jag kom bort school. Sorry I got away from the topic, but that's the way I am. från ämnet men sådan är jag. Gesture is here used to refer to orthographic conventions or signals used by the writers to encode lexical meanings that they have no appropriate label for. An example of a gesture in this sense is found in Example 16. EXAMPLE 16 Det han står och görr hela what he is doing all day is dagarna är skruva på (vad de screwing in these (whatever nu kan heta) they are called)
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More individuals in the Spanish group attempt a non-reportative style than in the other two groups, as judged from choice of lexical items, conventionalised structures and digressions. Digressions, parenthetical comments and gestures occur almost exclusively in the two bilingual groups. In summary, we see that the bilingual groups are similar on one or two parameters of the frame analysis, viz the amount of detail presented and the occurrence of digressions, parenthetical comments and gestures. However, the Finnish and Swedish groups are more alike in how they introduce the film and in the factual, reporting stance of their expositions. The Spanish group is more heterogeneous in its make-up. It does, however, include more individuals who consistently use the film as a basis for a more literary presentation of content instead of a mere review. Discussion The results from the frame analysis presented here are far from conclusive. Only a sketchy exploration of the parameters has been possible. It does seem likely, however, that Spanish speakers do have a different orientation to the writing task from that of either the Finnish or Swedish writers. This orientation may be the determining factor behind their different quantitative profiles. It can only be emphasised that this is one hypothetical explanation, and that further work is necessary to substantiate it. Another explanation, readily available, is that second langauge learner difficulties arise for certain more complex structures-nominalisations, types of modifier, and tense usage. There is little other evidence, though, that these students cannot cope with these parameters, and all students are certainly at very advanced levels of Swedish proficiency. The next step in this research, besides a qualitative analysis of text variables and a more developed frame analysis, should be the construction of individual profiles along a number of dimensions for each student. In this way, we may see more clearly what dimensions of a student's linguistic abilities cluster together. Conclusion A case has been made for considering intercultural differences as well as second language learner characteristics as influential in near-native bilinguals' construction of texts. It has been argued that Spanish writers show more consistent differences in text construction and that these can be referred to cultural perspectives
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on what is evaluated as 'good writing'. These subjects' texts were generally more interactive and involvement oriented, and emphasised creativity in presentation. It has also been suggested that differences in the frequency of parameters contributing to text organisation found in the Spanish group may be a reflex of a different orientation to text construction. Finally, the conjectural nature of these results and the importance of further work in specific directions has been emphasised. Notes 1. This work is part of a project supported by the Swedish National Board of Education. Financial support has also been given by the Council of Södertälje and the School of Education in Stockholm. Pirkko Bergman and Kari Kuusisto helped collect the data; Pirkko Bergman carried out the quantitative analysis of the text variables presented here, and Kari Kuusisto helped with the statistics. 2. This may sound unfair. However, from personal experience as a pupil at this level, and from what I have heard from practising teachers, I feel there is some substance to this criticism. 3. Biber (1986) further distinguishes between two clusters of linguistic features that he does not label. On the one hand, we find relative clauses, infinitives, wh-clauses and present tense that serve to package large amounts of information in an integrative way. On the other hand, we have a clustering of adverbs and specific hedges that contribute to expression of stance or perspective. 4. This last criterion is not of direct relevance for the present study but has been included for other reasons (see Hyltenstam & Stroud, in preparation). 5. The number of pronominal subjects displayed in this material is incidentally quite high for prose, where the figures are usually in the range of 30-35%. References Biber, D. (1986) Spoken and written textual dimensions in English: Resolving the contradictory findings. Language 62, 384-414. Clyne, M. (1987) Cultural differences in the organization of academic texts. Journal of Pragmatics 11, 211-47. Collins, J. & Michaels, S. (1986) Speaking and writing: Discourse strategies and the acquisition of literacy. In J. Cook-Gumperz (ed.), The Social Construction of Literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cook-Gumperz, J. (ed.) (1986) The Social Construction of Literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gumperz, J. (1986) Intercultural sociolinguistics in the study of schooling. In J. Cook-Gumperz (ed.), The Social Construction of Literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Heath, S. (1982) What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and at school. Language in society 11, 4976. (1984) Being literate in America: A sociohistorical perspective. Paper prepared for keynote session of Annual meeting of National Reading Conference, Nov. 1984. Hultman, T. & Westman, M. (1977) Gymnasistsvenska. Lund. LiberLäromedel. Hyltenstam, K. & Stroud, C. (in preparation) Tvåspråkiga gymnasisters svenska. Tannen, D. (1984) Spoken and written narrative in English and Greek. In D. Tannen (ed.), Coherence in Spoken
and Written Discourse. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex.
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19 Minority Language Schooling without Home Language Maintenance: Impact on Language Proficiency Raymond Mougeon and Édouard Beniak Centre for Franco-Ontarian Studies, The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada. Abstract Linguistic minority groups undergoing assimilatory pressure yet fortunate enough to have at their disposal an educational system in their own language expect the schools to play an important role in the maintenance of the language. The schools are seen as having the dual 'mission' of ensuring that the students who already speak the language retain it and of teaching it to those to whom it was not transmitted in the home. But just how proficient in the minority language do the latter become? This question is examined as it applies to the French-speaking minority of the province of Ontario, Canada. Results of sociolinguistic analyses indicate that Frenchlanguage schooling without home language maintenance does not make for the acquisition of native-like proficiency. The students who do not maintain French at home are then briefly compared to L2 learners in early total immersion programmes, with whom they are shown to share many features of imperfect mastery of French (grammar, lexicon, etc.). The present study thus clearly indicates that more than ever full schooling in a language is necessary for attainment of native-like proficiency. Introduction Up until recently French-Canadian minorities outside Quebec and New Brunswick had limited access to instruction in French. Maintenance of French thus depended primarily on home language transmission. In fact, in many of
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the French-Canadian communities located outside Quebec and New Brunswick the French language has for all practical purposes receded to this last bastion. However, even this stronghold has not escaped English-language penetration, since an increasing proportion of French-Canadians are giving up the use of their mother tongue at home, all the more when they marry outside their group (Castonguay, 1979). Prior to the adoption of Canada's new constitution in 1982 only Quebec and New Brunswick were held by law (given their official bilingual status under the British North America Act) to provide their official linguistic minority with schooling in its mother tongue (education in English for Quebec Anglophones and in French for New Brunswick Francophones). There was no such onus on the other eight majority Anglophone provinces and so understandably they have been very reticent to grant their Francophone minorities the privilege (if not the right) of being educated in their mother tongue, all the more as education has traditionally been regarded as a strictly provincial matter. But now that Canada's two official minorities (Francophones outside Quebec and Anglophones in Quebec) enjoy an unquestionable right to education in their mother tongue enshrined in the country's new constitution, one can expect that west of Manitoba and east of New Brunswick French Canadians will be able to send their children to French-language schools rather than being faced with today's prospect of enrolling them in French-immersion programmes (set up for Canada's Anglophone children) or 'worse' still regular English-language schools (as is often the case). Perhaps because Francophones in Ontario constitute in absolute numbers the strongest of Canada's Francophone minorities (around 475,000) and are geographically concentrated in the East and North (giving them electoral weight), measures for the expansion of French-language schooling were taken relatively earlier (1968) in this province than in Canada's other predominantly English-speaking provinces. As a result, Ontario's French-speaking minority now has at its disposal a full-fledged system of French-medium schools both at the primary and secondary levels, but still awaits a similar development at the post-secondary level (Churchill, Quazi & Frenette, 1985). This expansion of the French-language education system in Ontario was the first in a series of important political measures to provide the province's Francophone minority with services in its language in the public sector (e.g. television, health care system, judicial system). These ongoing measures have brought about an important increase in the instrumental value of French by creating many new positions requiring high levels of competence in that language (Mougeon & Beniak, 1988). Be that as it may, Franco-Ontarians, like other French-Canadian minorities, have suffered losses through assimilation into the Anglophone majority, mainly as a result of English language shift at home. Thus while the system of French-
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language schools in Ontario provides children from French-speaking homes with an opportunity to add to their knowledge of vernacular French by learning its standard counterpart, it also provides children from assimilated homes (mostly, but not exclusively, the offspring of mixed marriages) with what amounts to their first real opportunity to learn French. To make a comparison, Ontario's French-language schools are not unlike Welshmedium schools in Wales (Thomas, 1986) in that they provide the minority with a major tool not only for socioeconomic betterment but also for linguistic and cultural survival, and in the latter connection offer young assimilated members of the minority a unique opportunity to retrieve their roots. An important question, then, is to what extent Ontario's French language schools are successful in their 'refrenchification' efforts. The question is all the more important as feelings are mixed within the Franco-Ontarian minority as to whether its schools should actually have, in addition to their primary mission of ensuring that the students who already speak French maintain it, a secondary mission of language retrieval (Mougeon & Beniak, 1988). The purpose of this paper is to examine various aspects of the grammatical, lexical and sociostylistic competence of the assimilated students who attend Ontario's French-language schools with a view to answering the above question. Franco-Ontarian students from linguistically assimilated homes represent a clear case of language restriction, both from a quantitative viewpoint (they use French and are exposed to it considerably less than their counterparts who are raised in French-speaking homes) and a qualitative one (their exposure to French and use of it are largely confined to a formal and official domain). Henceforth we shall occasionally refer to them as 'school learners of French'. Methodology Our study is guided by two general hypotheses which follow naturally from the dual aspect of language attrition just mentioned. The first is that minority language schooling without home language maintenance is in itself insufficient to ensure mastery of even basic aspects of the grammar and lexicon. The second is that the FrancoOntarian students experiencing attrition, largely cut off as they are from the vernacular, are likely to evidence a lack of familiarity with the informal features of Canadian French. In order to test these hypotheses we carried out a comparative study of taped data on the spoken French of a total of 117 Franco-Ontarian students attending high school: school learners of French (raised in predominantly English-speaking homes and resident in a locality where Anglophones largely outnumber Francophones and hence where French is hardly used outside the home) were compared with three other groups of students who all hear and use French outside the school but who
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do so to a variable extent. One of these student groups corresponds to the highest level of opportunities to hear and use French outside the school to be found in Ontario. It is made up of students who come from Frenchspeaking homes and who reside in a predominantly French-speaking locality (Hawkesbury: 85% Francophone concentration). Another group consists of students who are also raised in French-speaking homes but who are resident in a predominantly English-speaking locality (Cornwall: 34%, North Bay: 17%, or Pembroke: 8%). The third group of students corresponds to a yet lower level of opportunities to hear and use French. It includes students who are raised in homes where English and French are used concurrently and who reside in a predominantly English-speaking locality (see above). These three comparison groups will serve to better characterise the French language competence of the school learners of French and also more generally they will allow us to more finely gauge the impact of language of schooling, home language use and community language use on learning and mastery of a minority language. Results Before presenting the results we should elaborate somewhat on the linguistic features selected for comparative analysis. Because of the asymmetrical nature of the French acquisition histories of the subject groups, we selected features which were neutral in stylistic value (i.e. shared by both the vernacular and standard varieties of French). On the other hand, we also wanted to adduce linguistic evidence that the school learners of French experience a lack of familiarity with vernacular French, and so we selected features typical of this variety. Shared Grammatical Features One grammatical feature which is shared between vernacular Canadian French and Standard French is the category of pronominal verbs. The distinguishing morphological feature of these verbs is the fact that they are used with a reflexive pronoun which is immediately preposed to the verb or auxiliary in compound forms (e.g. 'je me suis coupé' (I cut myself); 'tu te souviens'(you recall)). As we have shown elsewhere (Beniak, Mougeon & Côté, 1980), research on the acquisition of French in monolingual settings indicates that while L1 learners of French go through a stage where they initially omit the reflexive pronouns (i.e. use pronominal verbs like simple verbs), by about the age of 6 they use the reflexive pronouns consistently. As can be seen in Table 1, the students resident in the majority Francophone community do not differ from Francophones in monolingual settings, since
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Table 1 Reflexive pronoun omission Obligatory Home language Omissions contexts % omission French (H)* 0 199 0 French 17 301 5 French/English (data unavailable for this speaker category) English 34 199 17 Total 51 699 7 * H = Hawkesbury they evidence a zero level of reflexive pronoun omission. The maintainers of French at home resident in a minority Francophone community are close behind with only a 5% omission rate, in contrast to the school learners of French, who delete the reflexive pronouns significantly more often (e.g. 'tu souviens' (you recall)). Table 2 displays data which reveal a similar pattern. What is 'at stake' here is mastery of the distinctive forms of the third person plural present indicative (e.g. ils comprennent /k¬pR¬n/ (they understand)). As we have argued elsewhere (Mougeon & Beniak, 1981), these distinctive forms are irregular or marked, that is morphologically unpredictable, but again, like the pronominal verbs, they are mastered early by L1 learners of French. Table 2 shows again that the students from the majority Francophone community have no trouble with this aspect of the grammar of French and that the same applies for the maintainers of French at home resident in the Francophone minority communities. The school learners of French and the students from bilingual homes, in contrast, have still not reached mastery of the distinctive third person plural forms, for which they tend to substitute the unmarked sg. forms (e.g. ils comprend /k¬pR¬/ (they understand)). Table 2 Levelling of the distinctive third person plural present indicative forms Obligatory Home language Levellings contexts % levelling French (H) 7 540 1 French 12 673 2 French/English 270 1897 14 English 203 1074 19 Total 492 4184 12
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Page 258 Shared Lexical Features While English uses 'be' to express a state, French resorts to two verbs: 'être' (the translation equivalent of 'be') and 'avoir' (the translation equivalent of 'have'). Although it could be reasonably argued that it is less 'natural' to express a state via a non-stative verb like 'avoir'than via 'être', the verb phrases which feature stative 'avoir' are very frequent and therefore do not pose lasting learning problems for L1 learners of French. In Table 3 we provide data on the mastery of one of the more frequent set expressions featuring stative 'avoir',namely 'avoir peur'(to be scared/afraid). As can be seen, only the school learners of French have problems with this verb phrase, in which they tend to replace 'avoir' with 'êtré' (e.g. 'je suis peur'literally 'I am fright/fear'). This erroneous alternative is most probably due to interference (use of 'être' on the model of 'be') and to a faulty decoding of the articleless French noun 'peur'as an adjective. Essentially similar results were found for another basic verb phrase containing stative 'avoir',that is 'avoir X ans'(to be X years old). Let us now turn to a more specialised aspect of French lexical usage: the use of a preposition to express location on the spoken media, that is on TV, on the radio or on a particular channel or station (e.g. 'j'ai entendu ça à la radio' (I heard it on the radio); 'je l'ai vu au canal 17' (I saw it on channel 17)). In locative contexts such as in Table 4 the students from Hawkesbury (the majority Francophone locality) consistently use the generic preposition of location 'à/au', a finding which is in conformity with contemporary Quebec French usage (Beniak, Mougeon & Valois, 1981). In sharp contrast, the school learners of French overwhelmingly prefer preposition 'sur'to 'à'. Once more we may suspect that this departure from the monolingual norm is due to interference (English uses the preposition 'on', the equivalent of 'sur' in the same contexts). What is noteworthy in this particular case, however, is that the maintainers of French at home resident in the Francophone minority communities are this time not immune to interference. Table 3 Mastery of stative 'avoir' Substitution Home language of 'être' French (H) 0 French 0 French/English 0 English 14 Total 14
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Page 259 Table 4 Mastery of locative 'à' Home language French (H) French French/English English Total
Substitution of 'sur' 0 5 41 37 83
Obligatory contexts 16 19 50 42 127
% substitution 0 26 82 88 65
Table 5 Familiarity with possessive 'à' Obligatory Home language 'à' contexts % 'à' French (all communities)* 10 38 26 French/English 11 44 25 English 0 24 0 Total 21 106 20 * Conflation of majority and minority Francophone community speakers due to sparse data. Features of Vernacular French The use of preposition 'à' to introduce possessive nominal complements is a feature of informal Canadian French with, however, definite 'popular' (i.e. lower class) connotations (e.g. 'le char à ma soeur' (my sister's car)). In this context Standard French uses preposition 'de' instead (Beniak & Mougeon, 1984). As can be seen, the school learners of French differ sharply from the maintainers of French at home in that their spoken French includes no instances of possessive 'à'. Lack of familiarity with informal Canadian French need not always be total, however, as the next case shows. As in English, it is possible, in informal Canadian French, to use 'être' (be) as a verb of motion in past tense contexts (e.g. 'As-tu déjà été en France?' (Have you ever been to France?)). The school learners of French (see Table 6) use the informal 'avoir été' variant, but do so appreciably less frequently than the maintainers of French at home resident in the minority Francophone localities. Their greater familiarity with this feature of informal French than with possessive 'à' may be due to the higher frequency of occurrence and lack of popular connotations of the former and/or to convergence (positive reinforcement of the English translation equivalent 'have been').
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Page 260 Table 6 Familiarity with 'avoir été' to express motion Obligatory Home language 'Avoir été' contexts French (H) (data unavailable for this speaker category) French 70 99 French/English 230 277 English 81 154 Total 381 530 Discussion
% 'avoir été' 71 83 53 72
Viewed in the broader context of sociolinguistic research on minority languages, the present findings on the French-language competence of Franco-Ontarian students have a familiar ring (see Table 7 for a summary; a plus indicates conformity with or close approximation to the conservative norm, a minus a significant departure from it). Indeed, we are not the first to have shown that members of minority language groups who exhibit a high level of restriction in the use of the minority language (in this study the school learners of French, represented as the next to last row in Table 7), speak it in a form which, judging by a comparison with the conservative norm of the wider community (in this study, that embodied by speakers resident in a majority Francophone environment, who belong to a staunchly French family and who have attended a minority language schoolrepresented as the top row in Table 7), contains various signs of incomplete learning: simplifications of the grammar, interlinguistic transfer affecting the lexicon, and stylistic reductionlexical or other (Dorian, 1981; Gal, 1984; Giacalone Ramat, 1979; Hill & Hill, 1977; King, 1985). Such speakers have variously been called 'imperfect learners', 'semi-speakers', 'L2-like learners', etc. Table 7 Summary of differential levels of mastery of French as a function of French language use in different societal domains Use of French: Locative Distinctive Reflexive 'Avoir Possessive 'Avoir été' 'à' School Home Comm. 'à' 3 pl. verb pronouns peur' forms + + + + + + + + no data + + + + + + + +/no data + + + + +/- no data no data -
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It should be pointed out that the kind of stylistic reduction which has been documented by the above mentioned researchers affects the formal register of the minority language and thus is a mirror image of that reported here. The reason for this is that formal style reduction is the result of minority language restriction to the private domains of society (a typical development in minority language communities undergoing shift, and deprived of an L1 school system) whereas our 'imperfect speakers' of French, as we have made it abundantly clear, have by and large learned the language in the formal domain of the school. This study, then, has verified the two central hypotheses concerning the French language proficiency of school learners of French: minority language schooling on its own is not sufficient to guarantee attainment of native or even native-like competence in French, be it the standard or vernacular variety. Full backing of the home is essential for this ideal attainment. As row 2 of Table 7 indicates, students from Francophone minority communities who have maintained French at home depart from the conservative norm on only one feature: use of 'sur' instead of 'à' to indicate location on the spoken media. This interference-based substitution may be due to the fact that in Francophone minority communities members of the young generation (whatever their level of maintenance of French at home) overwhelmingly consume Englishlanguage spoken media. Another explanation, not necessarily mutually exclusive, would be that the home language maintainers have simply 'picked up' this feature from their more bilingual peers, in whose speech it is much more ingrained (see Table 4 above). In any case, such innovations owing to the influence of the majority language would seem to us to be unavoidable and hence natural. They illustrate the emergence of new community norms arising from intensive linguistic contact (Haugen, 1977; Martin-Jones & Romaine, 1985). Concomitant use of French and English in the home, however, affects more than mastery of specialised lexical usage since, as can be seen from row 3 of Table 7, basic (although irregular) grammatical features are not fully mastered under this condition. On the other hand, Franco-Ontarian students from bilingual homes resist the grosser forms of interference (e.g. calques such as 'être peur') and do not lack familiarity with the vernacular norm. Franco-Ontarian students who come from homes where French is not or little used have problems with all of the aspects of French investigated here, whether basic lexical or grammatical features, more specialised lexical usage or typical features of the vernacular. Having referred to these speakers as 'L2-like learners' of French, it is interesting to see how they in fact compare with their nearest counterparts among English-Canadian L2learners of French, namely Anglophone children enrolled in an early total French immersion programme (i.e. entire curriculum in French during the early grades followed by a gradual increase in the amount of instruction
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time in English). As can be seen from the last row of Table 7, immersion students show the same linguistic profile as the Franco-Ontarian school learners of French (the immersion findings reported here are from Beniak, 1984; Canale, Mougeon & Beniak, 1978; and Harley, 1986). However, these qualitative similarities conceal quantitative differences. Indeed, whenever comparisons between same-aged immersion and Franco-Ontarian students (i.e. school learners of French) have been made regarding these or other linguistic features, the immersion students have shown a lower level of mastery (Beniak, 1984; Canale, Mougeon & Beniak, 1978; Harley, 1979). This may be interpreted as a reflection of the fact that immersion students (a) receive less instruction time in French and (b) are less exposed to native-speaker models of French at school and, more crucially as far as sociostylistic competence is concerned, outside the school (Harley & Swain, 1984). Conclusion Franco-Ontarian parents who do not hand down French to their offspring at homefor reasons that may seem perfectly valid to them, for example English-speaking spouse, concern that their children master the language of the majority as early as possiblebut who nonetheless avail themselves of the opportunity of schooling their children in French, must be made aware of the fact that such transfer of responsibility for French language transmission will produce results falling well short of native competence. In fact, whether students from assimilated households should be admitted at all to Franco-Ontarian schools is currently a source of much controversy. It is feared by many Franco-Ontarian parents and educators (reported in Desjarlais et al., 1980; Heller et al.,1985) that low-proficiency speakers may have a retarding effect on both the scholastic and linguistic achievement of the students from nonassimilated households. As we have already pointed out in the introduction, the instrumental value of French (i.e. its importance as a language of work, especially) has increased significantly in Ontario over the last 10 years or so. It is understandable, then, that it matters to some Franco-Ontarian parents and educators that the French language school system produce students that have the best possible qualifications linguistic and academic to fill the increasing number of job positions that require knowledge of French. In other words, though the decision not to pass on French to one's children is an individual matter, it is not without implications for the collectivity and so, some would argue, is also a matter of social responsibility.
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Some of the linguistic difficulties of the school learners of French could probably find a solution in a modification of the traditional normative approach which still characterises the pedagogy of French (Cazabon & Frenette, 1982). In this regard, the much more communicative approach now being proposed for implementation in Franco-Ontarian schools is entirely felicitous in that, by turning the minority language school into a locus of authentic communicationnot just in language arts classes but curriculum-wideit should at least partly counteract the trend toward minority language disuse at home. However, it would be unrealistic to hope that even with this new pedagogical approach the minority language school could bridge the linguistic gap between the students from assimilated and non-assimilated homes. Still, it is in itself not a negligible outcome that such schools can enable assimilated members of the young generation to recover albeit incompletely their linguistic and cultural heritage and thus to develop a sense of belonging to the minority community (Dorian, 1987). It must be remembered, however, that not all members of the minority will view this as a desirable objective for Ontario's French language schools. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Birgit Harley for her helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. References Beniak, É. (1984). Aspects of the Acquisition of the French Verb System by Young Speakers of English and French in Quebec and Ontario. Quebec: International Center for Research on Bilingualism. Beniak, É. & Mougeon, R. (1984) Possessive 'a' and 'de' in informal Ontarian French: A long-standing case of linguistic variation. In Ph. Baldi (ed.), Papers from the X11th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Beniak, E., Mougeon, R. & Côté, N. (1980) Acquisition of French pronominal verbs by groups of young monolingual and bilingual Canadian students. In W. C. McCormack & H. J. Izzo (eds), The Sixth Lacus Forum 1979. Columbia, Sth Ca.: Hornbeam Press. Beniak, E., Mougeon, R. & Valois, D. (1981) The problem of ambiguous change in a contact language. Paper presented at NWAVE-X, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 23-25 Oct. Canale, M., Mougeon, R. & Beniak, É. (1978) Acquisition of some grammatical elements of English and French by monolingual and bilingual Canadian students. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 34, 505-24. Castonguay, Ch. (1979) Exogamie et anglicisation chez les minorités canadiennes-françaises. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology,16, 21-31. Cazabon, B. & Frenette, N. (1982). Le français parlé en situation minoritaire. Volume II.Québec: International Center for Research on Bilingualism.
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Churchill, S., Quazi, S. & Frenette, N. (1985) Education et besoins des Franco-Ontariens: Le diagnostic d'un système d'éducation. Volume 2: L'enseignement postsecondaire. Rapport statistique. Toronto: Le Conseil de l'éducation franco-ontarienne. Desjarlais, L., Cyr. H., Brûlé, L. & Ganthier, V. (1980) L'élève parlant peu ou pas français dans les écoles de langue française. Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Education. Dorian, N. C. (1981) Language Death: The Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (1987) The value of language-maintenance efforts which are unlikely to succeed. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 68, 57-67. Gal, S. (1984) Phonological style in bilingualism: The interaction of structure and use. In D. Schriffin (ed.), Meaning, Form, and Use in Context: Linguistic Applications. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Giacalone Ramat, A. (1979) Language function and language change in minority languages. Journal of Italian Linguistics, 4, 141-62. Harley, B. (1979) French gender 'rules' in the speech of English-dominant, French-dominant and monolingual French-speaking children. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 19, 129-56. (1986) Age in Second Language Acquisition. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. Harley, B. & Swain, M. (1984) The interlanguage of immersion students and its implications for second language teaching. In A. Davies, C. Ceiper & A. P. R. Howatt (eds), Interlanguage.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Haugen, E. (1977) Norm and deviation in bilingual communities. In P. A. Hornby (ed.), Bilingualism: Psychological, Social, and Educational Implications.New York: Academic Press. Heller, M., Belanger, M., Mougeon, R., Canale, M. & Fraser, J. (1985) L'école publique Gabrielle-Roy et le Module de française de Jarvis Collegiate Institute. Final report submitted to the Toronto Board of Education. Hill, J. & Hill, K. (1977) Language death and relexification in Tlaxcalan Nahuatl. International Journal of the Sociology of Language,12, 55-69. King, R. (1985) Linguistic variation and language contact: A study of the French spoken in four Newfoundland communities. In H. J. Warkentyne (ed.), Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology. Victoria, B.C.: Dept of Linguistics, University of Victoria. Martin-Jones, M. & Romaine, S. (1985) Semilingualism: A half-baked theory of communicative competence. Applied Linguistics, 7, 26-38. Mougeon, R. & Beniak, E. (1981) Leveling of the 3sg.pl. verb distinctions in Ontarian French. In J. P. Lantolf & G. B. Stone (eds), Current Research in Romance Languages. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club. (1988). Should the French-Canadian minorities open their schools to the children of the Anglophone majority? In J. N. Jørgensen et al. (eds) Bilingualism in Society and School. Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism, Vol. 5. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Thomas, B. (1986) Schools in ethnic minorities: Wales. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 7, 169-186.
