https://youtu.be/dFGtP3IY4kY
For Entry two, I decided to interview my long-time friend Viri. Her first language is Spanish, she was introduced to her second language English when she was about eight years old. She states that she thinks that was the perfect age to learn her L2 because she feels like if she had been introduced to her L2 earlier, she would've not been ready. She thinks that a younger age she would've not had the mental capacity to learn her L2. After speaking her L2 for over 10 years, she considers her dominant language to be English. Viri states that although she was able to find similarities between her L1 and L2, there were times that those similarities did not help. Ortega states that "sometimes certain L1-L2 similarities do not seem to help." (pg. 32) The book also states that sometimes the differences are not the ones that make learning an L2 more difficult, but it is the similarities. Viri mentioned that she connected the Spanish word "constipado" to the English word "constipated." unfortunately the connection she thought she found was not helpful. Luckily there was someone there to correct her, but if her friend had not corrected her, she would go around telling people she was "constipated" instead of "congested." Although Viri states that when she was younger, there were words with the "th" that she had trouble saying, now that she is an adult and daily speaks her L2, there are no words she avoids saying.
I enjoyed being able to interview my friend, I got to learn more about her, and share with her what I have been learning in this class.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
