Domaći rad: EH_U2L1
8. Nastavna jedinica
Living in Two Worlds
1.
a) Answer the questions.
1. How old were you when you learned your first words of English? What were they?
2. What's the best age to learn another language? Why?
b)
Read the article.
C) Find this information in the reading.
1. Different kinds of bilingual children
a.
b. ________________________
c.
d.
2. Advantages for bilingual children
________________________
b. ________________________
d. ________________________
a.
c.
3. Problems for bilingual children
a. _______________________________
b. ________________________
d) Fill in the correct form of one of the words in bold in the reading.
a. literate
e. intercultural
b. pick up
c. monolingual
d. master
f. drawback
g. discrimination
h. accent
1. I can tell from listening to Jessica's __ that she comes form New York.
2. Too many people in this country are __ They speak only their native language.
.
3. When I was on vacation in France, I __ a lot of French words for different kinds of food!
4. There is still a lot of __ against foreigners in some companies. They have problems
getting a job.
5. One __ to having a car in this city is that parking is very expensive and hard to find.
6. If someone is __ , he or she knows how to read and write.
7. It takes many years to __ Chinese because you have to learn to write so many different
words.
The goal of the Latin American Cultural society is to increase ___ understanding among
8.
people from different countries
.
e) Answer the questions.
1. Do you think Yuko will remain bilingual in the U.S.?
2. Would you want your children to be bilingual? Why or why not?
8. Nastavna jedinica
Domaći rad: EH_U2L1
Living in Two Worlds
Yuko Kitada is very lucky. While most
people work hard to learn a new language,
she picks up dozens of new words every
week without trying. She masters grammar
rules without lessons, speaks confidently,
and is developing a perfect accent. Yuko is
two years old. She is learning English from
her mother, Angela Baker, and Japanese
from her father, Ken Kitada.
Yuko has been bilingual from the very
beginning. "Her first word was mama," said
Angela. "But we didn't know if she was
trying to say 'mother' in English, or 'food' in
Japanese." Yuko now has a large vocabulary
in both languages. A monolingual child
knows 14,000 words by the age of six, and a
bilingual child knows even more. Children
in bilingual families start out using words
from both languages together, using only
one word for each thing. Later, they pick up
the equivalent word in the other language,
and learn which words fit together.
"She's good with words a1ready," said
Ken. "If I don't understand what she says in
English, she changes to Japanese. If I still
don't understand, she tries to explain. Last
night we were looking out the window, and
she pointed at something. She tried to say
'star,' but couldn't pronounce it. So she told
me in Japanese: "It's next to the moon."
There are many different types of
bilingual families. Some children learn one
language from their mother, and another
from their father. Other children use one
language at home and a different one at
school. Bilingual kids may be literate in
both of their languages, or read and write
just one language.
Growing up bilingual has practical
advantages and personal I advantages, too.
When they are young, many bilinguals enjoy
having a "secret language" with their brothers
and sisters. They say being bilingual makes
family relationships closer. "My younger
sister is the only person in the world who is
just like me," says Alexa Davis. She is the
daughter of a French mother and an
American father, and grew up in Japan,
where she attended public school from the
age of six. Most bilinguals enjoy travel and
meeting new people. And many bilinguals
feel that their bicultural upbringing gives
them a broader view of the world.
There are also drawbacks, though.
Many bilinguals grow up feeling different,
and realize very early that other people are
not like them. Children of intercultural
marriages may experience discrimination
from both sides. "It was kind of sad," says l8year-old Mari Yamada, whose father is
Japanese and mother is British. "My friends
in school assumed I couldn't really be
Japanese because I didn't look the same as
them." But overall, she says, being bilingual
is a huge advantage. "If I have children I
want them to be bilingual. And I hope I'll
marry an English speaker."
Meanwhile, two-year-old Yuko is working
out two languages and two worlds. "We do
worry about Yuko's identity," her mother
says. "She really needs a bilingual play
group, but there isn't one nearby. And we're
moving to the United State s next year, so her
schooling will be in English. It would be sad
to see her lose her Japanese, but it's really up
to her. If she finds other interests, we won't
push her towards languages."
But Yuko isn't worried. She has an
important project this week: learning the
names of insects. "Kamakiri," she explained
to me, pointing to an enormous green one
under a bush. "Big!"