Ten Key Factors that Influence Successful Bilingualism and

Ten Key Factors that Influence Successful Bilingualism and Multilingualism Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph. D. Dean, new School of Behavioral Sciences and Education Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador Association of American Schools in South America (AASSA) Conference Quito, Ecuador March 2012

Today’s focus 1. Background 2. Identify key questions that relate to foreign language learning. Myths of Multilingualism 3. Game: 4. State of the research 5. Questions discussion and general

Background • Master’s from Harvard University in International Education and Development and doctorate (Ph. D. ) from Capella University (cross-disciplinary approach comparing findings in neuroscience, psychology, pedagogy, cultural anthropology and linguistics). • Director of the Institute for Research and Educational Development, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. of Raising Multilingual Children (2001), The Multilingual Mind (2003), and Living Languages (2008). • Author • Teacher (pre-kindergarten through university) with 22 years of comparative research based on family case studies (Japan, Ecuador, USA, Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany). • Three children (raised in English, Spanish, German and French).

The Benefits of Bilingualism that Transfer to Trilingualism � Cognitive benefits: � Social benefits: � Economic benefits: � Personal benefits: � Communication benefits: � � Cultural benefits: � � Academic benefits: � � � Enhanced higher thinking skills (metalinguistic awareness, creativity, sensitivity to communication). Integration, appreciation of other cultures Marketability of bilingual skills, governmentand business- recognized need. Psychological well-being, self confidence, sense of belonging, enhanced identity with roots. Literacy in three languages enables access to wider literature and a wider communication network of family, international links. Greater tolerance, less racism, bigger intercultural sense. Easier to learn the third language, increased curriculum achievement--impact on other subjects. Linguist John Maher, of International Christian University in Tokyo (2002). “The Practical Linguist: Make the most of the bilingual advantage. ” The Daily Yomiuri. Japan. Reformatted by Tokuhama-Espinosa 2005.

(Neuro)linguistics: Benefits of bilingualism • • • Bilingual children learn have higher levels of abstraction at earlier ages than monolinguals. (1) Bilinguals learn to manage language rules at an earlier age than monolinguals. (2) Bilinguals learn to inihibit (ignore information calling for attention) earlier and with faster speed thab monolinguals, which directly relates to executive funtions (3). Bilinguals use more of their brians than monolinguals (3). Bilinguals have greater working memory than monolinguals (4). 1. Suzanne Flynn professor of linguistics and second-language acquisition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ellen Bialystok, professor of psychology at York University in Toronto. 2. Adele Diamond, director of the Center for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Waltham. 3. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington. 4. Baddleley.

No disadvantages… � Our findings suggest that early bilingualism offers no disadvantages; on the contrary, young bilinguals may be afforded a linguistic and a cognitive advantage. Early dual language exposure is also key to skilled reading acquisition. Moreover, learning to read in two languages may afford an advantage to children from monolingual homes in key phoneme awareness skills vital to reading success. Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 7 of 20

Research has shown that… � …the study of the relationship between the brain and multilingualism is a very promising field indeed…Spectacular results include that I. in multilingual brains the onset of Alzheimer disease may be postponed by four years; II. multilingual brains process language differently; III. multilingual brains are different with respects to the way individuals have become bilingual. Ellen Bialystok (Toronto), Jubin Abutalebi (Milano) and Katrien Mondt (Brussels) as cited in Pettito & Dunbar, 2009.

Timing vs. Sequencing Bilingualism has been viewed in a “hold-back” approach …. � “…Implicit in the ‘hold-back’ approach are assumptions about timing (when content should be introduced) and sequencing (what content must come first before exposure to other content, which carries additional presuppositions about the direction that conceptual mapping in humans obligatorily flows). ” � Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 2 of 20; Petitto & Dunbar (2009).

Developmental vs. Constructivist � � Developmentally appropriate: Stages of physical and psychological growth (normally related to age milestones) Constructivism: Learning theory that suggests that humans generate (“construct”) knowledge and meaning based on the experiences and references to existing mental schema (ideas about the world).

The Ten Key Factors 1. Timing (Windows of Opportunity) 2. Aptitude 3. Motivation 4. Strategy 5. Consistency 6. Oportunity and support (home, school, community) 7. Linguistic and historic relationship between languages 8. Silblings 9. Gender 10. Hand-use as a refleciton of cerebral dominance for languages 11. …and…?

