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SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
AND LIFELONG LEARNING
The Second Language Acquisition Research Series presents and explores issues bearing
directly on theory construction and/or research methods in the study of second
language acquisition. Its titles (both authored and edited volumes) provide thor
ough and timely overviews of high-interest topics, and include key discussions of
existing research findings and their implications.A special emphasis of the series is
ref lected in the volumes dealing with specific data collection methods or instru
ments. Each of these volumes addresses the kinds of research questions for which
the method/instrument is best suited, offers extended description of its use, and
outlines the problems associated with its use. The volumes in this series will be
invaluable to students and scholars alike, and perfect for use in courses on research
methodology and in individual research.
Questionnaires in Second Language Research
Construction,Administration, and Processing,Third Edition
Zoltán Dörnyei and Jean-Marc Dewaele
Longitudinal Studies of Second Language Learning
Quantitative Methods and Outcomes
Edited by Steven J. Ross and Megan C. Masters
Researching Creativity in Second Language Acquisition
Ashleigh Pipes
Communicative Competence in a Second Language
Theory, Method, and Applications
Edited by Matthew Kanwit and Megan Solon
Second Language Acquisition and Lifelong Learning
Simone E. Pfenninger, Julia Festman, and David Singleton
The Role of the Learner in Task-Based Language Teaching
Theory and Research
Edited by Craig Lambert, Scott Aubrey, and Gavin Bui
Simone E. Pfenninger,
Julia Festman, and
David Singleton
Designed cover image: © DeepGreen at Getty images, Creative #:153074098
First published 2023
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Simone E. Pfenninger, Julia Festman, and David Singleton
The right of Simone E. Pfenninger, Julia Festman, and David Singleton to be
identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
ISBN: 9780367769154 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780367769130 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003168935 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003168935
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
CONTENTS
Index 227
1
INTRODUCTION
Seasons of life in SLA
There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn additional
languages at different stages in life. For one, understanding the nature of life
long language learning – and related to this, the age factor – is crucial for both
second language acquisition (SLA) research and pedagogy, raising important
concerns about all aspects of curriculum development and its adaptation to dif
ferent ages. To what extent is “age” as a construct of itself of relevance in SLA
in light of the huge and increasing spread of individual abilities and skills as
age progresses? Does the role played by age in second language (L2) acquisition
warrant “an entirely separate treatment” compared to other individual learner
differences, as R. Ellis (2004, p. 530) suggested? How can we find out whether
it is actual use of a learned L2 that makes a contribution, whether direct or indi
rect, to a potential bilingual advantage (at any age)? How does access to various
resources impact on success and continuation with the endeavor of learning a
new language at different stages in life? How far are adult L2 learners the same
regardless of age and to what extent does language learning in later life have its
own distinctive qualities?
This book aims to offer a comprehensive review of language learning across
the lifespan in both theory and application. We intend to demonstrate that
L2 learning across the lifespan is not like learning other skills, but is a unique
endeavor that is both constrained and facilitated by the psychological, social,
and cultural factors specific to certain contexts (e.g. Dörnyei, 2003, 2005, 2009;
Gardner, 1985, 2001, 2010; Ushioda & Dörnyei, 2012). In so doing, we take a
lifespan approach to SLA, which seeks to understand continuities and discon
tinuities in growth and change over the whole of life and promises to make a
major contribution toward a unifying and comprehensive theory of SLA that is
DOI: 10.4324/9781003168935-1
2 Introduction
valid across the lifespan. In so doing, we use the term “second language acquisi
tion” to refer to any situation in which individuals learn a new language.
The lifespan is usually divided into age ranges. In modern societies, age
is strongly related to a number, that is, the number of years that have passed
since one’s year of birth. Age is treated as a numerical attribute of a person,
that is, as clock-time age, completely independent of theoretical considera
tions concerning the social construction and utilization of age as a catego
rization and identification device (Rughiniș & Hum ă, 2015). This number
becomes known to virtually all individuals, is recorded in various media, and
is a resource for social organization in fields as diverse as education, health
care, romance, sexual relationships, trade, sports, and many others. However,
as Oxford (2018) notes, reliance on chronological or calendar age is problem
atic in many respects. Although age is used to describe individuals, its nature
and influence do not originate solely within the individual; at any point in life,
the import of age derives to a large extent from how life is socially organized
(Gullette, 2003). In other words, although everyone experiences aging in his/
her unique way, people are always “aged by culture” in the sense that cultural
aging discourses delimit experiences (Isopahkala-Bouret, 2015). Treating age
as a numerical attribute of the person ignores considerations concerning the
social utilization of age as a categorization and identification device (Rughiniș
& Hum ă, 2015).
