From: Sonia Escamilla
Email: lourdes@cats.ucsc.edu
Course: 100K Thought and Language
College: University of California at Santa Cruz
Instructor: Eugene Matusov
ClassWeb: http://www.ematusov.com/psych100K
ChildrenObservations:
Date: 19 Mar 1997
Time: 02:41:36
Remote Name: porter-lab05.ucsc.edu
Bilingual children tend to be treated differently than their English speaking peers. This study was performed in a computer lab at a Latino Youth Center. Undergraduates interacted with the elementary school children in playing computer games. Results indicate that there was more interaction between an undergraduate and an English speaking child. The study also finds that bilingual children tend to speak the dominating language, English, the language of the undergraduate.
Baker suggests that there are psychological factors when a child is learning a second language. The psychological factors that are important in second language learning are:
| possible language confusion when using the second language, |
| the feeling of stress, anxiety or disorientation because of the differences between the learner’s culture and the target language culture, |
| the degree of motivation in learning a language, and |
| the degree of inhibition or self consciousness. |
Vasquez et al. mentioned that teachers tend to treat children differently according to their judgment of children’s use in language, even if the teacher and the child contain the same culture background. Further, when a bilingual child receives help from an adult, they need to negotiate language and culture. Both the adult and the child need to converse in a manner in which they both understand. Wall et al. performed an experiment of preschool children. Some children were native English speakers and the others were children who were learning English. Wall et al. found that at the beginning of the observation (fall) there was more solitary play from the children learning English than from the native English speakers. By the end of their observation (spring), the children learning English were functioning like their English-speaking peers on the levels of play. However, while in group play, the English-speaking children used language more often than the children learning English. Even though this was the case, the children learning English improved dramatically in their skills in the English language.
The Latino Youth Center is a center mainly for Latino Children. This leads me to believe that the majority of the children attending the computer program are bilingual in English and Spanish or are Spanish speakers learning English. I hypothesize that there are more interactions between an undergraduate and a bilingual child than interaction with an undergraduate and an English speaking child.
Method Participants
In this research, there were approximately 19 children between the ages of six and 12 and acquire the Spanish and English language or are learning the English language. Not all the children attended the computer program at the Latino Youth Center each week.
Apparatus
The undergraduates observed and interacted with elementary school children at a computer laboratory in a Latino Youth Center. The study occurred over a ten week period, starting in January and ending in March of 1997. The computer lab consisted of twenty computers. Approximately eight of the computers were equipt with CD-ROM’s and six of the computers were not equipt with a CD-ROM. Only one computer was equipt with both CD-ROM and access to the internet. Some of the computers equipped with CD-ROM had sound cards and speakers which aloud sound to be transmitted while playing games. During the course of the observational study, a scanner was implemented, but not fully incorporated into the program. A number of CD-ROM games and other types of computer games were installed or usable on the computers. There were only two Spanish games for the computers. In addition, there were board games and art supplies available.
Procedure
Undergraduate students enrolled in a Psychology course at the University of California observed and interacted with the children in the computer lab, playing computer games, board games, and participating in art activities. The observation/participation periods lasted for two hours, with ad addition half hour debriefing session at the end of each day. Approximately half the undergraduates conducted observations/participation on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the other students on Wednesdays and Fridays. The data was obtained from the field notes provided by the undergraduates. Each week the undergraduates individually posted one field note based on an observation of the children and participation with the children. These field notes were displayed on a class web page.
Results
The leader of the computer program for elementary children at the Latino Youth Center claims that there are approximately 18 children who are familiar with both English and Spanish. There are some children who are more familiar with English and other children who are more familiar with Spanish. There are 29 children on the list for the program and there are 19 that I think are familiar with both Spanish and English. however, some of the children do not come to the Latino Youth Center every week.
Of the 98 field notes posted by early March 22nd, 27 (27.5%) were field notes that consisted of one or more children who are familiar of the two languages (English and Spanish). Of the 27 field notes, 16 field notes were from the three undergraduates who are fluent in both English and Spanish and 11 field notes were from the 17 undergraduates who are predominantly English speaking (or not fluent in Spanish). From the 27 field notes, the dialogues between the undergraduates and the children familiar with the two languages were mostly in English. Although, there was not much of a significance. The bilingual undergraduates and the children would speak both English and Spanish to each other. Although, the children who are more familiar with Spanish tended to speak more Spanish to the bilingual undergraduates and the children who were more familiar with English tended to speak more English with them. The undergraduates who were not fluent in Spanish would sometimes use the little Spanish they knew to communicate with the children who were more familiar with the Spanish language. The children who acquired the English language would speak in English to the undergraduates who were not fluent in Spanish.
The following information is the experience the undergraduates had with the children who acquire the two languages. This information was received from the undergraduates field notes.
“I have noticed she chooses easy games usually. I don’t think that she knows how to read very well in English. She is in 6th grade I think.”
“There were several instances when it occurred to me that he (An 8 year old child) might not understand a word or the implications of that word (like 'scurvy'). I would ask if he knew what the word meant and if he did not, I would explain what it meant and what it implied (like with the case of 'scurvy'). . ."