True and False Quiz • • Do you believe the statement is true or false? Why? (Origins: Statements made by teachers, doctors and parents I met while doing my research. )

True or False? 1. By learning more than one language a child can suffer brain overload. Nitsch, C. , Franceschini, R. , Lüdi, G. , Radü, E. -W. , 2006; Hirsch, 1997.

True or False? Some languages are easier to learn than others. Baker, 2004; Pinker, 2000.

True or False? Bilingualism can cause problems such as stuttering and dyslexia. Harley 1989; Mc. Laughlin 1992.

True or False? It is impossible for an adult to learn a new language as fast as a child. Harley 1989; Mc. Laughlin 1992.

True or False? It is impossible for an adult to learn a new language without an accent. Harley 1989; Mc. Laughlin 1992.

True or False? When a child learns his languages from birth he is effectively learning them as two first languages.

Where are languages in the bilingual brain? L 1 L 2 1. 2. 3. Languages are separate and don’t overlap (“firewall model”). The second language is learned “on top of” the first. The two languages are separate but overlap in some areas (“overlap hypothesis”).

Overlap theory � We found that bilingual adults exposed to two languages before age 5, process their two languages in overlapping language areas within the left hemisphere and, crucially, the same language areas universally observed in monolinguals… Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 6 of 20

Children who experience early, extensive, and systematic exposure to both of their languages quickly grasp the fundamentals of both of their languages and in a manner virtually identical to that of monolingual language learners. � As adults, these bilingual individuals, in addition to their good behavioral performance on language tasks, also show that their brains are processing their two languages in a similar manner, and virtually identical to monolingual adults. � Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 7 of 20

Two languages in one brain: • Brain scans show that people brought up bilingual from birth have languages in the same area of the brain as monolinguals. • People who learn languages after the first seven months or so actually use different areas for processing sounds, or simply do not perceive sounds which are not representative in their native language at all. Kovelman, Baker, and Petitto, 2008; Fennell, Byers-Heinlein & Werker , 2006.

� � However, later-exposed bilinguals exhibit more bilateral activation, recruit more distributed frontal lobe tissue, including working memory and inhibitory areas, and frequently exhibit more cognitive effort as measured in analyses of their greater errors on the language behavioral tasks during scanning (Kim et al. ; Wartenburger et al. ; Weber-Fox & Neville; Perani et al. , 1996). Thus, later bilingual exposure does change the typical pattern of the brain's neural organization for language processing, but early bilingual exposure does not. Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 6 of 20

� “…early bilingual exposure yields a phonetic processing “bilingual advantage” (Norton, Baker & Petitto, 2003). � Relative to monolinguals, bilingual babies show an increased sensitivity to a greater range of phonetic contrasts, and an extended developmental window of sensitivity for perceiving these phonetic contrasts relative to monolingual children…” Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 4 -5 of 20

True or False? All people have the same area of their brain to speak different languages.

� � “Humans have a unique ability to learn more than one language-a skill that is thought to be mediated by functional (rather than structural) plastic changes in the brain. Here we show that learning a second language increases the density of grey matter in the left inferior parietal cortex and that the degree of structural reorganization in this region is modulated by the proficiency attained and the age at acquisition. This relation between grey-matter density and performance may represent a general principle of brain organization. ” Mechelli, A. and J. T. Crinion and U. Noppeney and J. Ashburner and R. S. Frackowiak and C. J. Price (2004).

True or False? It is not recommended that children learn literacy skills in two languages simultaneously.

� “These findings further suggest that bilingual children should not experience difficulty with phonological word segmentation in two languages at the same time, a capacity that is crucial for language learning and, especially, for successful reading acquisition in two languages…” Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 5 of 20

from monolingual homes in bilingual schools were better readers than language/age-matched monolingual children in monolingual schools…” � “…children Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 7 of 20

Multiliteracy Skills 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Understand the use of the written word Learn the phonemic alphabet Acknowledge exceptions in sound to letter relation Acknowledge exceptions between languages Practice: Familiarity, Repetition and Frequency

Oral Skills (Basic Communication) Time 1 Definition 2 Characteristics 3 Literacy Skills (Academic) Average 2 years to reach native Average 5 -7 years to reach language equivalent (however, native language equivalent this is highly influenced by the age and motivation of the learner) “Playground language” “Classroom language” Supported by interpersonal cues such as gestures, facial expressions and intonation. De-contextualized language Anglo-Saxon Origins 1. Cummins (1981); 2. Gibbins (1999); 3. Corson (1993, 1995) Graeco-Latin