As a consequence, there has recently been a “cultural turn” in gerontol
ogy (Biggs, 2005) in that getting older is perceived as becoming increasingly
homogeneous in terms of age boundaries as “age itself ceases to distinguish
one group from another” (p. 119). The argument that life-course categories are
becoming increasingly indistinct was initiated by Featherstone and Hepworth
(1983, 1989, 1991, 1995) and has been followed through in the cultural sociol
ogy of Gilleard and Higgs (2002, 2009, 2010, 2013). Moen (2001), likewise,
calls for the consideration of alternative, more flexible life paths. According to
Biggs (2005) the possibility of virtual identities has multiplied the options open
to older people no longer bound by social and biological reference points. Biggs
(2005) speculates that the suggestion that getting older is becoming increas
ingly homogeneous means that soon there may be little reason to study middle
or late life separately from other parts of the life-course (which is probably true
for any life stage). As we will show in this book, this has important implications
for L2 learning across the lifespan, which is not only a stimulating and complex
cognitive skill but also a socially engaging and ecologically relevant activity.
At any age, there is a pronounced degree of variability among L2 learners,
relating to variation in lifestyle factors and measure of involvement in cogni
tively stimulating activities (e.g. engagement with additional languages), and
this variation has been shown to modulate cognitive performance. As a conse
quence, every individual learner’s trajectory will be idiosyncratic and depend
on their particular experiences with schooling, work, family and community,
Introduction 3
activities, and more. What is more, learners’ attitudes toward L2 acquisition can
be expected to vary considerably, not only between younger and older learners
but also actually among younger or among older individuals. Reasons for this
may stem from differences in employment status, amount of free time available,
changes that have occurred in the political situation, personal interests, per
sonality traits, or even social stigma. It is one of the goals of this book to show
how “success” in additional language learning is a function of the quantity
and quality of language experience rather than simply a matter of maturation
– irrespective of the age of the learner. Further, there is not one standard age
at which abilities change in a way that affects learning and development. The
general age-related trajectories in abilities are a function of regular aging (as
opposed to memory impairment that is a function of psychopathology, such as
dementia or Alzheimer’s disease), as we discuss in Chapter 5. The current con
sensus among cognitive scientists is that the brain remains plastic throughout life,
and that the brain is modified by experience at any age (Green, 2018; Pfenninger
& Singleton, 2019; Schlegel et al., 2012). Related to this, Bak (2016) describes
how the positive effects of multilingualism are not confined to childhood, but
instead extend across the whole lifespan.
That said, there is broad acceptance of the notion of multi-factorial differ
ences between child and adult L2 acquisition, and likewise there are also claims
that there are reasons why younger and older adults should be treated differ
ently in the SLA context. According to Labov (2001), age groups reflect “the
changing social relations across speakers’ life histories that affect their acquisi
tion and use of linguistic norms and their ability to put them into practice” (p.
