Carl James

A cross‐linguistic approach to language awareness

Although mother tongue (MT) and foreign language (FL) teaching and learning have much in common, there is little evidence that teachers exploit the relationship in any systematic way. This paper revives Eric Hawkins’ idea of a language studies trivium where Language Awareness activities should fill the ‘space between’ the learners two languages. A distinction is drawn between awareness and consciousness of language, and cross‐linguistic relationships are suggested to be a major, yet unexploited source of input salience strengthening, evidence being adduced from natural bilinguals’ metalinguistic activities. Suggestions for the classroom are outlined.

Welsh bilinguals' English spelling: An error analysis

Prioritising communicativity has resulted in increased tolerance toward imperfections in second language users’ grammar and pronunciation. Imperfect spelling however can not be disregarded, and it incurs severe social penalties. In this paper we ask whether, to what extent, and in what respects the second language English spelling of young Welsh‐English bilinguals is systematically idiosyncratic. Data are from free compositions written by 10–11 year old children in bilingual Gwynedd. Almost 40% of attested misspellings are attributable to Welsh L1 pronunciation and spelling rules. Target language overgeneralisation is also a potent influence on spellings. Special problems surface in the areas of lexical cognates. A model is presented of the second language spelling process in the form of a ‘decision tree’, with suggestions for its use for descriptive, diagnostic and remedial purposes. Areas wanting further research are identified.

Use of the Mother Tongue in Second Language Classrooms: An Experimental Investigation of Effects on the Attitudes and Writing Performance of Bilingual UK Schoolchildren.

Controversy continues to surround the use of the mother‐tongue in second language classrooms. While some argue that learning a second language is like learning the first, and that the mother‐tongue therefore has no place, others claim it has an important and positive role to play. The study reported here was conducted in primary schools in two different UK bilingual settings: North Wales (Welsh/English) and Lancashire (Mirpur Punjabi/English). During a three‐month experimental period, teachers did parallel pre‐writing activities with comparable pairs of classes. Some classes had Punjabi or Welsh (the mother‐tongue) as the language of their pre‐writing activity, and the others had English (the second language). Pre‐ and post‐tests included writing tasks and an attitude inventory. Although some of the attitudes (to writing, self, ethnic identity, school, and Britain) grew significantly more favourable in the mother‐tongue groups over this period, these changes were not matched by any recorded improvements in writing performance, where there were some signs that the second language preparation was the more beneficial.

Differences and similarities between and within bilingual settings: some British data

Literature on bilingualism and bilingual education frequently emphasises the dangers of assuming that bilingual situations are much the same. Whilst not dismissing such caution, this study takes attitudinal and linguistic data from two bilingual situations (Welsh/English in North Wales, and Punjabi/English in the north of England) and reports on specific similarities and differences found both between and within these situations. On most variables measured, no differences were found. On others, differences were greater within rather than between the bilingual situations. Research is needed on the roles of and processes involved in a complex network of factors at work: e.g. social, political, cultural.

Welsh Foreigner Talk: Breaking New Ground.

Abstract Proficient native speakers of a language have at their disposal a simple form of that code (or an ability to produce a simplified form thereof). This simple code has several uses, one of which is to facilitate communication between the native speaker of the full code and non‐proficient learners of the same code. When so used the simple code is called ‘foreigner talk’. Prior research suggests the processes of simplification underlying ‘foreigner talk’ are not language‐specific and consequently forms of FT produced in widely different language communities have much in common. A further expected consequence of the non‐specificity of FT is its transferability across languages. This is why a study of FT in a bilingual community such as Wales is of such interest: studies of FT to date have been restricted to its manifestation in non‐minority ‘national’ languages spoken in a monolingual communities. The present study is of the use of FT in a minority language (Welsh) in a bilingual community. Initially,...