The New York Times had an article* recently about French-Americans in Maine (US) in which one phrase made me think of Africa:
"... many [French-Americans] assimilated or limited their children's exposure to French to avoid discrimination or because of a now-outmoded belief that erasing French would make learning English easier." It's unfortunately all too common just about everywhere for parents to think that they are helping their children by restricting the linguistic environment in which they grow up to one language. In fact the opposite is true, as learning more than one language through exposure to and interaction with with fluent speakers, and reading etc., has been shown to give them "cognitive advantages" over children raised monolingually. The article discusses how the French-Americans in Maine are now paying more attention to their mother tongue / heritage language. DZO * "Long-Scorned in Maine, French Has Renaissance" http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/us/04french.html http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MINEL/message/344 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Everything you need is one click away. Make Yahoo! your home page now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/AHchtC/4FxNAA/yQLSAA/TpIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