� Full mastery of the new (later-exposed) language needs to occur in highly systematic and multiple contexts that are richly varied involving both home and community and, remarkably, can not be achieved through classroom instruction alone. Petitto & Dunbar, MBE/Harvard, October 6 -8, 2004; Page 8 of 20

True or False? The general research findings examining trilinguals brains to date point to no pattern for multilingualism. Nitsch, Franceschini, Lüdi, Radü, n/d

True or False? Multilinguals are shown to be faster at working memory tasks than monolinguals. Baddeley, 2001

True or False? Bilingual students achieve higher results on English-language proficiency tests than their Anglophone, monolingual peers. Cenoz & Lindsay, 1994

True or False? A nine-year-old has the same size brain as an adult; therefore they learn foreign languages in the same way. Suddath, Christison, Torrey, Casanova & Weinberger, 1990.

True or False? The more languages you know, the easier it gets to learn an additional one. Government of Canada, 2003; University of Oxford, 2003

True and False? The quality of the first language impacts the quality of the second language, and the quality of the third language depends on the quality of the second language. Cenoz & Lindsay, 1994

Speaker’s level of proficiency: � “There is a general consensus among researchers that language transfer is more likely to occur at lower levels of proficiency”_ when they use L 1 or L 2 to fill in language gaps in L 3.

The Mother Tongue Dilemma The questions: u. Can a child develop strong second language skills if they have a weak mother tongue (as in when they come from poorer backgrounds and have not been properly schooled in the home language)? u“Amount of exposure has a strong effect on the likelihood of both positive and negative language transfer…” 1 Part of the answer: � [Language] learners who have highly developed language skills (such as reading, writing and richness of vocabulary) in their native language will most likely find that these skills facilitate second language acquisition…” 2 1. Dewaele, J. (2001). “Activation or inhibition? The interaction of L 1, L 2 and L 3 on the language mode continuum”; 2. Odlin, T. (1989). Language transfer. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. .

True or False? Most of the world is monolingual. Nitsch, 2004

Myths… • A child should first study his native language, then after he has mastered this, then learn a new one. • A child who learns two languages simultaneously will be confused and have lower intelligence. • A child with two languages will never feel completely secure in either. • A bilingual child will always have identity problems and feel a lack of belonging to his cultures because he will never fully be a part of either. • Bilinguals tend to translate from the weaker language to the stronger. • True bilinguals never mix their languages. Gutierrez, s. f. ; Kandolf, 1998; Narváez, 2009

Myths…. • • All people who are bilingual from birth make excellent translators. True bilinguals never confuse their languages; if they do, they are actually semi-linguals. There are some language programs which can actually teach foreign languages in a matter of weeks or evn days, which means there is no reason, except for lack of motivation, that many people take years to learn another languaes. The ability to learn a foreign language is directly related to the level of intelligence of an individual. • Bilinguals have split personalities. • Older people can never become fully bilingual. Gutierrez, s. f. ; Kandolf, 1998; Narváez, 2009

The Ten Key Factors influencing successful bilingualism and multilingualism

The Ten Key Factors 1. Timing (Windows of Opportunity) 2. Aptitude 3. Motivation 4. Strategy 5. Consistency 6. Opprotunity and support (home, school, community) 7. Linguistic and historic relationship between languages 8. Silblings 9. Gender 10. Hand-use as a refleciton of cerebral dominance for languages 11. …and…?

1. The Windows of Opportunity 1. First: 0 a 9 months (A window-and-a-half: 9 a 24 -30 months) 2. Second : 4 a 8 years 3. Third: 8 years + (from old-age and back) Language Milestones* 2 -3 Normal Mixing Stage 3 -4 Labeling of Languages 5+ Cognizant of “translation concept” 4 -10 “syntactic conservationism” � *Remember that children can vary by as much as a year in either direction related to language development!

Oral Skills (Basic Communication) Time 1 Definition 2 Characteristics 3 Average 2 years to reach native language equivalent (however, this is highly influenced by the age and motivation of the learner) Average 5 -7 years to reach native language equivalent “Playground language” “Classroom language” Supported by interpersonal cues such as gestures, facial expressions and intonation. De-contextualized language Anglo-Saxon Origins Literacy Skills (Academic) Graeco-Latin 1. Cummins (1981); 2. Gibbins (1999); 3. Corson (1993, 1995)

2. Aptitude • • • Something one is born with Approximately 10% of the population Measuring • MFLAT • Gardner’s definition of “Intelligence” • Levine’s neurodevelopmental constructs

3. Motivation Positive (+) • • Internal vs. External Positive vs. Negative Intrinsic Extrinsic Negative (-)

4. Strategy 5. Consistency • • • Seven most practiced strategies Do not have to be simple They should be consistent (especially for younger children).

