Entry 2: Interview with a...




Interview Link: https://youtu.be/gy7YDTTn3-I







I interviewed my step-sister. She came from Mexico when she was 7 years old, so the English language was a new concept for her. When she started school she was put in ESL classes from 2nd grade all through 4th grade. The teachers that she had only spoke to her in Spanish, so in her classes she wasn’t that much exposed to English. It was until she got to 5th grade when she had to learn English because the teachers wouldn’t let her speak in Spanish. Also, since the friends that she had only spoke English that made her learn English faster. She was exposed to the English language at home when she listened to her step-siblings speak in English. That also helped her in acquiring the English language. She had a difficult time completing her homework because of the language barrier. She would ask her step-siblings for help on her homework and that helped her in being able to complete her homework. Even though she knows English sometimes she has a hard time pronouncing some words and you can hear her accent “…foreign accents are so conspicuous that they can often be detected by the untrained ear” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 22). Like she said in the video she avoids saying the words turtle and squirrel because she cannot pronounce them “new phonetic contrasts will be processed through such an L1 filter, and hence it is more difficult, although not biologically impossible, to detect and produce L2 categories that are not salient” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 23). It was a difficult journey for her to learn the English language. 




Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 23, 2018 at 9:52 PM

    Hello Rosa,
    The way your step sister spoke about her "Spanglish" is similar to how my interviewee speaks to others from a Latin heritage. If I am with him and he speaks to a fellow Spanish speaker he will drift from English to Spanish unconsciously. He does it so much that sometimes he doesn't even realize he is doing it. I often notice that he sometimes puts words in different orders from the proper format when using English. I never really understood why until this class. In English, you would say, "These are the students desk." But in Spanish, you would say, Estoy son los escritorio de los estudientes, or the desk of the students. This is the syntax used in the Spanish language. So when he speaks English, he uses Spanish syntax while using English grammer. Your sister speaks very well for English to be her L2. I think it is due to Spanish and English having a strong crosslinguistic influence. It amazes me to know she has been been speaking English so long but has yet to master certain words. I believe this is due to your first language influence. Ortega states on page 34-35 that L1 transfer cannot radically alter the route of L2 acquisition but it can impact the rate of learners’ progress along their natural developmental paths. So maybe your sister's mother language is so strong that it prohibits her from making such grammatical sounds.
    What language dominates her speaking and writing today?

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    Replies
    1. Rosa SerranoOctober 2, 2018 at 9:13 PM

      Hi,
      To answer your question the language that dominates her speaking and writing is Spanish. I too sometimes depending with who I am speaking with, I go from Spanish to English or vice versa. When that happens I tend to stick to one language. Yes, when writing certain phrases in English from Spanish we have to switch the order in order for it to make sense, but sometimes it is not necessary to do that.

      Delete
  2. Lawrence EkekeSeptember 24, 2018 at 6:04 PM

    Hello Rosa,
    As stated in Ortega at the beginning of chapter 3, crosslinguistic influences can have both a positive and negative affect on those who are beginning or are already learning a second language. The positive side of your sister's crosslinguistic influences can be seen as she speaks gracefully during her interview. She has even mastered the contractions of the English language. This can be difficult for some one coming from a Latin country because they are taught to say no prior to saying the verb, where English is the total opposite (Ortega p. 32). In my opinion, the only negative down side of her transfer was a slight similarity between her letter v and her letter b. She also stated that she has trouble saying turtle and squirrel. The words are very similar because of the long r. I believe she will master them if she focuses on them more.

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    Replies
    1. Rosa SerranoOctober 2, 2018 at 9:22 PM

      Hi Lawrence,
      She has been practicing how to pronounce the words turtle and squirrel. She has improved tremendously in saying the word turtle because she used to not be able to pronounce the r while saying the word. I have noticed that some people have trouble pronouncing v and b without having it sound the same. Also, it is the same with the letter c and z. I think by practicing on emphasizing the pronunciation will help her in being able to distinguish her pronunciation of v and b.

      Delete
  3. RuthfraustoSeptember 27, 2018 at 6:08 PM

    Hello Rosa,
    It looks like based off of the interview, learning English was especially difficult for your step-sister to acquire due to her being put in a class environment where only Spanish was spoken. However, she also noted that learning a new language was made easy when she was put in a different environment; like her Math and Science classes because her teachers required her to only used English in the classroom; and when she came across a word she did not know, they would try to explain it. Another aspect that made it easier for her was her age, because she began learning English during her childhood. These experiences relate to what Ortega says about certain components that help an individual acquire a new language. According to Ortega, “SLA research has unveiled a number of universal influences that help shape the… path towards learning a second language…the most important and well-studied sources of universal influence are age…environment.” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 9).

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    Replies
    1. Lawrence EkekeOctober 2, 2018 at 8:22 PM

      I believe that Rosa's step-sister would have acquired English simply due to the fact that she was so young, and the entire environment spoke only English. Even though they spoke Spanish at home, school is such a large part of people's lives that in can consume and individual. Ortega states that " Speakers in a high-use L2 environment have typically developed higher communicative competence and are relatively accustomed to successful experiences." So, it seems that regardless of it came easy, or if it came hard, she was destined to learn in because of the age she was, and the deep immersion of daily English she was put in. (Ortega pg. 203)

      Delete
    2. Rosa SerranoOctober 2, 2018 at 9:28 PM

      Hi Ruth,
      My sister did have a difficult time trying to learn English. I also think that being put in a situation where she couldn’t speak Spanish helped her develop more in the English language. Being young helped her because since she was of school age she was put in an environment where she would hear the English language. One thing that helped her was that she was able to practice her English at home with my siblings and me.

      Delete
  4. Audrey UraihOctober 2, 2018 at 7:52 PM

    Hello, Rosa. It is sweet that you interviewed your step-sister. I enjoyed hearing from her. You mentioned that she emigrated from Mexico in the second grade and that her classes were in Spanish up until the fifth grade, where she was restricted to only speaking English. I wonder if this restriction was somehow tied to the erroneous English Only movement. During your interview, when the topic of socializing surfaced, your sister plainly stated that her greatest motivation for learning English was to be able to communicate with her friends. This is understandable, especially for a child. No one wants to be in a class without peers that speaking same language. For those few classes she was enrolled in with no Spanish-speaking peers, Ortega (2009) agrees, urging that “languages are almost always learned with and for others, and these others generate linguistic evidence, rich or poor, abundant or scarce, that surrounds learners” (p. 55). Communicating with and to speaking with others can motivate one to learn a language.

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    Replies
    1. Rosa SerranoOctober 2, 2018 at 9:34 PM

      Hi Audrey,
      Having friends that didn’t speak Spanish was a motivating force for my sister. That pushed her to learn the language and not conform to just speaking her native language. I think that the teachers didn’t want her to speak English was because they couldn’t understand what she was saying. I remember having teachers that didn’t want us to be speaking Spanish in case we were talking about other students or saying swear words.

      Delete

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