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20 Elevene fra språklige minoriteter og matematikkfaget Anne Hvenekilde Institutt for norsk som fremmedspråk, Universitetet i Oslo, Norge. Abstract The project 'Text, numbers and mathematics for minority language students' describes various differences in mathematical notation and language that students from linguistic minorities face in mathematics when they come to Norway with language and school background from another country, like Pakistan, Morocco and Turkey. Some of the types of differences are contruction and degree of regularity of the numerals in different languages, confusing differences and similarities in different number sets that are used with different alphabets, varying traditions of finger counting and finger calculation techniques, different ways of constructing and using mathematical tables, different ways of writing mathematical problems, andnot leastdifferent directions of writing. Students who have learned mathematics in Pakistan in Urdu, with the direction of writing Urdu (right to left) used also for the maths, must face an extensive restructuring of their routines when they have to do mathematics in Norwegian. A simple example from second grade: The subtraction problem that is written 45 - 23 = 22 in Norwegian maths books may be written 22 = 23 - 45 in books from Pakistan. The aim of the project is to map systematic differences of the kinds exemplified above. How such differences do in fact affect learning of mathematics will have to be tested empirically. Matematikk nevnes sjelden som et problematisk fag i diskusjonene om elevene fra språklige minoriteter og deres opplæringstilbud. Dette kan ha flere grunner. En av dem er trolig at matematikk ofte er et av de fagene mange fremmedspråklige elever mestrer best. Matematikk stiller på enkelte mater færre krav til språkferdigheter enn for eksempel orienteringsfagene. Nettopp derfor kan det gi større uttelling for elevene å arbeide med fagetde kan hurigere gjøre framskritt i matematikk enn i fag som krever beherskelse av et større ordforråd, og det er selvfølgelig motiverende i seg selv. Det faktum at der er mindre tekst i mange matematikkbøker enn i en del andre fagbøker, at ordforrådet som kreves for å følge med i matematikk ikke er så overveldende
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og at en stor del av det som regnes for fagspråket i matematikk, består av symboler og formler av forskjellige typer har nok fatt både elever og lærere til å tro at matematikk-faget er mer språk-og kulturuavhengig enn det faktisk er. Det står i mønsterplanen for grunnskolen i Norge at skolen skal bygge på elevenes foutsetninger, og dette gjelder også for de fremmedspråklige elevene, og også for matematikken. I den nyeste mønsterplanen er det kommet egen fagplan for norsk som andrespråk der det står klart at undervisningen i norsk som andrespråk bl.a. skal hjelpe elevene å tilegne seg de språkferdighetene de trenger for å kunne arbeide med de andre skolefagene der undervisningen blir gitt på norsk, og da blir de spesielle språkferdighetene elevene trenger i matematikkfaget, også noe norsklærerne må sette seg inn i. Synet på matematikk som et språk-og kulturnøytralt fag dukker iblant opp i en spesiell sammenheng, som krever en egen kommentar. Det kan se ut som det er i ferd med å dannes myter i enkelte pedagogiske miljøer i Norge om forskjeller i intelligens mellom forskjellige nasjonal-grupper av fremmedspråklige elever. Det viser seg at det som ofte ligger bak vurderinger av fremmedspråklige elevgruppers intelligens, er hvordan elevene greier seg i matematikk på skolen. Det er etter hvert blitt alminnelig anerkjent at intelligenstester ikke er kulturnøytrale, og at de ikke kan brukes for andre grupper enn de er laget for. Men det ser ikke ut til at alle lærere har tilsvarende sterke motforestillinger mot å vurdere elevenes evnenivå ut fra matematikkferdighetene. Men matematikk er slett ikke så språk- og kulturuavhengig som mange synes å tro. En elev som har et annet morsmål og erfaringer fra skolegang i et annet land, vil f.eks. kunne møte store systemforskjeller i tallnotasjon og oppsett av regnestykker og vil kanskje måtte lære helt andre algoritmer en dem han/hun har brukt før. Det er derfor ikke faglig holdbart å bruke matematikkferdighetene som grunnlag for generell vurdering av elevenes evnenivå. I skoleforskningsprosjektet 'Tekst, tall og regning', som er et tverrfaglig prosjekt med deltakelse fra lingvistiske, matematiske og pedagogiske fagmiljøer, har vi forsøkt å kartlegge en del av de systemforskjellene som fremmedspråklige elever kan møte i matematikkfaget når de kommer til norsk skole med skolebakgrunn fra et annet land, og jeg skal her presentere noen typer av systemforskjeller som kan tenkes å skape problemer for elevene når de møter den norske matematikkdidaktiske tradisjonen. En mer utførlig beskrivelse finnes i prosjektrapporten (Hvenekilde, 1988). De fleste barn lærer å forstå tallsystemet gjennom tallordene i sitt morsmål. De norske tallordene er slik at når en har lært å telle et stykke utover i tallrekka, kan en begynne å konstruere tall en ikke har hørt, på grunnlag av lavere tall og kjennskap til prinsipper for å kombinere dem. En som har lart å telle til tjueto, kan fortsette med tjuetre. Jeg husker selv det dramatiske
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øyeblikket da jeg plutselig fikk en aha-opplevelse og fra å kunne telle til et sted mellom femten og tjue, med ett kunne telle til hundre. Jeg hadde hørt mange tall, men ikke sett oppbyggingsprinsippet før hele sammenhengen plutselig ble klar. Det er imidlertid stor forskjell på hvor lett der er å forstå tallsystemet på grunnlag av tallordene i ulike språk. Tallordene i vietnamesisk er mer regelmessig oppbygd enn i norsk, og det skulle være lettere for en vietnamesisk elev å gjennomskue systemet enn for en norsk. I vietnamesisk og kinesisk er det bare et lite antall forskjellige ordformer som må læresi kinesisk i alt 13og med dem konstrueres alle andre tallord. Men de elevene som har urdu/hindi/punjabi eller bangla som morsmål, har så lite regelmessighet i oppbygningen av tallordsystemet at de faktisk må lære hundre separate ordformer for å kunne telle til hundre. Tallordene i disse språkene stammer fra sanskrit, der regelmessigheten var omtrent som i norsk. Men lydendringer har brutt ned systemet så sterkt at det ikke lenger er mulig å konstruere tallord og være sikker på at de blir riktige. Det er langt vanskeligere, om det i det hele tatt er mulig, for elevene å fa en klar forståelse av tallsystemet bare gjennom tallordenes oppbygning. Siden god forståelse av tallbegrepene er et n0dvendig fundament i den første regneopplæringen, og et sentralt emne i f0rste klasse, er det viktig at lærerne vet hvilket utgangspunkt elevene kommer med gjennom morsmlet sitt. I India brukes spesielle telletabeller som kan gi elevene forståelse av tallsystemet. Tallene fra en til hundre står i ti kolonner, og elevene bruker tabellene både til telling og til tallanalyser. (Oversatt til norsk: både 'elleve, tolv, tretten osv.' og 'en på ti, to på ti, tre på ti' osv.) I Vietnam ville slike analyser være helt unødvendigetallanalysene ville bli identiske med tallordene. Mange steder i India og Pakistan skjer nok læringen av tallord (som altså er en mye større hukommelsesbelastning enn i norsk) i stor grad utenfor skolen. I Punjab har f.eks. barna mange talleker, bl.a. hopper de tau og teller poengene høyt i kor. Hvis barna nå ikke har noe lekemiljø der slike tradisjoner kan videreføres, må skolen ta dette med i betraktningen, både i norskundervisningen, morsmålsundervisningen og regneundervisningen. Når det gjelder høye tierpotenser, tierpotenser over 1000, er det forskjeller mellom hvilke som har og hvilke som ikke har egne tallord i elevenes ulike morsmål. I skandinaviske språk har vi million, milliard osv., men vi har ikke egne tallord for 10000 eller 100000. Million(er) brukes mye, f.eks. i angivelse av folketall og i økonomi, og det går igjen både i orienteringsfagbøker og i massemedia. Denne enheten finnes ikke i urdu/hindi. Der brukes tallordene lakh for 100000 og crore for 10000000. Disse brukes også i engelskspråklig presse i India og Pakistan. Også i kinesisk og japansk mangler enheten million. Her er det et eget tallord for 10000, og alle høyere tierpotenser bygger på det (Ifrak, 1981).
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I norsk brukes oftest komma som desimalskilletegn og punktum eller mellomrom til siffergruppering. (Men utenfor skolen brukes etter hvert også punktum ganske ofte som desimalskilletegn, f.eks. i priser.) I tidligere engelske kolonier, som India og Pakistan, brukes punktum (nede på linjen eller hevet opp over linjen) som desimalskilletegn og komma til siffergruppering. Elever som er vant til at desimalskilletegnet er et punkt som står over linjen, vil lett kunne blande dette sammen med prikk brukt som multiplikasjonstegn. I urdu/hindi brukes både siffergruppering ut fra tallordene og siffergruppering ut fra engelsk mønster. Det betyr at det tallet som i norsk kan skrives 667233000,00 kan skrives enten 66,72,33,000.00 i urdu/hindi (dvs. 66 crore, 72 lakh og 33 tusen) eller 667,233,000.00 etter engelsk mønster. Det er vanlig i de fleste kulturer å bruke fingrene til å telle og regne med. Men dette gjøres på mange forskjellige måter. I Skandinavia representerer oftest hver finger ett tall, men i store deler av Asia er det vanlig å telle på fingerleddene og ikke på hele fingre. Noen tellemetoder utnytter alle fingerledd og opererer med femten enheter på hver hånd. Andre bruker alle frie fingerledd, og det blir fjorten på hver hånd. Denne siste metoden er spesielt mye brukt i kalkulering av tid etter månekalender. I andre tellemåter brukes bare fire fingre (ikke tommelen) på den ene hånden, og dette gjenspeiler da et tolvtallssystem. På den andre hånden brukes alle fem fingre. Hver av disse fingrene er verd tolv, og hele hånden altså seksti. Alle disse tellemåtene er i bruk blant de fremmedspråklige elevene i Oslo, og elevene kan ha med seg regneferdigheter og erfaringer med tallstørrelser fra fingerregning som burde kunne utnyttes positivt i undervisningen. Og det er selvfølgelig like viktig å finne fram til de erfaringene elevene har, som å finne fram til de erfaringene og kunnskapene de mangler i møtet med norsk språk og norsk skole. Som et konkret eksempel på at de fremmedspråklige elevene kan ha med seg kunnskaper på dette området som kan utnyttes i undervisningen, vil jeg presentere en metode for multiplikasjon med fingrene som en norsk lærer har lært av en fremmedspråklig elev og seinere har hatt god nytte av, også i undervisningen av norske elever. Det dreier seg om multiplikasjon av tall mellom 6 og 10, den delen av multiplikasjonstabellen som mange elever strever med å huske. Hver av fingrene på hver hånd har en fast tallverdi, som angitt på figuren. Hendene holdes med håndflaten inn, og de to fingrene som representerer de verdiene som skal multipliseres med hverandre, settes mot hverandre. De to som står mot hverandre pluss alle som henger nedenfor, er tiere. De fingrene som er ovenfor, telles på hver hånd. Disse representerer enere, og antallet på hver av hendene multipliseres og produktet legges til tierne. På figuren skal 7 multipliseres med 8. De to fingrene som står mot hverandre, pluss alle nedenfor er tilsammen 5 tiere, dvs. 50. 3 ovenfor på venstre hånd multiplisert med 2 ovenfor på høyre hånd gir 6, og 50 + 6 = 56.
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Figur 1 De sifrene som vi kan kalle de internasjonale (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0), og som brukes i Norge, er kjent og brukt over hele verden. Men mange elever kommer fra land der det også er andre siffertyper som brukes sammen med andre alfabeter enn det latinske. I den arabiske verden (bortsett fra Nord-Afrika), i India, Pakistan, Thailand og Kina, for å nevne noen, er det nødvendig for elevene å kunne bruke flere sett av sifre, og i regnebøkene kan det f.eks. hende at sidetallene står med en siffertype og regnestykkene med en annen. Når en sammenligner forskjellige sett av siffertyper, ser en at det er mange sifre som ligner hverandre, men står for forskjellige tallverdier i de forskjellige settene. Dette kan sikkert være en ekstra vanskelighet for en del elever, simpelthen fordi det er mer å holde styr på. I oversikten til venstre nedenfor ser vi f.eks. at 1-tallet i punjabi og gujerati likner på det internasjonale 9tallet, 4tallet ligner på det internasjonale 8-tallet, og 5-tallet ligner på det internasjonale 4-tallet. Oversikten over utviklingen av de 'arabiske' sifrene til h0yre (som har samme opprinnelse som siffersettene til venstre) der de sifrene som brukes i dag, står i øverste rekke, viser også muligheter for forvekslinger med de internasjonale sifrene. De er en god del forskjeller i oppsett av regnestykker i ulike tradisjoner. Noen av forskjellene gjelder bare hvordan tallene og regnetegnene plasseres på arket og eventuell markering av mentetall. Andre forskjeller gjelder selve algoritmene. Forskjeller som plasseringen av plustegnene i eksemplene nedenfor er på mange måter ganske triviell, men jeg kan nok tenke meg at mange lærere som ikke vet at det er slike forskjeller i tradisjonene, vil kunne tro at en elev som plasserer plusstegnet til høyre og mellom linjene, er ganske desorientert og hjelpeløs.
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Figur 2 Fra Griffith (1939)
I subtraksjonsstykket fra Marokko er framgangsmåten en annen enn den som brukes i norsk skole. I det norske eksempelet er framgangsmåten slik: enerne subtraheres først, men 7 fra 5 går ikke, og vi må låne. Ved låningen settes det et merke på 3-tallet (tierne), og 10 skrives over enerne. 10 minus 7 er 3, og 3 pluss 5 er 8. Tilsvarende gjøres for tierne. I det marokkanske eksempelet er den lånte tieren notert skrått ovenfor de 5 enerne slik at disse leses som 15. Den lånte tieren 'gis tilbake' i form av en prikk foran 5-tallet på linjen under. Vi får da at 15 minus 7 er 8, og tilsvarende at 13 minus 6 (dvs. 5 pluss prikken for 1) er 7.
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Innenfor multiplikasjon og divisjon et der langt mer variasjon i oppsettene enn det er for addisjon og subtraksjon. Ett av de fenomenene som trolig er mest egnet til å skape forvirring for elevene, er bytte av skriveretning. I arabisk og urdu, som skrives fra høyre mot venstre, er ikke rekkefølgen av sifrene i et flersifret tall speilvendt av det norske, noe vi kanskje skulle vente siden bokstavene ellers kommer i omvendt rekkefølge. I et tall som 2648 står altså sifrene på de samme plassene som i norsk. Men når et slikt tall skrives i en tekst, hopper skriveren så langt fram til venstre som den plassen tallet vil ta, og skriver så først 2, så 6, så 8 og til slutt 4. Rekkelfølgen tilsvarer rekkefølgen av elementer i tallordet, men tallet bryter altså med skriveretningen ellers. I et pakistansk regnehefte står dette regnestykket: 13 = 32 - 45, og det er riktig nok når en leser det fra høyre mot venstre, men ser forvirrende ut når vi er vant til den motsatte skrive- og leseretningen. Det kan trolig være ekstra forvirrende for noen av elevene at likheten opprettholdes (dvs. at det som står på den ene siden av likhetstegnet har samme verdi som det som står på den andre siden) ved skifte av leseretning i addisjonsstykker og multiplikasjonsstykker, men ikke i subtraksjonsstykker og divisjonsstykker. Subtraksjonsstykker som eksempelet fra Pakistan finner vi ikke i marokkanske regnebøker, til tross for at arabisk også skrives fra høyre mot venstre. I marokkanske bøker er imidlertid skriveretningen fra venstre mot høyre gjennomført i matematiske uttrykk, og det er et klarere skille mellom skriftspråket på den ene siden og matematisk notasjon på den annen enn vi finner i pakistanske regnebøker. I Pakistan har det vært en økende nasjonalisme i pedagogikken i de siste årene, med økt vekt på tradisjonelle, muslimske verdier, og dette har hatt konsekvenser også for matematikkfaget. På høyere nivåer dominerer engelsk språk og engelsk notasjon, men på de lavere klassetrinnene har en ønsket å gå over til skrivemåter som i størst mulig grad innpasser de matematiske uttrykkene i den tradisjonelle skriften, og dette innebærer f.eks. speilvending av både potensuttrykk og rottegn i forhold til det norske. Dette ser vi i denne framstillingen av den pytagoreiske læresetningen (Figur 3): Og tall på listeform kan skrives på alle disse måtene: A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} {5, 4, 3, 2, 1}
= A
{5 '4 '3 '2 '1} = A Det er en god del variasjon når det gjelder hvilke ting som blir tilpasset skriveretningen i urdu og hvordan dette gjøres. I en del tilfeller virker resultatet lite konsekvent sett med norske øyne, som når et rottegn går fra høyre mot venstre, men tallet som står i tegnet, må leses fra venstre mot høyre.
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Figur 3 Både dette eksempelet og de følgende er hentet fra Solvang 1987 Når elevene kan risikere å fa nye bøker på noen klassetrinn og gamle bøker på andre, kan de allerede ha måttet skifte system på mange områder flere ganger før de kommer til norsk skole. Gjennom dette kan kanskje spesielt dyktige elever ha fått en økt forståelse for at symbolene er arbitrære og kan skiftes ut. Men for aller elever, også de dyktigste, må det hemme den automatiseringen av regneteknikker som bygger på at tall og aritmetiske uttrykk oppfattes som tallbilder en ikke behøver å analysere hver gang en skal regne med dem. I det pakistanske subtraksjonsstykket 13 = 32 - 45 er regnetegnene en del av skriftspråket i den forstand at de kommer i en rekkelfølge som tilsvarer språkets skriveretning. Men i algebra kan regnetegnene også regnes som en del av et matematisk uttrykk og følge tallenes skriveretning. Forskjellen kan illustreres som nedenfor, der pilene markerer lese- og skriveretningen:
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Det er sannsynlig at det kan skape ekstra problemer for elevene at tegnene kan skifte status på denne måten. Det er naturligvis ikke bare i notasjonen, men også i ordforråd og setningskonstruksjoner elevene møter nye strukturer i matematikkfaget. Noe av det som burde undersøkes nærmere, er forståelsen av det som i matematikkdidaktikken ofte kalles 'logiske setninger', dvs. setninger som disse: (1) Fordi tallet er delelig med 4, er det også delelig med 2. (2) Når tallet er delelig med 4, er det også delelig med 2. (3) Hvis tallet er delelig med 4, er det også delelig med 2. (4) Er tallet delelig med 4, er det også delelig med 2. I matematisk fagspråk betyr alle disse setningene det samme. Det er den samme grunnleggende tankegangen som uttrykkes, den som hele matematikkfaget bygger på: vi setter opp premisser og beskriver hva som følger av disse premissene. Vi ser at dette kan uttrykkes på flere forskjellige måter i norsk: gjennom kombinasjon av hovedsetning og enten årsaksleddsetning (1), tidsleddsetning (2) eller betingelsessetning (3 og 4). Men selv om vi kan bruke årsaks- eller tidssetning, har vi verken å gjøre med årsaksforhold som i naturvitenskapen eller tidsrelasjoner, for i matematikken er det ikke slik at ett fenomen forårsaker et annet, men at valg av premisser innebærer noe annet, som da ligger der i premissene. Og det er ikke snakk om noe tidsforløp, alt er sant eller usant samtidig (selv om det kan ta tid for den menneskelige hjerne å oppfatte det). Vi kan si at i matematisk fagspråk slik det brukes i skolebøkene, er forskjellen mellom tidssetninger og årsakssetninger blitt nøytralisert. Det er ikke sikkert at denne ene logiske relasjonen uttrykkes på så forskjellig måter i matematikken overalt, og da kan den norske variasjonen kanskje være forvirrende for elever som er vant til en mer enhetlig beskrivelse. En pakistansk morsmålslærer som skulle oversette setningene til urdu, valgte f.eks. samme konstruksjon i eksemplene 1 og 2. Hvis elevene tror det er snakk om forskjellige typer av relasjoner og prøver å tolke dem ut fra sin forståelse av tids- og årsakssetninger fra norsk dagligspråk, er det ikke sikkert dette er den beste måten å nærme seg tankegangen i matematikken på. Slike logiske setninger er også vanskelige for norske elever, men for de fremmedspråklige elevene som har mindre variasjon i uttrykkene på sitt eget morsmål, kan den norske variasjonen kanskje være unødig forstyrrende. Et spesielt problem er det at syntaktisk underordning uttrykkes annerledes på mange språk, og at mange elever vil kunne oppfatte leddsetningene ovenfor som hovedsetninger. Og eksempel 4, der betingelsessetningen har inversjon istedenfor konjunksjon, vil sikkert kunne leses som en hovedsetning av f.eks. arabiske elever som har verbet først i hovedsetninger i sitt morsmål. Da får de kanskje ikke tak i at det dreier seg om en betingelse.
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Vi vet ennå lite om hvilken rolle forskjeller som dem jeg har har trukket fram, faktisk spiller for de fremmedspråklige elevenes matematikktilegnelse. Vi trenger både mer kunnskap om andre matematikkdidaktiske tradisjoner og om hvordan matematikktilegnelsen skjer hos de forskjellige gruppene av fremmedspråklige elever i Skandinavia. Vi trenger å utvikle ny matematikkdidaktikk slik at elevenes tidligere kunnskaper kan utnyttes positivt og systemforskjellene kan gi økt innsikt, og vi trenger kunnskaper som kan hjelpe til å få ryddet av veien unødige problemer som skyldes trivielle forskjeller i notasjon. Litteratur Griffith, C. L. T. (1939) The Story of Letters and Numbers.London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner. Hvenekilde, Anne (red.): 'Matte på et språk vi forstår!' Elevene fra språklige minoriteter og matematikken.Oslo: Cappelen. Skal utgis i 1988. Ifrah, Georges (1981). Histoire universelle des schiffres. Paris: Seghers, Paris 1981. Solvang, Ragnar (1988). Studier i pakistanske regnebker. I Hvenekilde, Anne (red.), se ovenfor.
