Narratives in Manx
Linguistic strategies in immersion acquired language
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i3.261Keywords:
Immersion Education, language acquisition, Lexical Transference, Semantic Transference, verbal noun diversityAbstract
The purpose of this paper is to show linguistic strategies used in constructing a narrative task by the first children acquiring Manx Gaelic in a language immersion education programme. The children in the study were approaching the end of their third year of the immersion programme. It was expected that the children would use their first language (English) as a resource for their second language production in terms of lexical and semantic transference. It was also expected that the small number of children in the study who had other Manx speakers in their family would show some advantage in terms of language production over those who did not. The findings discussed in this paper show that in addition to using their first language as a resourcethe children were also able to use their knowledge of the target language productively. Any advantage in language production shown by children with Manx speaking family members was slight, and only became apparent when diversity in verbal noun usage was taken into account. The Manx of second language adult speakers, and that of the last native Manx speakers, which shows some interesting parallel usage with the children’s language is referred to as a point of comparison.
References
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Berman, D. A. (1985) The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, Vol 1 The Data; Vol. 2 Theoretical Issues. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Berman, R. A. and Slobin, D. A. (1994) Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bible Chasherick Yn Lught Thie The Manx Family Bible (1979) Plymouth, Great Britain: Clarke, Doble & Brendon Limited for Shearwater Press Limited, Onchan, Isle of Man.
Birdsong, D. (2003) Second Language Acquisition and Ultimate Attainment. Retrieved 16 February 2005 from http://ccw.cc.utexasedu/~birdsong/publications
Broderick, G. (1984) A Handbook of Late Spoken Manx Vols. 1–2. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Broderick, G. (1986) A Handbook of Late Spoken Manx Vol. 3. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Broderick, G. (1999) Language Death in the Isle of Man. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Chamot, A. U. and El-Dinary, P. B. (1999) Children’s learning strategies in language immersion classrooms. The Modern Language Journal 83 (3): 319–338. Retrieved 21 August 2006 from www.jstore.org/
Clague, M. (2007) The Developing Manx of Immersion Education Children. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Liverpool.
Clague, M. (2009a) Manx language revitalization and immersion education. e-Keltoi Cultural Survival 2: 165–198. http://www.ekeltoiuwm.edu
Clague, M. (2009b) Cross linguistic discourse markers in Manx Gaelic and English. Proceedings of the 25th Annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium.
Cook, V. (1999) Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly 33 (2): 185–209. doi:10.2307/3587717
Gawne, P. (2002) Securing the future of Manx Gaelic. In P. Davey and D. Finlayson (eds) Mannin Revisited, 173–183. Edinburgh: Scottish Society for Northern Studies.
Gell, J. (1977) Conversational Manx. Douglas, Isle of Man: Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh.
Goodwin, E. (1987) First Lessons in Manx. Douglas, Isle of Man: Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh.
Genesee, F. (1979) Acquisition of reading skills in immersion programs. Foreign Language Annals 12: 71–77. doi:10.1111/j.1944-9720.1979.tb00952.x
Grosjean, F. (1989) Neurolinguists, beware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. Brain and Language 36: 3–15. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(89)90048-5
Henry, A., Andrews, A. and Ó Cainín, P. (2002) Developing Linguistic Accuracy in Irish– Medium Primary Schools. Bangor: Department of Education.
Johnson, R. K. and Swain, M. (1997) (eds) Immersion Education: International Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Labov, W. (1972) Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in Society 1 (1): 97–120. doi:10.1017/S0047404500006576
Lambert, W. E. and Tucker, G. R. (1972) Bilingual Education of Children: The St Lambert Experiment. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Maguire, G. (1986) A Study of an Urban Gaeltacht Community: Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Unpublished PhD thesis. Queens University, Belfast.
Maguire, G. (1991) Our Own Language: An Irish Initiative. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Meyer, M. (1980) Frog Where Are You? New York: Puffin Books.
Mougeon, R. and Rehner, K. (2001) Acquisition of sociolinguistic variants by French immersion students: The case of restrictive expressions, and more. The Modern Language Journal 85 (3): 398–415. doi:10.1111/0026-7902.00116
Reyhner, J. (2003) Native language immersion. In J. Reyhner, O. Trujillo, R. Carrasco and L. Lockard (eds) Nurturing Native Languages, 1–6. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University: Indigenous Studies Publications.
Safty, A. (1992) Effectiveness and French immersion: A socio-political analysis. Canadian Journal of Education 17 (1): 23–32. Retrieved 21 August 2006 from www.jstore.org/
Swain, M. and Lapkin, S. (1989) Canadian immersion and adult second language teaching: What’s the connection? The Modern Languages Journal 73 (2): 150–159. Retrieved 20 August 2006 from www.jstore.org/
Romaine, S. (1984) The Language of Children and Adolescents. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Skeealyn Vannin Stories of Man (2003) Manx National Heritage, Douglas, Isle of Man. Sound Archive Copyright, University College Dublin.
Slaughter, H. B. (1997) Indigenous language immersion in Hawaii. In R. K. Johnson and M. Swain (eds) Immersion Education: International Perspectives 105–129. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stowell, B. (1998) Y Coorse Mooar: A Comprehensive Manx Course. (Source unknown).
Stowell, B. (2006) Contoyrtyssyn Ealish ayns y Cheer Yindissyn. Port St Mary, Isle of Man: Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh and Manx Heritage Foundation.
Tarone, E. and Swain, M. (1995) A sociolinguistic perspective on second language use in immersion classrooms. The Modern Language Journal 79 (2): 166–178. Retrieved 22 August 2006 from www.jstore.org/
Thomson, R. L. (1993) The Manx language. In D. MacAulay (ed.) The Celtic Languages 100–136. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Published
2015-09-14
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Articles
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Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Clague, M. P. (2015). Narratives in Manx: Linguistic strategies in immersion acquired language. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 4(3), 261-284. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v4i3.261
