Mother tongue playgroups for pre‐school bilingual children

• Autores: Lenore Arnberg
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 5, Nº. 1, 1984, págs. 65-84
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Although a number of studies in the literature have suggested that the young child can easily acquire two languages in the context of the home, other studies have indicated that optimal results are not always achieved. In order to successfully raise a child bilingually, in many cases parents may thus require assistance both in terms of information and increased second language input from sources outside the home. Without such assistance some parents may give up the attempt to . raise their children bilingually, which is felt to be a loss to the individual child as well as to the society. The present study aims to investigate one way of increasing input in the second language through the use of mother tongue playgroups for young children. The results from two playgroups, one for English speaking children and one for Yugoslavian children, are reported with regard to the innovation itself and the effects of the groups on parents’ and children's use of the second language. The paper also describes the language situation in a number of English speaking, Greek, and Yugoslavian immigrant families.