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21 Cognitive Style and Attitudes in Bilingual Inuits Peter Berliner Danish Social Science Research Council, Denmark. Abstract To improve knowledge of bilingualism in Greenland, bilingual (Greenlandic-Danish) students at the Teachers Training College in Nuuk (Greenland) were tested concerning conceptualising, preference of reading language and memory ability. Finally the students were tested with a Greenlandic, Danish and English version of the Stroop test. The results were: (1) the students preferred to read Danish texts instead of Greenlandic ones; (2) they tended to forget Danish word material faster than Greenlandic; and (3) they were faster in learning Danish wordsand forgot them more quickly afterwards (i.e. the Greenlandic words were indeed more permanent). The interplays between those three levels of bilingualism might cause many learning and knowledge maintenance problems for Greenlandic students today. By understanding the problems, it is possible to solve them by a cognitive-stimulation programme in schools, a programme based on the ideas of discussions (an 'open' concept of knowledge) in the vernacular language. Bilingualism in Greenland Public discussion of the educational system in Greenland focuses on language (Berliner, 1984a; Søndergaard, 1983). In the period of colonialism, the school was monolingual and teachers used Greenlandic and only Greenlandic as the language of instruction (Berliner, 1987a). During the first decades of our century, educated Greenlanders fought to make the Danish colonial power introduce Danish as a subject in the schools
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Sørensen, 1983; Bugge, 1931). After World War II, the Danish parliament accepted the need for a bilingual school in Greenland and great changes occurred. The idea was not only to teach Danish as a foreign language, but also to use Danish as a medium of instruction in other subjects (see Grønlandskommissionens betænkning,1950). The goal was to make Greenlandic children bilingual. Danish was to be their first language and Greenlandic was to be used only as a private language, spoken in the home with one's family, in one's leisure time, etc. (see Kleivan, 1970). During the early 1970s criticism of the language policy developed and with the start of Home Rule in Greenland in 1979, the Greenlandic Parliament voted for a bilingual school, but now with the Greenlandic language as the first language and Danish as the second language (Højlund, 1972; Landstingsforordning no. 6, 1979). But today Danish is still in practice the 'first language' in the educational system: fluency in Danish is a precondition for access to further education (Berliner, 1987b). The Lack of Scientific Research As mentioned, school policy and the debate concerning schools have indeed focused on the language question. Despite this, there is still an astonishing lack of scientific research on bilingualism in Greenland. Most of the writings on the topic merely express the individual author's opinion on the matter, with the purpose of focusing on differences between the Danish and Greenlandic cultures. Thus language is examined in order to understand differences between the cultures in question, and the cognitive style used in Greenlandic and the cognitive style used in Danish (Schulz-Lorentzen, 1951; Lidegaard, 1961). It all amounts to mere philosophical reflections, which are, of course, of some interest, but too often seem to miss the fact that language is not used in the same way by different social and regional groups of peopleand consequently bilingualism is not the same (see Hansegård, 1974; Hymes, 1968). Instead of specialised analyses of particular elements of bilingualism, research in Greenland mainly brings forward broad outlines of the topic, in fact a theory without a systematic data and information base. Because of the scarcity of scientific research, we still have no reliable knowledge on the following items: (1) Learning as a cognitive processwhen using Greenlandic and when using Danish. (2) The relationship between 'Greenlandic' and 'Danish' cognitive processes such as memory and concept formation, thinking as a successive or
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simultaneous process, forms and dynamics of thought. In fact, we know very little about the way Greenlandic/Danish bilingualism 'works' and influences the structures and processes of thinking. Furthermore, we know very little about the influence of Greenlandic/Danish bilingualism on emotions and patterns of personality, identity and social interplay and interactions (Holst, 1974). (3) There is no scientific knowledge, but many guesses about the following important question: How do the Greenlandic and Danish languages influence, and how are they influenced by, the process of modernisation of the entire Greenlandic society? (4) Finally there is a lack of case studies illuminating bilingualism and biculturalism at the level of the individual. A second reason for studying bilingualism in Greenland and, in this case, particularly in the schools and the whole educational system, is the extensive dissatisfaction with the language policy. This is openly discussed in different groups. During the last twenty years, the students at the Teachers Training College in Nuuk have been opposed to the extensive use of Danish as the language of instruction in their education (see Imaalisa,1985). They find that the use of Danish instead of Greenlandic is lowering the quality of their education and that knowledge attained during the years of education seems to be at a low level because of the lack of opportunity to use the vernacular language as a medium of learning. Furthermore, they find it very difficult to transform knowledge gained in Danish to knowledge applicable when speaking and thinking'Greenlandic'. Finally they find that the extensive use of Danish partly ruins their ability to speak Greenlandic in a proper way. The students are not opposed to the Danish teachers as such but to the language policy of Greenlandic Home Rule. In Greenlandic society it is possible to find a kind of communicative and social stratification along the lines of attitudes towards the use of Danish in the Greenlandic educational system (Berliner & Hommelgaard, 1987). Students with no or very little possibility of influencing the language policy tend to become very disappointed with the current policy aiming at bilingualism. They seem to want a monolingual, Greenlandic-speaking society. On the other hand, people with access to the process of planning the language policy, people with power and social position on account of their fluency in Danish, argue that quality in education is possible only with an extensive use of Danish. They still want a bilingual society. This very simple observation of the social stratification of attitudes towards the language policy is of great interest because it is one way of showing that bilingualism when forced upon you is different from bilingualism as the consequence of political choice. Bilingualism is thusalso at a personal level
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a ramification of political processes, that is of those communicative processes in which political power expresses itself. An additional reason for studying bilingualism in Greenland is the view expressed by some writers that the Greenlandic language, because of its form, constitutes a rather poor tool for thinking (see Kleivan, 1970). Danish is better structured, the argument goes. But there is still no evidence that differences between the logical structures in Greenlandic and in Danish are caused by differences between the languages in question. It seems more obvious to suggest that the differences are caused by different life-styles (see Briggs, 1972; Rink, 1862; From et al., 1975), family structures (Weis-Bentzon, 1968; Pontoppidan & Abelsen, 1978; Kagitcibasi, 1984), communicative patterns and social interactions (Basse & Jensen, 1979; Giles, 1977; Sahlins, 1974; Keenan, 1981). Furthermore, it is rather difficult to find any logical differences at all between 'thinking in Danish and in Greenlandic'as I am going to show. Experiments Bilingualism is to be considered a multifactoral structure and processinvolving the individual as well as social interplay. As I have stated, bilingualism is not the same in different groupsand with regard to individuals bilingualism is subject to change from situation to situation (Cooper & Greenfield, 1969; Segalowitz, 1981; Fishman, 1971; Blom & Gumperz, 1972; Hymes, 1972; Fantini, 1978). In 1983-87 I carried out research on bilingualism with students at the Teachers Training College in Nuuk. As the students were supposed to be able to teach Greenlandic children Danish as a foreign language, it was important to improve their knowledge of how their own cognitive style was influenced by bilingualism (see also Berliner, 1984b and Gardner & Smythe, 1975). The group (i.e. the students) had been taught Danish as a second language at a fairly high level from their very first school days and most of them had been living in Denmark for a period of time. I was especially interested in improving our knowledge of how this group of educated, and indeed bilingual, persons did experience bilingualism, and how this bilingualism influenced their cognition. The goal was to see how Greenlandic/Danish bilingualism does in fact work. Experiment 1 In order to gain information about the process of conceptualising, that is the process of forming conceptswhen using Greenlandic or when using
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DanishI asked two groups of students to make rows of abstractions (generalisations) (Luria, 1977; Ciborowski, 1973; Ciborowski & Cole, 1971; Greenfield, 1974; Kellaghan, 1968; Okonji, 1971; Price-Williams, 1962; Wieman & Guthrie, 1972; Aronsson, 1978). To start the experiment, I showed the students some examples, like: animals | mammals | dogs | this dog named Kaju The instructions were given in Danish. The students were then asked to make one row of generalisations using the Greenlandic language. At the beginning it was rather difficult for the students to make generalisations using Greenlandic. They were then asked to make such rows using Danish. It was remarkably easier for them to do so. After making the rows using Danish, they were asked to try once more using Greenlandic. Now almost all of the students were able to make rows of generalisations when using Greenlandic. Two groups of 15 students were tested (Table 1). In one of the groups it was not possible for three of the students to make any Greenlandic generalisations at all. They told me it was a very strange way of using the Greenlandic languageand they certainly did not like to use their language that way. However, the process of generalisation, once learned, was rather easy for the majority of the groups in question. When the principle had been understood (using Danish), they were able to make that kind of generalisation in Greenlandic, too. An example in Greenlandic is: Uumasut (animals) | Immap uumassui (sea mammals) | puisit (seals) | natseq (fiord-seal) Reasons for the difficulties observed might be: (1) The instruction was given in Danishand the translation (in the minds of the students) to Greenlandic concepts might cause some
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Table 1 Numbers of persons succeeding in making rows of generalisations using Greenlandic or Danish. There were 15 persons in each group Greenlandic Danish Greenlandic Group I 1st attempt 0 1 13 2nd attempt 0 15 15 Group 2 1st attempt 0 8 11 2nd attempt 0 15 12 trouble. In fact, this might indicate a 'learning-strategy' (on the individual psychological level) of keeping Danish and Greenlandic languages separate as a means of cognition. (2) The students were used to using Danish as the instructional language. They were accustomed to using Danish as a 'tool', but it was only possible to use Danish in this way, when they were constantly studying it, that is when they kept a meta-analysis of the language going when speaking Danish. This permanent analysis might indicate that a new operation (i.e. conceptualising a cognitive process) wasat firsteasier when using the Danish language. (3) The students might use Danish and Greenlandic for different purposes. Perhaps they used Danish as a means of generalisation and Greenlandic as a means of communication. Anyway, the result of the experiment was that, having found the way to do it (having broken/cracked the code), it was indeed possible and easy for the students to make generalisations in Greenlandic. This may appear as a poor result of an experiment. However it is relevant for the debate on the question (i.e. the suitability of the Greenlandic language for generalisations) which has been taking place among language-policy planners in Greenland throughout the last four decades. It has been argued that the Greenlandic language is not fit for complicated cognitive processes concerning generalisations because it causes a successive cognitive style instead of a simultaneous stratified system of thinking (Schultz-Lorentzen, 1951; Lidegaard, 1961) (for further details on the concepts 'successive' and 'simultaneous' as cognitive processes, see Das, 1979). The experiment reported here indicates that generalisations may indeed be made in Greenlandic.
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Experiment 2 In the second 'experiment' I asked three groups of students about their choices of language when reading one of the two Greenlandic newspapers, which are both printed in Greenlandic as well as in Danish (see Table 2). It turned out that the majority read the Danish text. They preferred to read the Danish original text instead of a Danish-language influenced Greenlandic text, i.e. translations from Danish to Greenlandic. Translations from Danish to Greenlandic often caused a laugh among the students. Even texts originally written in Greenlandic were often read in Danish translations. When asked, the students said that they read the Danish text because it was shorter and to some extent more precise and informative than the Greenlandic. But, of course, it is possible that their choice of language was caused by some more profound difficulties with Greenlandic as a written language. Experiment 3 This experiment investigates the capacity of memorywhen using Danish and Greenlandic (concerning memory tasks, see Dalton, 1973; Dornic, 1977; Holmes & Langford, 1976; Kagan, Haith & Morrison, 1973; Mägiste, 1977; Meacham, 1975; Rose et al., 1975; Scribner, 1974). The first part of the experiment examined short-term memory. The method was to give short glimpses of rows of signs and afterwards rows of words. The signs and the words had to be remembered and mentioned immediately after the glimpses. There is no reason to go into further detail here as the results showed that there were no differences in the capacity of short-term memory when using different languages. The short-term memory had a capacity of eight unitsirrespective of the language in use. The experiment included 26 persons. Then long-term memory was examinedwith the same 26 persons. Each person was asked to remember first a list of ten Greenlandic words and Table 2 Choice of reading language
Group I Group II Group III
(1982, 25 pers.) (1984, 14 pers.) (1985, 15 pers.)
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Read the Greenl. text
23 10 12
2 4 3
Read both the Danish and the Greenl. text 7 8 10
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afterwards a list of ten Danish words. The criteria for remembering a list was that the person was able to repeat the entire list without any help. When the person had learned the Danish and Greenlandic lists of words, he or she was asked to read aloud a short story in Danish in the first part of the experiment, in Greenlandic in the second part. After reading, the person was asked some questions about the short story. The time spent on reading and talking was approximately 20 minutes. The following and final part of the experiment was to ask the subjects to recall as many of the previously learned words as possible. The number of words remembered was counted separately for Greenlandic and Danish words (Tables 3, 4 and 5). The results of the experiment were as follows: (1) Measured by the time used, it was easier to learn the 10 Danish words than to learn the 10 Greenlandic words. (2) It was easier for the subjects to recall the lists of Greenlandic words than the lists of Danish words. (3) The Greenlandic lists of words were less vulnerable to the stress factors (i.e. irrelevant reading and talking) in the experiment. It can be concluded that the subjects were faster 'learners' when using Danish, but that the acquired knowledge seemed to vanish quickly. The results of this experiment might help explain some of the problems in the Greenlandic schools where Danish is often used as the language of instruction. Lack of motivation and of permanence and stability concerning learning processes (in Greenlandic pupils) might be caused by irrelevant cues causing stress (Mägiste, 1977; Hockey, 1970; Segalowitz, 1977; Peck, 1974). Table 3 Lists of words Experiment 1 havnen, ikke, ord, måne, grine, hente, briller, musik, flodhest, bedre (harbour, not, word, moon, to laugh, to get, glasses, music, hippopotamus, better) kusanaq, meeqqat, unnugu, takuara, piffissaq, savaatilik, perseq, tamatigut, ivikkat, kia (beautiful, children, evening, I see him, time, a sheep-farm, drifting snow, always, grass, warmth/heat)
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Table 4 Memory Remembering Danish words (minutes) Subjects 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Exp. I 1.30 3.15 11.00 2.40 4.00 3.00 7.00 3.20 5.00 4.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 6.00 1.30 5.00 6.00 1.50 4.30 2.45 1.35 4.25 3.20 2.45 6.45 3.40
Exp. 2 1.30 3.00 8.00 2.30 3.00 2.30 6.30 3.00 4.30 3.15 1.30 1.45 1.50 5.00 1.30 4.15 4.50 4.25 3.55 2.15 1.25 4.10 3.10 2.20 5.50 3.20
Number of Number of Remembering Greenlandic words Danish words Greenlandic words remembered (minutes) remembered Exp. I Exp. 2 Exp. I Exp. 2 Exp. I Exp. 2 2.30 2.15 9 9 10 10 3.00 5.00 3 0 8 10 8.00 7.00 3 4 4 7 2.50 2.15 7 6 7 10 3.00 2.00 7 3 8 9 3.00 3.15 6 4 9 9 7.15 7.30 3 0 6 4 3.50 3.40 5 4 7 9 7.00 6.15 3 3 6 6 4.15 4.00 6 5 7 9 2.30 2.20 8 7 10 10 3.15 3.20 7 6 9 10 4.45 2.35 6 4 9 6 10.00 10.00 4 4 8 7 2.30 2.30 10 9 9 10 10.00 9.20 5 3 8 6 5.00 4.30 7 4 10 9 1.35 3.00 6 8 9 8 5.00 6.00 1 0 8 7 3.15 3.00 7 6 10 10 2.25 2.15 7 6 10 10 7.15 7.00 3 1 6 7 4.35 5.20 2 4 9 8 3.00 2.50 6 7 8 10 7.10 8.00 0 3 7 7 5.00 4.30 3 2 6 7
Table 5 Average Remembering Danish words (minutes)
Remembering Greenlandic words (minutes)
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Number of Greenl. words remembered
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Experiment 4 In 1982 I used a Danish version of the Stroop test in Greenland. I tested only a few Greenlandic students and got the impression that the Stroop effect (the problem of ignoring insistent irrelevant cues, i.e. words) was indeed significant. But when writing just a few lines of a Greenlandic version of the test, I then noticed that the Stroop effect seemed to be lacking. During the spring of 1987 I tried once more with a Greenlandic, a Danish and an English version of the Stroop test (for details see Dyer, 1971; Evans & Segall, 1969; Harvey, 1984; Heider & Olivier, 1972; Jensen & Rohwer, 1966; Preston & Lambert, 1969; Dalrymple-Alford, 1968; Serpell, 1969). Twenty-three students at the Teachers Training College in Greenland were tested. The Stroop test consists of three cards, the word card (the names of four colours printed 64 times), a colour card (the same 64 colours, but now actually as colours) and a conflict card (the names of the colours printed in different colours64 times). The performance of the subject is measured by the time used to read the word card, to mention the colours in colour card, and to mention the colour of the print (i.e. not read the word) used on the conflict card. For a comparison of the languages in question, the word card printed in Greenlandic, Danish and English is shown in Table 6. One result of the test was that the Stroop effect (comparison of time used to perform on the colour card and on the conflict card) was actually significant in all the languages in question. Another, perhaps more interesting result, was that the time spent on reading the word card was notably longer when using Greenlandic. This is probably not due to the length of the words as observations showed that the time used to perform on the colour card and on the conflict card was similar to the time used on those cards in Danish and English (see Table 7). When we combine what we already know about the students' habits of preferring Danish texts to Greenlandic ones with the fact that the actual reading time is longer using Greenlandic, it is obvious that the cognitive processes involved in the reading process in Greenlandic might differ from those used when reading Danish or English. It is therefore a mistake to think that the preference for reading Danish texts is caused only by the habit of doing so. Rather it is the strange increase in reading speed when choosing the Danish texts which causes the unwillingness to read the Greenlandic versions.
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Table 6 Stroop test in Greenlandic, Danish and English (word card) sungaartoq aappalaartoq tungujortoq aappalaartoq sungaartoq qorsuk tungujortoq qorsuk aappalaartoq tungujortoq qorsuk tungujortoq qorsuk sungaartoq aappalaartoq sungaartoq qorsuk aappalaartoq qorsuk tungujortoq sungaartoq aappalaartoq sungaartoq tungujortoq aappalaartoq tungujortoq sungaartoq qorsuq sungaartoq tungujortoq aappalaartoq qorsuk sungaartoq qorsuk tungujortoq sungaartoq qorsuk aappalaartoq tungujortoq aappalaartoq aappalaartoq sungaartoq aappalaartoq qorsuk tungujortoq sungaartoq qorsuk tungujortoq tungujortoq qorsuk sungaartoq tungujortoq aappalaartoq qorsuk aappalaartoq sungaartoq qorsuk aappalaartoq tungujortoq sungaartoq tungujortoq aappalaartoq sungaartoq qorsuk gul roed blaa roed gul groen blaa groen yellow red blue red yellow green blue green roed blaa groen blaa groen gul roed gul red blue green blue green yellow red yellow groen roed groen blaa gul roed gul blaagreen red green blue yellow red yellow blue roed blaa gul groen gul blaa roed groen red blue yellow green yellow blue red green gul groen blaa gul groen roed blaa roed yellow green blue yellow green red blue red roed gul roed groen blaa gul groen blaared yellow red green blue yellow green blue blaa groen gul blaa roed groen roed gul blue green yellow blue red green red yellow groen roed blaa gul blaa roed gul groen green red blue yellow blue red yellow green
Table 7 Stroop-test results Average time (seconds)
Standard deviation
37.5
6.94
29.3
3.84
30.7
4.52
48.5
10.3
48.1
10.1
54.0
15.4
71.0
18.1
Reading the word card Greenlandic Danish English Mention names of colours Greenlandic Danish English Time mentioning the colours of written words Greenlandic
Danish English General Conclusions
72.5
18.7
71.6
18.9
(1) Long-term memory is better when using Greenlandic-at least among the students at the Teachers Training College.
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(2) Students actually prefer to read Danish texts instead of Greenlandic ones as their speed of reading is higher. (3) Learning, that is the process of learning to remember and recall short lists of words, was faster when dealing with lists of Danish words compared to the time required for learning Greenlandic lists of words. (4) Apparently, the students are not used to handling the process of making rows of generalisations in Greenlandic but when they understand the idea, they are indeed able to produce many such rows. Combined, the results may tell us quite a lot about the reasons for the Greenlandic students' dissatisfaction with their educational situation. Further research should be carried out on: (1) The reading process when using Greenlandic. (2) The logical structure of reasoning when using the Greenlandic language. So far I have focused on the cognitive aspects of the problems with bilingualism, but in fact those problems have an emotional and a communicative dimension, too. Following theories of semiotics and psychoanalytical theories inspired by structural linguistics, the above-mentioned code shifts, related to reading, memory and generalisation, might involve further psychological aspects, which we know very little about (Bateson, 1973; Basseches, 1986; Cherns, 1984; Diebold, 1968; Foucault, 1971; Goldevin & Wilson, 1986; Lacan, 1977; Lambert, 1977; Prætorius, 1981; Taylor, 1974; Whorf, 1956; Wolff, 1967). It is perhaps even possible to combine the concept of interplay between Danish and Greenlandic at the individual level with a larger analysis of access to political power in Greenlandic society. Educational Consequences Following the results of the above-mentioned experiments, it is evident that an increase should be made in the use of Greenlandic to carry out cognitive processes in the Greenlandic educational system, in both primary and secondary schools. One way of doing this is to teach pupils how to discuss different topics. The pupils must learn how to use Greenlandic for all sorts of logical and cognitive operations.
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Today, radical students fight to make Greenlandic survive. But they do so in a somewhat conservative way, not allowing any development and change in the use of the language. Instead of spending hours discussing the right and proper way of saying this or that, they ought to develop their own skills in teaching their pupils how to use the Greenlandic language as a means of cognition. As an additional point, they might consider developing teaching skills to instruct the pupils to deal with the language and the communicative processes of political power. In the schools of Greenland today, teachers and planners are calling attention to teaching methods and to the inclusion of more practical skills in the curriculum. Following the results of my experiments, that way of changing the curriculum seems to maintain the problematic state of affairs. A better solution is to further a methodology in which the pupils learn how to use their mother tongue in a logical way for all the cognitive processes required in a modern society. To produce systematic descriptions of the structure of logical processes in the Greenlandic language to my mind is the most urgent task for educational research in Greenland (concerning educational research related to this topic, see Cummins & Gulutsan, 1974; Danielsen, 1985; Gumperz & Hernandez, 1971; Jørgensen, 1985; Lancy, 1983). The educational goal must be to avoid submitting Greenlandic children to the kind of cognitive problems found in my experiments. The problems consist of using Danish for new cognitive operations ('new' in a sense which means that it is the first time the person in question is asked to focus on them) instead of developing the cognitive operations when using Greenlandic. This profound problem is sustained by the specific problems of the reading process in Greenlandic. References Aronsson, K. (1978) Bilingual organization of antonyms and children's classification strategies. Psychological Research Bulletin No. 2. Lund, Sweden: Lund University. Basse, B. & Jensen, K. (eds) (1979) Eskimosprogenes vilkår idag. Arkona: Arhus Universitet. Basseches, M. (1986) Cognitive-structural development and the conditions of employment. Human Development 29 (2). Bateson, G. (1973) Steps to an Ecology of Mind.New York: Ballantine Books. Berliner, P. (1984a) Skoledebatten i Grønland. Tidsskriftet Grønland, Nr 6, 153-71. (1984b) Fremmedsprogets pædagogik i Grønland. Unge pæedagoger, Nr 6, 12-19. (1987a) Afhæengighed og udfordring-Skolen i Grønland og i den tredje verden. København: DLH. (1987b) Small scale schooling and national development. Schools in small settlements in Greenland: impact on youth's opportunities concerning work and/or education. Paper presented at the Second International Workshop on Population Issues in Arctic Societies, University of Tromsø 31 May-2 June 1987. Bergen.
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Berliner, P. & Hommelgaard, B. (1987) Kulturforskelle og psykologi. Tværkulturel psykologi muligheder og begrænsninger. København: Dansk Psykologisk Forlag. Blom, J. P. & Gumperz, J. J. (1972) Social meaning in linguistic structures: code-switching in Norway. In J. J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (eds), Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Briggs, J. L. (1972) Never in Anger. Portrait of an Eskimo Family.Mass.: Harvard University Press. Bugge, Aa. (1931) Danskundervisningen i Grønland. Det grønlandske selskabs årsskrift, 5-19. Københaven. Cherns, A. (1984) Contribution of social psychology to the nature and function of work and its relevance to the societies of the third world. International Journal of Psychology, 19, 97-111. Ciborowski, T. (1973) A developmental and cross-cultural study of influences of role structure and problem composition on the learning of conceptual classifications. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,15, 193-215. Ciborowski, T. & Cole, M. (1971) Cultural differences in learning conceptual rules. International Journal of Psychology,6, 25-37. Cooper, R. & Greenfield, L. (1969) Language use in a bilingual community. Modern Language Journal,53, 16672. Cummins, J. & Gulutsan, M. (1974) Bilingual education and cognition. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 20, 259-69. Dalrymple-Alford, E. C. (1968) Interlingual interference in a color-naming task. Psychonomic Science,10, 215-16. Dalton, S. (1973) Language dominance and bilingual recall. Journal of Psychology, 84, 257-65. Danielsen, O. (1985) Viden og informationsteknologiMonopolisering eller demokratisering. In Temarapport om uddannelsesforskning vedrørende viden og informations-teknologi. Udvalget vedrorende uddannelsesforskning publikation Nr 9. København. Das, J. P. (1979) Simultaneous and Successive Cognitive Processes. New York: Sage. Diebold, R. A. (1968) The consequences of early bilingualism on cognitive development and personality formation. In E. Norbeck, D. Price-Williams & W. M. McCord (eds), The Study of Personality: An Interdisciplinary Appraisal. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Dornic, S. (1977) Information processing and bilingualism. Reports from the Department of Psychology,No. 510. Stockholm: University of Stockholm. Dyer, F. N. (1971) Color-naming interference in monolinguals and bilinguals. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 10, 297-302. Evans, J. L. & Segall, M. H. (1969) Learning to classify by color and by function: a study of concept discovery by Ganda children. Journal of Social Psychology,77, 35-53. Fantini, A. (1978) Bilingual behaviour and social cues: Case studies of two bilingual children. In M. Paradis (ed.) Aspects of Bilingualism. Columbia, South Carolina: Hornbeam Press. Fishman, J. A. (1971) Advances in the Sociology of Language.The Hague: Mouton. Foucault, M. (1971) L'ordre du discours. Paris: Editions Gallimard. From, A. (1975) Sociale problemer i Grønland. København: Socialforskningsinstituttet.
Gardner, R. C. & Smythe, P. C. (1975) Motivation and second language acquisition. Canadian Modern Language Review, 31, 218-30. Giles, H. (ed.) (1977) Language, Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations. London: Academic Press. Goldevin, G. O. & Wilson, T. C. (1986) Effects of a decade of satellite-television in the Canadian Artic. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, No. 3. Greenfield, P. M. (1974) Comparing dimensional categorization in natural and artificial contexts: a developmental study among the Zinacantecos of Mexico. Journal of Social Psychology,93, 157-71. Grønlandskommissionens betænkning. København 1950. Gumperz, J. J. & Hernandez, E. (1971) Cognitive aspects of bilingual communication. In W. Whitely (ed.), Language Use and Social Change. London: Oxford University Press. Hansegård, N. E. (1974) Tvåspråkighet eller halvspråkighet? Stockholm: Aldus/Bonniers. Harvey, N. (1984) The Stroop effect: Failure to focus attention or failure to maintain focusing? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 36A, 89-115.
