Original scientific paper
DIALECT AND/OR A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT AN EARLY AGE: SO SIMPLE OR SIGNIFICANTLY MORE COMPLEX?
Dževdet Hadžiselimović
Abstract
Starting with the complex linguistic situation of some children and a number of unfavourable consequences of the same on the children’s development and behaviour, this paper scrutinises the factors and presuppositions of the answer to the doubt expressed in the title, i.e. of an expert answer to the question: to which children, in which specific situations, to what extent and in what way do we communicate a certain dialect or a foreign language at an early age?
The paper first discusses the fact of a tremendously vast range of individual differences in (linguistic) aptitude and the model of their relationship to the complex requirements needed while receiving and producing a certain foreign language or dialect. Furthermore, the dynamic interaction of one’s aptitude, motivation and the method of learning as the significant factors in a learner’s success in mastering a (foreign) language – though also a significant factor in a teacher’s success in teaching – are considered. The paper then compares the bureaucratic arbitrariness of introducing a foreign language to primary school pupils (similar to Šuvar’s instituting of a so-called general secondary school) with the caution, expert reflection and individualised approach recommended by experts. The paper concludes that there are children of exceptional abilities, who – with adequate help – indeed can successfully adopt one or more foreign languages at primary school level, but also that there are children of rather modest abilities, to whom even mastering their mother tongue represents a sizeable problem, and that a systematic imposition of unsuited requirements – something that happens to a number of children on a daily basis – is, in fact, “pedagogic” violence of its kind.
Keywords
Dialect; foreign language; (un)related language; linguistic ability; individual differences; motivation; “pedagogic” violence; teaching skills
Hrčak ID:
2334
URI
Publication date:
9.1.2006.
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