DWELLS@G.BBN.COM (Dori Wells) (07/18/88)
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 88 09:41 EDT
From: Dori Wells <DWELLS@G.BBN.COM>
Subject: Bilingual Children as Translators
To: ai-folks@G.BBN.COM
BBN Science Development Program
Language & Cognition Seminar Series
BILINGUAL CHILDREN AS TRANSLATORS: RECOGNIZING AND CAPITALIZING
ON NATURAL ABILITIES IN LANGUAGE MINORITY STUDENTS
Sheila M. Shannon
Research Associate, Department of Psychology
Yale University
BBN Laboratories
10 Moulton Streeet
Large Conference Room, 2nd Floor
10:30 a.m., Tuesday, July 12, 1988
Abstract: Recent research in psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics,
and language pedadgogy has looked at translation (oral) and
interpretation (written) activities and skills in bilingual children.
Earlier work on translation strictly dealt with the professional field
of translation and interpretation, and not with the spontaneous kinds
of translating in which bilinguals engage. This presentation reviews
the more recent work in the three disciplines with a focus on the
author's own work in sociolinguistics and pedadgogy. I examine the
nature of translation skills and ways they naturally emerge as a
benefit to being bilingual; explore ways that cognitive, linguistic,
and social abilities are involved in translation activity; consider
how these abilities may be integrated into language classroom
experiences; and assess a pilot program based on translation exercises
implemented in one classroom. The work presented here fundamentally
concerns itself with bilingual children of language minority
communities in this country--those who require our greatest efforts to
insure their academic success. I present work carried out with one
Mexican American community in California and a Puerto Rican community
in Connecticut.
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