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Heider, E. R. & Olivier, D. C. (1972) The structure of the color space in naming and memory for two languages. Cognitive Psychology, 3, 337-54. Hockey, G. (1970) Effect of loud noise on attentional selectivity. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 22, 28-36. Holmes, V. & Langford, J. (1976) Comprehension and recall of abstract and concrete sentences. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 15, 559-66. Holst, S. (1975) Grønland pladask i kulturkløften. Oslo: Grøndahl. Hymes, D. (1968) The ethnography of speaking. In F. Fishman (ed.) Readings in the Sociology of Language. The Hague: Mouton. (1972) Models of interaction of language and social life. In J. J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (eds), Directions in Sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Højlund, N. (1972) Krise uden alternativ. K¬benhavn: Gyldendal. Imaalisa - sprogbrug pd Grønlands Seminarium (1985). Nuuk: Ilinniarfissauq. Jensen, A. R. & Rohwer Jr, W. D. (1966) The Stroop color-word test: a review. Acta Psychologica, 25, 36-93. Jørgensen, J. N. (1985) Tosproget undervisning. Københavnerstudier i tosprogethed, Bd 2. København: DLH. Kagan, J., Haith, M. M. & Morrison, F. J. (1973) Memory and meaning in two cultures. Child Development, 44, 221-3. Kagitcibasi, C. (1984) Socialization in traditional Societya challenge to psychology. International Journal of Psychology, 19, 145-57. Keenan, J. (1981) The concept of the mode of production in hunter-gatherer societies. In J. S. Kahn & J. R. Llobera, (eds) The Anthropology of Pre-Capitalist Societies. London: Macmillan Press. Kellaghan, T. (1968) Abstraction and categorization in African children. International Journal of Psychology, 3, 115-20. Kleivan, I. (1970) Language policy and debate in Greenland. Folk, 12, 235-85. Lacan, J. (1977) The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis. London: Hogarth Press. Lambert, W. E. (1977) The effects of bilingualism on the individual: Cognitive and sociocultural consequences. In P. Hornby (ed.) Bilingualism, Psychological, Social and Educational Implications. New York: Academic Press. Lancy, D. F. (1983) Cross-Cultural Studies in Cognition and Mathematics. New York: Academic Press. Landstingsforordning nr 6 af 16 oktober 1979. Om folkeskolen. Nuuk: Det grønlandske Hjemmestyre. Lidegaard, M. (1961) Den eskimoiske kultur og teknikken. Tidsskriftet Grønland. Luria, A. R. (1977) Om erkendelsesprocessernes historiske udvikling. København: Munksgaard. Mägiste, E. (1977) Recall of concrete and abstract sentences in bilinguals. Reports from the Department of Psychology, No 514. Stockholm: University of Stockholm. Meacham, J. A. (1975) Patterns of memory abilities in two cultures. Developmental Psychology, 11 (1) 50-3. Okonji, M. O. (1971) A cross-cultural study of the effects of familiarity on classificatory behaviour. Journal of
Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2, 39-49. Peck, E. Jr (1974) The relationship of disease and other stress to second language. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 20, 129-33. Pontoppidan, A. & Abelsen, A. (1978) Nederlagets børn. In H. Vejle-Skov (ed.) Begynderundervisning II. København: DLH. Preston, M. S. & Lambert, W. E. (1969) Interlingual interference in a bilingual version of the Stroop color-word task. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 8, 295-301. Price-Williams, D. R. (1962) Abstract and concrete models of classification in a primitive society. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 32, 50-61. Prætorius, N. (1981) Subjekt og objekt. En afhandling om psykologiens grundlagsproblemer. København: Thanning & Appel. Rink, H. J. (1862) Om årsagen til grønlændernes og lignende af jagt levende nationers tilbagegang ved beørring med europæerne. København (i Dansk månedsblad). Rose, R. G., Rose, P. R., King, N. & Perez, A. (1975) Bilingual memory for related and
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unrelated sentences. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1, 599-606. Sahlins, M. (1974) Stone Age Economy. London: Tavistock. Schulz-Lorentzen, C. W. (1951) Det grønlandske folk og folkesind. København: Ministeriet for Grønland. Scribner, S. (1974) Developmental aspects of categorised recall in a West African society. Cognitive Psychology, 6, 475-94. Segalowitz, N. (1977) Psychological perspectives on bilingual education. In B. Spolsky & R. L. Cooper (eds) Frontiers of Bilingual Education. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. (1981) Issues in the cross-cultural study of bilingual development. In H. C. Triandis (ed.), Handbook of CrossCultural Psychology, Vol. 4. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Serpell, R. (1969) The influence of language, education, and culture on attentional preference between colour and form. International Journal of Psychology, 4, 183-94. Søndergaard, B. (1983) Sprog som genstand kontra sprog som redskab. Om sprogfordelingen i den grønlandske skoles curriculum. En oversigtsrapport. Nuuk: Det grønlandske Hjemmestyre. Sørensen, A. K. (1983) Danmark - Grønland i det 20. drhundrede. En historisk oversigt. København: Nyt Nordisk. Taylor, M. (1974) Speculations on bilingualism and the cognitive network. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 2, 68124. Weis-Bentzon, A. (1968) Familiens organisation i de grønlandske samfund. København: Nyt fra Samfundsvidenskaberne. Whorf, B. (1956) Language, Thought and Reality. Cambridge, Mass.: John Wiley. Wieman, R. J. & Guthrie, G. M. (1972) The effects of age and cultural familiarity on children's categorization responses. Journal of Social Psychology, 86, 299-308. Wolff, P. H. (1967) Cognitive considerations for psycho-analytical theory of language acquisition. Psychological Issues, 5, 299-343.
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22 Motivationsprofilen ved indlæring af L2 med henblik på dansk på Færøerne Bent Søndergaard Pädagogische Hochschule Flensburg. Abstract In an earlier paper the author has summarised the results of tests administered to 700 young Faroese to establish their attitudes towards their second (Danish) and first (Faroese) language. The working hypothesis was that the general attitude towards Danishfor historical reasonswould turn out to be clearly negative. However, this proved not to be true, because the general attitude towards Danish has recently changed. In contrast to previous times, the Faroese can now emotionally afford to recognise that Danish is useful for them, at least in an educational context. They no longer feel that the Faroese language is threatened by Danish. The general attitude towards Danish is a rational and non-emotional one. The Faroese do not have any preference for Danish. This is prevented by their conscious 'pro-Faroeseness', which is part of their identity. In this paper the author triesagainst this backgroundby means of an international typology of motivation to answer the following question: What is the profile of motivation towards the learning of Danish? This motivation turns out to be a typically instrumental one. Det er almindeligt kendt, at nyere motivationsforskning i andetsprogssammenhænge står i gæld til Gardner og Lambertse eksempelvis Gardner & Lambert (1972). Fra dem stammer også det kendte begrebspar instrumental kontra integrativ motivation.Følgende definition heraf valges i denne sammenhæng: Instrumental motivation refers to motivation to acquire a language as means for attaining instrumental goals: furthering a career, reading technical material, translation, and so forth. An integrative
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motive is employed when a learner wishes to integrate himself within the culture of the second language group, to identify himself with and become a part of that society. (Brown, 1980: 114). (En vanskelighed ved begrebsparret er, at mens ordet instrumental defineres ret entydigt i forskningen, bruges integrativ langt mere upræcist, delvis afhængigt af den kontekst, hvori det indgår.) Som bekendt gik de første forskningsresultater i retning af, at personer med en integrativ motivation havde en bedre beherskelse af andetsproget end personer med en instrumental motivation, jf. også Spolsky (1969). Senere har det vist sig, at det ikke nødvendigvis forholder sig så ukompliceret, og Gardner har selv modificeret sine synspunkter ved at betone den sociale konteksts vigtighed for andetsprogsindlaringen. Herunder inddrager han begreberne additiv og subtraktiv på følgende måde: In fact, it might very well be that the integrative motive is a potential determinant of second language achievement only in contexts where bilingualism could be viewed as additive. If potential bilingualism were seen as leading to cultural alienation (i.e. subtractive) it is difficult to see how a genuine interest in the other cultural community could serve as a potential motivational force facilitating achievement . . . (Gardner, 1979: 218). Om dette er tilstrakkeligt til at sikre denne teoris holdbarhed, skal jeg senere forsøge at tage stilling til. Først skal jeg imidlertid kort referere nogle forskningsresultater, der arbejder med problematikken integrativ versus instrumental motivation: Lukmani (1972), der testede marathi-talende 'high school students' i engelsk i forhold til deres motivationsprofil, fandt frem til, at der ingen signifikant relation var mellem kompetensen i engelsk og motivationstypen (integrativ/instrumental), hvilket tilskrives forskelle i sociale betingelser for andetsprogsindlæring i forhold til Spolsky og Gardner og Lambert. Burstall (1974) arbejdede med attituder hos engelsktalende elever, der var genstand for flere års franskundervisning. Et af undersøgelsens delresultater er, at en integrativ motivation ikke gør sprogtilegnelsen lettere end en instrumental. Desuden gøres der opmærksom på, at den enkelte elevs motivationsprofil ikke udelukkende er integrativ eller instrumental. Taylor, Meynard & Rheault (1977) henleder opmærksomheden på en erfaring fra andetsprogsindlæringen i Canada, som måske også kan være af interesse i en færøsk-dansk kontekst, nemlig at personer, som følte deres minoritetsidentitet truet, var mindre flydende i majoritetssproget:
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In such situations, it is quite conceivable that, for some individuals, anticipated rewards of learning a second language do not balance out the perceived costs in terms of loss to ethnic or cultural identity. (Taylor, Meynard & Rheault 1977: 103). Jf. Gardners anvendelse af subtraktiv bilingualisme, se ovenfor. Oller, Hudson & Liu (1977) undersøgte holdningen til andetsproget hos en gruppe kinesisktalende, der læste engelsk 'at the graduate level' i U.S.A. Hovedresultatet var, at selv om de personer, som i højere grad var integrativt motiverede gennemgående viste sig at have en bedre sprogbeherskelse end de personer, som i mindre grad havde en integrativ motivation, så var forholdet mellem sprogbeherskelse og attituder mere kompliceret end antaget. Til et delvist andet resultat kom Chihara og Oller (1978) i deres undersøgelse af en gruppe japaneres holdning til indlæring af engelsk, idet relationen mellem attitude og kompetens var meget svagere end i Oller, Hudson & Liu (1977), således at holdningerne kun indirekte influerede på andetsprogsindlæringen. Forskellene i resultater antages at være sammenhængende med, at der i den første undersøgelse er tale om en andensproglig, i den sidste om en fremmedsproglig kontekst. I sin undersøgelse af mexikanske studenter i Amerika fandt Flores (1978) ikke bevis for hypotesen om, at en integrativ motivation medfører en højere kompetens end en instrumental. Forenklet kan disse forskningsresultater sammenfattes på følgende måde: Der er opstået større og større tvivl om, hvorvidt en integrativ motivation for andetsprogsindlæring altid fører til et bedre indlæringsresultat end en instrumental, og i nyere forskning har man forsøgt at forene dem. Dette gælder eksempelvis Brown (1980), der hævder, at der ikke nødvendigvis er en modsigelse mellem de tidligere og de senere forskningsresultater. I nogle sammenhænge findes der sprogindlærere, som opnår gode resultater ved hjælp af en integrativ motivation, i andre sammenhænge er der andre, som drager fordel af en instrumental motivation. Resultaterne kan også tolkes således, at de to motivationstyper ikke gensidigt udelukker hinanden. Andetsprogsindlæring er sjældent udelukkende karakteriseret ved enten den ene eller den anden motivationsform, men indebærer en blanding af begge. Dulay, Burt & Krashen (1982) fastslår, at også en instrumental motivation kan være en spore til en kvalificeret andetsprogstilegnelse under forudsætning af, at den praktiske nytte af andetsproget er høj samt hyppig brug heraf tillige er mulig og n¬dvendig. Det antages, at den instrumentale og den integrative motivation er virksomme under forskellige betingelser. Stern (1983) tolker sammenhængen således, at Gardners og Lamberts samt Burstalls studier godtgør, at der eksisterer en positiv forbindelse mellem de
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målelige resultater af andetsprogsindlæringen og elevernes holdninger til målsproget og målsprogsgruppen. Dette viser, at det affektive aspekt ved sprogindlæring er vigtigt, om end vurderingen heraf ved hjaelp af attitudetest er blevet draget i tvivl. Lad mig på dette punkt i fremstillingen fremsætte min personlige vurdering af denne problemstilling: I en forskningshistorisk sammenhæng har begrebsparret instrumental versus integrativ motivation bidraget til en afldaring, men det bliver tydeligere og tydeligere, at distinktionen ikke kan opretholdes i sin oprindelige form. På nuværende tidspunkt synes uafklaretheden at være så stor, at det kun er rimeligt at understrege det velkendte faktum, at sprogindlærerens attitude til målsproget kan have en afgørende betydning for indlæringsprocessen, idet en positiv holdning kan fremme og en negativ holdning omvendt hæmme denne. Før man kan finde frem til en væsentligt mere differentieret systematik, må man beskrive en lang række attitudemålinger ved hjælp af den samme metodik for at finde frem til, hvilke sprogindlæringssituationer der er sammenlignelige og hvilke ikke. Eksempelvis kan man ikke i samme grad som hidtil negligere forskellen mellem undervisning af fuldvoksne og ikke-fuldvoksne elever, eller mellem en andetsprogsundervisning og en egentlig fremmedsprogsundervisning. (I det sidste tilfælde er det måske slet ikke meningsgivende at anvende begrebet integrativ motivation i direkte betydning.) Herefter skal jeg forsøge at stille undersøgelsesresultaterne af unge uddannelsessøgende færingers holdninger til dansk ind i denne sammenhæng, jf. Søndergaard (1987a). Karakteristisk for attituderne er det næsten totale fravær af en integrativ motivation. Mindre end 1% giver udtryk herfor. Færingen ønsker heller ikke sprogligt at opgive sin 'færøskhed' for at gå op i 'danskheden'. Attituderne er domineret af forskellige former for typisk instrumental motivation. Testpersonerne udtrykker, at for færinger har dansk betydning: (1) for uddannelse i Danmark; (2) for uddannelse på Færøerne (grundet dansksproget undervisningsmateriale, eventuelt tillige danske lærere); (3) ved samkvem, af f.eks. handelsmæssig art, mellem Færøerne og Danmark; (4) som delvist internt arbejdssprog på Færøerne (p.g.a. mange danskere i arbejdslivet); (5) som et internordisk kommunikationsmiddel. Mere end 50% anskuer danskens betydning for færingerne i en uddannelsesmæssig, eventuelt tillige i en arbejdsmæssig sammenhæng, hvilket er det vigtigste træk i signalementet af motivationsprofilen.
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En interessant parallel kan her drages til følgende konstatering af Huntsman (1976: 30): . . . often, especially in the higher grades, their [the students'] justification for learning a second language, and particularly a dominant culture language, is based on the belief that it is necessary in obtaining a good job. Et gennemgående drag i undersøgelsesresultaterne er, at mange unge færinger ikke oplever noget følelsesmæssigt modsætningsforhold mellem dansk og færøsk. Som forventet, har en betragtelig del af dem en positiv holdning til modersmålet. Imidlertid udelukker dette ikke, at nogle af disse også har en positiv holdning til dansk, men en neutral og en negativ attitude forekommer naturligvis også. Mest påfaldende er det imidlertid, at hele 33% har en neutral holdning til både første- og andetsproget, hvillket tyder på en lav grad af 'emotionalisering' af sprogforholdene. Generaliserende kan man tale om fire forskellige attitudeprofiler: (1) en skarp profærøsk og antidansk profil, som ikke er meget udbredt. (2) en bevidst prodansk, men ikke antifærøsk profil, som har en stærkt begraenset udbredelse. (3) mere eller mindre tydeligt profærøsk, men ikke antidansk profil - den talmæssigt dominerende gruppe. (4) en ret udvisket profil uden dybere følelsesmæssigt engagement over for begge sprog. Dette kan formuleres således: Dansk hades ikke af mange og elskes ikke af mange. Der er noget fornuftsbetonetsom netop er typisk for en instrumental motivationover manges holdninger til dansk. Endelig bör det understreges, at der ikke er nogen entydig relation mellem en positiv respektive en negativ holdning til dansk og kompetensen i dette sprogsåledes som denne kommer til udtryk i skolernes karaktergivning eller i elevernes selvvurderede sprogfærdighed. (De fleste elever har en høj vurdering af deres egne danskkundskaber). En høj motivation resulterer altså ikke automatisk i en høj kompetens og omvendt ikke en lav motivation i en lav kompetens. Afsluttende skal jeg stille spørgsmålet: Hvorledes forholder de færøske resultater sig til de tidligere refererede internationale forskningsresultater? For det første: Forholdet mellem motivation og kompetens synes at være meget komplekst. For det andet: Der kan ikke tages stilling til forholdet mellem en integrativ og en instrumental motivationsprofil, da kun den sidstnævnte er udbredt. For det tredje: Der er en god overensstemmelse mellem den
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almindelige kompetens i dansk på Færøerne og Dulays ovenfor refererede synspunkt, at en instrumental motivation udmærket kan resultere i en god andetsprogsbeherskelse, såfremt sprogets praktiske nyttevaerdi er høj, og såfremt hyppig brug heraf tillige er mulig. Begge disse forudsatninger er til stede for dansken i den bilinguale sprogsituation på Færøerne i modsætning til, hvad der er tilfældet med dansk i den fremmedsproglige sprogsituation i Island, se herom Søndergaard (1987b). Litteratur Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Acquisition/Learning (1985). Wheaton: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. (Stencileret). Brown, H. D. (1980) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Burstall, Clare (1970) French in the Primary School. Attitudes and Achievement. Slough. (Forlag ikke angivet). Burstall, Clare (1974): Primary French in the Balance. Slough. (Forlag ikke angivet). Chihara, T. & Oller, J. W. (1978) Attitudes and attained proficiency in EFL. Language Learning, 28, 55-68. Dulay, H., Burt, M. & Krashen, S. (1982) Language Two. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Flores, Valentina, M. (1978) Affective variables and oral English proficiency of Mexican American migrant students. Summarised in Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Acquisition Learning. Gardner, R. C. (1979) Social psychological aspects of second language acquisition. In H. Giles & R. N. St Clair (eds), Language and Social Psychology, Baltimore: University Park Press. Gardner, R. C. & Lambert, W. E. (1972) Attitudes and Motivation in Second-Language Learning. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. Gardner, R. C. & Smythe, P. C. (1980-81) On the development of the attitude/motivation test battery. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 37, 510-25. Huntsman, Beverly (1976) Some sociological factors in bilingual education. Summarised in Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Acquisition/Learning. Lambert, Wallace, E. (1965) Psychological approaches to the study of language. In H. B. Allen (ed.), Teaching English as a Second Language. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lukmani, Y. M. (1972) Motivation to learn and language proficiency. Language Learning, 22, 261-73. Oiler, J. W., Hudson, A. J. & Liu, P. F. (1977) Attitudes and attained proficiency in ESL. Language Learning, 27, 1-27. Spolsky, B. (1969) Attitudinal aspects of second language learning. Language Learning, 19, 271-83. Stern, H. H. (1983) Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Søndergaard, B. (1987a) Unge uddannelsessøgende færingers holdninger til dansk og færøsk. Tórshavn: Landsskulafyrisitingin. (Stencileret). (1987b) Indplaceringen af faget dansk i den islandske skoles curriculum. Reykjavik: Menntamálaráduneytid. Taylor, D. M., Meynard, R. & Rheault, E. (1977) Threat to ethnic identity and second-language learning. In H. Giles (ed.), Language, Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations. London: Academic Press.
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23 Kan en digter være tosproget? Tilfældet Kateb Yacine Marie-Alice Seferian Danmarks Lærerh¬jskole, Institut for fremmedsprog, Danmark. Abstract This paper describes the case of Kateb Yacine, an Algerian poet, novelist and playwright, who can only write in French. His development from writing in French to creating plays in popular Arabic, in a collective creating process with the actors, leads to the following conclusions in the educational field: Literature from multilingual and multicultural countries, and use of drama in the classroom, are effective means of promoting a 'culture awareness', which plays a significant role in the constitution of personal identity. 'Fra den dag blev der taget fra mig de to eneste ting, et menneske har ret til at have; jeg mistede både min mor og hendes sprog. Og aldrig siden har jeg kunnet lade være med at mærke, dybt inde i mig, den følelse af navlestrengen, der påny bliver revet over? Således beskriver Kateb Yacine, i slutningen af Le polygone étoilé, sin første kontakt med det franske sprog (Kateb, 1977). Det var i 1936, i Algeriet, som dengang blev betragtet ogstort setadministreret, som var det en del af det franske territorium. Kateb Yacine var da syv år, og man kunne have spået ham en fremtid som arabisk digter. Hjemme talte man arabisk, hans far, der var muslimsk advokat, 1 elskede at rime, hans mor også. Hun holdt desuden meget af at fortælle og spille komedie. 'Hun var i sig selv et teater', fortæller sønnen. Ligesom alle andre algeriske drenge havde Kateb Yacine stiftet bekendtskab med det klassiske arabiske sprog på den lokale koranskole, hvor han havde 'besteget et stenbjerg af koranvers, uden at forstå et eneste af dem'. Med sine forældre, tanter, søstre, kusiner og kammerater talte han et andet arabisk, nemlig det dialektale. Han følte sig 'som en haletudse der elsker sin families kvækken og lever lykkeligt i sin dam, uden frygt for noget eller nogen'.
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Men denne lykkelige tilstand kan ikke vare ved . . . Kateb Yacine's far, der vil sin søns bedste, beslutter (omend med tungt hjerte) at sætte drengen i den franske skole, 'at kaste ham i løvens gab'. 'Jeg vil ikke have at du, ligesom jeg, skal sidde mellem to stole. (. . .) Fransk er det herskende sprog og derfor må du beherske det. Du skal lade alt det træde i baggrunden, din mor og jeg har lært dig. Når du så en dag mestrer det franske sprog, kan du uden fare vende tilbage til dit udgangspunkt'. Fransk, det herskende sprog Lad os standse et øjeblik ved disse ord: det herskende sprog, thi de rører ved noget centralt i spørgsmålet om tosprogethed, nemlig sprogenes forskellige status i et givet samfund (Séférian, 1987). Når et barn taler to sprog og derved har adgang til to kulturer, som er lige værdige, føles denne dobbelthed som en rigdom, ikke som en splittelse. Konflikten og vanskelighederne med hensyn til identitetsopbygning og personligheds-dannelse opstår først, når det ene af disse sprog, den ene af disse kulturer ringeagtes i det omgivende samfund. Og når dette 'andenrangs' sprog netop er modersmålet, moderens sprog, så bliver denne dobbeltbinding smertefuld. Ulykkeligt nok, er det i denne ubehagelige og usikre situation, mange børn befinder sig i dag, enten fordi de tilhører en minoritet (regional eller etnisk) eller som følge af en koloniseringsproces (Hagège, 1975). Den franske kolonisering af Algeriet var klart kulturimperialistisk. Det erklærede mål var assimileringen af de indfødte. Dvs. at der kun blev undervist i arabisk i koranskolerne, hvorved sproget klart blev koblet til Islam. I de offentlige kommuneskoler blev der udelukkende undervist i fransk og på fransk (Mazouni, 1969). Lærerne var enten franskmænd eller 'indf¬dte', der var uddannet på et fransk seminarium, specielt beregnet for dem. Dèr var de blevet indprentet ikke bare respekt for, men også kærlighed til det franske sprog og den franske kultur. Selv om deres holdning forblev ambivalent, som Colonna (1975) påpeger det, betragtede disse lærere de republikanske franske idealer som overordnede. Hvad værre er, blev de små algeriske børn undervist i historie, i geografi, i samfundslære ('instruction civique') og i moral, som om de var franske borgere. 'Jeg ved alt om Jeanne d'Arc, om Bastillen og om Alesia, men om mit land ved jeg intet' siger Salah Guemriche i digtet 'Racontezmoi, Maitre . . .' (Séférian, 1976) (Derfor prøvede flere algeriske digtere at genoprette de nationale historiske figurer, såsom Jugurtha og Abdelkader (Bourboune, 1964)). Den herskende
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Figur 1 To eksempler på, hvordan man henholdsvis kan udslette/bestyrke børnenes nationale identitet ved brug af geografikort. Ovenstående stammer fra en lærebog i mundtlig arabisk, til brug for franske elever i Algeriet (1. oplag 1904, sidste oplag 1955). Det nedenstående er fra en børnebog, skrevet og tegnet af elever fra en skole i nærheden af Paris (teksten er på fransk, portugisisk og arabisk): Le chateau hanté Conte des Quatre vents. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1984.
