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Bilingual Narrative Development Among School-age Hispanic-Canadian Children

出版	University of Toronto, 2000
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=svxNzwEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋This thesis explores narrative structure (the way information is selected and organized in a narrative) among bilingual immigrant children. Its primary concern is to increase understanding of the process of mother tongue attrition among bilingual children and to devise appropriate strategies for its prevention. The student sample consisted of 120 Spanish-English speaking children living in Toronto equally divided between Grades 1 to 8. The children were selected on the basis of their high proficiency in Spanish. The results of a questionnaire on language use indicated that the children considered Spanish the language of their homes, but that English was the language of the popular media and the community. Standardized bilingual proficiency tests (Woodcock) were used to establish a general context of Spanish language attrition--noticeable at the early grades, and accelerating at the higher grades. The children were asked to tell narratives of personal experience in both English and Spanish. An analysis of the length of the narratives added further evidence of increasing deterioration of Spanish. The structure of the children's narratives was analyzed (using High Point, Episodic and Dependency analyses) in order to determine how closely they conformed to the North American English language ideal. All three techniques indicated that the children's English language narratives conformed closely to the developmental pattern of English language ideal. All three techniques indicated that the children's English language narratives conformed closely to the developmental pattern of English monolinguals. Their Spanish narratives, however, deviated widely from the North American ideal in the earliest grades but conformed closely in the higher grades. Because of the general context of Spanish attrition, it is suggested that these results indicate a deterioration in the narrative style/s native to the various Spanish language cultural milieu from which the children were drawn. In order to confirm and clarify these results a call is made for considerably more research into linguistic and cultural variations in narrative structure both in monolingual and bilingual contexts. It is suggested that a sensitivity to variations in narrative structure would help prevent conflict and misunderstanding between teachers and minority students. It is further suggested that to help prevent the loss of immigrant languages, bilingual school programmes need to be actively promoted and should include authentic narratives. Finally, it is stressed that parents must play a crucial role in their children's mother tongue maintenance by using it systematically at home, by maintaining contact with the mother country and community members, by participating in community events, and by patronizing community media.