قسمتی از یک مطلب منقول از نیویورک تایمز:
When Erika Hoff, a professor of psychology at Florida Atlantic University, spoke about her studies of Spanish-speaking immigrants who spoke English to their children in hopes of better preparing them for school, one of her conclusions took me aback. She found that children whose native Spanish-speaking parents spoke primarily English benefited very little from this input. They picked up most of their English proficiency from native English speakers whom they encountered outside the family. On the other hand, when native Spanish-speaking parents spoke predominantly Spanish, the children received a big boost in their proficiency at Spanish.
In other words, to learn a language well, a child needs to hear a native speaker. Someone who struggles with a language isn’t much of a model. That’s a poignant finding when it comes to immigrant families, especially because parents are often told to speak English to their children in hopes of putting them in the best position to succeed when school begins. But it seems to be of little benefit, and those same children, if they never gain proficiency in Spanish, can lose the ability to speak comfortably with extended family, and even their own parents.
ترجمه خلاصه بخشي از مقاله نيويورك تايمز:
در ايالت فلوريدا روي نمره زبان انگليسي بچه هاي خانواده هاي مهاجر اسپانيايي زبان تحقيق كردند.
بچه ها دو دسته بودند:
يكي كودكاني كه والدينشان براي كمك به آنها با ايشان در منزل انگليسي حرف مي زدند.
دوم بچه هايي كه در خانه با ايشان اسپانيش صحبت مي شده و فقط در محيط بيرون در معرض انگليسي بوده اند.
با كمال تعجب ميانگين نمره انگليسي بچه هاي گروه دوم از گروه اول بيشتر بوده است!!
نتيجه:
براي يادگيري درست زبان كودكان نيازمند برخورد با گويشوران بومي آن زبان هستند.
كساني كه خودشان در حال دست و پنجه نرم كردن با يك زبان هستند الگوي خوبي براي فراگيري زبان كودكان به شمار نمي آيند.