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befolkning, der bestod af franskmænd især, men også af italienere og spaniere, gennemførte således, selvom den var en minoritet (ca. 10 % af hele befolkningen i 1954), at udbrede det franske sprog og den franske kultur i Algeriet (Calvet, 1974). Dette blev dog begrænset til de algeriere, der fik en uddannelse og som, i de fleste tilfælde, hørte til det lokale bourgeoisi eller boede i tætbefolkede byområder. Et formentlig utilsigtet resultat af denne 'francisering' blev at en række algeriske digtere og romanforfattere, der havde lært om den Franske Revolution og om menneskerettigheder i den franske skole, gjorde brug netop af kolonisatorernes sprog til at mane til oprør. Fra fransksproget digter til algerisk teatermand Men lad os komme tilbage til den unge Kateb Yacine. Han går i den franske skole, hvor han beundrer sin smukke franske lærerinde og larer om de galliske forfædre, der havde blå øjne og blondt hår. Ved 12-års alderen kommer han i den franske 'lycée', hvor de indf¬dte er i mindretal. Da Anden Verdenskrig slutter, er han elev på en kostskole i byen Sétif, i det østlige Algeriet. Og netop i dette område bryder i maj 1945 et spontant nationalistisk oprør ud som følge af en demonstration. Det bliver brutalt slået ned af de franske myndigheder. De franske historikere taler om 6 eller 7.000 døde, men tallet skal femdobles siger algerierne (Ageron, 1964). Den 16-årige Kateb Yacine deltager i denne demonstration i Sétif og bliver arresteret. I fænglset opdager han, som han senere har sagt, 'de to ting der kom til at betyde så meget for ham: revolution og poesi'. Dèr lærer han at kende sine landsmand, sit folk. Da han bliver løsladt, går han ikke tilbage til skolen, men lukker sig inde på sit værelse og læser Baudelaire og Lautréamont (Kateb, 1985). Hans far sender ham til byen Annaba (dengang Bône), til en kusine, som han bliver dødeligt forelsket i, men hun er ældre end han, og gift . . . Den umulige kærlighed, kampen mod undertrykkelsen, søgen efter en national identitet, samt en digterisk genialitet gør Nedjma, som udkommer i Frankrig i 1956 midt under Algierkrigen, til et mesterværk og en milepæl i den franskprogede litteratur. I 1959, publicerer Kateb Yacine, ligeledes i Frankrig, Le cercle des représailles,som består af tre teaterstykker (plus et langt digt), hvoraf to er lyriske tragedier, der handler om Algierkrigen, og et er en satirisk farce: La poudre d'intelligence. Dette foredrags snævre ramme tillader mig ikke at fordybe mig i Katebs spændende og mangfoldige forfatterskab. I øvrigt er det heller ikke mit ærinde, da det udelukkende er digterens forhold til det franske sprog og til sit kunstneriske virke, jeg vil beskæftige mig med. Et par ord skal dog siges om
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La poudre d'intelligence, da det indeholder alle de 'ingredienser' digteren senere har bevaret i sit teater. Det drejer sig som sagt om en farce, deri lighed med det middelalderlige gadeteaterhar både groteske og realistiske elementer med et underholdende og satirisk sigte. Hovedpersonen, som hedder 'Nuage de fumée' (røgsky), er en fupmager, som sælger sin opfindelse: intelligenspulver. Det lykkes ham at narre både sultanen og den muslimske gejstlige, muftien. Personen har mange lighedstræk i folkefortællinger, nemlig Djoha, den lille mand, som er fattig og ikke særlig klog, men snu. Sultanen og prinsen hører i øvrigt til Tusind-ogen-nat-traditionen. Det specielle ved stykket er, at midt i denne blanding af vesteuropæiske, arabiske og nord-afrikanske folkelige traditioner optræder fine lyriske passager, hvis tragiske toner og tematik minder om Katebs andre værker. Desuden bliver der i den sidste del eksplicit hentydet til algeriernes befrielseskrig. Endelig findes der, ligesom i alle Katebs dramatiske værker, et kor og en korfører, to elementer der stammer enten fra det antikke teater eller fra den shiitiske teatertradition (måske både og). Disse karakteristiske træk genfinder man i det sidste værk Kateb Yacine offentliggjorde: L'homme aux sandales de caoutchouc (Manden i gummisandaler) (1970). Et langt teaterstykke, som handler om Indokina- og Vietnamkrigen, og hvor hovedpersonen er lederen af den vietnamesiske modstandsbevægelse, Ho Chi-Minh. Her træder det politiske budskab i forgrunden og Vietnamkrigen bliver sat i en historisk og global sammenhæng. Stykket handler således ligeså meget om imperialisme og kapitalisme som om situationen i det selvstændige Algeriet og om klassekampen. Da L'homme aux sandales de caoutchouc blev spillet i Lyon i 1971 (Vietnamkrigen var endnu ikke slut), vakte det vrede hos de højreorienterede, som prøvede et få det forbudt, mens de venstreorienterede kritikere ikke havde lovord nok til at prise det. Omtrent samtidig blev stykket sat op på Det Nationale Teater i Algier, og det blev en triumf for Kateb Yacine. Selv var han ikke tilfreds, fordi stykket var blevet oversat til et arabisk som ikke helt var det dialektale arabisk. Det var nærmere det litterære arabisk, et sprog som menigmand i Algeriet ikke forstår. Publikum i Det Nationale Teater bestod også af det algeriske bourgeoisi, af dem som har den politiske magt, og som Kateb hele sit liv har kæmpet imod. Det han vil, er at komme det algeriske folk i tale og, sammen med det, at bygge en reelt uafhængig nation (uafhængig af politiske, religiøse og økonomiske interesser) og et socialistisk samfund. Derfor tager Kateb konsekvensen af sin overbevisning og bosætter sig i Algeriet i 1972. Indtil da havde han levet mest i Frankrig - ligesom mange af de fransksprogede forfattere fra Maghreblandene - dog med den forskel, at han også havde opholdt sig i længere eller kortere perioder i Italien,
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Tyskland, Sovjetunionen, Sverige, Jugoslavien, Belgien, Kina og Vietnam, og flere gange også i Algeriet. Allerede i 1971 havde han, sammen med en ung algerisk teatertrup, skabt et teaterstykke på folkeligt arabisk: Mohammed prends ta valise (Mohammed, tag din kuffertog skrub af), som blev sat op i en lille by i narheden af Algier. Truppen turnerede i Frankrig i 1972 og opførte stykket, med stor succes, i alle de egne, hvor der findes en koncentration af algeriske arbejdere: Paris' omegn, Strasbourg og det østfranske industriområde, Lyon, Grenoble og Marseille. Det blev også oversat til og spillet på kabylisk. 2 Stykkets emne er algeriernes udvandring til Frankrig som fremmedarbejdere. Det omhandler (med en befriende og livsbekræftende humor) deres problemer: diskriminationen, dårlige arbejds og boligforhold, usikkerhed i ansættelsen og arbejdsløshed . . . Men det sætter alt dette i en større sammenhæng; den politiske situation i Algeriet omtales også samt Palæstinaproblemet. Flere indslag kender man allerede fra L'homme aux sandales de caoutchouc og Katebs pen er tydelig mærkbar. Det er i øvrigt svært at sige præcist hvordan stykket er, da ingen tekst er blevet offentliggjort. Det består af små sketchagtige scener, hvis rækkefølge ikke ligger fast, og som afbrydes af satiriske sange, bygget over populære melodier. Tilskuerne synger med og alle forestillinger, der er folkelige og festlige begivenheder, afsluttes med en debat. Det er et politisk engageret teater, hvis erklarede mål er at informere befolkningen og gøre den bevidst om sin undertrykkelse og sine muligheder for at befri sig selv. Det er også aktuelt teater, idet nye emner tages op, efterhånden som de dukker op, gamle sketches som henviser til begivenheder, der har mistet betydning, bliver erstattet med nye, som behandler aktuelle brændende emner. Da Kateb i 1972 bosætter sig i Algeriet, giver det algeriske Ministerium for arbejde og sociale Anliggender ham statstilskud til at arbejde sammen med en trup af unge arbejdsløse. Sammen med denne genopsætter han Mohammed . . . og sætter andre stykker op. Kateb har selv fortalt, hvordan de arbejder: han skriver en første skitse på fransk, med enkelte indslag, som f.eks. sange, bevingede ord og lignende på arabisk (skrevet med latinske bogstaverhan kender ikke de arabiske). Ud fra dette oplæg arbejder de så allesammen. Kateb fungerer som teaterleder og instruktør, men det drejer sig om en kollektiv skabeproces. Og selv om Kateb må leve på et eksistensminimum, og finde sig i at blive kastebold mellem forskellige ministerier, er han lykkelig, fordi hans forfatterskab nu kan nå en masse algeriere. Det ville han ikke kunne, selvom han skrev på arabisk, da 50 % af befolkningen ikke kan læse. Men man kan spørge sig selv om han virkelig er lykkelig, thi han er en fransksproget digter, og som sådan må han føle trang til ikke bare at skrive på fransk (det gør han sikkert også), men at blive læst. For retfærdighedens
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Figur 2 'Jeg har nu et skaberforhold til det arabiske sprog, til det levende sprog, til sproget i rummet. Ved hjælp af billeder kan jeg få sproget til at komme ud af det traditionelle lukkede rum. Ved at lave film genskaber jeg kontakten til min barndoms sprog? (Le Monde, 29. May 1987).
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skyld og for at understrege det paradoksale i Katebs situation, skal det tilføjes, at en fransk dokumentarfilm om ham, som blev vist i det franske TV i 1985, gjorde ham berømt i Frankrig, også blandt franskmænd, og i 1986 fik han den franske Grand Prix National des Lettres. Samme år udgiver den franske litteraturforsker Jacqueline Arnaud (kort før hendes pludselige død)med forfatterens stiltiende acceptL'oeuvre en fragments, en samling digte, narrativ prosa og teaterfragmenter. Altsammen 'gamle tekster' som var utilgængelige, enten fordi de aldrig havde været offentliggjort, eller fordi de havde været det i tidsskrifter, dagblade eller lignende. Vil Kateb Yacine en dag selv offentliggøre nye værker på fransk? Det vil tiden vise. Den tosprogede digter Hvis jeg nu, efter at have fremdraget Kateb Yacine's eksempel, igen stiller spørgsmålet: Kan en digter vaere tosproget? kommer mit svar til at være tvetydigt og tilsyneladende inkonsekvent. Jeg mener nemlig både nej og ja. En digter kan ikke være tosproget, vil jeg sige, da det kun yderst sjældent forekommer, at en forfatter er i stand til at digte på to forskellige sprog. Grunden til, at dette praktisk taget er umuligt at finde, er efter min mening at søge i den kendsgerning at de to sprog ikke kan referere til de samme erfaringssfærer og at det ene sprog vil forblive med at være 'modersmålet'. For et tosproget menneske (dvs. et menneske, der til daglig taler to sprog), som samtidig er digter (= sprogkunstner), kan det opleves som smertefuldt og sønderrivende ikke at kunne skabe på lige fod i begge sprog. Den fornemmelse af 'indre eksil', som Malek Haddad udtrykker det (Séférian, 1973), bliver ofte tematiseret i den algeriske fransksprogede litteratur, f.eks. i Muezzinen (Bourboune, 1968). Vi har set hvordan det er lykkedes Kateb Yacine, i et vist omfang, at udtrykke sig både på fransk i den skrevne form og på arabisk i den mundtlige teaterform. Den algeriske forfatter, Assia Djebar (født 1936), mener selv, hun ikke langere følger nogen 'bortskæring' 'amputation' (heller ikke nogen dårlig samvittighed) ved at skrive romaner på fransk, og dette siden 1977, da hun begyndte at lave film på arabisk. 'Jeg har nu et skaberforhold til det arabiske sprog, til det levende sprog, til sproget i rummet. Ved hjælp af billeder kan jeg få sproget til at komme ud af det traditionelle lukkede rum. Ved at lave film genskaber jeg kontakten til min barndoms sprog?' (Le Monde, 29 May 1987). Men selv når en forfatter udelukkende skriver og udtrykker sig kunstnerisk set på det ene sprog, er det første sprog altid til stede i det andet. Det arbejder
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under teksten, strukturerer den og gør, at det bliver til et sprog, som er hverken det andet eller det første, men et helt tredje, et 'tvesprog' (Khatibi, 1983b). Det vil sige, at den oprindelige kultur og det første sprog altid er til stede, kort sagt at den digter, som taler to sprog, altid er tosproget, selvom han/hun kun skriver på ét sprog. Tosprogethed og litteratur i uddannelse Når vi nu, ved hjælp af Kateb Yacine som eksempel, har faet indblik i den 'tosprogede' digters situation, må vi se om vi kan drage nogle konklusioner der kan bruges i den daglige pædagogiske praksis. Først vil jeg minde om den store betydning, skønlitteratur i almindelighed spiller i personlighedsdannelsen. Men digtere, som har tilhørsforhold til to eller flere sprog- og kulturområder, har en speciel betydning, især i klasser hvor eleverne kommer fra forskellige lande. Fordi disse digtere beskriver deres virkelighed og giver udtryk for deres kulturspecifikke indre univers i et sprog som er dem fremmed, kan deres værker sætte en forståelsesproces i gang hos eleverne. Fordelen ved disse skønlitterære værker, hvor dette komplicerede fler-sprogede og flerkulturelle forhold ofte tematiseres, er, at de gør eleverne bevidste om disse problemer, ikke bare på det kognitive plan, men også på det emotionelle og det affektive. Der kunne gives mange eksempler inden for de nordiske litteraturer (som kan bruges i 'modersmålsundervisning'), men jeg vil begrænse mig her til undervisningen i fremmede sprog. De afrikanske forfattere, som skriver på enten engelsk eller fransk, er naturligvis et oplagt eksempel. Man kan ved at fokusere på et enkelt geografisk område tilfredsstille elevernes behov for det eksotiske, samtidig med at man udvider deres horisont. Og dette kan udmærket give anledning til et tværfagligt samarbejde. Et af de områder, der byder på de rigeste muligheder i den henseende, er afgjort De Vestindiske Øer (eller rettere det caraibiske område). Dèr findes nemlig mange forskellige kulturer blandet sammen, som man kan få adgang til gennem europæiske sprog, engelsk, fransk eller spansk (Bruun, 1983). Eksemplet Kateb Yacine kan desuden lære os noget mere, nemlig at blandt de litterære genrer er den dramatiske den mest velegnede til at fa kulturerog mennesker, til at mødes. Fordi teatret er en kollektiv kunstart som appellerer både til universelle menneskelige egenskaber, såsom latteren, og benytter sig af kulturelt specifikke udtryksformer, samtidig med at det inddrager hele mennesket, krop og sjæl, er det i højere grad end andre litterære former specielt velegnet til tværkulturel undervisning. Men teater skal ikke bare lases, heller ikke engang ses, det skal også spilles, synges eller/og danses . . . Især i disse tider, hvor medieudbudet bliver, takket vare de nye teknologier, mere og mere omfangsrigt, er det
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af vital betydning at opdrage eleverne til, på en aktiv og frugtbar måde, at benytte sig af disse muligheder. På samme måde som man forstår og sanser et digt bedre når man selv har prøvet at digte, oplever man på en stærkere måde en teaterforestilling når man selv har været med til at sætte et stykke op. At arbejde med den dramatiske form åbner mange muligheder i pædagogisk henseende, idet hver kan yde i det felt han/hun er bedst til: nogle kan male dekoration, andre skrive replikkerne, atter andre spille musikinstrumenter ... Man kunne f.eks. lade en gruppe pakistanske elever lave en forestilling for deres danske kammerater, hvor de prøver at vise, hvad der er deres etniske særpræg, og lade de danske elever takke ved også at lave en forestilling. Denne form for kulturudveksling er frugtbar for begge parter, idet de pakistanske børn således lærer at udtrykke sig på dansk, mens de danske børn får udvidet deres kendskab til den fremmede kultur. For begge gruppers vedkommende er det også vigtigt, at de udvikler deres fantasi og forestillingsevne, samt at de lærer at være bevidste om deres egen kulturelle og etniske specificitet. En anden mulighed er at lade en gruppe børn fra forskellige kulturer skabe en forestilling, som vises for foræeldrene og/eller de andre klasser. Eller man kan filme med video resultatet af arbejdet (Vedel and Nielsen, 1985). Videooptagelser har den fordel, at man, når man ser sig selv på skærmen, bliver sig sit eget kropssprog bevidst. Man bliver klar over, i hvor høj grad man bevarer sit etniske særpræg i sin mimik og sin gestik, selv om man fuldt ud har tilegnet sig det fremmede verbale sprog. Et sådant arbejde med drama kan ikke undgå at modvirke skelnen mellem ånds- og kropsarbejde, mellem 'finkultur' og populær/folkelig (mindre fin) kultur. Igennem denne musisk-praktiske skaben, hvor forskellige individuelle og kulturelle udfoldelser blandes, vil man kunne opnå, efter min mening, en forståelse for at hvert sprog og hver kultur har sin værdi, og at et sprogs anseelse ikke har noget at gøre med hvor mange der taler det, hvor rige disse mennesker er, heller ikke om det kan skrives eller ej. For ethvert menneske er modersmålet det sprog, man ærer som barn, det sprog i hvilket begreberne dannes og verden opfattes for første gang, det kostbareste man har, og derfor må det ikke kunne mistes. Noter 1. Islam er ikke udelukkende en religion, det er en livsform, og den oprindelige koranske lovgivning omfatter mange områder. Under det franske herredømme i Algeriet, blev familielovgivning og arvelov administreret, for den indfødte befolknings vedkommende, af et muslimsk retsvæsen (Braae, 1984). 2. Kabylisk er den største berberdialekt i Algeriet, idet den tales af ca. 3.000.000 (i Kabylien, en bjergegn øst for Algier by). Blandt algeriske arbejdere i Frankrig er ca. 30 % berbersprogede. (Allaoua, 1986 og Prasse, 1986).
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Litteraturliste Ageron, Ch.-Robert (1964) Histoire de l'Algérie contemporaine, 1830-1964. Paris: Presses universitaires de France. 'Que sais-je?'. Allaoua, Abdelmadjid (1986) Berbersprogets fremtid. Bendt Alster & Paul John Frandsen (eds), Dagligliv blandt guder og mennesker. København: Carsten Niebuhr Instituttet, Museum Tusculanums Forlag, 241-4. Arnaud, Jacqueline (1984) Littérature maghrébine de langue française. Entre l'expression française et l'identité arabe (propos recueillis). Langue française et pluralité au Maghreb. Französisch heute, Informationsblätter für Französischlehrer in Schule und Hochschule, 2. juni 1984. Frankfurt: Diesterweg, 165-72 & 252-61. (1982) Recherches sur la littérature maghrébine. Le cas de Kateb Yacine. Paris: L'Harmattan. Baffet, Roselyne (1985) Tradition théâtrale et moderité en Algérie. Paris: L'Harmattan. Bennani, Jallil et al. (1985) Du bilinguisme. Actes d'un colloque tenu à Rabat, 26-28 nov. 1981. Paris: Denoël. Bourboune, Mourad (1964) Abdelkader (poème). Novembre, No. 2. Alger: Imprimerie Nationale Algérienne, 7-11. (1968) Le muezzin. Paris: Bourgois. (på dansk ved Lars Bonnevie: Muezzinen. København: Arena, 1978.) Bourdieu, Pierre (1982) Ce que parler veut dire. L'économie des échanges linguistiques. Paris: Fayard. Bouzida, Abderrahmane (1976) L'idéologie de l'instituteur. Alger: S.N.E.D. Braae, Christel (1984) Sekulariseringen og den muslimske familie: et eksempel fra Tunesien. Islam: familie og samfund. Konferencerapport. Aarhus: Statens Humanistiske Forskningsråd, 110-133. Bruun, Vibeke (1983) Tre tekster fra Antillerne på niveau II. Le français hors de France. Tous Azimuts, 11. Roskilde: RUC, DLH, BAL, 64-9. Calvet, Louis-Jean (1974) Linguistique et colonialisme. Petit traité de glottophagie. Paris: Petite Bibliothèque Payot. (1979) Langue, corps, société. Paris: Payot. Colonna, Fanny (1975) Instituteurs algériens 1883-1939. Paris: Presses de la fondation nationale des sciences politiques & Alger: Office des publications universitaires. Cubertafond, Bernard (1981) L'Algérie contemporaine. Paris. Presses Universitaires de France. 'Que sais-je?'. Faure, Gérard (1974) Un écrivain entre deux cultures: Kateb Yacine. Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranee, no 18. Aix-en-provence: CNRS et Universités d'AixMarseille, 65-92. Hagège, Claude (1985) L'homme de paroles. Contribution linguistique aux sciences humaines. Paris: Fayard. Henry-Lorcerie, Françoise (1984) Interculturel ou insertion: l'école française au défi. Grand Maghreb, no 32, 38-41 & no 33-34, 57-60. Grenoble: Centre d'Information sur le Grand-Maghreb, Université de Grenoble II. Hougaard, Ruth & Hans Jørgen Schiødt (1982) Fantasi og sprog. København: Forum. Kateb, Yacine (1956) Nedjma. Paris: Seuil. (på dansk ved Ebbe Traberg. København: Grafisk Forlag, 1963.) (1959) Le cercle des représailles (théâtre). Paris: Seuil. (Et uddrag på dansk ved Uffe Harder: Det indkredsede lig. Vindrosen, 1961, 1, 40-6.) (1966) Le polygone étoilé. Paris: Seuil.
(1970) L'homme aux sandales de caoutchouc. Paris: Seuil. (1985) Interview ved Nadia Tazi. L'autre journal, no 25, 6-18. (1986) L'oeuvre en fragments. Inédits littéraires et textes retrouvés, rassemblés et présentés par Jacqueline Arnaud. Paris: Sindbad. Khatibi, Abdelkebir (1971) La mémoire tatouée. Autobiographie d'un décolonisé. Paris: Denoël. (1983a) Amour bilingue. Montpellier: Fata Morgana. (1983b) Bilinguisme et littérature. Maghreb pluriel. Paris: Denoël, 177-207.
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Mazouni, Abdallah (1969) Culture et enseignement en Algérie et au Maghreb. Paris: Maspero. Morsy, Dalila (1984) La langue étrangere. Réflexion sur le statut de la langue française en Algérie. Le Français dans le Monde, 189 (nov.-déc.). Paris: Hachette/Larousse, 22-6. Mukendi, Ntite (1980) Education et identité culturelle. Recherche, Pédagogie et Culture, VIII, no 46, 3-9. (Reproduit dans Dialogues et Cultures, Revue de la Fédération Internationale des Professeurs de Français, no 21, mars 1981, 203-212. Quebec.) Olrik, Hilde & Marie-Alice Séférian (1973) Introduction a quelques textes algériens. RIDS, nr 15. København: Romansk Institut, Københavns Universitet. Prasse, Karl-G. (1986) Berbersprogets stilling i det moderne Algeriet. In Bendt Alster & Paul John Frandsen (eds), Dagligliv blandt guder og mennesker. København: Carsten Niebuhr Instituttet, Museum Tusculanums Forlag, 23340. Roth, Arlette (1967) Le théâtre algérien. Paris: Maspero. Séférian, Marie-Alice (1973) L'Algérie a dix ans. Trois pays francophones. København: Danmarks skoleradio, 113. (1976) Littérature de l'Afrique du Nord. Et tekstudvalg til brug i franskundervisningen. København: Nyt Nordisk Forlag Arnold Busck. (1981) Novembre, revue culturelle algérienne 1964-65. Annuaire de l'Afrique du Nord XVIII 1979. Paris: C.N.R.S, 1019-34. (1987) Sprog - kultur - identitet. Sprog og kulturformidling. Skriftrække for Institut for Fremmedsprog, bind 2. København: Danmarks Lærerhøjskole, 101-16. Tefiani, Malika (1984) Arabisation et fonctions linguistiques en Algérie. Langue française et pluralité au Maghreb. Französisch heute, Informationsblätter für Französischlehrer in Schule und Hochschule, 2 juni 1984. Frankfurt: Diesterweg, 118-28. Thomsen, Sine Wrang (1979) En historisk og politisk analyse af Kateb Yacine: L'homme aux sandales de caoutchouc. København: (speciale) Romansk Institut, Kobenhavns Universitet. Todorov, Tzvetan (1985) Bilinguisme, dialogisme et schizophrénie. Du bilinguisme (Bennani et alii). Paris: Denoël, 11-26. Vedel, Peter Villads & Dorte Nielsen (1985) Dansk bag skærmen. Film, video og TV i indvandrerundervisningen. København: Amtscentralen for undervisningsmidler. Yahia, Nadia (1984) Vivre l'interculturel à travers l'émigration. Langue française et pluralité au Maghreb, Französisch heute, Informationsblätter für Französischlehrer in Schule und Hochschule, 2 juni 1984. Frankfurt: Diesterweg, 262-7.
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24 Joik, Etno-Poesi og Majoritetens Forståelse Harald Gaski Institutt for språk og litteratur, Universitetet i Tromsø. Abstract This paper describes the concept of the 'joik'the musical poem of the Lapps in northern Scandinavia. The joik was originally used as a political, oppositional art form, to describe the situation of the Lapps as an oppressed minority, without the oppressor understanding the depth of the songs, because of the ambiguous linguistic characteristics of the joik. It is a powerful historical testimony which cannot be adapted by the oppressor to serve his purpose, as the very essence of the joik remains hidden to all nonLapps. Today thejoik serves as a means of strengthening the national identity of the Lapps. The aim of this article is to advocate the establishment of an academic forum, where the joik and the Lapp culture can be studied, discussed and analysed with the tuition of Lapp teachers, as no such forum exists today. En gang i historien prøvde samene å joike kolonistene bort fra Sameland. Det forteller en gammel episk joik som ble nedtegnet i det nordligste Finland på begynnelsen av 1800-tallet. Joik er den tradisjonelle samiske musikken og har hatt en sentral posisjon i det samiske samfunnet. I dag kjenner vi stort sett bare joiken som kortere personjoiker, eller som dyre- og naturbeskrivelser i en kombinasjon av ord og melodi. I tidligere tider har imidlertid joiken mest sannsynlig blitt brukt i svært ulike kontekster, både i samenes sjamanistiske religionsutøvelse og i mer pedagogisk henseende som uttrykksform for historieberetning om samenes tilblivelse og eksistens i Sápmi. De episke joikene som er blitt nedtegnet på begynnelsen av 1800-tallet inneholder også klare politiske synspunkter på kolonisasjonsprosessen som samene var blitt og ble utsatt for fra Sverige/Finland, Norge og Russland. Det finnes flere eksempler på joiketekster av denne typen, der samene enten omtales som skogsfolket eller 'noaiddit'sjamaner. Sjamanene var de som misjonærene gikk sterkest ut i mot, et poeng som samene utnyttet i sin bruk av kunstens dobbeltrolle. De sjikanerte noaidi'ene i sangene, tydeligvis for å 'blidgjøre' prestene, samtidig som de likevel lot noaidi'en stå for de samiske verdiene.
