Scholarly downloads
- Footnotes for the Random House version of Raising a Bilingual Child
- Chapter 7 (Research Chapter) of unabridged book
- Reference pages from unabridged book
Widgets
Learning Language from the Top Down
In Chapter 2, Learning a First Language, I talk about building the language tower from the bottom up–as most of us do. But I also mention that some children focus first on the melody of language. They go right to the top and learn the paragraphs and sentences.
In the book, I mention that my son is one such child, but I also lament that when he was a babbler, I didn’t have a tape recorder, so I missed have a record of it. Luckily, though, his son Eli did the same thing. At 18-months, he “talked” a lot, but had only a few words, as far as we could tell. By then, I had more equipment–and I’m thrilled that I got it on tape.
Here is 30-seconds of Eli at the train exhibit in a local museum. There are older children there, and he is running toward them, telling them something. Doesn’t he sound like he’s talking?! Do you hear a question in there? But what is he asking?
This is a short clip of Eli at a slightly earlier age saying “Where’s the ball?”–with musical intonation. It’s easier to hear the words in it; however, although it sounds like he wants you to help find the ball, he didn’t use it as a question, but as a conversation starter. When talking paused, he would pipe up with this: