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Lauren Whitley

ENGL 1103 (T/Th 2:00)

Professor Jan Rieman

February 15th, 2011

Preliminary Inquiry Question

Having a sixteen month old daughter, I wanted to base my Inquiry Paper on something

that deals with her. Being a young parent, or really a parent in general, my questions are often

left unanswered and questions on a larger scale than “Will this medicine work?” or “How soon

should I start her on baby food?” are often the questions that end up in exactly that manner. My

daughter Rylynn is half Caucasian and half Mexican, and is growing up in two different

households, one of which speaks English and the other which speaks Spanish. A question (or

rather concern) I have had since before she was born is whether or not growing up influenced by

two different languages has the potential to affect her literacy skills. This leads me to my Inquiry

Paper Question: How does bilingualism affect young children regarding their speech, reading,

and writing?

I originally loved the idea that Rylynn would be growing up in two different cultures

learning two different languages; however, now that she is entering the stage in her life which

she will begin talking, I question whether having a bilingual influence will negatively affect her

speech. I know other family’s that have integrated two languages in their homes, but whose

children can only speak a few words in each language yet, I also know family’s that have

integrated two languages whose children are practically fluent in both languages. I have never

had a chance to look into my question (until now of course) and therefore I am completely

unaware of any real statistics related to bilingualism in young children.

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I have mainly chosen this as my topic for my Inquiry Paper due to its specific relation to

my life, yet I can also to relate it to one of the major topics we have discussed in class: literacy

sponsors. I wonder how Rylynn having both me and her father as very different literary sponsors

will affect her which relates to Brandt and her idea that a sponsor can be either positive or

negative.

This question of bilingualism in young children also led me to questions such as: As a

person ages, are they still capable of learning a second language? Can a child who grows up

bilingual later learn a third language and possibly become fluent in it? Which language (English

or Spanish) is easier for a young child to learn? And does bilingualism harm or help a child in

the later years of his or her education? I feel like this question is “killing two birds with one

stone” by not only providing a basis for my Inquiry Paper, but also providing information and

hopefully answers for something so personal in my life.