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I vekselsangen 'Suola ja noaidi' (Tyven og sjamanen) innrømmer sjamanen at tyven er blitt herre i noaidi'enes land, men likevel avslutter han sangen med en slags manende besvergelse om å tvinge tyven bort: Ha deg vekk, langt bort herfra Der du kommer fra, dit skal du dra Jeg er fremdeles over deg Jeg drar, jeg tar, jeg setter bort Jeg kaster deg langt bort herfra. Dette er en dimensjon av sjamanens sang som tyven enten velger å overse på grunn av sin overmektighet eller så får han faktisk ikke klart for seg hva sjamanen egentlig sier. Denne gamle vekselsangen er så moderne i sitt innhold at en nesten kunne tro det var en ordduell mellom dagens samepolitikere og representanter for storsamfunnet som ikke kunne enes om felles referanseramme for det å forstå hverandres standpunkter. Også i synet på hvem det i realiteten er som sitter med den avgjørende makten, er joiken moderne i den forstand at sjamanen er underlagt tyvens administrative og politiske herredømme. Men når det gjelder ordene, og troen på ordenes makt, så der det sjamanen som tydeligst står for det argumentative standpunket. Også det en sannhet som minoriteten godt kjenner seg igjen iden som har makten, behøver ikke argumentene. Joikepoesiens subtile bruk av språkets muligheter til å inneholde flere betydninger samtidig gjorde det mulig å føre en dobbeltkommunikasjon der en formidlet ett budskap til samiske tilhørere og et helt annet budskap til utenforstående. Dette var n¬dvendig fordi samenes viktigste politiske sammenkomster allerede tidlig i koloniseringsprosessen ble benyttet også av skatteoppkrevere, misjonærer og handelsmenn til utøvelse av majoritetens justis over de nye undersåttene i nord. En del av embetsmennene hadde nemlig tilegnet seg elementære kunnskaper i samisk, så enhver direkte politisk henvendelse fra samenes ledere om f.eks. å opponere mot koloniseringen ville bli forstått, og samene kunne bli hardt straffet for ulydighet. Man var derfor avhengig av å bruke språkets muligheter til å formidle skjulte budskaper og kodet informasjon gjennom symboler og overførte betydninger. Slik sett kan joikepoesien også betraktes som en opposisjonell kunstart. Den gir også viktig kunnskap til å forstå senere litterære uttrykksmåter i samenes verbale motstand mot den ensidige påvirkningen utenfra, og joiken qua joik er dessuten blitt et viktig symbol for samisk egenart og selvstendighet. Det er interessant å merke seg hvilke perspektiver de overleverte samiske tradisjonstekstene gir som en form for førstehånds kommentar fra samisk side til endringsprosessene som fulgte med overgangen fra det gamle veidesamfunnet til et mer differensiert og næringsmessig sammensatt samfunn.
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Tekstene tar også for seg tapet av religiøs og administrativ uavhengighet. Disse vitnesbyrdene står på grunn av deres karakter av kunst heller ikke i fare for dreining og tilpasning av synspunkter til fordel for kolonistene i samme grad som det en kan oppleve med f.eks. historiske dokumenter i tvistesaker. Derfor er joikene av uvurderlig betydning som registrering av samiske følelser og oppfatninger av det som skjedde da tyvene ble herrer i noaidi'enes land. At den samiske erkjennelsen av årsakssammenhengene bak tapet av suverenitet over eget land, førte til en litterær kommentar til det inntrufne i form av en vekselsang mellom en framtredende samisk representantsjamanenog en talsmann for kolonistenetyvender den utvetydige konklusjonen er at tyven seirer, er bare nok et bevis for en tidlig samisk bevissthet om de nye politiske maktforholdene som var etablert. 'Vær du husbond nå/Tyv, ditt er herredømmet', sier sjamanen til tyven, som på sin side konkluderer med ordene: 'Så forgår du og blir til intet, din sjaman'. En så klar politisk kapitulasjonserklæring har aldri siden kommet fra samisk side, og det har selvsagt helt klare etnisk betingede grunner, ved siden av de rent kunstpersepsjonistiske: Alle politiske uttalelser er ment for en interetnisk offentlighet, mens kunsten i tradisjonell samisk forstand hadde en klar intern-etnisk dimensjon. Derfor var det vesentlig på grunn av de maktpolitiske forholdene å ikke være klar i talen i offentlige sammenhenger der majoritetens øvrighetspersoner også var til stede, mens en i kunsten kunne uttrykke seg fritt overfor sine egne, som var de en først og fremst henvendte seg til. Slik sett inneholder også de siste verselinjene i noaidi'ens sang, som jeg var inne på, en forsatt verbal motstand mot tyven. Noaidi'en nekter å akseptere at samene skal assimileres og han uttrykker en indre appell til folket sitt om aldri å gi opp. I den forstand lever sjamanens ord den dag i dag, og eksemplet tematiserer to viktige poenger. For det første viser det en type språkbruk som vanskelig kan forståes fullt ut uten intim kjennskap til samisk språk og kulturen som det springer ut av. Dette er for så vidt allment akseptert, selv om det fremdeles finnes sosialantropologer som synes å mene at de ikke trenger å beherske språket til det folket de forsker på. Dette gjelder f.eks. en del av den sosialantropologiske forskning om samer eller samiskrelaterte emner som pågår i Norden. Det andre poenget er imidlertid viktigere, og sett fra et minoritetssynspunkt, kanskje enda mer fundamentalt med tanke på framtidens forståelse av det 'intern-etniske' budskapet i samenes gamle overleverte tekster. Så lenge som samisk litteraturvitenskap ikke får akseptable institusjonelle muligheter til å kunne virke aktivt i traderingsprosessen av det en kan kalle 'det samiske innholdet' i såvel eldre som nyere samisk folklore og litteratur, så vil denne delen av samenes kulturarv risikere å bli liggende brakk, og i verste fall gå til grunne. Da vil en også kunne tape en viktig del av muligheten til å forstå
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språket i aktiv bruk i en samfunnskontekst der det konnotative innholdet uttrykker det primære budskapet. Resultatet kan være en forringet forståelse av tradisjonell språkbruk bare fordi en ikke tar tilstrekkelig hensyn til den vitenskapen som har sitt virke i grenselandet mellom språk, tekst og samfunn, nemlig litteraturforskninga. Et samfunns rikdom av metaforisk tale er bestemmende for en hel rekke opplevelseskvaliteter som dets medlemmer ikke kan nå på andre måter enn gjennom språket. Det mest beklagelige i en situasjon som beskrevet ovenfor, vil være at samiske lesere, eksempelvis elever og studenter, ikke vil bli kjent med den nasjonale identitet som litteraturen representerer og heller ikke få undervisning i hva tolkning av samiske tekster kan gi en leser i form av økt forståelse for ulike åndsretninger gjennom historien. Men også hensynet til ikke-samiske lesere vil bli skadelidende. Både litteraturen selv og vitenskapen om fiksjonens plass og rolle i kulturen er viktige formidlere mellom ulike brukergrupper og på tvers av ulike barrierer, såvel språklige som kulturelle. Spørsmål en kan stille seg er hva som egentlig skjer når en primærtekst går fra én kulturell kontekst til en annen? Hva forstår da den nye leser? Om jeg igjen bruker joikepoesien som eksempel, så er det uomtvistelig klart at den intime 'jeg-du' relasjonen brytes ved f.eks. en oversettelse av ordene i en joik. Den interne kommunikasjonen forringes ved at den opphavelige tilstand der språk og situasjon er uløselig knyttet sammen, ikke lenger er til stede. Dette medfører nødvendigvis en perspektivutvidelse som kan tilføre tekstene nye lesemåter, og slik sett virke positivt. Men perspektivutvidelsen kan også innbefatte en perspektivforskyving som i en framtidig tradering av tolkningene kan innebære at det primærsamiske budskapet tapes. Meningen her er slett ikke å polemisere mot at andre enn samer skal få lov til å arbeide med samiske tekster. Det skulle da også bare mangle når en tar i betraktning den viktige rolle som litteratur spiller ved å fungere som brobygger og ontaktskaper på tvers av etniske skillelinjer. Mitt ærend er derimot å påpeke den mangelen som har vært, og til dels ennå eksisterer, i forskningssammenheng ved at urbefolkningenes egen litteraturforståelse ikke på noen måte er institusjonalisert i de fora og til de kanalene der utforskningen av fiksjonstekster foregår. Jeg tenker her på universiteter, akademier og litterære publikasjoner som diskuterer det skrevne ordets plass i samfunnet. På grunn av denne mangelen på akademiske stillinger forbeholdt eksempelvis samisk litteraturvitenskap ved nordiske universiteter, står en altså i fare for å tape én viktig dimensjon ved forståelsen av samiske tekster,nemlig den som trente samiske lesere kan finne. Slik sett vil heller ikke samisk litteratur bli ordentlig anerkjent som noe det er viktig å forske på, i og med at an neppe kan vente av folk som ikke forstår eller behersker samisk språk at de skal engasjere seg aktivt for å skape et miljø for seriøst arbeid med samisk litteratur.
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Når situasjonen på den samiske sida også er problematisk i og med det faktum at vi har begrenset med samiske forskningsinstitusjoner som kunne ta seg av dette arbeidet, så skulle det tydelig gå fram at den samiske litteraturen faller mellom to stoler, der altså nordiske universiteter på den ene siden ikke finner plass til den på sine stillingsbudsjetter, og det på den andre siden ikke eksisterer samiske høgskoler eller universitet som kan eller vil drive denne forskningen. Slik sett tapes også et viktig perspektiv i tilnærmingen til og forståelsen av den samiske kulturen. Det kan kanskje oppfattes som illojalt å offentliggjøre og avsløre samiske strategier og hemmelig ordkunst på den måten som jeg har gjort det ovenfor. Som en imidlertid kan legge merke til, holder jeg meg bare til eldre tekster. Deres 'egentlige' innhold er dessuten i ferd med å tapes blant dagens samer, så i virkeligheten røper jeg ingen åpenbare kulturhemmeligheter. Tvert imot håper jeg heller på at en påpekning av tidligere tiders avanserte språkbruk skal virke skjerpende også på lesingen av nåtidige samiske tekster. Det finnes nemlig strategier også i dagens samiske litteratur for bevisst dobbeltkommunisering. Men prisen for å stå i opposisjon til det etablerte maktapparatet er ikke lenger så stor som den var for sjamanen da han ville joike tyven bort fra Sameland. Nå skjer den dobbelte henvendelsen like meget som en utfordring til samfunnet om å ta kunsten på alvorfremdeles.
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25 Språkmöten i Minoritetslitteraturen Kjell Herberts Institutet för finlandssvensk samhällsforskning, Finland. Abstract Fiction has seldom been used in the study of the encounter between language and culture. This paper presents a project in which this encounter is thoroughly studied. The material consists of one hundred Finland-Swedish fictional works. Do the writers state that the environments described are bilingual? There seem to be three different models: (1) non-existence (no indication that language and culture meet), (2) consensus (peace and consensus in the language encounter), (3) conflict (conflict and opposition in the language encounter). The three models seem to be equally frequent. Similar studies could even be included with some advantage in school syllabuses as a basis for further discussion about the conditions of language and culture in a polyglot society. Mötet mellan språk och kulturer i flerspråkiga samhällen har undersökts med många olika metoder. Vanligast förekommande är enkäter och intervjuer, varför undersökningar på individ- och organisationsnivå är tämligen högfrekventa. Aven genom innehållsanalyser av massmedia har tvåspråkigheten i samhället studerats. I ett försök att med hjälp av skönlitteratur undersöka flerspråkighetens olika dimensioner har jag funnit ett tämligen outforskat område inom tvåspråkighetsforskningen. Litteratursociologiska och litteraturpedagogiska undersökningar har endast ytligt berört denna dimension av kulturellt liv; mötet mellan olika språk och mellan olika kulturer. Litteraturen i Samhället och Samhället i Litteraturen Ett genomgående tema för litteratursociologer har varit den dubbla relationen mellan litteratur och samhälle. Två skolor kan härvidlag urskiljas. Den första, 'reflection theory', utgår från att författarna är en del av samhållet. Författarna reflekterar således olika aspekter av samhälleligt och mänskligt liv, till stor del
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25 Språkmöten i Minoritetslitteraturen Kjell Herberts Institutet för finlandssvensk samhällsforskning, Finland. Abstract Fiction has seldom been used in the study of the encounter between language and culture. This paper presents a project in which this encounter is thoroughly studied. The material consists of one hundred Finland-Swedish fictional works. Do the writers state that the environments described are bilingual? There seem to be three different models: (1) non-existence (no indication that language and culture meet), (2) consensus (peace and consensus in the language encounter), (3) conflict (conflict and opposition in the language encounter). The three models seem to be equally frequent. Similar studies could even be included with some advantage in school syllabuses as a basis for further discussion about the conditions of language and culture in a polyglot society. Mötet mellan språk och kulturer i flerspråkiga samhällen har undersökts med många olika metoder. Vanligast förekommande är enkäter och intervjuer, varför undersökningar på individ- och organisationsnivå är tämligen högfrekventa. Aven genom innehållsanalyser av massmedia har tvåspråkigheten i samhället studerats. I ett försök att med hjälp av skönlitteratur undersöka flerspråkighetens olika dimensioner har jag funnit ett tämligen outforskat område inom tvåspråkighetsforskningen. Litteratursociologiska och litteraturpedagogiska undersökningar har endast ytligt berört denna dimension av kulturellt liv; mötet mellan olika språk och mellan olika kulturer. Litteraturen i Samhället och Samhället i Litteraturen Ett genomgående tema för litteratursociologer har varit den dubbla relationen mellan litteratur och samhälle. Två skolor kan härvidlag urskiljas. Den första, 'reflection theory', utgår från att författarna är en del av samhållet. Författarna reflekterar således olika aspekter av samhälleligt och mänskligt liv, till stor del
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utgående från egna medvetna eller omedvetna uppfattningar och erfarenheter. Reflection theory eller speglingsteorin ser således författarna som skildrare av skeendet, som skapare av dokument om samtiden. Den andra skolan, 'social control theory',utgår från att litteraturen formar samhället. Litteraturen förstärker vissa tendenser, vissa ideer i samhället och i dess kultur. På så sätt får författarna ett stort ansvar i och med att litteraturen delvis kontrollerar och formar utvecklingen. Idériktningarna bör inte ses som alternativ. Båda bör bejakas. Den ena skolan kan inte utesluta den andra. Snarare rör det sig om olika alternativa utgångspunkter, vill man studera samhällets roll inom litteraturen eller litteraturens roll i samhället. Utgångspunkterna är olika liksom även de slutsatser man kommer till. Lika fåfängt vore det att diskutera om skolans roll i samhället eller samhällets roll för skolan är viktigare. Båda debatterna är nödvändiga. Statsvetaren Herbert Tingsten har givit flera exempel på hur socialvetenskapen sökt begagna sig av romanförfattares verk för studier av modern politisk och social historia. En smula tillspetsat säger Tingsten att den ideologiska facklitteraturen förfalskar verkligheten genom sin överdrivna precision och ger ett överdrivet bestämt intryck av vad folk tänker. Själva samhällslivets myller och rikedom fangas säkrare genom obundna litterära skildringar än i dokumenterade och strängt sakliga undersökningar. (Furuland, 1970: 167) Jag vill gärna tro att Tingstens påstående är riktigt. Skönlitteraturen borde kanske få en mera framskjuten roll som spegel/beskrivning av nutidssamhället. Det är kanske dags att jämställa skönlitteraturen med traditionella sociologiska fältstudier, med alla bristfalligheter de har. Case: Finlandssvensk Skönlitteratur Det finns idag omkring 300.000 finländare med svenska som modersmål. De s.k. finlandssvenskarna utgör sålunda cirka 6 % av Finlands befolkning. Någon klar språkgräns mellan finskt och svenskt kan man dock inte tala om i dagens Finland. Aktenskap över språkgränsen är mycket vanliga och barnen i dessa tvåspråkiga familjer får oftast en tvåspråkig identitet. I landets tvåspråkiga urbana miljöer blir det på sikt allt svårare att göra en klar markering mellan finskt och svenskt. Svenska är enligt språklagstiftningen inget minoritetspråk, utan finska och svenska är republikens språk och språkgruppernas behov skall tillgodoses enligt enahanda grunder.
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Tack vare denna tämligen generösa lagstiftning har finlandssvenskarna till stor del autonoma institutioner, såsom svenskt biskopsstift, svensk brigad, utbildning från lekskola till universitetsnivå, egna teatrar, tidningar, egen radiokanal etc. Den finlandssvenska litteraturen är därtill omfattande och mångsidig. Man räknar med att cirka 200 nya böcker årligen ges ut på svenska i Finland Lyriken har varit väl företrädd inom skönlitteraturen, men prosan förefaller enligt bedömare att ha stärkt sin ställning. Tanken på att systematiskt studera modern finslandssvensk skönlitteratur föddes spontant hos mig. Jag tyckte mig skönja olika upplevelser av och uppfattningar om den finlandssvenska vardagen, sådan som sociologer gärna velat beskriva genom intervjuundersökningar, men alltför ofta misslyckats med. Kunde man inte tänka sig att i stället för att intervjua ett par hundra finlandssvenskar om hur de upplever de olikartade språkliga milöerna i Svenskfinland systematiskt undersöka hur författare ser på det tvåspråkiga samhället? Beskrivs mötet med det finska och om det görs, på vilket sätt? I den interna finlandssvenska debatten förekommer ofta förenklingar och stereotypa föreställningar om landskapen och om enspråkighet kontra tvåspråkighet. Min fråga var helt enkelt; kan den finlandssvenska mosaiken, de språksociologiskt olikartade miljöerna även belysas genom litteraturen,och om det görs, vilka speciella drag framkommer, kan man t.ex. skönja återkommande schabloner? Ett systematiskt stickprov på ett hundra skönlitterära verk, utgivna under åren 1974-86 valdes ut. Avsikten var att debutanter såvål som etablerade författare, de stora förlagen och de s.k. alternativförlagen skulle representeras. De författare som under perioden gett ut flera prosaverk skulle representeras av åtminstone en bok. I en dylik analys kan inte böckernas genomslagskraft beaktas. Det betyder att någon estimering av spridningen av vissa schabloner och speciella språksociologiska stereotyper inte låtit sig göras. Samtliga böcker utgör ett tvärsnitt av finlandssvenska prosaböcker under den ifrågavarande perioden. Produktionen är utgångspunkten, inte konsumtionen. Böckerna är representativa för finlandssvensk skönlitterär prosa under perioden. Däremot vill jag inte med detta ha sagt att litteraturen i sig på något sätt rättvist skulle representera finlandssvenska miljöer. Jag kan bara konstatera att ytligt sett är de olika språkliga miljöerna i Svenskfinland väl företrädda. Av de 100 verken är 82 mer eller mindre fiktiva romaner (75 st) eller novellsamlingar (7 st). De resterande 18 böckerna kan karaktäriseras som självbiografier (10 st) och vardagsrealistiska dag- och debattböcker (8 st). Det finns inga värderingar i konstaterandet att en del böcker skrivna av finlandssvenska författare inte beaktar den språkliga situationen i Finland. Det är förvisso ett överflödigt påstående att skönlitteraturen kan (och bör) spegla olika aspekter av mänskligt liv och beteende.
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Denna kvantitativa analys strävar till att studera förekomsten av språksociologiska iakttagelser (av författarna) jämte de mer eller mindre klart uttalade uppfattningara om mötet mellan språk och/eller kultur i en tvåspråkig miljö som Svenskfinland. All kommunikation har språkliga element. I tvåspråkiga miljöer är sannolikheten att aktörerna talar olika språk och att kommunikationssvårigheter uppstår relativt stor. Vidare kan man anta att en etnisk minoritet oftare än majoriteten rent statistiskt oftare konfronteras med det främmande språket än majoriteten. Det är sannolikt så, att författare, som har språket som redskap är lyhörda visavi språket/språken i omgivningen. Man kan utgå från att finlandssvenska författare mera frekvent än sina finska kolleger noterar möten mellan finskt och svenskt i Finland. Tre Modeller Tre enkla modeller eller 'idealtyper' skall jag presentera i det följande på basen av mötet mellan det svenska och det finska; non-existence, om något språkmöte överhuvadtaget inte noterats, consensus, såvida mötet är harmoniskt och problemfritt, samt conflict, om problem och gnissel noteras. Non-existence Var femte bok innehåller inga som helst antydningar om språkmöten. Utgångspunkten har då varit att något i handlingen eller dialogen skulle associera till en tvåspråkig miljö. Gränsfall finns det gott om. När huvudspersonerna heter Axel Stenvall, Monika, Liisa Nieminen, Juha, Seija, Johanna Nyholm och Pirkko Järvinen (som i Per Maaranniittys Sjuk), eller Tom Airas, Olga, Paavo och Henrika (som i Valentin Chorells Kvarteret Barmhärigheten) eller Ewald, Ann Lehikoinen, Puusari och Storm (som i Bo Carpelans Din gestalt bakom dörren) eller Karl och Riitta Bergman (som i Wava Stürmers Slå tillsammans) finns givetvis ett indirekt möte mellan språkgrupper, men ingenting sägs om konversationsspråket, varför detta inte har klassificerats som renodlade språkmöten. Consensus Ungefär halften av de skönlitterära alstren innehåller språkmöten som kan betraktas som harmoniska, präglade av samförstånd, eller snarare avsaknad av konflikt. Vi har givetvis hela tiden att göra med gradskillnader, från helt 'neutrala' till 'positiva' möten mellan språk och kultur.
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Några exempel på 'neutrala' språkmöten; Pap hade lärt sig finska i Amerika, men annars var det bara Salo som talade finska. (Anna Nylund, Främlingen, i Sommarensfotspår, 1981: 26) Jag kunde fortfarande ingenting säga. Det var därför jag bett er komma, sa han. Stör det om vi talar finska? Jag skakade på huvudet. (Paul von Martens, Visa mig stjärnan, 1985: 225) De bodde bortom skogen vid finngränsen. (Helge Englund, Storm över myren, 1974: 25). I dessa exempel är inslaget av det finska tämligen indirekt. Signaler ges om att det finns en annan språkgrupp, ett annat språk. I följande exempel lyfts språkmötena fram mera tydligt. Bengt Ahlfors beskriver i romanen Personerna (1984) det sociala samspelet inom ett teaterhus, Nya Teatern, som av miljöbeskrivningen att döma finns i Helsingfors. Kirsti Laaksonen hallde upp kaffe åt Gurli medan Sylvi satte sig i bordsändan som ordförande. Hon övergick till finska som alla förstod. (Ahlfors, 1984: 126). Det språk som talades bland städarna var alltså finska, i motsats till konversationen bland andra yrkesgrupper inom teatern. Här möts alltså språken,men det förefaller inte att vara speciellt konfliktladdat. Till synes ar det en situation aktörerna accepterar. T.ex. de bägge snickarnas kommunikation har lösts på följande sätt; De få gånger de var tvungna att kommunicera med varandra talade Miettinen finska och Ström svenska. Bägge var behjälpligt tvåspråkiga och i andra sammanhang rörde de sig obesvärat med varandras modersmål, men i snickeriet höll sig var och en till sitt. (Ahlfors, 1984: 162) Har har vi en klar markering. Den svenska aktören ger inte efter. En tvåspråkig, men från språkkonflikter fri barndomsmiljö beskriver Singa Sandelin i Gäst i eget hem (1982: 144), Han (pappa) talade nästan bara svenska och hon (mamma) kunde bara finska. Hemma lade vi aldrig märke till vilketdera språket vi talade med varandra eller med mamma och med pappa. Många tyckte att vi var konstiga. När vi gick på gatan och mamma frågade
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något på finska svarade jag kanske på svenska. Hon övergick då till svenska, men då hade jag ju redan märkt att hon talade finska så då började jag i stället med finska. Vi tyckte inte att det var underligt alls. Språken möts på ett naturligt sätt även i den österbottniska småstad som Gurli Linden berättar om i Första damernas, (1979: 63); Och fabriken var en parentes: Där var finska kvinnor som pratade med varann och jag som inte förstod finska var tyst. Nog hade jag hört finska förr, när mor talade med Alma som kom med mjölkhinken, eller när gamla zigenarparet kom in i förbifarten. Men mors finska var av den hemmagjorda sorten som hon snickrat ihop för att klara sig på kafeet i hamnen. Gunnel Steinby beskriver i biografin Under esplanadernas lönnar (1980) sin hemstad Björneborg. En svenskhet på tvåspråkighetens villkor uppvisar inga konflikter; Språkfrågan intresserade mig inte det bittersta. Den har aldrig gjort det. Jag har hela livet haft svårt att uppfatta den som ett problem. För i min stad var man så att säga född tvåspråkig. Antagligen förekom det slagsmål mellan finsk- och svenskspråkiga gäng på gatorna, men om sådant visste jag föga. Ibland ropade småpojkar som skulle visa sig kaxiga 'hurri' efter en, men det struntade man i. (Steinby, 1980: 265). Den unga författargenerationen har uppenbara problem med att beskriva tvåspråkiga, ofta finskdominerade miljöer. En helsvensk beskrivning ger inte rättvisa åt handlingen. Kjell Lindblad har ett djärvt grepp i novellen 'Exitus' (i Före sömmen,1984), där dialogen helt och hållet går på finskautan översättning till svenska; Selvä, säger Olli och lägger på luren. Tullaan hakemaan. Exitus, säger jag frånvarande på soffan. Kyllä, säger Olli. Sinä ja Jorma vaikka, jos sopii? Det är ingen fråga. Sopii, sopii, säger jag. Vaihtelu virkistää, grinar Jorma och knäpper den korta vita rocken. Vaihtelu, utbrister jag. Se on jo kolmas tällä viikolla. (Lindblad, 1984: 22).
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I detta fall krävs tvåspråkighet av läsaren. Huvudstadsslang med inslag av svenska, finska och engelska förekommer rikligt i Kim Weckströms Trägrottan, (1984: 165); Min musa är också ett år efter alla andra, säjer dom på skivbolaget. Det är en bra imago, säljer bra åt junttina som det tänder lite sent för. Jag sa åt dom en gång att varför ger dom mej sånt skit att sjunga, men dom bara skratta. Jag har just sjungit in en single, skitkornig, men den blev inte klar för jag börja doka. Jag skulle gå till Suosikkis redaktion för att dom skulle ta några bilder av mej, you know och jag satt bara där på en pall i fyllan. Conflict Språkkonflikter kan skönjas i var fjärde bok. Konflikterna har olika rumsliga och sociala ramar. I den enspråkigt svenska miljön oftast i Osterbotten och på Aland upplevs det finska som ett hot. Då det enspråkiga finska möter det finlandssvenska kan det vara ett möte med något man endast genom fördomar lärt sig att tackla. Inte sällan är den språkliga konflikten engentligen social till sin natur. 'Det svenska reviret' i form av svensk jord och ett svenskt landskap framkommer i följande två exempel. Erik Andrén beskriver i Byn (1980) svenska Osterbotten under 1940-talet. Mötet mellan finskt och svenskt är synnerligen ansträngande: Men system. Henne ville han inte tänka på. At helvete med Liimatainen. Puh, gifta sig med en finne, men inga planer på svensk jord i finska händer i så fall. (Andrén, 1980: 65). I en annan enspråkigt svensk miljö, Aland, av allt att döma på 70-talet, är även språkkonflikten mycket tydlig. Jag citerar Rainer Alander (En sorts frihet,1974: 39). Sedan ägnade han sig åt insändarna. De var alltid roliga. Det pågick en språkdebatt i tidningen och insändarna var många, stoffet brännbart. Ur en del av insändarna framgick med all önskvärd tydlighet att finska språket var som en fruktad sjukdom i landskapet. Något man ville värja sig emot och skydda sig för. Och som så ofta när det gällde sådana här saker var tongångarna nära nog fanatiska. Finskspråkigas möte med det svenska beskrivs som konflikter av bl.a. Uno Salminen (Till sjöss,1977) och Tom Paxal (Rödbergen, 1981). Den förra beskriver åländska sjömän i en finsk hamnstad i sydvästra Finland:
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Han svarade på svenska att han inte förstod vad de sade. De näststörsta av pojkarna ilsknade till, ställde sig framför honom när han lösgjorde fånglinan och skränade: Mitä perkele. Olet sä rantahurri. Viissiin ahvenanmaalainen rantahurri. Vai mitä? (Salminen, 1977: 39) I Tom Paxals skildring av 50-talets Rödbergen i Helsingfors möter vi ånyo skällordet för finlandssvenskar 'hurrit'. Samtidigt hoppade två unga killar över parkstaketet, sneddade över parken. De pratade svenska sinsemellan. Saatanan hurrit, painukaa RuotsiinSatans hurrir, stick till Sverige skrek Arska efter dem och killarna började springa. (Paxal, 1981: 137). Vardagsrealistiska språkkonflikter beskriver Inga Granholm i sin Sjukhusdagbok (1975: 95); 1 oktober, måndag. Skoldagen var tröttsam. Benet värker. På kvällen kom det ett svenskt program i TV som många av patienterna ville se. Men de finska patienterna protesterade genom att gemensamt föra oljud. En finne blev så ivrig att personalen fick ta hand om henne. Adessa språkstridigheter. Dom är vanliga här. Språk- och socialgruppstillhörighet som konfliktutlösare kan man läsa om i Mary-Ann Bäcksbackas Långt till himmelens bord (1982), en skildring av 1950-talets Abo; Mia är svensk. Nej, en ful gårdkarlsunge som talar svenska. Ingenting av det kan hon göra något åt. Jo, på gatan talar Mia och Mildred alltid finska med varandra. De låtsas vara finnar. Då far de åtminstone inte stryk för språkets skull. På gården hjälper det inte att låtsas. Där försvarar de sin svenska med händer, tänder, fötter, svordomar, käppar och stenar. (Bäcksbackas, 1982: 104) Att klasskonflikterna i samhället är allvarligare än språkkonflikterna hävdas i Christer Kihlmans roman Dyre prins (1975: 14); Om somrarna var det nästan tomt i stenborgen. Herrskapet var på landet, vart och ett i sitt eget kråkslott på sin alldeles egna fläck av fosterjorden, inför havets kärva anlete eller vid insjöns väna
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strand beroende på . . . ja huvudsakligen beroende på språk och arvsförhållanden, svenskarna vid havet, finnarna vid insjön. Språkmotsättningarna var svåra och fruktansvärda men de uteslöt ändå inte att man bodde i samma hus blott man tillhörde samma klass. Med klassmotsättningarna var det värre, de ledde till inbördeskrig. Språk- och klassmotsättningarna tonas ned i beskrivningen av huvudstadsmiljön Svenska Klubben i Jörn Donners Jacob och friheten (1978: 74-75); Eftersom han tidigt förstod att finskhetsvågen måste bekämpas med alla medel överlät han vid utflyttningen sitt hem till Svenska Klubben, med tillträde endast för medlemmar och deras gäster. Med tilltagande demokratisering och moralisk upplösning användes dock klubblokalerna då och då av finsktalande sammanslutningar. Kökspersonalen talade finska, men gästerna behövde inte veta att deras pyttipannor och kalvstekar var tillredda på ett främmade språk. Det fanns ett finskt ordspråk som sa att jorden inte frågade efter brukarens språk. Följaktligen frågade inte strömmingen efter stekarens språk. Konklusion Med min litterära exposé har jag velat lyfta fram den finlandssvenska mångfald, som litteraturentotalt settförefaller att bejaka. Litteraturen speglar inte enbart det enspråkiga Osterbotten och det tvåspråkiga Helsingfors, utan verkligheten, Svenskfinland i detta fall, är betydligt mera spännande än så. Språksociologer har ofta funderat på detta med språkkonflikter. Ar det så att de uppstår i miljöer där språken möts och nöts mot varandra eller uppstår språkkonflikter i det exklusiva, i det ovanliga, det som bryter invanda rutiner och trygga kommunikationsmönster. Skönlitteraturen ger inte svar på den frågen, men det finns en tendens mot det senare alternativet. I de genuint tvåspråkiga miljöerna förefaller språken att leva harmoniskt sida vid sida. Slutligen, denna bild av Finland som ett tvåspråkigt samhälle, kan förefalla motsägelsefull. Om så är fallet är det inget att oroa sig för. Verkligheten är motsägelsefull. Av de totalt 22.000 sidor skönlitterär text som utgjort källa för innehållsanalysen innehöll endast cirka 400 sidor, alltså i snitt var femtionde sida, associationer till en tvåspråkig miljö. En dylik innehållsanalys kan förblinda läsaren. Finlandssvenska författare skriver även om annat!
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En naturlig uppföljning av projektet är att förankra skönlitteraturen i pedagogisk praxis, som åskådligt material för diskussion kring etniska gruppers identitetsuppfattning och för att öka förståelsen för språk- och kulturmöten. Källor Furuland, Lars (1970) Litteratur och samhälle. Ingår i Lars Gustafsson (red.): Forskningsfält och metoder inom litteraturvetenskapen. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand. Skönlitteratur Ahlfors, Bengt (1984) Personerna. Helsingfors Söderströms. Alander, Rainer (1974) En sorts frihet. Helsingfors Söderströms. Andren, Erik (1980) Byn. Helsingfors Söderströms. Bäcksbacka, Mary-Ann (1982) Långt till himmelens bord. Helsingfors Schildts. Carpelan, Bo (1975) Din gestalt bakom dörren. Helsingfors Schildts. Chorell, Walentin (1982) Kvarteret Barmhärtigheten. Helsingfors Schildts. Donner, Jörn (1978) Jacob och friheten. Helsingfors Söderströms. Englund, Helge (1974) Storm över myren. Jeppo Författarnas andelslag. Granholm, Inger (1975) Sjukhusdagbok. Helsingfors Boklaget. Kihlman, Christer (1975) Dyre prins. Helsingfors Söderströms. Lindblad, Kjell (1984) Före sömnen. Helsingfors Schildts. Lindén, Gurli (1979) Första damernas. Jeppo Författarnas andelslag. Maarannitty, Per (1977) Sjuk. Helsingfors Schildts. von Martens, Paul (1985) Visa mig stjärnan. Helsingfors Söderströms. Nylund, Anna (1981) Sommarens fotspår. Helsingfors Församlingsförbundets förlag. Paxal, Tom (1981) Rödbergen. Helsingfors Söderströms. Salminen, Uno (1977) Till sjöss. Helsingfors Schildts. Sandelin, Singa (1982) Gäst i eget hem. Helsingfors Schildts. Steinby, Gunnel (1980) Under esplanadernas lönnar. Helsingfors Söderströms. Stürmer, Wava (1976) Slå tillsammans. Helsingfors Söderströms. Weckström, Kim (1984) Trägrottan. Helsingfors Söderströms.
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26 Børnebøger i Grønland: Sprog og indhold Inge Kleivan Institut for Eskimologi, Københavns Universitet, Danmark. Abstract In accordance with the law of the Home Rule of Greenland, Greenlandic is the principal language, while Danish is the first foreign language. However, Greenlandic children have access to more Danish books than books in Greenlandic. A broad selection of modern Danish children's books about Greenland has been translated into Greenlandic, but the original Greenlandic production of children's books is very limited. Very few children's books by Greenlandic writers also exist in a Danish version. The children's books that are published in Greenlandic mainly appeal to younger children. The fact that there are only relatively few books in Greenlandic for older children and adolescents might result in the long term in decreasing interest in books by Greenlandic writers, and that again might affect the language of Greenland adversely. Attempts at meeting the need for children's books in Greenlandic are made, for example, through children's books competitions and translation scholarships. Ud fra den betragtning at det børn læser, og det eller de sprog de læser på, er med til at bestemme, hvordan fremtiden kommer til at se ud, vil jeg her præsentere nogle sider af børnebogssituationen i Grønland. Befolkningstal og sprogforhold i Grønland Pr. 1. januar 1986 boede der 53.406 mennesker i Grønland, deraf var 9.353 d.v.s. ca. 18% født uden for Grønland. Det store flertal af disse er danskere, som kun bor i Grønland få år, og som ikke taler grønlandsk. Den helt overvejende del af den grønlandske befolkning har grønlandsk som førstesprog. Undtagelserene, d.v.s. grønlændere med dansk som førstesprog, findes hovedsagelig blandt børn og unge, som har danskgrønlandske forældre. I forbindelse med indførelsen af det grønlandske hjemmestyre i 1979 blev det i loven fastslået, at det grønlandske sprog er hovedsproget, men at der skal
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undervises grundigt i det danske sprog, og at begge sprog kan bruges i offentlige forhold. Tilsvarende står der i forordningen for den grønlandske folkeskole af 1979, at undervisningssproget er grønlandsk, men i det omfang lærerkræfterne, undervisningsmidlerne eller hensynet til den enkelte elev gør det nødvendigt, kan dansk tillige være undervisningssprog. Det danske sprog indtager imidlertid fortsat en forholdsvis fremtrædende plads både i administrationen og i skolevasenet og andre steder i samfundet, først og fremmest fordi grønlændere med relevante uddannelser stadig er en mangel. Der er i Grønland ikke bare et skel mellem dem, der kun kan lase grønlandsk og dem, der kun kan læse dansk og dem, der kan begge dele, men der er også et skel mellem dem, der holder fast ved den gamle retskrivning, og dem, som kun føler sig fortrolig med den nye retskrivning. Det var i 1973, at den daværende folkevalgte forsamling i Grønland, Landsrådet, vedtog en ny retskrivning, som er nærmere talesproget end den gamle, der blev skabt i midten af det sidste århundrede. Den nye retskrivning blev straks indført i skolen, og en lang række skolebøger blev i de følgende år trykt i nye oplag omskrevet til den nye retskrivning. I samfundet iøvrigt har den nye retskrivning været laenge om at slå igennem. Overgangen til den nye retskrivning betød ikke, at der nu var mange børnebøger, der blev temmelig ulæselige, for der fandtes ikke ret mange grønlandske børnebøger på det tidspunkt. Men det betød, at børn ikke langere var så nysgerrige efter at læse, hvad der var skrevet for voksne og omvendt. I et land med en begrænset mangde læsestof på modersmålet er der også voksne, der læser det, som egentlig er beregnet for børn. Så sent som i 1985-86 var der en forfatter, der udgav en bog, som primært henvendte sig til børn, i tre versioner trykt henholdsvis med den gamle og den nye retskrivning og på dansk. Dermed skulle han have mulighed for at fa alle potentielle læsere i tale, børn såvel som voksne, grønlændere som danskere. Udgivelsesmuligheder og formidling af børnebøger i Grønland Materialer til det grønlandske skolevæsen udgives af den grønlandske skolebogscentral Pilersuiffik, mens størstedelen af hvad der iøvrigt er blevet trykt på grønlandsk gennem mange år, er blevet udgivet af Det grønlandske forlag i Nuuk. Det grønlandske Hjemmestyre har sin egen informationsvirksomhed Tusarliivik. Det er netop (juni 1987) blevet besluttet af det grønlandske Landsting, at de to sidstnævnte institutioner skal slås sammen. Der bliver tale om en selvejende institution, hvis bestyrelse skal udpeges af det grønlandske Landsstyre, den grønlandske regering. Navnet bliver Pilersuiffik/Atuakkiorfik. Grønlandske bøger, herunder bøger for børn, bliver også udgivet gennem andre kanaler. Det grønlandske pladeforlag Ulo har udgivet et par små
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børnebøger, mens en enkelt forfatter, Otto Sandgreen, har oprettet sit eget forlag, hvor han bl.a. har udgivet den tidligere omtalte bog, der kom i tre versioner. Det hører også med til billedet, at kirkelige organisationer, enten med tilknytning til den danske folkekirke eller til andre kirkesamfund, har udgivet en række religiøse bøger for børn. De mennesker, der har vist talent og lyst til at skrive grønlandsk skønlitteratur for børn, har som regel været grønlandske lærere. Deres produkter er i de fleste tilfælde blevet udgivet til brug i den grønlandske skole, som gennem de sidste 35 år har haft hårdt brug for grónlandske tekster som en modvægt mod det store udvalg af dansksproget materiale. Salg af grønlandske børnebøger foregår dels gennem de ganske fa boghandler, der findes i Grønland, dels gennem KNIs butikker (Kalaallit Niuverfiat), det tidligere KGH (Den kongelige grønlandske Handel), som i 1986 blev overtaget af Grønlands Hjemmestyre. Det er begrænset, hvad der sælges af børnebøger. Det skyldes både, at der ikke er tradition for at bruge penge på den slags, og at der ikke gøres meget for at sælge dem. Den grønlandske forfatterforening har lige (juni 1987) kritiseret, at KNI gør alt for lidt for at sælge grønlandske bøger og for at sørge for, at butikkerne i bygderne forsynes med bøger af grønlandske forfattere. Børn i Grønland stifter først og fremmest bekendtskab med børnebøger gennem skolen, skolebiblioteker og bórnebiblioteker. Børneafdelingen ved Det grønlandske Landsbibliotek, Nunatta Atuagaateqarfia, har denne sommer, som et led i bestræbelserne på at henle de også de voksnes opmærksomhed på børnebøgerne, arrangeret en udstilling på rådhuset i Nuuk, hvor der vises billed- og børnebøger, som behandler grønlandske emner. Det er ret begrænset, hvad der gøres for at orientere forældre og andre om, hvad der udgives af børnebøger. Egentlige anmeldelser er sjældne. I nogle tilfælde kan en bogudgivelse dog resultere i en omtale eller i et interview med forfatteren i en grønlandsk avis. Manglen på vurderende anmeldelser, som i nogen grad også gælder bøger for voksne, kan hænge sammen med, at man i små samfund, hvor mange kender hinanden, viger tilbage for at vurdere hinandens værker kritisk. Men det argument duer ikke, når det drejer sig om oversatte bøger. I det lange løb vil både forfattere og læsere sikkert være bedst tjent med, at bøger, der udkommer på grønlandsk, vurderes og diskuteres i den grønlandske presse. Børnebøger på dansk I teorien har børn i Grønland især gennem bibliotekerne adgang til et bredt udsnit af de samme børnebøger på dansk, som børn i Danmark har. I praksis
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er det dog de færreste børn med grønlandsk som førstesprog, der kan udnytte dette tilbud i sit fulde omfang. Det er naturligvis lettere at læse bøger med mange billeder og lidt tekst, men de er som regel beregnet for mindre børn, og der kan være et stort spring i sværhedsgraden sprogligt set mellem billedbøger og tegneserier. Der er i dette århundrede skrevet et ikke helt lille antal bøger om Grønland for børn i Danmark. Forfatterne har prøvet at leve sig ind i forholdene, og de fleste af dem har også boet der i kortere eller langere tid. Hvis man skal prøve at karakterisere bøgerne under ét, så har de en positiv holdning til grønlænderne, men denne holdning er præget af forfatternes danske forudsætninger. Der gives ofte udtryk for respekt for grønlændernes levevis, d.v.s. at det er den traditionelle fangerkultur, som mange beundrer, men der er også bøger, der behandler nutidens mere konfliktfyldte forhold, og som bl. a. kommer ind på forholdet mellem danskere og grønlændere, og det grønlandske sprogs plads i samfundet. Nogle af disse bøger er oversat til grønlandsk, og det skal jeg senere vende tilbage til. Børnebøger oversat til grønlandsk De børnebøger, der oversættes til grønlandsk, er stort set alle oversat fra dansk, uden at det nødvendigvis betyder, at de alle er skrevet på dansk. At oversættelsen går via dansk, betyder teoretisk set en vis indskrankning i udvalget samt en yderligere afstand til det originale digtervaerk, men begge dele er dog til at leve med. Der blev i 1940erne, men først og fremmest i 1950erne og 1960erne oversat et pænt udvalg af klassikere til grønlandsk, bøger som Onkel Toms hytte, Robinson Crusoe, Ivanhoe og mange andre. Disse bøger blev ikke udgivet for børn, ligesom de allerfleste af dem oprindelig heller ikke var skrevet for børn. De blev oversat til grønlandsk af folk, som selv havde haft fornøjelse af at læse dem i voksen alder, efter at de havde erhvervet sig et tilstrækkeligt kendskab til dansk i en tid, hvor der ikke var mange tosprogede grønlændere. Der findes en del misforståelser og udeladelser i disse oversættelser, men det har sandelig heller ikke været noget let arbejde. Selv om bøgerne primært er udgivet med voksne for øje, er de uden tvivl også blevet læst af en del børn. Indførelsen af den nye retskrivning har dog nok sat en stopper for det. Der er en lang tradition for at oversætte fremmede eventyr og fabler til grønlandsk. De aeldre årgange af det grønlandske blad Atuagagdliutit, der begyndte at udkomme i 1861, er fyldt med dem. Den første egentlige udgave af oversatte eventyr i bogform udkom først i 1957. Det var en samling af Svend Grundtvigs danske folkeeventyr, men det var ikke nogen decideret
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børnebog. Det var derimod den stribe af store farvestrålende billedbøger illustreret af Svend Otto S. med et af Grimms eventyr i hver, som udkom i 1970erne. Sammenligner vi med forholdene i forbindelse med de grønlandske sagn og eventyr, så findes der slet ikke den slags store indbydende eventyrbøger med grønlandsk tekst. Værre er det dog nok, at der til alle de samlinger af grønlandsk sagn, der er trykt og genoptrykt så sent som i begyndelsen af 1980erne, er benyttet den gamle retskrivning, som gør dem meget lidt tiltrækkende for den unge generation. Det siger næsten sig selv, at H. C. Anderson er oversat til grønlandsk. Der er i tidens løb trykt en del eventyr i grønlandske blade og skolebøger, og de første småbøger udkom i begyndelsen af dette århundrede,men først i 1960erne udkom der to større samlinger. Flere af H.C. Andersens eventyr er oversat flere gange,enten fordi en ny oversætter har ment, at han kunne gøre det bedre,eller fordi vedkommende simpelthen ikke har været klar over, at dette eventyr allerede var oversat. Der kan findes spredte eksempler på tilpasning af teksten til grønlandske forhold, f.eks. når udsagnet i evntyret om Fyrtøjet om hundene, der havde øjne så store som møllehjul, oversættes med, at de havde øjne store som grønlandssæler, mens det om den allerstørste hund, hvor hvert øje var så stort som Rundetårn, hedder, at den havde øjne så store som kæmpestore hvaler. Denne form for bearbejdelse af teksten er dog ikke reglen,men undtagelsen. Det gælder generelt for grønlandske oversættere, at de søger at lægge sig så tæt op ad originalen som muligt og hellere udelader og forenkler end omskriver og digter til. Blandt de danske billedbøger, der er oversat til grønlandsk, er en af de mest kendte: Palle alene i Verden af Jens Sigsgaard med dens budskab om, at vi ikke kan undvære at være sammen med andre mennesker. Den udkom første gang i 1955 i Jørgens Fleischers oversættelse og igen i 1974 i en ny oversættelse af Peter Heilmann. Denne gang var der ikke bare tale om at omskrive den gamle retskrivning til den nye, for forfatteren havde omskrevet dele af bogen, og tegneren Arne Ungermann havde lavet nye illustrationer, der var ført up to date. Af danske bøger for lidt større børn er der bl.a. oversat Hodja fra Pjort af Ole Lund Kirkegaard (1976) og Heksefeber af Leif Espen Andersen (1978). Det er bøger, der begge har haft stor succes i Danmark. De foregår begge i fremmedartede miljøer, henholdsvis geografisk og historisk, en tak mere fremmedartede for grønlandske børn end for danske. Enkelte nordiske børnebogsforfattere er oversat til grønlandsk. Elsa Beskow er repræsenteret med De små skovnisser (1973) og Oles skitur (1983), mens Astrid Lindgrens Forår i Bullerby (1978), Jul i Bullerby (1978) og Emil fra Lønneberg (1980) også findes på grønlandsk. Selma Lagerløfs Niels Holgersens
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vidunderlige rejse gennem Sverige udkom allerede i 1954, men den blev ikke lanceret som en børnebog. Det er iøvrigt en af de yderst fa bøger, som er oversat til grønlandsk af en dansker, Poul E. Balle, som var tosproget fra barn af. En af de nyere kendte svenske ungdomsromaner Peters baby af Gun Jacobson (1979) er en af de få bøger for denne aldersklasse, der findes på grønlandsk. Norge er repræsenteret med Thorbjørn Egners Karius og Baktus og Røverne i Kardemomme By. De udkom begge to i 1969 og blev altså trykt med den gamle retskrivning, men det er kun den første, der er blevet genoptrykt transkriberet til den nye retskrivning (1976). Finland er repræsenteret med Tove Janssons Mumitrolde, der blev bragt som tegneserie i Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten i begyndelsen af 1980erene. Taleboblerne var med dansk tekst, mens den grønlandske tekst stod trykt forneden. Denne fordeling af sprogene er også blevet benyttet i flere andre tegneserier. Det blev engang kritiseret af en læserbrevsskribent i Atuagagdliutit/ Grønlandsposten, som mente, at det var mere rimeligt, at det var de grønlandsktalende børn, som havde fordelen af at få teksten præsenteret i de bobler, der kom ud af munden på de talende. Det drejede sig om tegneserien Lillegut, hvor handlingen er henlagt til Grønland. I sit svar henviste bladet til, at det skete af tekniske grunde,for den danske tekst fandtes på klicheerne. Det grønlandske sprog er dog blevet prioriteret ved at blive anbragt i taleboblerne i en af de helt store verdenssucceer: Asterix med tegninger af Uderzo og tekst af Goscinny. Danske læsere blev i forbindelse med introduktionen af serien i Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten opfordret til selv at købe det pågældende hefte med den danske tekst: På den måde kan man følge med i, hvad kolleger, venner og familie morer sig over de næste ca. 40 uger, og man kan måske få lært lidt grønlandsk. (-lip 1981) Det er nu nok ikke mange, der har lært meget grønlandsk af det, for det har mildest talt vært en vanskelig oversætteropgave, så man kan ikke lære ret meget grønlandsk ved at sammenligne den danske tekst med den grønlandske. Det skal også nævnes, at der er udgivet fem hefter på grønlandsk af en af de allerstørste danske tegneseriesucceer: Rasmus Klump af Carla og Vilhelm Hansen (1978). Børnebøger om Grønland oversat til grønlandsk Blandt de tidligst oversatte bøger, hvor handlingen foregår i Grønland, var der to små bøger af Elmar Drastrup med dyr i hovedrollerne, henholdsvis en
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isbjørneunge (1953) og en slædehundehvalp (1954). Illustrationerne i de danske udgaver var ikke benyttet, i stedet for havde den grønlandske tegner Jens Rosing lavet nogle mere realistiske tegninger. Disse to bøger er nogle af de få oversatte bøger om Grønland, der har mere tekst end billeder. Den første oversatte billedbog blev også trykt i 1953. Det var Knud Hermansens bog om Palo, den lille grønlænder, med tegninger af Ernst Hansen. Blandt de nyeste er den store billedbog om Mads og Milalik af Svend Otto S. (1979). Også hans bøger om børn i Island (1980), på Færøerne (1981) og i Kina (1982) er udkommet på grønlandsk. En af de mest produktive forfattere af fagbøger om Grønland, Ove Bak, har bl.a. skrevet en serie på otte bøger for børn i Danmark under fællestitlen: Børnene på Næsset. De er inddelt i tre serier efter sværhedsgrad og er illustreret med mange fotografier. Bøgerne fortæller om den moderne tilværelse i det sydligste Grønland med enkelte tilbageblik til tidligere tider. Mærkeligt nok er det kun de fire første, d.v.s. de der er lettest at læse, der er oversat til grønlandsk. Endelig skal der kort omtales to bøger for store børn og unge. Bibi og Franz Berliners bog Derude bag havet handler om en østgrønlandsk pige, som opholder sig en tid i Danmark. Bogen er meget præget af den tid, den er skrevet i, midten af 1960erne, men den udkom først på grønlandsk i 1981. Mads Lidegaards bog om Pavia er endnu mere problemorienteret, men her var der dog kun fem år mellem den danske udgave (1973) og den grønlandske (1978). Blandt de oversatte billedbøger er en enkelt om Inuit i Canada: Tjuki og rypeungen (1978). Den slutter med nogle tegninger og forklaringer på, hvordan man bygger snehytter o.s.v. Bogen er skrevet af en udefra kommende, Carol Codd. Hvis man undrer sig over, at der ikke er oversat børnebøger skrevet af Inuit i Canada og Alaska, så er svaret, at de findes ikke. De oversatte børnebøger, hvor handlingen udspilles på Grønland, er gennemgående gode bøger, hvor forfatterne har forsøgt at være loyale mod de mennesker, de skriver om. Alligevel kan det psykologisk betyde noget for de særligt etnisk bevidste at vide, at forfatteren af en sådan bog ikke er grønlænder, og denne erkendelse munder ud i et ønske om flere børnebøger skrevet på grønlandsk af grønlandske forfattere (Jenserik, 1980). Børnbøger skrevet på grønlandsk Børnelitteraturen i Grønland har ikke nogen lang historie. Hvis vi ser bort fra deciderede skolebøger, så var den første grønlandske børnebog en lille bog om polareskimoiske børn skrevet af den første missionær i Thule distriktet, Gustav Olsen, som var vestgrønlænder. Missionen var startet i
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1909, og bogen udkom i 1912 illustreret med fotografier. Men så skal vi helt op til 1950erne, før de næste børnebøger udkom. Det drejede sig om nogle oversættelser og en enkelt bog skrevet af en grønlænder. Der var ganske vist i 1948 udkommet en lille bog, Arnarajak, med digte af Frederik Nielsen og illustrationer af GitzJohansen. Frederik Nielson havde ladet sig inspirere af tegnefilmen om Snehvide til at overføre motivet til Grønland. Han lagde meget vægt på, at digtene kunne synges, men efter hans eget udsagn var bogen ikke skrevet for børn. Vi skal derfor frem til år 1959, hvor Jørgen Fleischers børnebog Kâle udkom. Bogen foregår i Danmark, hvor drengen Kâle er til behandling for børnelammelse. Han får bagefter lejlighed til at rejse rundt i landet og opleve de forskellige seværdigheder. Børnebogsproduktionen er kun vokset langsomt. En af de mest produktive forfattere er Karl Kruse, som også illustrerer både sine egne og andres bøger, herunder en del skolebøger. Hans første bog udkom på dansk i 1972 og var skrevet for danske børn, mens Karl Kruse var lærer i Danmark: Drama ved lsfjeldet. Bogen handler om en familie fra en bygd, der har været i byen for at sælge kød og fisk og sidder fast i isen på vejen hjem. Men at nye tider er på vej, antydes af omtalen af den store fiskefabrik inde i byen. Forfatteren udgav en grønlandsk version i 1974. Af andre af Karl Kruses bøger skal nævnes en lille roman om Anna og hendes skolekammerater (1981) og den nyeste: På loftet i det gamle hus (1986), som handler om to niårige drenge, der finder ting og sager på loftet, som sætter fantasien i sving. En anden bog, som også foreligger på dansk, vandt i 1979 det grønlandske forlags konkurrence om den bedste ungdomsbog. Den var skrevet af Holger Lennert Poulsen, og den grønlandske titel betyder oversat: I begyndelsen af livets forår. Oversætterne mente dog ikke, at en titel som: I ungdommens vår, var gangbar på dansk og valgte derfor at kalde den: Unge mænd! da den udkom på dansk i 1981. De to store drenge, der er hovedpersonerne, tjener penge ved at fiske i deres sommerferie og bruger dem til bedre og bedre udstyr. De demonstrerer gammeldags dyder som flid, nøjsomhed og lydighed over for forældrene. Et mønsterbarn finder vi også i Otto Sandgreens bog om skoledrengen Arno, der som tidligere omtalt udkom i tre sproglige versioner (1985-86). Her er den pædagogiske grundide om muligt endnu tydeligere. Hovedpersonen skal tjene som et forbillede for andre, så de bevidst vil gøre en indsats ikke bare for familien, men også for deres land. Forfatterens stærke kærlighed til Grønland og dets natur kommer ikke bare indirekte til udtryk i handlingen, men i endnu højere grad i billedteksterne, hvor forfatteren selv tager til orde og benytter jeg-formen. Illustrationerne er udført af en af Grønlands mest anerkendte kunstnere, Aka Høegh.
