LANGUAGE IN INDIA

BRINGING UP CHILDREN BILINGUALLY
PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
Rehnuma Bint Anis and Md. Humayun Kabir

INTRODUCTION

In this age of globalization, any extra knowledge or skill is an added advantage and increases our scope and expertise to maneuver. Psychologists are of the opinion that human beings are capable of learning only until the age of four. Once they cross this age, they can only expand upon the knowledge they have acquired or enlarge upon their experiences. But they lose the capacity of gaining any new basic skill. Thus, the timeframe we have in hand to equip our children for the future is very narrow. This article endeavours to discuss how our inability or unwillingness to utilize this opportunity of educating our children in a second language from an early age handicaps them in their later years. We will also try to suggest ways to help a child to grow up with equal emphasis on two languages - his mother tongue and a second language in the light of the problems we may encounter on the way.

PRICELESS HUMAN CAPABILITY

The conception of language as a special gift of the Almighty has been recognized in diverse and unrelated cultures and is itself significant of the reverence rightly accorded by reflecting persons to this priceless human capability.

WHO IS A NATIVE SPEAKER?

If you learn to use a single language from your infancy, you are said to be a native speaker of that language. During the greater part of our lives we accept our use and understanding of our native language without awareness, comment or question. We only realize the complexity of every normal person's linguistic ability when we try to learn one or more foreign languages after mastering our native language. It reveals just how much is involved n mankind's faculty of communication through language.

PARENTAL HELP IN LEARNING OTHER LANGUAGES

Provided parents inspire their children sufficiently and create a learning environment for them, children will be equally interested in learning both the languages introduced to them. Children who grow up with two languages have a unique chance to acquire them both in a way that is not possible for those who meet their second language later in life. Small children are able to learn and speak a second language without any trace of a foreign accent, just as they learned their first language. However, if it is not possible to start early, interference may take place in pronunciation, in grammar and in the meaning of words from their first language. In such ceases the older children may be allowed to mix the languages for ease of communication or for effect with others who share their linguistic background. 'But they soon learn to keep the languages 'pure' when around monolinguals, at least at the lexical level, even if they still have interference from the majority language in their grammar and pronunciation of the minority language'.

LEARNING MINORITY LANGUAGES

Even if the child is reluctant to speak the minority language, an extensive passive knowledge can be maintained if the parents persevere with speaking the minority language as often as possible. This passive knowledge can be built up at a later stage.

But some linguists think that learning a minority language should not be 'merely a question of activating an existing but inert knowledge of the language, but of stimulating the development of the language system itself'. The success of informal learning, such as mastering the mother tongue naturally by living, working and interacting with other people as everyday occurrence in infancy, has always impressed language teachers. 'Attempts to reproduce the same effect by creating the same causes have been a regular feature of language teaching history'.

We would like to follow the same procedure in this discussion.

MOTHER TONGUE AND OTHER LANGUAGES

Most parents, teachers and linguists agree that it is essential for the children who grow up with two languages to have at least one language, which they know very well. The Nobel prize winning Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore has expressed the same view in 'Amar Chelebela' (My Childhood): 'Agey chai Bangla bhashar ganthuni, tarporey Engreji shekhar pattan' (First you need the foundation in Bangla, then you can start learning English).

Usually, the majority language is also a school language. So, families are more likely to succeed in giving their children two active languages if the mother, rather than the father, speaks the minority language, as it may not be possible for the father to spend as much time with the children as to give them enough input in the minority language.

MOTIVATION FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

Motivation and attitudes have a strong relationship with second/foreign language learning. Motivation has medicinal effects upon the children while they learn a second language. It is considered the single most important factor in raising children with two languages. Without a good reason the effort required to learn a language is simply not worth making. Children need to be motivated to accept being spoken to in the minority language and to make the attempts to answer their parent(s) in that language. After all if learners are highly motivated, they will learn something in even the most difficult situation. And if they are not motivated, they probably won't learn much, even with lots of class time, small classes and excellent resources.

The more we can do about motivation, the more we can expect success in teaching a second language. If we study our society, we will find that more than ninety per cent Muslims can read the holy Qur'an though they do not understand the language, nor do they know how to speak or write it. It is the result of motivation. Since our childhood, we have learned and believed that Arabic is the language of the day of resurrection. Moreover, the Qur'an and the Hadith are revealed and recorded in Arabic. This single motivation has enabled many Muslims to learn Arabic or at least to read it.

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Rehnuma Bint Anis
Md. Humayun Kabir

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