Sample Strategies

6. Opportuniy and Support • How many times a day does the child have the chance to use the target language(s) in a given day? • At Home • In School • Within the Community • Who takes responsibility for language learning? (The Child himself? The School? The Community? The Family? )

7. Linguistic and historic relationship between languages • • • “Historical” vs. “Linguistic” relationships and languages Language Sub. Families Related languages are easier to learn.

Sample language families (Europe) Proto-Indo-European Lenguages • Indo-Iraní • Iraní (Persa, Kurdo) • Indo-Aryan (Hindú, Urdu, Bengalí, Nepalés) • Indo-Europeas • Románicas (Francés, Español, Portugués, Italiano, Rumano) • Holandés (Alemán, Inglés, Holandés, Danés, Sueco) • Checa-Eslovaco (Checa, Eslovaco, Polaco, Serbo-Croata, Ucraniano, Ruso) • Celta (Gaélico, Galés) • Báltico (Lituano, Letón) • Griego • Albano • Armenio Other European languages • Ugrofinés (Finlandés, Húngaro, Estonio) • Vasco • Caucásico (Georgiano, Chechenio)

Sample language families (Africa) • African languages • Afro-Asian Semita (Árabe, Hebreo) Chádica Berebere Cushitic Egipcio • Nilo-Sahariana (Masai) • • • Niger-Congo • Yoruba • Bantú (Suahilí, Bantu) • Khoisan (Nama)

Sample language families (Asia) Asian Pacific languages • Dravídica (Tamil) • Munda (Khmer, Vietnamita) • Burushaski • Altaico (Mongol, Turco, Tungús) • Japonés • Coreano • Sino-Tibetano (Chino, Tibetano, Birmano) Thaís (Tailandés) • • Austroneasiano (Malayo, Bahasa, Hawaiano, Tagalos) • Papua • Aborigen Australiano

Sample language families (America) • American languages • Esquimal - Aleuta (Inuit, Groenlándico) • Na-Deme • Athabasken (Navajo) • Algonquino (Otras lenguas indias nativas americanas) • Iroquoian • Siouan • Uto-Azteca (Náhuatl , Quechua ) • • Quechua Tupí-Guaraní Jívaro Ticuna

Linguistic typologies Based on Greenberg, 1966, Typological Ensembles

Native languages speakers Rank Lenguaje • There are roughly 1 2, 500 -6, 000 lanagues in the world. Chinese (Mandarín) 2 English* 332 3 Spanish 328 4 Arabic / Hindi 324 5 Bengali 207 6 Portugues 180 7 Malay 176 8 Russian 170 9 Japonese 130 10 French 120 11 German 100 12 Korean 78 • The twelve most widely spoken languages with approximate number of native speakers are the following, totaling a little more than half of the world’s population: En millones 1151

8. Silblings • • Positive influences Negative influences

9. Gender • • • Are there differences between boys and girls (men and women) related to language? How are these measured? What does this imply in terms of children learning foreign languages?

10. Hemispheric dominance for languages • • • Reflection of cerebral dominance 95% of right-handed people and 70% of left handed people are left hemisphere dominant for languages. What does this mean for teaching materials that are developed “for the majority”?

11. What other factor is missing?

The Ten Key Factors in Raising Multilingual Children 1. Timing and The Windows of Opportunity 2. Aptitude for Foreign Languages 3. Motivation 4. Strategy 5. Consistency 6. Opportunity and Support (Home, School and Community) 7. Language Typology and Similarities 8. Siblings 9. Gender 10. Hand Use 11. ? ? Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2000

The Facts and Studies � � The single most important factor influencing successful language learning is the teacher. Cenoz and Lindsay (1994) highlight the important role of the teacher. 1. UNESCO. (July-Sept. 2003). The mother-tongue dilemma. Education Today Newsletter 2. Aarts and Verrhoeven (1999). "Literacy Attained in a Second Language Submersion Context. " Applied Psycholinguistics 20(3): 377 -394. ). 3. Cenoz, J. and D. Lindsay (1994). "Teaching English in Primary School: A Project To Introduce a Third Language to Eight Year Olds. " Language and Education 8(4): 201 -210.