Born In A Second Language

2019 Button Poetry Prize Winner Born in a Second Language investigates how translation shapes and alters both language and identity as speakers travel through space and time. In this book, languages are a means of conjuring an existence, of full expression and of defining who one becomes. Home exists on a spectrum: Botswana, Zambia, Ghana, one's body, music, mother, mother tongue etc. Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie's book is an exploration of African and female identity, navigating what it means to be in-between identities, languages and homes and how those in-between spaces brush up against each other, and are in themselves, a home too.

Born in a Second Language is preoccupied with the question "where are you from?" - exploring what it means to be in-between identities, languages and homes. Born in a Second Language troubles the spectrum between silence (or the limitations of the mouth) and music. Language is an embodied practice, especially present through our hands. Words, specifically names, are a means of conjuring a certain kind of existence, and defining who one will become. Thus, different languages unlock different worlds, and the names speakers answer to open them up to different becomeings. Born in a Second Language is curious about the sonic, imagistic and linear implications on the page of speaking multiple languages when political, historical and cultural weights contend. It's compelled by disappearance and how translation is often a mode through which it occurs across borders - a way in which we obliterate, often due to what is untranslatable and considered unwelcome, as we come into new selves in order to survive new territory. Translation is not only a tool to understand language, but also a process that alters identity as speakers move through space and time. In the work, "home" is one's body, gender, a mother, mother tongue, Brenda Fassie etc. How home is defined impacts each speaker's positionality and perspective; it allows for understanding the connection between the interior and exterior worlds of the speakers. While the use of past geographical homes and history is, in some poems, nostalgic and in homage, the greater project aims to examine how these elements aren't stagnant temporally but rather persist in and shape speakers presently.

Practical, engaging guide to helping early childhood educators understand and address the needs of English language learners.

An argument that children are born to assign structures to their ambient language, yielding a view of language variation not based on parameters defined at UG. In this book, David Lightfoot argues that just as some birds are born to chirp, humans are born to parse—predisposed to assign linguistic structures to their ambient external language. This approach to language acquisition makes two contributions to the development of Minimalist thinking. First, it minimizes grammatical theory, dispensing with three major entities: parameters; an evaluation metric for the selection of grammars; and any independent parsing mechanism. Instead, Lightfoot argues, children parse their ambient external language using their internal language. Universal Grammar is “open,” consistent with what children learn through parsing with their internal language system. Second, this understanding of language acquisition yields a new view of variable properties in language—properties that occur only in certain languages. Under the open UG vision, very specific language particularities arise in response to new parses. Both external and internal languages play crucial, interacting roles: unstructured, amorphous external language is parsed and an internal language system results. Lightfoot explores case studies that show such innovative parses of external language in the history of English: development of modal verbs, loss of verb movement, and nineteenth-century changes in the syntax of the verb to be. He then discusses how children learn through parsing; the role of parsing at the syntactic structure's interface with the externalization system and logical form; language change; and variable properties seen through the lens of an open UG.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.

This book presents evidence on the nature and magnitude of the literacy gaps faced by OECD countries.

In a new fifth edition that offers exciting expansions and updates, Born To Talk continues to provide college students of all levels with a contemporary and comprehensive view of speech and language development in a reader-friendly and interactive manner. Structured to reflect the actual development of language in a child, this engaging text introduces readers to research-based information on the nature of human communication, theories of language and cognitive development, the anatomy and physiology of speech, milestones of language and literacy, cultural and linguistic diversity in language acquisition, and speech and language disorders. The new revised fifth edition of Born To Talk includes up-to-date research on the impact of parent-child interactions, language samples from one child across the first three years, and emergent literacy in preschool. The revision also expands on the acquisition of the sound system and brings an integrated perspective of childhood language disorders through case examples. New to this Edition: New research is covered throughout the book regarding the impact of parent-child interactions, language samples from one child across the first three years, and emergent literacy in preschool. An expanded section on the acquisition of the sound system helps readers better understand a vital aspect of language development. New case studies found throughout the text provide students with real-life examples of childhood language disorders. Reviewers are saying: "I was thrilled to find Born to Talk to use as a text for my undergraduate language acquisition course and as a supplement for my graduate early literacy course. The book is challenging for students, but as scholarly as it is, it is also interesting and makes the study of language acquisition come alive for the students." Margaret Coxwell, Minot State University

This volume offers the most comprehensive, up-to-date description of the wide array of second language programs currently available to undergraduate students in the United States and abroad. It brings together, for the first time, detailed descriptions of programs in foreign language, English as a second language (ESL), dual language (bilingual), American Sign Language, Native American, and heritage languages. Addressing both theory and practice, the volume presents the historical development, current practices, and future directions of each type of program, along with detailed case studies. For second language teachers, academic administrators, and teacher educators, this Handbook provides information that will be useful in making instructional and programmatic planning decisions.