101). He suggests that the life stages of modern American society are: alignment
to the pre-adolescent per group (ages 8–9), membership in the pre-adolescent
peer group (10–12), involvement in heterosexual relations and the adolescent
group (13–16), completion of secondary schooling and orientation to the wider
world of work and/or college (17–19), the beginning of regular employment
and family life (20–29), full engagement in the workforce and family responsi
bilities (30–59), and retirement (60s). Thus, in Chapters 2–5, we explore learner
populations at different points in their lifespan, during childhood, adolescence,
adulthood, and at a mature age. In Chapters 2 and 3, we discuss politically
sensitive topics that pertain to children growing up bilingual, are part of a
long cultural tradition and are oftentimes used to justify and ratify decisions of
L2 policymakers: dual language development in an immersive home setting;
and the “earlier is better” conundrum, i.e. the relationship between the age at
which learners learn a foreign language and their ultimate level of proficiency
in that language. In Chapters 5 and 6, we discuss structural and functional
changes in the aging brain between younger and older adulthood, as well as
research which suggests that such changes influence cognitive functioning and
the brain’s ability to learn. Language learning in the third age is often framed in
terms of “cognitive decline”, which is said to be an interminable consequence
4 Introduction
of aging (cf. e.g. the Linear Decline Hypothesis as described in Lenet et al.,
2011). Cognitive decline has traditionally been viewed as a consequence of
structural changes in individuals’ brains, such as the decline of white matter,
cortical thinning, or the loss of functional brain connectivity (Damoiseaux
et al., 2008). These changes then lead to reduced cognitive capacities such as
a generally lower working memory capacity (Mackey & Sachs, 2012), which
places older language learners at a disadvantage as compared to younger learn
ers. Attenuating the development of old-age disorders is therefore a major clini
cal and societal challenge. Any progress in rethinking the causes of cognitive
decline in combination with the creation of novel approaches to intervention
thus makes a significant contribution to public health in the light of increased
care costs associated with aging (Ganguli et al., 2002; Leibson et al., 2015).
It is thus not surprising that many countries have been developing programs
geared toward promoting the health and well-being of the aging population
(e.g. Formosa, 2010).
Also, the effects of language experience variables on cognition may be dif
ferent at different lifespan stages. Lifelong use of two grammars and lexicons
may result in language systems that are intertwined, rather than in competi
tion, whereas young adult bilinguals of similar proficiency levels may have
more separate language systems (Goral et al., 2015). However, as we will dis
cuss in this book, (1) not every training-related increase or decrease of func
tional activation necessarily results in structural brain changes, and there is
substantial inter- and intra-individual variation (see Brehmer et al., 2014); and
(2) it is very hard to establish direct, causal links between a specific training
and a certain cognitive outcome. How do we know whether this is indeed
due to SLA and not due to engaging in activity in general? It could be that the
effect that is being observed for these training conditions is in fact an effect
of increased social participation, a feeling of belonging and meaning, that is
facilitated through language learning, but might equally be facilitated through
other types of meaningful activity. This resonates with Marinova-Todd et al.
(2000, p. 9), who argued that “age differences reflect differences in the situ
ation of learning rather than in the capacity to learn”. (3) Relatedly, Serafini
(2017) points out that adults are not “a tabula rasa”, since scholars have long
asserted that their differential language learning success might be explained by
the varying expectations, abilities, personality traits, and attitudes they bring
to the language learning endeavor. As adults look back at a life filled with
experiences and challenges, their individual differences as well as day-to-day
or even within-day fluctuations have to be taken into account, making adults a
highly heterogeneous group. Furthermore, older adults in general show lower
cognitive functioning and gain less from cognitive interventions than younger
adults, although “some older adults show relatively intact cognitive function
ing that is closer to younger adults’ performance than to that of their low-per
forming age-matched peers” (Brehmer et al., 2014, p. 798). This makes general
Introduction 5
assumptions about cognitive abilities in the third age hard to make. Language
plays an intricate role in the aging process; because of the interactions with
social, cognitive, and physical factors “it is a methodologically difficult factor to
extract from other social aging processes” (Pot et al., 2018, p. 2).
The environments in which people learn also vary as they progress through
the lifespan. For instance, once they complete the compulsory portion of their
education, what and how much they learn is largely directed by their own
choices and circumstances. L2 learning in adulthood may occur in connection
with formal programs aimed at professional development adult learners, but
much adult learning – whether in personal life or on the job –takes place in
informal training environments: for instance, in the learning of an L2 that takes
place when a person finds love with someone from a country different from
their own, as discussed in Chapter 4. With the increasing urge in today’s society
to travel as well as to engage and communicate with people from all over the
world, many adults find themselves living in an intercultural, bi-national rela
tionship. While it is argued that such a cross-cultural exchange can offer many
advantages, such as the sharing of traditional customs, people in intercultural
relationships often find their own cultural understanding to be challenged, as
they are confronted with the juggling of identities and the ideologies associ
ated with them. People also generally adapt their ideas about what they want
to learn and do in the future as they age (Carstensen et al., 2003), and they
tend to choose environments that align with their established knowledge and
skills. Specifically, in multilingualism research, change of language preferences
throughout lifetime and their differential use in specific contexts (e.g. family/
friends versus school/work) is well documented (de Bruin & Della Sala, 2016).
