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).
Hello Emily,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your video and I've been noticing that a lot of the people that we interviewed as a class, and myself as well, acquired our second language at a very early age. Ortega states that "The evidence for a critical or sensitive period for first language acquisition in human is strong..." (Ortega, 2013, p. 13) The reason I chose this quote was because I noticed that you acknowledged that Jeanie's parents had an accent. I think this is very common among people who had acquired their second language (English) in the late years of their childhood because they had already acquired their first language and have been speaking it for a very long time. I believe that for a lot of us, Jeanie as well, this does not apply to us because we acquired our first language such a long time ago and have been exposed to our second language longer.
References: References: Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print
Kenia,
DeleteI think that you are definitely right. Ortega tells us that those who learn a second language at a later age tend to keep their L1 mannerisms (2013). Many of the students who learn L2 earlier in life have less of an accent. This may be because of what you said, they have been exposed to it longer, but it may also be because they have more practice in it than their L1 (Ortega, 2013).
Hi Kenia,
ReplyDeleteAccording to Ortega, " many interlanguage phenomena are motivated by simultaneous L1 transfer and linguistic universal influences that conspire together to promote certain L2 solutions" (Ortega, 2013, p. 51). I believe this to be true because Jeanie learned English at early Elementary school age she was able to bridge the gap of communication between the two languages. She was able to get the formal structure at school with her teacher and the naturalistic learning from her parents at home in both English and Korean. She was able to utilize what she learn at school and home more proficiently.
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ReplyDeleteHi Emily ,
The person I interviewed had a very similar learning experience as Jeanie. Her first language was Vietnamese, and she also learned in English as her second language for the first time in a school environment. “Instructed learners learn additional languages through formal study in school or university, through private lessons and so on.” (Ortega, 2013. Pg. 6). As she practiced more and more, English eventually became her first language. She was able to make connections between both languages through practicing in and outside of the classroom.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 20111. Print
Lori, I like the quote that you used from Ortega. She is also a naturalistic learner, because she learned her first language before school. She also doesn't read and write as well as she does as she does in English, which she learned in instruction (Ortega, 2013).
DeleteHello, Emily. Jeanie expressed that although her first language is Korean, she acquired English quite simply. She began speaking English when she entered the school system at the age of four. Her recollection of her learning is the teachers and everyone in that pre-school setting would speak English to her, and that was how she easily grasped the language at such a young age. This resonates with thoughts from Ortega (2009) that “much in the linguistic environment, particularly in naturalistic settings, but also in today’s communicative classrooms, comes to learners in the midst of oral interaction with one or more interlocutors.” (p. 60). This is also how she acquired her first language of Korean from her parents. She is confident in her Korean speaking ability but admittedly falters when it comes to reading and writing in her L1. However, this makes sense because the only formal grammatical education she received was in school in English, not Korean.
ReplyDeleteThis is true. I think that this is all exactly why she learned her L2 so much easier than it would be for me to learn a second language now. I think that her being practically forced to understand English in preschool is also a reason she learned her L2 so easily. She was forced to know what other people were saying, or else she wouldn't have known what was going on at all.
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