Thursday, April 23, 2015

兩歲的T小寶的雙語語言發展記錄

T小寶兩歲了,語言發展突飛猛進,雖然在保姆家聽的是英文,但是回家是全中文的環境,所以她的dominant language(主要語言)還是中文。英文她應該聽得懂,只是回家主要都是用中文溝通,所以我們也還不是非常清楚她會說多少英文字。不過我觀察到,她在口語輸出上會有一些中英文混雜的情況(code-switching),比方說,她會說『媽咪Sit、阿嬤Sit...Sit 在這裡』,因為我們推測,對她來說,Sit的發音比中文的『坐』容易得多。
此外,她選擇用中文或是英文表達一個單詞也有可能取決於她是先通過中文或是英文來習得這個詞彙。比方說,在學顏色上,她在保姆家先用英文學會了blue, purple, 和 green,所以之後雖然她知道這三個顏色的中文分別是藍色紫色和綠色,但是問她東西顏色的時候,一提到這三個顏色,她的第一個反應就是用英文說出來。
除此之外,我還觀察到在T小寶身上出現了以下的語言發展:
口語輸出從單詞進化到詞組和句子
Oral production: moving from single word and phrases to meaningful sentences
肯定、否定:我會、不會 、不要、No、No Way、有、没有
所有權的概念:媽咪(的)包包、媽咪(的)電話、妹妹(的)被被
副詞:也(爹爹吃飯飯、媽咪也吃飯飯。)
詞彙分類
1. 問候:Hi、你好、please、謝謝 thank you、愛你、bye、再見、night night、晚安、早安、生日快樂、happy birthday...
2. 人稱:爹爹、mommy、baby、阿公、阿嬤、姨、舅舅、Ollie、Eddie、Buddy、Zoe、Coco(以上三隻是鄰居的小狗)、巧虎、Dora、Map
3. 動物:狗狗、貓、猴(還有台語的發音ㄍㄠˊ)、長頸鹿、熊熊、Koala、海豚、河馬、斑馬、象、魚、獅子、羊、豬豬、馬、螞蟻、松鼠、小鳥(鳥鳥)、烏龜、企鵝、鴨鴨、雞、蝴蝶、虎、蟲、鼻涕蟲...
4. 水果:西瓜、草莓、藍莓、莓莓、香蕉、cherry、蕃茄、Peach桃子、葡萄、橘子...
5. 食物:蛋蛋、飯飯、肉肉、菜菜、包子、麵包、麵麵、蔔蔔(紅蘿蔔)、多多、Cookie、香菇、大蒜...
6. 顏色:blue 藍色, purple 紫色, green 綠色, yellow 黃色, red 紅色、白色、橘色 orange
7. 交通工具:汽車、車車、飛機、火車
8. 身體部位:頭、頭髮、眼睛、鼻子、嘴巴、手手、腳腳、膝蓋、屁股、肚子、肚臍、耳朵、牙齒、腳指頭、手指頭...
9. 數數:中英文 1-10
10. 玩具:積木、火車、拼圖、筆、紙、氣球、球球、滑梯、鏡子、iPhone、iPad...
11. 自然景物:樹tree、花、草、葉子、太陽、星星...
12. 生活用語:
➢ 動賓詞組:吃飯(飯)、吃肉肉/菜菜、喝水(水)、喝奶奶、喝鮮奶、睡覺、唱歌、躺躺、蓋被被、枕頭、拿、看書、看球、打球、看電視、洗澡、穿衣服/褲褲、換布布、折衣服、收玩具、開燈、關燈、開門、打電話、開車車、坐飛機、畫畫、看巧虎、跳舞、推車車、彈琴、打鼓、愛+someone(愛舅舅)、 滑滑梯、打針、擦藥藥、玩水、玩泡泡、吹泡泡、吹氣球、綁頭髮、踢球、到家、騎馬….
➢ 動詞:Sit、切切、修、開、關、跳 Jump、散步、走走、打、摸摸、爬爬、畫、丟、哭哭、擦擦、去、來、拿、剪、吹、尿尿、poop poop、pee pee、擠、洗、刷、踢、夾、游泳...
13. 形容詞:開心、新、臭臭、香、漂亮、好、可愛、燙燙、好吃、好喝、乖、痛痛、癢癢、成功...
14. 方向詞:進去、進來、出去、出來、關起來
15. 結果補語:吃完了、洗好了、找到了...

兩歲四個月的T小寶的雙語語言發展記錄

        T小寶滿兩歲四個月了,相較於四個月前,現在她的語言能力真的是一日千里,中文溝通基本上沒有問題,問她中午在保姆家吃了什麽,有沒有吃水果,她都能對答如流(呃,“有沒有+ 動詞/形容詞”是很台式的問話方式,比方説,有沒有打人?有沒有吃麵麵?有沒有穿外套之類的,但是在教外國人的時候,我們是盡量避免用這樣的句型,而多半使用“了”或者“過”。畢竟大部分的學生要去中國工作,不能把人家教得太“台”。)

       T小寳不但聼得懂我們說的跟日常生活相關的話,也能清楚地表達她要做什麽、不要做什麽,她現在更是非常喜歡用“不要”來展示她擁有的否決權。比方説,昨天在車上,我跟她聊天,問她回家以後要不要吃水果,她馬上就回說“不要吃水果”,我就又問要不要喝水,她很快地說不要喝水,就這樣,問了她七八個問題,統統被否決了。

       除此以外,這幾個星期T小寳也開始問“爲什麽”,別人問她問題的時候,她也會用“因爲”來回答。但是,也許詞彙量還不夠,或是語言的組織能力還太低,她現在還沒有辦法在說了“因爲”以後完整又漂亮地陳述理由。雖是如此,她已經開始會對一些生活上的觀察表達她的小小的意見。比方説,她會用“愛、喜歡、不喜歡、不可以、不行”簡單地表達她的看法,像是她曾經說過“妹妹好可愛噢!阿嬤喜歡妹妹”“Bobo的床,妹妹不可以睡”。

       中英混雜的情況還是存在,但是我觀察到,她慢慢地懂得switch channel,根據問話者使用的語言做出適當的回應。比方説用英文問她叫什麽名字,她會說她叫Joanna,然後巴拉巴拉地把全家人的名字都念一遍。英文的口語能力目前還是遠不如中文,她可以用中文造句、清楚地用句子溝通。但是她的英文目前還是在單詞、詞組或是短語的程度,不論是動物、身體部位、五官、顔色、交通工具,她都可以自由地用中英文轉換,至於她會說的英文句子,我們在家觀察到的,還是比較有限。目前,我們很確定她會說的英文句子就是“Are you okay? (你還好嗎)”還有“I wanna pee! (我要去尿尿)”

       T小寳作爲一個小小的Chinese heritage learner (嗯,也就是我們俗稱的ABC = American-born Chinese),中文對她而言是home language,是在很自然的情況下習得的,所以讓我覺得非常奇妙的是,當我的成人學生,那些非常聰明的美國外交官正在花很多時間努力地學各種補語(結果補語、方向補語、可能補語),T小寳似乎輕而易舉地就學會了這些補語,甚至能很清楚地用這些來表達她的想法。例如,她不想阿嬤坐在沙發上,就會故意說“阿嬤,沙發坐不下!(可能補語)”,或是告訴我“媽咪,Bobo拿不到杯子“、”我看不見爹爹了“還有“媽咪,Bobo打不開這個瓶子”。當然,她也會用方向補語,特別是發現我吃了她盤子裡的蛋糕時,這個小氣鬼會立馬說“媽咪,吐出來!”更別説她用得爐火純青的結果補語了,她常常躺在床上偷聽我們在浴室裡的動態,隨時回報“爹爹洗完澡了,媽咪洗完澡了”,也會在吃不下的時候說“Bobo 吃飽了、吃完了”。

       觀察T小寳的語言發展真的很有趣,先寫到這裡。

My journey of motherhood

Motherhood is a journey filled with laughs and tears.

Before having my own kid, I was very confident that I would be a great mom. I am patient, caring, and love to play with children. I was looking forward to my baby girl’s arrival and believed I was undoubtedly ready to be a mom. However, after my baby was born, I started to realize being a mom isnot a piece of cake. No matter how much work you have done in preparation for the new addition, no matter how much confidence you have had in yourself, no matter how competent you are at balancing between life and work, being a mom makes everything different.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I was working on my PhD dissertation. Although I was not the most talented or most diligent researcher in my field, I was very ambitious and eager to do something in academia. I did not think seeking a balance between work and parenting would be a great challenge for me. However, I was totally wrong, especially after I moved to Washington DC and started to work in January 2013.

Taking care of an infant after an eight-hour full-time job is exhausting. It was terribly frustrating when you needed to comfort a whining baby in the middle of the night. Sleep deprivation made me exhausted and irritable. As parenting took most of my time after work, I gradually realized that I barely had time or energy doing other things. Reading academic papers or conducting a research sounded like an unreachable dream for me.

Being a mom is filled with bitter sweet feelings. Motherhood made me stronger and gave me a more flexible perspective. Before being a mom, I was strictly goal-oriented. As a Virgo, I love making plans and enjoy achieving goals before deadlines. If I was not able to put everything under control, I felt panicked and lost.  In these seven hundred days of motherhood, I have learned one lesson: you need to expect something unexpected. For example, in the middle of dinner, your little one pooped and you found she had diarrhea. Her upset stomach made her scream in the restaurant. After changing her twice in ten minutes, you found you were out of diapers so you needed to pack everything home, including the untouched food and a smelly dirty baby. Not kidding, it happened.