Fred Genesee (McGill University)

Native Speaker Competence: Evidence from Internationally Adopted Children

This presentation will review the results of a longitudinal evaluation of the language development of internationally-adopted (IA) children from China. The language development of these children is of theoretical interest as well as practical significance because they are unique second language (L2) learners. Like typical L2 learners, they have delayed exposure to their L2. In contrast to typical L2 learners who continue to learn and use their birth language and, thus, divide their learning time between two languages, IA children cease learning the birth language upon adoption and they have total exposure to the L2.  Adoptees from China are of particular interest from a language learning point of view because their pre-adoption environments are relatively favorable and have been shown to have no, or limited, adverse effects post-adoption. IA children provide unique insights into the linguistic and neuro-cognitive consequences of early language learning experiences and can inform our thinking about what it means to be a native speaker.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Multilingual Research Center.