Beginning Reading in a Second Language in Switzerland.
1969; Wiley; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1936-2714
Autores Tópico(s)Linguistic research and analysis
Resumobeginning reading may be carried out in a second language far more commonly than is generally thought. Ecroyd (1968, P. 625), for instance, points out that the dialect of Negro children in the USA really represents a virtual language with its own phonology, morphology, and syntax. He maintains that the standard English which is the vehicle for education is, in effect, a second language for such children. In England, the West Indian immigrant child has a similar problem (Perren, 1968). English is his mother tongue, yet he and his teacher do not understand each other. This failure to recognize the presence of a second language produces a reciprocal language ignorance between pupil and teacher (Labov, 1967). The attendant bewilderment and frustration may be intensified by the teacher's disdain of the child's Incorrect' language and by her attempts to throttle it (Wilt, 1968). Since the teacher may not be aware that the child's school English will be a second language for him, she gives him no credit for mastering the new skill and she may also lack the aids and training necessary to teach it. In the German-speaking part of Switzerland children come to school speaking a dialect and not the literary German. Thus, there is a language problem similar to that described above, but with important differences. One is that the teacher is aware that the child probably knows little of the language of literacy, Hoch deutsch, since he speaks only Schwyzerd?tsch with his family and other children. A second is that the teacher speaks this latter dialect as well as the Hochdeutsch that the child will learn to read. A third difference is that, far from disdaining the dialect, the teacher is proud to speak the language which unites the community. Children in the German-speaking cantons begin school usually at the age of seven. Their limited knowledge of Hochdeutsch has been learned incidentally at home and in the kindergarten (which children attend for at least one year prior to school) by means of listening to stories, radio, and television. During a year spent in
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