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access.digex.net>2 years ago, my wife and I adopted two kids from Russia, at the time aged 6.5 and 5. At the time, I informally asked around and got the impression that there was unlikely to be anything particularly interesting linguistically about their experiences in learning English, and was referred to several books on ESL/2nd language learning among immigrants. Unfortunately, due to the joys of parenting, I never read most of the references I was given (I spent the time trying to learn Russian instead). I recently read something in another adoptive parent's posted experience that made me again wonder about my kids' experiences in learning English, which so far have apparently been a little unusual for adoptive kids (I'll skip the details at this point in my inquiry). I am starting to wonder if there is indeed something important in the language experiences of kids adopted into a foreign language environment after infancy. The key difference between international adoptions and other ESL situations is that the older adopted kids suddenly are cut off from input in their native language with a certain level of vocabulary and mastery of that language, and thrown into an ESL/2nd language situation where they learn a new language usually with no support in their native language. Learning the new language takes a considerable amount of time - my kids could communicate only minimally in English for about a year, but for most adoptive kids, use of the 1st language seems to stop within 1-3 months since the kids seem to realize that it no longer serves any useful communicative function. After 2 years, my kids speak what to most people sounds like fluent idiomatic English. However, their vocabulary seems greatly restricted compared to native English kids their age - and their passive vocabulary (words they understand that they don't use themselves) seems to be especially restricted. They also have some peculiarities in grammar and usage - perhaps those typical of second language speakers, but ignored in the adoptive kids since they speak with no trace of an accent. These problems seem to be especially persistent, probably because they pass unnoticed most of the time (they do show up in the kids' writing now) and they are resistent to correction. My readings in linguistics have thus far all seemed to generalize about a critical period lasting past my kids' age, where they are supposed to learn languages like a sponge. The other adoptive parent, however, posted that in talking with ESL experts, she found out that "ESL learners generally cannot do phonics in the second language, nor can they follow along in group oral reading. It takes 7 to 11 years in the second language to develop the ability to manipulate written English, particularly abstract cognitive academic material." That poster also said that children completely removed from their native language "before mastering all of its principles" have especial problems in learning the new language. She also said that many of the normal ESL procedures break down in such kids, that there are no good tests for diagnosing language and learning problems in such kids, and that the situation is enough unlike the normal ESL situation that trained ESL teachers may not recognize problems or know how to solve them. She gave several references, but mostly on the pragmatic "how to help your kid" level. But putting on my linguist hat, and reading between the lines, I came up with some questions that I put to the linguistic community: 1. Is anyone reading this doing any research relating to language acquisition in kids cut off from their native tongue in the formative years? 2. Can anyone provide me references to such work? 3. Whether I get answers to #1 or #2, what years are the "formative years" in which cutting off the child from the native language will have an effect on 2nd language learning? 4. Does this age range have any relation to the "critical period" of language learning? Might there be a correlation that would tell us something about how and why kids learn languages differently and more easily than adults? 5. What are the different effects of cutting off a child from his native language at different ages/stages in language formation? It seems pretty obvious that at the earliest years, "2nd language" learning would asymptotically approach identity with the learning of the first language. 6. When 1st and 2nd languages have contrasting features, it would seem that these kids would provide especial insight into UG models with parameters, in addition providing some clue as to when and how the parameters are set. Has anyone looked at this? 7. What is the long-term language prognosis for such kids? 7 to 11 years of language difficulty, when the difficulty often goes unnoticed (or at least the fact that the difficulty is due to language problems - the adoptive parent who posted gave a detailed chronicle of her daughter's varying problems from adoption at age 4 until 5th grade when the parent finally came to find out why her daughter was having problems even though she spoke English fluently) - this seems likely to have severe long-term effects. 8. My kids and all others I know of have completely lost the native language except for word isolates. Do such kids relearn their native language any easier when they get older? Again, looking at contrasting features that such kids have difficulty relearning might tell us a lot about "parameter setting" especially when the difficulties do not match those of others acquiring the language as a 2nd langusge with no prior experience in the language. Kids cut off from the native language would seem more likely to give clear data on this. 9. Are the effects of being cut-off from one's native language different in kids like mine? My kids were cut off from the native language only incompletely - they still had each other to talk to, in addition to my wife and my rudimentary self-teaching - but all of this continued exposure to the native language was impoverished both in vocabulary and grammar.) Russian remained the language of our household for most of the kids' first year here, and I quickly came to understand the differences in language at differing ages. I could understand and communicate with my kids quite well (and fluently) in Russian after about a month, but still cannot understand even a slow talking Russian adult. The types of errors kids tolerate (and make - my kids often had the 'wrong' declensional ending on irregular words) seem quite different from what adults accept. 10. Are there any English language discussions about child language acquisition in Russian kids? (I'm sure there are Russian language sources, but I would never get through them.) I would like to know what the typical Russian child at the age my kids were adopted would typically have mastered in features like declensions, numbers, perfective/imperfective distinctions, and proper use of cases - things that I haven't mastered well enough to be able to extract from relistening to tapes thaty I made while they still spoke Russian fluently. lojbab lojbabMail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue