The rejected stones: linguistic analysis of internationally

adopted school-age children

Jogile Teresa Ramonaite

15/08/2014AILA World Congress 2014, Brisbane

Context Orphanages is still a used practice in Eastern Europe Children are abandoned at birth or taken away from the families that

do not take care of them (mostly because of alcohol related problems) also at an older age

Lithuanian situation: ~ 4000 children in orphanages (population nearly 3 mln.), ~10 000 foster cases in total, ~2000 foster cases a year (some temporary)

Attitudes towards children in orphanages are still rather strongly negative

Still low rate of national adoption or foster care Frequent position, also by orphanage staff, regarding them as

hopeless, unable, ungifted, ruined etc. Abandonment causes slower rate of development, various problems

+ health issues ~150 children from Lithuania are adopted abroad a year, half of

them to Italy

International adoption

Internationally adopted children give a unique possibility to observe what happens when a person learns an L2 after having stopped using L1 (Pallier et al. 2003, Snedeker et al. 2007, Glennen 2002, Hyltenstam et al. 2009)

Observing the subsidiarity principle, children given in international adoption are often older and therefore already have an L1.

Abrupt change form L1 to L2. L2 is extremely socially important (new life). Favorable conditions for the acquisition of L2.

International adoption: linguistic researchData is extremely hard to obtain because

of secret of adoption (!)Previous research has studied young

children (infants, toddlers, preschoolers) or adults adopted in childhoodFocus on evaluating linguistic skills using

various tests (Glennen 2002, Glennen and Masters 2002 and other, Snedeker et al. 2007, Gauthier and Genesee 2011),

Neurological perspective (Pallier et al. 2003, Pallier 2007),Longitudinal (3 month) research conducted

with very young child (Nicoladis and Grabois 2002) or concentrated on attrition (Isurin 2000).

Research

Questionnaire for the adoptive familiesAnswers from 74 families: 117 childrenAge at adoption: from 1,5 to 14,5 years

Longitudinal study: 4 children followed for one year after the adoption

(two brothers of 7 and 8, one 11,5 girl, one 4,5 girl) Direct observation pre- and post- adoptionSpeech recordings starting at the moment of

adoption for one year after arrival in Italy1 case study chosen (11,5 year old girl) for detailed

linguistic analysis

Quantitative study: speed

How much time passed before your child started to be able to communicate (express everything he wanted even if with grammatical errors) in Italian without difficulties?

Quantitative study: speed

How much time passed before your child started to be able to communicate (express everything he wanted even if with grammatical errors) in Italian without difficulties?

Quantitative study: level

How would you describe the level of Italian of your child? (more options)

Longitudinal case study

A Lithuanian girl adopted to Italy:Age of adoption: 11,5;Lived in state orphanages prior to adoption;Regular knowledge of Lithuanian, no specific

linguistic impairments;The only child in the adoptive family;Started attended a regular Italian-medium

school (with younger classmates) couple of weeks after the arrival;

Received no formal Italian as a second language instruction;

A very talkative girl.

Longitudinal case study 2

Spontaneous speech data:Recordings made by the researcher and

parents;Everyday situations (usually at a dinner table);Data gathering started some days before

leaving Lithuania and ended 14 months after the arrival in Italy;

11,4 h of periodic recordings (interval ~ 1 month) transcribed with CHILDES.

Analysis of the expression of the predicateVerbOther

Data (pre-basic variety)

After a couple of days in Italy (1 month spent inLT together with the adoptive parents)• *CHI: no macchina djjjj@o o@lt dopo

finestrino o@lt policija@lt cusì@pr [: così].(no car djjjj, and then window and police likethis.)

• *CHI: no, tu, come si chiama qvesta@pr [: questa]?(no, you, what is called this?)

• *CHI: io poco poco xxx guarda.(I little little look.)

Data 2 (basic variety)

After 1 month in Italy *CHI: e dopo io piange@gr nou@pr

bene!(and then I cry, no good!)

*CHI: e dopo 0aux visto 0art bambino più grande e nome Fede [/] Federico.(and then seen (= saw) child bigger and name Federico.)

*CHI: prima tu macchina dici@gr...(before you car say (= you said in the car))

Data 3 (post-basic variety)

After 3 months in Italy• *CHI: io non 0aux mangiato prezzemolo.

(I not eaten parsley.)• *CHI: no, io, io l'ho visto che tu di là sale metti.

(no, I, I have seen (it) that you put the salt there.)• *CHI: l'ho sentito quando uno uomo così.

((I) have heard (it) when one man like this.)• *CHI: perché, nou@pr [: non] si può quando più

piccoli bambini.(because, no one can (= one cannot) whensmaller children.)

Predicate expressionTIME PRESENT PERFECTIVE (PAST) IMPERFECTIVE PAST FUTURE NON-ACTUALITY/

NON REALITY

VARIETY

0 m. -; base form; formula; „like this“ Pre-basic

Predicate expressionTIME PRESENT PERFECTIVE (PAST) IMPERFECTIVE PAST FUTURE NON-ACTUALITY/

NON REALITY

VARIETY

0 m. -; base form; formula; „like this“ Pre-basic

1 m.base form;

perfective formbase form; Basic

Predicate expressionTIME PRESENT PERFECTIVE (PAST) IMPERFECTIVE PAST FUTURE NON-ACTUALITY/

NON REALITY

VARIETY

0 m. -; base form; formula; „like this“ Pre-basic

1 m.base form;

perfective formbase form; Basic

2 m.PRESENT;base form

PERFECTIVE FORM;base form

base form;(IMPERFECT); (infinitive)

Post-basic

Predicate expressionTIME PRESENT PERFECTIVE (PAST) IMPERFECTIVE PAST FUTURE NON-ACTUALITY/

NON REALITY

VARIETY

0 m. -; base form; formula; „like this“ Pre-basic

1 m.base form;

perfective formbase form; Basic

2 m.PRESENT;base form

PERFECTIVE FORM;base form

base form;(IMPERFECT); (infinitive)

Post-basic

3 m.

PRESENT PASSATO PROSSIMO

IMPERFECT;present;

PRESENT

present;(IMPERFECT);

(infinitive)

4 m.

IMPERFECT

present;(CONDITIONAL);

IMPERFECT5 m. present;

FUTURE;IMPERFECT;

(CONDITIONAL)6 m.

PRESENT;FUTURE

7 m. FUTURE;IMPERFECT;

(CONDITIONAL)~8 m.

~1 y.

FUTURE;CONDITIONAL;

IMPERFECT;SUBJUNCTIVE

Results

The acquisition of the L2 in the adopted girl proceeds in a universal path, but:

The progress is very rapid;Reaches the basic variety after only a month in

the country;Goes beyond the basic variety very quickly;

Within a year in the country acquires the whole Italian verb system, including the most complex parts (gerund, subjunctive);Frequency of complex forms is not high but

sufficient to affirm acquisition; In adult L2 Italian the more complex forms do not

appear unless tutored.

Results 2

Some particularities of the acquisition are not characteristic to adult (or child) L2 acquisition but Italian L1, specifically:use of imperativeHigh in the first months and decreasing later;

gender and/or number agreement in past participle (also when used without the auxiliary);

choice of the correct auxiliary (avere or essere);

use of imperfect is not restricted to one lexical type (“to be”) very soon after the first appearance of the form and the use itself resembles that of mother tongue children.

Data 4 (after a year in the country)• *CHI: questo è campo metà eh si è dove c'è il palleggio no la rete,

questo campo metà, questo c'è di tre metri questo è ah l'ultimo nonso quanti metri abbiano e quindi te parti da lì +... (this is the middle of the field, yes, where you knock the ball, no, the net, this middle of the field, this is three meters, this is the last, I don’t know how many meters and then you start from there...)

• *CHI: e il diario di scuola vuol dire che quando le maestre tidicono, ad esempio venerdì devi fare storia geografia matematica o scienze e te non te lo ricordi. (and the school diary means that when the teachers tell you, for example, on Friday you have to do history, geography, math or science and you don’t remember it.)(...)*CHI: se te non lo scrivi così qua venerdì non riesci a ricordare quello che ci hai che quello che hai da fare per eh per lunedì capito?(if you don’t write it down like this here on Friday, you don’t manage to remember what you have, what you must do for Monday, understood?)

Conclusions

L2 acquisition in internationally adopted children follows a universal acquisitional path;

The acquisition is very rapid and does not cease at reaching the basic variety;

Even in preadolescent age the acquisition presents features characteristic specific to L1 acquisition.

Level of attainment after a year in the country of only natural acquisition is near-native.Complete self re-creation, also linguistically?

Thank you