When making this interview, I wanted to make sure that I let
my friend Jeanie know her label as a bilingual speaker. She is a dominant
bilingual, which Gass and Selinker defined as someone who is more proficient in
one of their languages (2008). There are multiple types of bilingualism. I
think that my friend also falls under the label of early childhood bilingual, because
she learned both languages as a young child, but I think she best falls under
the category of dominant bilingual. Ortega states that “similarities between
the L1 and L2 are at the root of attested learning difficulties,” (2013) and
this might be the reason why she says that she would find a more difficult time
trying to learn how to read and write in Korean. I think a dominant bilingual would be very
difficult to teach, especially if they speak a language other than the teaching
language at home because they won’t practice the language that much. When a
student doesn’t practice the language they are trying to learn, they won’t
learn that easily. Gas and Selinker say that for a student to learn an L2, they
need instruction and to be submerged in the target language to truly learn (2008).