The influence of English on the language proficiency of youth who have learned Icelandic as a first or second language

As a result of increased use of English in Iceland, many children whose mothertongue (L1) is Icelandic learn it to some extent in a bilingual context, and children for whom Icelandic is their second language (L2) learn it as one of three languages. This environment could lead to opportunity for mult...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Þórðardóttir, Elín Þöll
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:Icelandic
Published: Milli Mála 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/millimala/article/view/3661
Description
Summary:As a result of increased use of English in Iceland, many children whose mothertongue (L1) is Icelandic learn it to some extent in a bilingual context, and children for whom Icelandic is their second language (L2) learn it as one of three languages. This environment could lead to opportunity for multilingualism; however, in light of research showing low Icelandic levels among L2 children, the impact of English warrants examination. This article reviews three studies focusing on the Icelandic and English proficiency of L1 and L2 adolescents, theirviews towards these languages, and whether they speak them with a foreign accent. The English proficiency of the groups was similar. For the L1 group, English complemented a strong Icelandic proficiency. For the L2 group, however, proficiency was below age expectations in all their languages, with large individual variability. The results suggest that L2 adolescents are very interested in learning Icelandic, but have insufficient opportunity to do so.Keywords: bilingualism, trilingualism, multilingualism, motivation, foreign accent Aukin enskunotkun á Íslandi veldur því að mörg börn sem tala íslensku sem móðurmál (M1) læra hana að einhverju leyti við tvítyngisaðstæður og börn sem tala íslensku sem annað mál (M2) sem eitt af þremur málum. Þessar aðstæður gætu skapað tækifæri til fjöltyngis, en í ljósi þess að íslenskukunnátta M2 hópa hefur mælst lág er vert að kanna hvort enska hafi þar áhrif á. Í greininni er sagt frá þremur rannsóknum sem beindust að íslensku- og enskukunnáttu M1 og M2 unglinga, hvaða viðhorf þau hafi til þessara tungumála og hvort þau tali þau með erlendum hreim. Enskukunnátta beggja hópa var svipuð. Hjá M1 hópnum bættist enska við sterka íslenskukunnáttu. Hjá M2 hópnum var kunnátta hins vegar undir aldursvæntingum á öllum tungumálum þeirra og breytileiki mjög mikill milli einstaklinga. Niðurstöðurnar benda til þess að M2 unglingar hafi mikinn áhuga á að læra íslensku en ónóg tækifæri til þess.Lykilorð: tvítyngi, þrítyngi, fjöltyngi, viðhorf, erlendur ...