Similarly, although the defining factor of bilingual proficiency for young
adult bilinguals in immigrant contexts may be their use of the non-majority
language, the same is not necessarily true of older adults (Anderson et al., 2017).
In fact, older adult immigrants who at one point used the majority language fre
quently in the workplace may experience a drop in their use of, and therefore
proficiency in, that language after retirement (Keijzer, 2011; Schmid & Keijzer,
2009). As we discuss in Chapter 6, however, life-course theory (Elder, 1992,
1995, 1998) emphasizes that retirement is not an isolated event, but a transi
tion and process embedded in a person’s biography of prior and current roles
and relationships as well as institutionalized logics shaping expectations. From
this it follows that establishing a causal effect of retirement on cognition and
language use is empirically challenging. While the associations between con
tinued employment and cognitive functioning are clearly suggestive, they have
to be taken with a grain of salt, as potentially important endogeneity issues
caution against a causal interpretation (e.g. Coe et al., 2012). In other words,
identifying a causal effect of continued employment on cognitive functioning
requires exogenous variation in job retention to rule out potentially confound
ing effects from cognition on employment.
6 Introduction
One of our goals in this book is also to show how the concepts of “decline”,
“independence”, “type of person”, “eternal youth”, and “successful aging” show
up in people’s narratives about L2 learning across the lifespan. Some scholars
have suggested that “successful aging” is a function of selecting age-appropriate
goals, optimizing existing resources, and compensating for age-related declines
using social or technological resources (Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Heckhausen et
al., 2010). However, while long-term active use of two languages may be neu
roprotective (e.g. Antoniou et al., 2013; Green, 2018; Park & Reuter-Lorenz,
2009; Rönnlund et al., 2005), we lack studies of the potential neuroprotective
effects of the learning and use of an L2 later in life. There are only a few exist
ing studies investigating the relationship between SLA in older adults and the
effects of such L2 training on cognition. We discuss in this book how such
research has to be relatively complex in its design in terms of sample size, num
ber of measurements per participant, types of control groups, intensity of L2
training, suitability of L2 teaching methods, theoretical and statistical model
formulation, and interactions between the predictors under investigation.
Finally, each chapter walks both the seasoned SLA researcher and the gradu
ate student through best practices for conducting, reporting, and interpreting
data gathered using various qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular,
we discuss various difficulties with the nature of the age factor as a “container
variable”, which is common nomination for a multitude of possible condi
tions, possibly even on several conceptual levels (e.g. the individual’s socio
economic status, which includes, among many other aspects, cultural capital,
financial resources, educational and, hence, cognitive differences, differences
with respect to nutrition and health, but possibly even genetic selection effects
due to selective mating). It is well-known that the age factor often interacts
with external variables, thus creating a joint impact on the outcome variable.
For instance, Muñoz & Singleton (2011) argue that much of the effect of start
ing age is the consequence of its co-varying relationship with non-biological
factors. Similarly, Birdsong (2018) describes age of onset of L2 acquisition as a
“proxy for the L2 acquisition initial state” (p. 2), i.e. the sum of an individual’s
cognitive, neurological, and linguistic development, along with motivational,
identificational, attitudinal, and experiential characteristics at the point at
which L2 learning begins. In this sense, age of acquisition is understood not as
the determinant of “age factor” but rather as a “meta-variable” (Flege, 1999).
Finally, the age factor often acts as a confounding variable (i.e. a common cause
of both X and Y or correlated with each), which, if not controlled, may lead
to spurious results in quantitative research. In sum, we argue in this book that
despite the heightened attention to age in both scientific discourse and policy
design – whether treating age as a central variable (i.e. the main focus of inter
est) or as a socio-demographic control, included in statistical models to assist
the study of something else – there has been a marked failure to attend to the
understanding of the social process of aging.
