Blog Entry # 2
In my video, I had the opportunity to
interview Miriam Luna who learned English as her second language at the age of
three. Miriam moved from Mexico to the United States with her parents and other
siblings. She learned to speak English when she entered her formal schooling
but would rather speak her native Spanish language at home. Her accent in
Spanish can be distinguished due to her continuous practice of her native
language each day with her family. Ortega (2011) states that phonetic
categories or mental representations of speech sounds are stabilized by age
five to seven. As such, Miriam spoke about her positive experience in learning
a new language and felt that it was important to her to be able to communicate
with her friends at school in English in order to be understood.
During our conversation, she was able to
share with me how difficult it was for her parents because they did not
understand any English. They were very supportive of her learning English in
school, and making new friends. Also, she felt that her proudest moments were in
learning a second language. In her opinion, she felt that because of her age,
learning another language was easy to grasp, and she did not feel much difficulty
in understanding and speaking. As Ortega (2011) points out that it is possible
to conclude that age-related differences exist in how a skill or ability is
learned. At school she spoke mostly English and at home she communicated to her
parents in Spanish. She was happy that she had maintained her first language
and do see the value of it. Miriam felt that as a bilingual speaker, she is
able to communicate and assist her students who speak one language in her
classroom. She felt quite optimistic about the future as an educator and with
the endless possibilities to become successful.
Reference
Ortega, Lourdes (2011). Second Language
Acquisition. London: Routledge. Entry # 2
ReplyDeleteHello Susan, thank you for sharing your interview with Miriam! Just like Miriam, I believe second language learners got to learn the basics of the languages such as using sight words, clapping syllable, and hearing the language spoke around them, in order to progress in the learning. It was a memorable moment when Miriam shared that her parents record her singing and reciting the pledge in English. According to Ortega, her L1 knowledge influence L2 learning in a positive transfer and impact that her parents was really supportive throughout her learning experience (2009, pg. 42). From this, she was able to progress her learning day by day as a toddler. It is great that she is able to use Spanish in her field of education and want to give students the same learning experience that she had when learning English.
Hi Katherine. It’s great to hear your kind words about my post, and especially about the issues faced by second language learners. I agree that learning the basics of a language, from listening to the spoken word in the home setting is very important. I therefore also like that Mariam’s elders decided to record her as they sang and recite the pledge, so that she could hear herself. This surely allowed her the opportunities to learn, as she was able to hear herself as an encouragement to work harder. As Ortega (2011) points out, it’s these retellings with an overall accuracy of use of the spoken language, that learners have the advantage narrowed with a noticeable higher proficiency level. It is certainly nice that she can now use the same techniques to tech her students. Good job.
DeleteHi Susan'
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching your interview. What I loved the most about your interview was that Miriam was similar to the person I interviewed in many ways. Like Miriam, the person I interviewed family were immigrants and their native language is Spanish. Although they've been in American for some time now and Jennifer knows both English and Spanish, she stills speak her native language at home around her family. I also like how you mentioned the techniques used to help Miriam learn the language like phonics, vocabulary , and using syllables. Ortega suggest that sounds, syntax, and text aid in the process of an accurate and complete description of language. (Ortega, 2011 Pg. 2) I loved the fact that solutions were mentioned in ways to get Non-English speaking parents involved in school, like sending home announcements in translated language. With this in mind, I feel better in what to expect when encountering with students who speak English as a second language.
Hi Celester, Thanks for replying to my post. I see that we chose basically the same type of persons to interview in that their native language was Spanish. I also like that Miriam choose to maintain her family’s spoken language although she has been exposed directly to English. I feel that it is indeed important to practice the languages we learnt by regularly using its syntax, phonics, and so on. This includes English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and so on as spoken in the home. Ortega (2011) points out that the human language manifests itself in spoken, signed and written systems to date, and share fundamental commonalities as a universal core. Like you, I feel confident in meeting my students who speak English as second language speakers. Good post.
DeleteThank you Susan! I appreciate your reply. As I read you reply about getting to your future ELL students, do you think students of different L1 languages such as French, Hindu, or Spanish, experience the same emotions as their ELL peers? Ortega suggest that the zone of proximal development emerges among peers. (Ortega Pg 225).
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ReplyDeleteHello Susan,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching your interview with Miriam. One thing that was common between Miriam and the person I interviewed was that they were motivated to learn English so they could communicate with friends and classmates. Another similarity between Miriam and my interviewee is that they both moved to America around the age of 3. According to Ortega "occur. The third year of life is characterized by syntactic and morphological deployment. Some more pragmatically or syntactically subtle phenomena are learned by five or six years of age. After that point, many more aspects of mature language use are tackled when children are taught how to read and write in school."(Ortega, 2011 Pg. 3-4). I think this was a great age to start being introduced to English.
Hi Almira. Thanks for reading my post and I like that your interviewee was motivated to learn English as their L2. I feel that it is advantageous to learn the languages commonly spoken where the person lives so as to facilitate communication. As Ortega (2011) states, in many parts of the world most children learn one language only, and for them learning the bulk of this language is acquired from 18 months to three to four years old. This therefore suggests that the language acquisition of the learner, in terms of the prosodic and phonological makeup, takes place from the womb to three or four years old, and in some cases up to five or six years old. Great post.
DeleteGreetings Susan,
ReplyDeleteYour interviewee was similar to mine in that they learned their second language at a fairly young age. I like that Miriam points out that her being so young probably helped with grasping the language and prevented major difficulty. One thought to consider about this topic is that many researchers once believed that older children or adults would learn at a faster pace than those at a younger age. Then research began to suggest that there was an age threshold, afterwhich a new language could not really be taught. This idea has been modified, only to say that those individuals that learned an L2 early on usually caught up to those “late start” individuals (Ortega, 2009, p. 32). There seems to be no age at which we are not able to begin to learn a new language. Miriam may have an advantage over those that learned English later in life because she was exposed to multiple languages at the same time of her acquire speech altogether. Great interview!
Research does suggest that older children and adults do have an advantage over younger children in attention and learning. However this falls off as the younger children starts to develop more. (Ortega, 2009). I think the older children and adults have a greater capacity to focus and retain information at the academic level, but children that start learning the language after a "threshold" catch up and greatly outpace the older people who learn language at a later age.
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