"In the beginning, Ester (the 8 year old child) would start to read the clues and information on his own and then he would tell me to read it. I urged him to try again and he responded ‘I don’t read English so well’. . . I agreed to help him read the clues and would read aloud when he asked me to. . . Towards the end of the game there had been several occasions when I would go over to help someone else for a minute and Ester would be left playing alone for a minute or so. During these times he appeared to be reading all the information well enough to make his decisions on his own. When I came back he would ask my opinion about something and sometimes he would read to me what the information said. It was at this point when I realized that Ester might be guessing a lot of times while he was reading. He would sound out the first few letters and guess what the word should be according to sound and context. On several occasions he would read the information and read one of the words as a different (but familiar) word than that which was written. It is clear that Ester was not merely guessing on all the words that he read, but could perhaps be applying the guessing method to words that were unfamiliar to him or did not come easy.”
“Ester and Amy (a 9 year old) came in and asked for ‘that game in Spanish’. . . The conversation was occurring in both English and Spanish, particularly Spanish when talking about the specific clues given. Marium (an undergraduate student), does not speak Spanish, was actively trying to understand what was going on by asking both Ester and Amy to translate what the words meant. . .”
The following field notes is from a bilingual student who was playing ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego’ in Spanish with two bilingual children. “I read, and then I asked them what does that word mean. They did not answer me. I asked again, Amy said, ‘You know!’ I said I didn’t, and I did not. Ester then told me it meant typing, and then I said ‘oh quire decir escribir a maquina’ (oh it means writing by machine)”. It is clear that in this dialogue the children sometimes help the undergraduates.
The following is a dialogue between an Undergraduate who does not speak Spanish and a Bilingual child asking for help. “‘Hey, can you get to our page?’ I asked him if he meant to a web site on the internet and he said ‘Yeah, our classroom has our pictures on the computer.’. . .I said I would try and access his site.”
“I asked him if he knew how to read, he said yes but not in English. I said I would read for him, but asked him to point with the mouse to the words I was reading. He did, he followed every word I read. I tested him by pausing, and reading a little faster, he kept up with me. He seemed to understand what I was saying.”
“He continued to explain to me what he was doing and point out to me why his team was going to win and the good qualities that they had. Although I could not actively play the game, he was keeping me involved by verbally including me in what was going on.”
The following is from a bilingual 12 year old child and two bilingual undergraduates while playing ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego’ in Spanish. “There were several occasions when there was a word that neither Tammy (an Undergraduate) nor I would know and we would ask Marta (a child who speaks mostly Spanish) what it meant. for instance, there was a clue with the word ‘arce’ in it, referring to the flag of the country where the criminal went. Marta explained that it was a leaf from a tree which lead us to believe that the criminal had gone to Canada. . . Marta demonstrated a firm knowledge of the alphabet and understanding of how to look up countries and information in the atlas.”
While playing ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego’ in Spanish. “As the game continued Tammy (undergraduate student) and Ann (undergraduate student) worked with Marta and asked her to read the clues out loud, which she did.”
“Matt (a bilingual child) was shy at first, he wouldn’t talk unless his friend was watching or said something first. He spoke fairly good English and I spoke a tiny bit of Spanish. We communicated using both.”
“I (an undergraduate who knows little Spanish) approached Marta and asked her if she would like to play ‘Where is Carmen Sandiego’. She hesitated and then nodded her head indicating yes. This was my first clue that we might have difficulties communicating. once we started the game, the first obstacle was to type in your name. so in English I showed where to type but she could not understand. . . I tried to communicate with Marta with the little Spanish I know and Tammy (a bilingual undergraduate) interpreted when I couldn’t communicate.”
“There was a lot of nonverbal communication going on between Marta (predominantly Spanish speaking child) and Marium (a predominantly English speaking undergraduate). For example, when either of them were trying to tell each other something, they would point to what they were referring to and make hand gestures when trying to explain something. . . I also noticed that they would give each other a questioned look after saying something to one another as if asking ‘Did you understand what I just said?’ I think Marium watched each others nonverbal communication very carefully and were able to get around the language barrier and begin to form a relationship.”
The following is an undergraduate who knows little Spanish explaining how to print from the internet. “I was doing it in English, as I was half talking to Mike (a predominantly English speaking undergraduate), but also cuz I don’t know that terminology in Spanish, or was too shy to try, with so many listeners!”
The previous data indicates, that children who acquire both English and Spanish are developing their English skills at the Latino Youth Center when interacting with the undergraduates and games in English. The children are also developing their Spanish when they play with games in Spanish. I asked I ten year old boy who is predominantly Spanish speaking if he was learning English at the Latino Youth Center, he responded with a “yes”.
Discussion
Even though there are more bilingual children than just English speaking children at the Latino Center, there were more interaction between and undergraduate and an English speaking child. This results might have been effected by the children who were present at the computer lab. Perhaps more only English speaking children showed up at the computer lab. Or perhaps there was also a language barrier between an undergraduate and a child learning English. The barrier might have discouraged the child or the undergraduate to interact with one anther. I am not fully aware of how much English or how much Spanish was used between the undergraduates and the children since I gathered my information from the undergraduates’ field notes. Some of the field notes were also of the same observation. Sometimes, two or three undergraduates wrote about the same incident. This indicates that there was actually less interaction from different children who acquire English and Spanish. Also, there were more field notes on certain children than on others. This might have been caused by the fact that the children did not always attend the Latino Youth Center. Also, the children who acquire Spanish more than English might have not approached the undergraduates and waited until the undergraduates approached them.
References
Baker, C. 1993. Foundation of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Cleveland. Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Vasquez. O. A., Pease-Alvarez, L., Shannon S. M. 1994. Pushing Boundaries: Language and Culture in a Mexicano Community. Cambridge University Press.
Wall. S. M., Pickert S. M. 1982. Language and Play of Preschool Children Learning English as a Second Language and Native English Speakers. Psychology Report, 50, 119-124.
