In response to Kaori Hoshiya's June 20 letter, "Teaching your children English": I can only say how disappointed I am in this language police person. Did Hoshiya check the English books and CDs for mistakes? Does she propose to police every subject or just concentrate on English because she happens to be studying how to teach it at the postgraduate level?
If her ideas were right, parents would have to take a battery of tests before they would be allowed to help their children with subjects in which they did well. I say, be happy that parents take an interest in exposing their children to English at an early age. I wish the schools would.
I have been teaching at the university level in Japan close to 20 years, and I must say there has been a real dropoff in student ability and motivation the past few years. I do not expect perfect English from my students, but I do want them to be able to communicate effectively. If they worry about "strange English," they will never be good at communicating.
If Hoshiya had done any research in bilingual language acquisition, she would know that children are quite capable of learning more than one language at a time -- even in cases where the language models do not possess native-language proficiency. I hope she reconsiders her ideas.
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