[MCP] [IMPOUND] Re: Question for Felix, Jimmy, and Others

[Kathleen To]

There seems to be a need for some background information about second
language acquisition, the importance of home/heritage language retention
and bilingualism.  Some of the following sources have been helpful for us
in training our teachers.  I want to stress the importance of the
interconnectiveness between language, ethnic/ personal identity and
culture.  Lose your home language, it impacts the rest!  Please look at
the strengths perspective - you do not have to lose one language to gain
the other, you can add and be even richer!  And there is much information
about how having spoken language fluency and (even better) literacy in
your first language increases the success of acquiring a second language. 
Not to mention all the new brain research out about how multiple language
fluency is an asset.  K.To

"So They May Speak...An Agenda for Language- and Culture-Centered School
Reform", Olsen, Laurie, et al., California Tomorrow, 2002.

"Two or more Languages in Early Childhood: Some General Points and
Practical Recommendations", De Houwer, Annick, U of Antwerp, Belgium, July
1999, www.cal.org/resources/digest/earlychildhood.html

"Acquiring a Second Language for School", Collier, Virginia, George Mason
U., Directions in Language & Education, National Clearinghouse for
Bilingual Education, V.1, N.4, Fall 1995,
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/ncbepubs/directions/04.htm

"What Educators - Especially Teachers - Need to Know About Language: the
Bare Minimum", Fillmore, Lily WOng & Snow, Catherine, US Dept. of
Education,
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/iasconferences/archives/1999/institutes/lep/discussiondraft.htm

"Involuntary language Loss Among Immigrants", Hinton, Leanne, U of
CA-Berkeley, ERIC Digest, Dec. 1999,
http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/involuntary.html

"Bilingual Acquistion", Genesee, Fred,
http://earlychildhood.com/Articals/index.cfm?FuseAction=Article&A=38

"Tapping a National Resource: Heritage Languages in the United States",
Brecht, Richard & Ingold, Catherine, National Foreign Language Center, WA,
DC, US Dept. of Education, www.cal.org/resources/digest/brecht01.html

"Ten Common Fallacies About Bilingual Education", Crawford, James, US
Dept. Of Education, Nov. 1998, www.cal.org/resources/digest/crawford01.htm

"Being Bicultural and Bilingual can Lead to School Success-Here's Why",
ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education, 1998,
http://npin.org/library/1999/n00102/n00102.html

"When learning a second language means losing the first", Lily Wong
Filmore, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, v.6, n.3, Sept. 1991

"Fostering Second Language Development in Young Children", ERIC
Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics,
www.ericdigests.org/1996-2/second.html

"English-only Movement: Its consequences on the education of Language
Minority Children", Lu, Mei-Yu, ERIC Digest,
www.kidsource.com/education/eng.only.move.conseq.html

"Conversations with mainstream Teachers: what can we tell them about
second language learning and teaching?", Tarone, Elaine & Tedick,Diane, U
of MN, 2000, http://carla.acad.umn.edu/esl/minnetesol2000.html

"Home Language, School Language", Fitzgerald, Meghan, Children's Advocate,
July-August, 2000, http://www.4children.org/news/700lange.htm

"Becoming Bilingual", Head Start Information Center,
http://www.headstartinfo.org/English_lang_learners_tkit/Bilingual.htm\

"Development of the First language is not a barrier to second-language
acquisition: evidence from Vietnamese immigrants to the United States",
Nguyen, A., Shin, F., & Krashen, S., 2001, International Journal of
Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 4(3).