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På baggrund af hvor stor en rolle den tosprogede situation i Grønland spiller for grønlandske skolebørn, er det forbavsende, hvor lidt dette afspejles både i de oversatte bøger og i bøger skrevet af grønlændere. Problemet eksisterer bogstavelig talt ikke, når man ser bort fra de to oversatte debatromaner af Lidegaard og Berliner. Hvad bøger med dyr i hovedrollerne angår, så er en af de mest gennemarbejdede udkommet uden for skolens regi. Det er Den lille sæl af Samuel Knudsen, som også har tegnet illustrationerne. Det er et forsøg på at sætte sig ind i, hvilke erfaringer en sæl gør her i livet. Bogen afsluttes med en liste med forklaringer på de specialudtryk, der er benyttet, og som børn og mange voksne med for den sags skyld, ikke kan forventes at kende. Her er en klar demonstration af sammenhængen mellem sprog og kultur, og et bevidst forsøg på at sikre, at ældre tiders viden ikke går tabt (1985). Grønlandske forfatteres bøger foregår, som man kunne vente, i et miljø, som er relevant for grønlændere. Blandt børnebøgerne er der dog også fornylig udkommet en bog,hvor den spændende handling i hvert fald ikke foregår i Grønland: to brødre bliver overrasket af to røvere i en gammel kirkeruin, og de kommer ud for flere uhyggelige hændelser. Den oversatte titel lyder: I skumringen og den er skrevet af en af de få kvindelige grønlandske forfattere, Grethe Guldager Thygesen (1986). Grønlandske børnebøger oversat til dansk Forholdet mellem grønlændere og danskere er bedst tjent med, at det ikke altid er den ene part, der optræder i giverrollen og den anden i modtagerrollen. Det er derfor vigtigt, at der ikke bare oversættes fra dansk til grønlandsk, men også fra grønlandsk til dansk. På den måde får danskere også mulighed for at få et indtryk af, hvordan grønlændere ser på tilværelsen. Generelt set oversætter folk fra et fremmed sprog til deres førstesprog. Det er da også som allerede omtalt næsten udelukkende grønlædere, der har oversat bøger fra dansk. Men fordi der er så få danskere, som behersker grønlandsk, er det også næsten udelukkende grønlændere, der oversætter fra grønlandsk til dansk. Af de tre grønlandske børnebøger,der foreligger på dansk, er de to skrevet på eller oversat til dansk af forfatterne selv, henholdsvis Karl Kruse og Otto Sandgreen. Den tredje bog er oversat gennem et samarbejde mellem en grønlænder, Bolette Sandgreen, og en dansker, Harald Bertelsen,som har været lærer i Grønland i en årrakke. Mens den første bog, Drama ved isfjeldet og den sidste bog Unge mænd! blev udgivet med henblik på salg i Danmark, er Skoledrengen Arno udgivet primært for den dansksprogede læserskare i Grønland.
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Nordisk Ministerråd har fornylig udlyst arbejdsstipendier til folk, som vil oversætte bl.a. fra grønlandsk. Selv om det måske ikke bliver en børnebøg, der bliver oversat i denne omgang, så er det under alle omstændigheder positivt, at det bliver gjort økonomisk muligt for oversættere at præsentere grønlandske skønlitterære værker på et nordisk sprog, i første omgang dansk. Iøvrigt var også bogen Unge mænd! udgivet med støtte fra Nordisk Ministerråd, den såkaldte nabolandslitteraturstøtte, ligesom også oversættelsen til grønlandsk of Hodja fra Pjort var støttet tilsvarende. Hvordan får man flere gode grønlandske børnebøger? Den åbenbare mangel på grønlandske børnebøger har et par gange resulteret i, at der er blevet udskrevet konkurrencer for at fremskaffe egnede manuskripter særligt henvendt til lidt større børn. De fleste børnebøger på grønlandsk er skrevet for mindre børn, hvor illustrationerne spiller en væsentlig rolle. Det er almindeligt erkendt, at det er beklageligt, at der er et gabende hul i udbuddet af grønlandsksprogede bøger for store børn og unge. Resultatet kan i væste fald blive, at de som voksne aldrig kommer rigtig i gang med at læse grønlandske bøger igen, og det kan igen have uheldige konsekvenser ikke bare for den fortsatte produktion af grønlandske skønlitterære værker, men på længere sigt også for holdningen til det grønlandske sprog. Sidste år udskrev Nordens Institut i Grønland en konkurrence med det formål at skabe interesse hos forfattere for at skrive til og om de 12- til 16årige i Grønland enten i roman- eller novelleform. Det fremhæves i konkurrencebetingelserne, at sproget skal være grønlandsk. Dette er også i overensstemmelse med et af de grundlæggende principper i det nordiske samarbejde, nemlig at styrke og bevare de enkelte nationers sprog inden for Norden. Afleveringsfristen udløb den 1. juli 1987, og førsteprisvinderen vil også få sit værk udgivet i de andre nordiske lande. At oprette kurser for folk, som har lyst til at skrive, som det kendes i mange lande, skulle også være en mulighed i Grønland. I den forbindelse skal det nævnes, at de studerende på seminariet i Nuuk, Ilinniarfissuaq, i faget pædogogik prøver at skrive børnebøger til brug ved undervisningen i skolen (Berliner, 1985: 292-4). Afslutning Det er vigtigt, at grønlandske børnebøger er af god kvalitet både i indhold og udstyr, hvis de skal kunne måle sig både med oversatte bøger og med
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bøger på dansk. Men uanset at man arbejder målbevidst på at skaffe gode børnebøger på grønlandsk, så må man på baggrund af det grønlandske folks størrelse se i øjnene, at antallet altid vil være begrænset. Til fordelene ved at beherske fremmede sprog, i denne sammenhæng dansk, i tilstrækkelig grad, hører også, at der åbner sig muligheder for at få yderligere del i læsningens glæder. Jeg har her kun omtalt et udvalg af den litteratur, som børn i Grønland har adgang til i deres fritid. Man ville få et mere fuldstændigt billede ved at inddrage skolen og også massemedier som blade, radio, fjernsyn, film og video. Enkelte blade har en særlig børneside, og Grønlands landsbibliotek, Nunatta Atuagaateqarfia udgiver et ikkekommercielt børneblad, som er dobbeltsproget. Radioen har i mange år haft børneudsendelser både på dansk og grønlandsk, mens de andre medier er domineret af dansk. Det er ofte blevet kritiseret, at der ikke er regelmæssige børneudsendelser i fjernsynet i Grønland, som grønlandske børn kan forstå både sprogligt og kulturelt. Der er dog nu planer om et større projekt. På samme måde som med børnebøger er det vigtigt, at det folk, man selv tilhører, og hvis sprog er ens førstesprog, også er repræsenteret på fjernsynet, samtidig med at det naturligvis er af største vigtighed, hvordan de er repræsenteret. Jeg vil til slut nævne, at Grønlands ungdoms fællesråd, Sorlak, er i gang med en undersøgelse med titlen: Ung i dag. Børns og unges vilkår i Grønland. Blandt de emner, der indgår, er skole- og uddannelsessituationen og fritidsmuligheder. Henvisninger Andersen, H. C. (1960-65) oqualugtualiat oqalugpalâtdlo. kalâtdlisungortitsissoq Frederik Nielsen. Nûk: Kalâtdlitnunâne Naqiterisitsissarfik/Det Grønlandske Forlag. Andersen, Leif Espen (1978) Ilisiitsuutitsiniarnersuaq. kalaallisunngortitsisoq Peter K. S. Heilmann. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. Bak, Ove (1975-79) Børnene på Næsset. København: Hernov. (1978a) Petriina oqualugtuartoq. nutserisoq David Sommer. (1978b) Kaaspaat naajaarlu. nutserisoq David Sommer. (1978c) Piitap puisimik perngarnera. nutserisoq David Sommer. (1978d) Luutivik utoqqaq. nutserisoq David Sommer. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. Berliner, Bibi & Franz (1968) Derude bag havet. København: Munksgaard. (1981) Imarpissuup ungataani. kalaallisut David Sommer. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaani Naqiterisitsisarfik. Berliner, Peter (1985) Pædagogiken lille del af verden. (Udviklingstendenser i pædagogikundervisningen ved Ilinniarfissuaq, Grønlands Seminarium). Tidsskriftet Grønland, p. 289-96. Beskow, Elsa (1973) nisiarqat orpigpagssuarmiut. nugterissoq Gudrun Chemnitz. Nûk: Kalâtdlitnunane naqiterisitsisarfik. (1983a) Olep sisorariarnera. nugterissoq Gudrun Chemnitz. Bagsværd: Frederik E. Petersen. (1983b) Olep sisorariarnera. nutserisoq Gudrun Chemnitz. Bagsværd: Frederik E. Petersen.
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Codd, Carol (1978) Tukummeq aqissiarlu. kalaallisut Peter K. S. Heilmann. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. Drastrup, Elmar (1953) Nanuaraq. nugterissoq Jørgen Fleischer. København: Den Kgl. Grønlandske Handel. (1954) Nalagaq. nugterissoq Frederik Nielsen. København: Den Kgl. Grønlandske Handel. Egner, Thorbjørn (1969a) Kardemommemiutpîaissutdlo. kalâtdlisut Mads Lynge. Nûk: Kalâtdlitnunane Naqiterisitsissarfik. (1969b) Karius ama Baktus. nugt. Mads Lynge. Nûk: Kalâtdlit-nunane Naqiterisitsissarfik. (1976) Karius aamma Baktus. nutserisoq Mads Lynge. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. Fleischer, Jørgen (1959) Kâle. Nûk: Kalâtdlit-nunane Naqiterisitsissarfik. Grundtvig, Svend (1957) danskit oqalualâtoqait. nugt. Hendrik Olsen, Nûk: Kalâtdlit-nunane Naqiterisitsissarfik. Guldager Thygesen, Grethe (1986) Unnukkiartulerluni taarsiartuleraa. Nuuk: Atuakkiorfik. Gräbner, C. A. (1954) Robinson Crusoe. nugt. Julius Olsen. Nûk: 'kalâtdline qáumarsautigssiniaqatigit' (landsråde suleqatigalugo) naqitertitât. atuagaq 16. Hansen, Carla & Vilh (1978a) Orpippassualiarneq. nutserisoq Kr. P. Kristiansen. (1987b) Rasmus Klump aqqartartutut. nutserisoq Pauline Olsen. (1978c) Rasmus Klump erlinnartuutinik ujarlersoq. nutserisoq Pauline Olsen. (1978d) Rasmus Klump illussaarsuarmi pequffatut. nutserisoq Pauline Olsen. (1978e) Rasmus Klump Robinson Crusoe-p qeqertaani. nutserisoq Pauline Olsen. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. Hermansen, Knud (1953) Palo kalâliaraq. nugterissoq Jørgen Fleischer. København: Det Danske Forlag. Jacobson, Gun (1979) Piitap pania. nutserisoq Hans A. Lynge. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. Jenserik (1980) Meeqqanut minnerusumul atuagassaqarniarneq Efterlysning: Grønlandske børnebøger til børn under 7-8 år. Nuuk: Siumut nr 107, p. 8-9, 11-12, 14. Knudsen, Samuel (1985) Puisinnguaq. Nuuk: Atuakkiorfik. Kruse, Karl (1972) Drama ved Isfjeldet. København: Hernov. (1974) târssûp atâne. Nûk: Kalâtdlit-nunane Naqiterisitsissarfik. (1981) Atuaqatigiit Annakkut. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. (1986) Illutoqqap qaliani. Nuuk: Ulo. Lagerlöf, Selma (1954) Niels Holgersenip Sverige kaujatdlagdlugo erqumitsumik angalanera. 'kalâtdlit qáumarsautigssiniaqatigit' (landsråde suleqatigalugo naqitertitât). atuagaq 13. Lennert Poulsen, Holger (1979) Inuunerup upernalernerani. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. (1981) Unge mænd! På dansk ved Harald Bertelsen og Bolette Sandgreen. København: Forum. Lidegaard, Meds (1973) Paviaen grønlænder. København: Gyldendal.
(1978) Pavia. kalaallisut Ole Brandt. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. Nielsen, Frederik (1948) Arnajaraq. København: Ejnar Munksgaards Forlag. Lindgren, Astrid (1978a) Bulderbymi upernaaq. kalaallisut Peter K. S. Heilmann. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. (1978b) Bulderbymijuulli. kalaallisut Peter K. S. Heilmann. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. (1980) Emili Lønnebergimiu. kalaallisuua Carl Bertel Lynge. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. -lip. (Philip Lauritzen) (1981) Asterix for første gang på grønlandsk/Asterix aatsaavik kalaallisut. Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten nr 38, p. 9. Lund Kirkegaard, Ole (1976) Hodja Pjortimiu. kalaallisuunngortitsisoq Peter K.S. Heilmann, Nuuk: Det grønlandske forlag. Olsen, Gustav (1912) Ivnânganermiut mêrartáinik. Nûk: iliniarfigssûp naqiterivigtâne naqitigkat.
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Otto, S., Svend (1979) Mads aamma Milalik. Kalaallisut Lars Moller Lund. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. (1980) Helgip misigisaa. Kalaallisut Lars Møller Lund. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. (1981) Aalisagapiluunersuaq. Kalaallisut Lars Møller Lund. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. (1982) Yangtze Kiangip sinaamiuaqqat. Kalaallisut Lars Møller Lund. Nuuk: Kalaallit Nunaanni Naqiterisitsisarfik. Sandgreen, Otto (1985a) nunavit qitorarâtit: nukagpiaraq atuartoq Arno. Nûk: Otto Sandgreenip naqiterisitsissarfia. (1985b) Nunavit qitornaraatit: nukappiaraq atuartoq Aarnu. Nuuk: Otto Sandgreenip naqiterisitsisarfia. (1986) Barn af dit land: skoledrengen Arno. Nuuk: Otto Sandgreens forlag. Scott, Walther (1953) Ivanhoe. nugt. Julius Olsen. Nûk: 'kalâtdline qáumarsautigssiniaqatigit' (landsrådit suleqatigalugit) naqitertitât. atuagaq 9. Sigsgaard, Jens (1955) Pêle kiserratåme. nugterissoq Jørgen Fleischer. København: Statsministeriet, Grønlandsdepartementet. (1974) Palle kisimiilluni silarsuarmi. Peter Heilmann-imit kalaallisuunngortinneqartoq. Godthåb: Det Grønlandske Forlag. Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1943) onkel Tomip igdlúngua. nugterissoq Søren Kaspersen. K'eqertarssuaq.
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Appendix This volume is one of three which comprise the Proceedings of the Fifth Nordic Conference on Bilingualism, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 22-25 June 1987. The other two volumes are also published by Multilingual Matters Ltd, their titles and contents being as follows: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Vol. 9, Nos 1 & 2. Jørgen Gimbel, Elisabeth Hansen, Anne Holmen and Norman Jørgensen: Preface Jørgen Gimbel, Elisabeth Hansen, Anne Holmen and Norman Jørgensen: Introductory Note Bertel Haarder: Opening Address Anna Uhl Chamot: Bilingualism in Education and Bilingual Education: The State of the Art in the United States Gabriele Kasper: Bilingual Education and Bilingualism in Education: A Comment J. Michael O'Malley: The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) Hans Vejleskov: Social and Intellectual Functions of Language: A Fruitful Distinction? Kenneth Hyltenstam: Lexical Characteristics of Near-Native Second-Language Learners of Swedish Anne Holmen: Syntax and Information Structure in Learner Language Maria Bolander: Is there Any Order? On Word Order in Swedish Learner Language Mirjana Vilke: Some Psychological Aspects of Early Second-Language Acquisition Ulla-Britt Kotsinas: Immigrant Children's SwedishA New Variety? Sigrid Luchtenberg: Language Varieties and Intercultural Education Andrina Pavlinc-Wolf, Karmen Brcic and Nadezda Jeftic: Supplementary Mother-Tongue Education and the Linguistic Development of Yugoslav Children in Denmark Sonja Novak-Lukanovic: Bilingual Education in Yugoslavia: Some Experiences in the Field of Education for National Minorities/Nationalities in Yugoslavia
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Aquigssiaq Møller: Language Policy and Language Planning after the Establishment of the Home Rule in Greenland Euen Reid: Linguistic Minorities and Language Education - The English Experience Klaus-Erich Gerth: Latest Developments in Early Bilingual Education in France and Southern Europe John Edwards: Bilingualism, Education and Identity Where Do We Go From Here? Concluding Panel Discussion Appendix: Contents of Companion Volumes Index JØRGENSEN, J. NORMANN, HANSEN, ELIZABETH, HOLMEN, ANNE AND GIMBEL, JØRGEN (EDS) (1988), BILINGUALISM IN SOCIETY AND SCHOOL: COPENHAGEN STUDIES IN BILINGUALISM, VOL. 5. CLEVEDON: MULTILINGUAL MATTERS. CONTENTS J. Normann Jørgensen, Elisabeth Hansen, Anne Holmen and Jørgen Gimbel: Introductory Note Bilingualism in Society and School Caro Lucas and Emilia Nercissians: A Game-Theoretical Approach to Language Planning Christer Laurén: Societal Bilingualism and Language Planning Lenora A. Timm: Against All Odds: Language Promotion Efforts in Brittany Charlotte Hoffmann: Linguistic Normalisation in Catalonia: Catalan for the Catalans or Catalan for Catalonia? Doris Pyee-Cohen: On the Planification of Language Acquisition Status of Languages Emilia Nercissians: Bilingualism with Diglossia: Status and Solidarity Dimensions Jeannine Gerbault: Language Use and Attitudes: The Rise of Sango Malan Saleem: Tosprogethed på FærøerneI historisk perspektiv Jeffrei Henriksen: Faktorer, der fremmer eller truer det færøske sprog László Szabó: Malecite Bilingualism
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Language Ecology and the School Aqigssiaq Møller: Sprogpolitik og sprogplanlægning efter hjemmestyrets indførelse Grete Ulrich: Børn, teenagers og de to sprog i Grønland Viking Brunell: Tvåspråkighet och skola i svenskfinland John de Vries: Language Use by French Immersion Graduates Raymond Mougeon and Édouard Beniak: Should the French-Canadian Minorities Open Their Schools to the Children of the Anglophone Majority? Ellen Andenæs: Bilingual Education or Education for Bilingualism? Some Notes from Norway Roger Källström: Bilingual Education and Bilingualism in the Swedish Comprehensive School Group Bilingualism Mehroo Northover: Bilinguals and Linguistic Identities Dorrit Poulsen Hawkesworth: Incongruity of Sexual Norms and Behaviour in the Danish Schools: Notes for Discussion Jesper Hermann: Bilingualism Versus Identity Gunnel Knubb-Manninen: Andraspråksinlärning i olika subkulturer Pre-school Children Ewa A. Chylinski: Flygtningeførskolebørn - mål og midler i tosproglig opdragelse Ole Kragh: Tokulturelt forsøgsprojekt i børnehaven Svalen Søren C. Olesen: Om de 0-6 årige flygtningebørns personligheds-udvikling og integration Britt-Ingrid Stockfelt-Hoatson: Olika metoder att förbättra förskolan för barn med annat hemspråk än svenska Classroom and Practice Lis Glebe-Møller: Om hensynet til voksne indvandreres kulturelle og uddannelsesmæssige forudsætninger i undervisningen Heri Kragesteen and Karen Skovbjerg: Overvejelser over introduktion af andetsprog i den færøske skole Per Pinholt and Leif Sand: Indvandrerundervisningsens behov Mijo Tomasevic: Lingvistiska aspekter på hemspråksundervisningen i den svenska skolen Ulla Varming: Workshop om tosproget undervisning
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Index A Academic language 85-89 Adult language learning 117-132 Age 219-233 Ann Arbor Decision 133-158 Arabic 297-308 Auditory 219-233 B Bidialectism 159-168 Bilingual awareness 69-84 -education 53-68 -enterprises 201-207 -preschool children 91-100 -schooling 1-11 Bilingualism 315-324 Black English (BE) 133-158 C Child language 13-26 Children's books 325-337 -foreigner talk 27-37 Classification of questions 101-116 Classroom interaction 53-68, 101-116 Code switching 53-68 Cognitive language 85-89 Colonisation 297-308 Communication at two levels 309-313 Communication strategies 39-52
Communicative vs. linguistic awareness 85-89 Concept 275-290 Conversation 13-26 Conversational repairs 69-84 Creativity 297-308 Cultural differences 235-251 Curriculum 275-290 D Danish 39-52, 209-218, 291-296, 325-337 Diaspora 169-190 Dictionaries 209-218 Discourse 13-26 -analysis 69-84 E Ethnopoetry 309-313 F Faroe Islands 291-296 Feedback 117-132 Fiction 315-324 Finland Swedish 201-207 Frame analysis 235-251 Free written production 191-200 French 297-308 G Gender 219-233 'good writing' 235-251 Greenland 275-290 Greenlandic 325-337 Gullah 133-158 H Hemispheric involvement 219-233
I Identity 297-308, 309-313 Infant bilingualism 69-84 Instrumental motivation 291-296 Integration 191-200 Integrative motivation 291-296 Interdisciplinary studies 265-274 Interference 191-200 Inuit 275-290 J 'joik' 309-313 L Language acquisition 169-190 -assessment 91-100 -attitudes 159-168 -choice 53-68 -conflict 315-324 -development 169-190 -mixing 69-84 Languages in contact 315-324 Lateralisation patterns 219-233 Learner questions 101-116 Linguistic input 69-84 Listening comprehension 91-100 Literacy 235-251 Loan words 209-218 M Matter specific language 265-274
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Memory 275-290 Metalinguistic behaviour 117-132 -knowledge 117-132 Minority languages 1-11 Monolingual and bilingual children 27-37 Motivation towards L2 learning, profile 291-296 Multilingualism 1-11 N Native talk and foreigner talk 27-37 Near native learners 235-251 O Orthograhic principles 209-218 P Phonology 169-190 'playing the dozens' 133-158 Pragmatics 85-89 Problems of understanding 117-132 Professional slang 201-207 -terms 201-207 Q Questions 13-26 R Rôle play and literacy 85-89 S Sami fiction 309-313 School policy 159-168 Second language acquisition 13-26 -learners 1-11 -learning 39-52
Serbocroatian 169-190 Shetland 159-168 Sociolinguistic 1-11, 53-68 Solveig Strömman 201-207 Spelling and pronunciation 209-218 -conventions 159-168 -errors 209-218 Standard English (SE) 133-158 Stroop-test 275-290 Subject specific language 265-274 Swedish 13-26, 101-116, 117-132 T Teachers' questions 101-116 Teaching of pupils from linguistic minorities 265-274 Text construction 235-251 Theatre 297-308 Translation 325-337 Turkish children in Denmark 39-52 U Utterance functions 85-89 V Verbal Deprivation Theory 133-158 Visual modality 219-233 Vocabulary 191-200 W Writing direction 265-274
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