Introduction 7
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20 Infant and childhood bilingualism
Nous étions entrés chez la petite femme pour boire du lait. Mileke
s’empara de Jantje et le conduisit dans une étable pour lui montrer
les génisses et aussi un petit veau qui leur était né la nuit.
— Tante, il y a trois petites vaches qui commencent à avoir des
cornes, et une toute petite qui n’en a pas encore et qui tète les
doigts de Mileke. Et Mileke a aussi une boîte avec des bêtes qui font
de la soie : connais-tu ça, tante ?
— Oui, mon grand.
— Il va m’en donner une dans une autre boîte que je pourrai
emporter, et la bête fera de la soie. Tu en feras une robe, tante ?
Mileke regardait Jantje, tout ébahi, ne comprenant point qu’il ne
connût pas toutes ces choses, toutes ces merveilles qui le faisaient,
lui, palpiter du matin au soir et la nuit dans ses rêves. Et le petit
garçon en guenilles avait pitié du petit qui lui représentait le riche et
qui n’avait pas tout cela.
— Je puis aussi te montrer nos pigeons et des nids d’oiseaux
avec des œufs.
Et il l’emmena. Je rejoignis la petite femme. Le fils aîné, frère de
la Doctrine Chrétienne, venait d’arriver en vacances. Embarrassé
devant la dame étrangère, il s’assit, le chapeau sur la tête. Jantje
entra en bombe.
— Tante ! j’ai vu un nid avec de tout petits oiseaux, et la mère
voulait nous mordre. Et voilà un nid avec des œufs.
Il me mit le nid sur les genoux.
— Oh ! Jan, il faut rapporter ce nid : les petits oiseaux ne pourront
naître, puisque la mère ne peut s’étendre sur les œufs pour les
couver. Va rapporter ce nid.
— Mais tante !
— Mon grand, ils mourront, les œufs doivent avoir la chaleur de
la mère pour éclore. Va, chéri, mais donne d’abord la main à
monsieur.
Alors seulement il vit le frère. Mais au lieu d’aller vers lui, il se
blottit contre moi.
— Eh bien, Jantje, donne la main à monsieur.
— Mais, tante, ce n’est pas un monsieur : il a une robe.
Le petit frère rit, mais devint rouge jusque derrière les oreilles. Je
n’arrivai pas à persuader Jantje.
Il me répéta :
— Ce n’est pas un monsieur, il a une robe, et ce n’est pas une
dame, il a rasé sa barbe.
Pour échapper à l’antipathie que lui inspirait le frère, il reprit le nid
et se sauva, disant :
— Je vais le rapporter.
— Il serait difficile de réduire ce caractère, me dit le petit frère,
mais si je l’avais dans ma classe, ce serait cependant vite fait.
Jantje ne revenait pas. Mileke vint pousser la tête de derrière la
porte, qu’il entrebâilla, regarda son grand frère, puis la retira vite.
J’allai vers la porte ; Jantje ne voulait pas rentrer, de terreur de
l’homme en robe. Je criai au revoir à la petite femme et à son fils, et
Jantje, serrant dans une main la boîte avec le ver à soie, s’accrocha
de l’autre à la mienne.
— Tante, il ne va pas venir, le monsieur en robe ?
Juillet 1915.
30 mai, 1916.
Quelle calamité !
La semaine passée, j’ai lavé la tête des deux plus jeunes fillettes
de la petite femme : deux adorables petites créatures de cinq et dix
ans, fines, intelligentes, exquises. Quelques jours après, afin qu’elles
puissent dorénavant soigner elles-mêmes leurs cheveux, je leur ai
acheté une brosse et leur ai brossé la tête pour montrer à l’aînée,
Mitje, qui a dix-sept ans, comment elle doit faire. Puis j’ai noué un
ruban blanc dans leurs cheveux. Elles avaient des figures d’ange
spirituel. Après, je m’assis avec Fineke, la plus petite, contre moi, la
mère et les autres enfants se tenant debout. Tout en expliquant à la
mère et à l’aînée qu’il fallait aussi qu’elles se lavent et se brossent la
tête, j’aperçus des poussières qui se mouvaient sur mon corsage et
le devant de ma jupe. Je pris mon face-à-main et vis que j’étais
couverte de poux. « Mon Dieu, voyez, fis-je. » Alors toute la famille
se mit à me les ôter et à les écraser entre les ongles des pouces. La
mère et l’aînée s’écriaient : « Cela doit justement arriver à madame
qui est tellement contre les poux ! » Et elles les prenaient. Le petit
garçon en prit, Anneke en prit, agenouillée devant moi, Fineke les
montrait de ses petits doigts, disant : « Là, encore une grosse bête. »
Ils n’étaient pas plus honteux que si un peu de poussière de l’âtre
m’était volée sur la robe.
