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.
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ReplyDeleteHi Karla, I enjoyed watching your interview video and getting to know your friend. I believe that many SLA speakers can relate in many ways to your friend's experience. My brother started learning English when he was in second grade; his first language was Spanish, and now he also believes English is his dominant language. A similarity I found between your friend and my brother is how they said that sometimes L1 is not very helpful to learn/ understand L2. "For one, it soon became apparent that sometimes certain L1-L2 similarities do not seem to help" (Ortega, 2013, p. 32). My brother also mention that Spanish helped him but sometimes it didn't because like you and your friend Viri said, some words are similar but have different meaning. Great interview!
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
DeleteHi Karla! I agree with you, there are many second language learners that can relate to this experience. I interviewed my best friend who did not learn English until she was exposed to it in school. She also stated that when she was learning English, she related a lot of the words to the Spanish ones. It made it easier for her to learn the words since they were basically the same. Now she is more dominant in speaking English.
DeleteHi Karla,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. English is also my second language, and when I was younger, I would have never imagined that English was going to be my dominant language. I think that many other SLAs can relate to this statement, but living in a country that requires you to speak English the majority of the time we can see how English becomes our dominant language. Rowland states that " for most, one language is dominant, and it is the community language." (pg. 174). English being the community language, has become the dominant language for many ELLs.
Reference: Rowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. New York: Routledge.
Hello Karla and thank you for sharing. It's extremely interesting that a big portion of our SLA class has had interviewees learning English around the same age (seven/eight years old). My wife, Trang, has had her fair share of confused moments, as you described with Viri. I guess when it comes down to it, metalinguistic awareness takes precedence. Rowland elaborates, "metalinguistic awareness refers to the ability to reflect on and think about the nature of language and its functions" (p.199). Like my wife, I also see Viri's dominant language is English. I guess the more you are exposed to it, the more prone you are to speaking it. It's good to hear that Viri has no difficulties with any English words or pronunciations. Trang is in the same boat when it comes to proficiency in English. I would also consider her to be a native-like English speaker.
ReplyDeleteRowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.