Interview with a Second Language Learner
Click Here to listen to my Entry 2 video!
For this interview, I spoke with one of my
coworkers who I believed would be a good source of information since she didn’t
start primary school in the United States until she was in second grade.
I found it interesting how Laura is an example of many who have been able to
maintain her second language due to the fact that she began to learn it at the young
age of 9 years old. As Ortega mentions “critical and sensitive period” as a
time frame where there is a small window of opportunity in a person’s early
years before reaching puberty in which they can with more ease learn a second
language (2013, p.13). With this being said, as Laura mentioned, she had a
better chance of retaining the English as her second language than her brother
who was a teenager by the time he began to learn it.
On another note, Laura mentions Spanish being her
most dominant language which I found interesting since it aligns with Rowlands
theory that “balanced bilinguals are relatively rare” (2014, p.176). This is to
say that while Laura is able to speak both languages and has high proficiency
in both, she still relies heavily on her first language due to the fact that
she is forced to speak Spanish at home with her parents and as well enjoys
using it with friends. In addition, Ortega mentions a study conducted on
children below six years old who did not to live up to the native-like pronunciations
due to the fact that the children were not exposed to the second language since
birth (2013). As for Laura, she wasn’t exposed to English until she was nine
years old, therefore, despite having a fair pronunciation, Laura like many
others still doesn’t meet native-like pronunciations, perhaps because she is
most comfortable with Spanish when you hear her speak.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language
acquisition. Routledge.
Rowland, Caroline. Understanding Child Language Acquisition.
New York: Routledge, 2014. (Chapter 7)
Hi, Nancy! I also found interesting that Laura’s dominant language is Spanish, her first language, because that is usually not the case with many bilinguals. I say this because seeing our classmates’ interviews and personal anecdotes, those of us that have English as our second language also have English as our dominant language. It is also interesting that you chose to interview someone who learned a second language later on in life. Rowland (2014) states that “learning a second language in later life is often much more effortful than learning two languages from birth and there is a very healthy debate concerning the effect of age of acquisition” (p. 190). I think this is partly due to the fact that many people believe early bilinguals have it “easier” as compared to late starters, which is something Laura seems to believe as well.
ReplyDeleteAlthough she did not learn a second language from birth, she learned it relatively earlier compared to her older brother, and assumes she has an advantage over him. Interestingly enough, Ortega (2011) states of a study made by Muñoz in which they compared English language learners of about the same age as Laura and her brother, and they found that “when early starters studying English from the age of eight to 16 were compared to late starters studying English from the age of 11 to 17, the late starters actually maintained an advantage that persisted well after five years of instruction (seven and nine years, respectively)” (p. 17). This contradicts Laura’s belief of her having an advantage over her brother’s second language acquisition.
References:
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
Rowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. New York: Routledge.
Hi Yazmin, thanks for your comment! I find it quite interesting that you pointed out a contradiction from Laura's beliefs. As a matter of fact, for my third interview, the teacher I spoke with strongly believed that it really all depends on the student's level of proficiency with their first language, which can help with learning their second language. As well, Ortega mentions in her third chapter the idea that those with previous knowledge of their mother tongue can help accelerate or delay the learning process of their second language, which can explain why some older individuals can attain and retain a second language better than younger individuals (2013).
DeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
Hello Nancy, I agree with several of your points! The critical period of development Ortega discusses seems to be prevalent in many different students' interviews as well as in other situations in our lives (2011). I also like Yazmin's point about older second-language learners having an advantage in maintaining fluency over those who started earlier than them.
ReplyDeleteDo you think this is due to those who are older having better memory retention? Or could it be that they feel more motivated in situations in which learned the language are in their best interest - not simply a grade for class?
I think that yours and Rowland's point about the rarity of balanced bilinguals makes a lot of since, since many do not choose to engage in that level of fluency as they age. I think it might be a case of "I have enough to go on" - a mindset I am guilty of when it comes to Spanish and Japanese - though I am trying to fix this by learning more than just conversational skills in one of the languages.
Hi Ila, thanks for your comment! As I've mentioned to Yazmin, I'm starting to believe that part of the reason why older individuals learning a second language have an advantage of maintaining the language depends on the individual themselves as the teacher I interviewed suggested. In her third chapter, Ortega also mentions that an individual's level of proficiency play an important role in both L1 and L2 (2013). Therefore, to answer your question, it can be possible that the older individuals have a high level of proficiency in their L1 and that is able to help with their ability to gain proficiency in L2.
DeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
Hello Nancy! The person who I interviewed had a similar situation with a sibling. He struggled much more trying to learn the new language and is still not as good at is as the young man I interview due to the age difference. According to Ortega, "If bilingualism and language activation/dominance effects operate across all ages, then the explanatory onus would subtly move away from biology and on to changes in the brain and in cognitive processing that are shaped by the experience that results from being exposed to more than one language simultaneously or sequentially and across varying ages" (2013, pg. 27). I feel as if age plays a huge role when it comes to learning a new language. But I also feel like the development of the brain plays a big role, but I truly think that once again, it all goes back to age.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Harlie, thanks for your comment! Indeed, I do believe that age plays a significant role in the learning process of a second language. Ortega states that research studies have found that it is quite impossible for the human to brain to take in information when older compared to when an individual was younger (2013). Therefore, this explains one of the reasons why Laura and many others who began to learn their second language before the age of puberty where able to attain the language with ease.
DeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
A very informative interview. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHello, Nancy. I found your interview very interesting and informative. Laura had some great things to say. I found it extremely interesting that she was able to learn English in second grade after so many years of speaking only Spanish. It was also very interesting to hear that Spanish is still her dominate language, and is considered a balanced bilingual like you stated. When I interviewed Nicole, she had a different experience. Because she did not use Spanish every day as an adult, she is no longer comfortable speaking the language and has now become was Gass and Selinker call a “recessive bilingual”. This is the term for an individual who is bilingual, but is uncomfortable using one of their languages (Gass and Selinker 2013, pg.28). Why is it that you think Laura was able to retain both languages so well, compared to most individuals who tend to favor one language over the other?
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Gass, S., Selinker, L. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York: Routledge.
Hi Haylee, thanks for your comment! To answer your question, I would actually consider Laura to not be a well-balanced bilingual. See, Rowland states that there are only rare balanced bilinguals since many individuals usually tend to choose one language more than the other in certain situations instead of using both equally (2014). Nevertheless, Laura has been able to maintain both languages since she is exposed to Spanish at home and English at school and at work, those outside of home experiences and interactions indeed play an important role on one's language development. This correlates with the idea stated by Ortega that individuals at one point or another will be forced to use the language to communicate with others (2013).
DeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Rowland, Caroline. Understanding Child Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge, 2014. (Chapter 7)