Enfin, les bêtes furent enlevées, et l’on me donna un coup de
brosse. Alors je galopai jusque chez moi.
— Emma ! Emma ! vite une autre robe, et brossez celle-ci
d’importance, et de l’eau chaude pour mes mains, et voyez s’il n’y a
pas de poux sur ma robe.
— Des poux, madame ?
Je lui racontai la chose.
— Ne dites rien à Trinette, elle le colporterait par tout le village.
Puis je courus brosser, mais là brosser mes cheveux — me
voyez-vous avec de la vermine dans mes cheveux blancs ? — et me
laver les mains avec de l’eau chaude.
La petite femme a été élevée par une marâtre qui passait sa vie
à l’église, qui ne s’occupait pas d’elle et la laissait courir les champs,
couverte de vermine et de saleté. A l’école, m’a-t-on dit, elle
contaminait toutes ses camarades. Mais le mal n’est pas tant là —
des pouilleux, il y en a partout, — le mal est qu’en Campine vous
êtes des gens sans tache du moment que vous priez, et que ces
paysans, éloignés de tout centre de civilisation, sont livrés pieds et
mains liés au curé, à peine débarrassé lui-même de ses poux. Le
soir, en passant par les rues des villages, vous entendez la voix du
père ou de la mère réciter les litanies et toute la famille répondre :
« Priez pour nous », au lieu qu’on décrasse les enfants avant de les
mettre au lit. Quand vous vous adonnez à ces pratiques, vous êtes
bien vu du curé et de tout le pays : tout le reste de la vie est détail.
Il y a trois ans, en arrivant ici au printemps, je vis Anneke dans la
cour de la ferme, amaigrie, pâle, la tête entre les épaules,
grincheuse et tremblotante, le crâne, les oreilles et la moitié des
joues envahies d’une croûte formée par ses cheveux et la sanie
coulant des plaies où grouillaient des légions de poux.
— Qu’est-ce que c’est que cela ? fis-je à la mère.
— Elle est ainsi depuis tout l’hiver, répondit-elle naïvement ; et les
sœurs se plaignent qu’elle n’apprend plus.
— Mais ce n’est que de la saleté, vous n’aviez qu’à la laver.
— Vous croyez ? Les voisines disent que c’est mauvais de faire
partir cela.
— Mauvais ! vous allez voir ça.
Et j’emmenai la petite. J’avais déjà envoyé une servante pour
tout apprêter. Je commençai par imbiber d’huile la tête de l’enfant,
puis je lui détachai doucement les croûtes et coupai impitoyablement
toute la carapace, morceau par morceau. Anneke hurla tout le temps
de l’opération. La puanteur était intolérable. Je brûlais à mesure que
je détachais ; ma servante se tenait, dégoûtée, à distance.
— C’est sale, n’est-ce pas, Hortense ?
— Oh ! je n’y mettrais tout de même pas les mains.
— Non, vous laisseriez l’enfant pourrir et s’idiotiser sous cette
carapace de poux et de pus. Donnez-moi de l’eau chaude.
Je mis un peu de sel de soude dans l’eau très chaude, et, avec
un gant de toilette et du savon noir, je lavai longuement et
doucement la tête, puis la rinçai deux fois dans de l’eau chaude
bouillie et boriquée ; j’essuyai doucement d’un fin linge, donnai des
bonbons à l’enfant, et par le soleil brûlant, sans couvrir la tête, je la