> I suppose I'm missing something here, perhaps from previous postings, but
> I've never heard of anyone not acquiring native language rules (except for
> those that had no exposure to language).
While not intending to place myself in either camp, I wonder what others would
make of kids who have language disabilities? By this, I mean children who do
not seem to have acquired their native language rules, without obvious reason
such as lack of exposure to language, deafness, or head trauma resulting in
serious brain damage, etc. (The fact that some families seem prone to this
would argue for either side, I suppose: lack of good models resulting in lack of
acquisition???).
Here in multicultural Toronto, we seem to have more than our share of such kids
from families whose native language is other than English, who spend years and
years in ESL classes, only to eventually end up in special language classes.
Their families later tell you that the child in question never learned the home
language well, but had always chalked it up to the fact that the kids were
living in an English-speaking environment and therefore were spending more time
and effort with English, so it was never an issue at home. Mind you, these kids
represent an *extremely* small minority of ESL students; most ESL students end
up at least conversationally bilingual.
> And in the innatist camp, there's disagreement over whether second language
> learners still have access to a universal grammar.
I would be interested in hearing more about this argument, too.
Tane Akamatsu
School Psychologist
Toronto District School Board