Entry 2: Interview with a...
Welcome back! For this entry, I decided to interview a classmate, Thom Tran. Thom Tran is a student at the University of Houston. Thom is Vietnamese. She is bilingual in Vietnamese and English. English is her second language and in this video, she shares her experiences learning English as a second languages and some challenges she has encountered.
My interview with Thom has allowed me to make connections with what I have read in this SLA class. As you saw in my video, Thom has informed us that she is bilingual in Vietnamese and in English. I have known Thom for a while now, so I know that Vietnamese is her mother tongue, or L1 and English is her L2. Thom grew up speaking Vietnamese until she began elementary school. Once she started elementary school, she began learning her L2 (English). Ortega states that "Children acquiring their first language complete the feat within a biological window of four to six years of age" (Ortega, 2013, p.12). With that being said, during this time period, Thom was acquiring her first language, Vietnamese.
Although Thom's first language or L1 was Vietnamese, she began learning her L2 (English) at a very young age in her childhood. I would consider Thom as an early bilingual. Gass and Selinker state that an early bilingual is "someone who has acquired two languages early in childhood" (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p. 27). As I continued to read Gass & Selinker, I also felt that Thom fell under the coordinate bilingual category. Gass & Selinker define a coordinate bilingual as "someone whose two languages are learned in distinctively separate contexts" (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p.27). I believe that Thom fell under this category because Thom learned her L1 (Vietnamese) from her family and conversations in her home. As for English, her L2, she began learning it in a more formal setting, or educational setting from elementary school.
As I interviewed Thom, I found that her experiences and story were very similar to mine. We both believe that we had an advantage in learning our second language (English) because we both began elementary school at the right time, versus other students who immigrate from a different country and sometimes even begin school in the United States as late as age 7.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Although Thom's first language or L1 was Vietnamese, she began learning her L2 (English) at a very young age in her childhood. I would consider Thom as an early bilingual. Gass and Selinker state that an early bilingual is "someone who has acquired two languages early in childhood" (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p. 27). As I continued to read Gass & Selinker, I also felt that Thom fell under the coordinate bilingual category. Gass & Selinker define a coordinate bilingual as "someone whose two languages are learned in distinctively separate contexts" (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p.27). I believe that Thom fell under this category because Thom learned her L1 (Vietnamese) from her family and conversations in her home. As for English, her L2, she began learning it in a more formal setting, or educational setting from elementary school.
As I interviewed Thom, I found that her experiences and story were very similar to mine. We both believe that we had an advantage in learning our second language (English) because we both began elementary school at the right time, versus other students who immigrate from a different country and sometimes even begin school in the United States as late as age 7.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Gass,
S., & Selinker, L. (2013). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. New York:
Routledge.
ReplyDeleteThe person I interviewed is also bilingual. Like Thom, Ruth grew up speaking one language and learned a second language in school. My subject is also coordinate bilingual because her two languages were also like Thom’s, learned in two completely different contexts, one in the home and the other in the school environment. Gass and Selinker mention, “Some learners may have been raised by parents who only spoke the heritage language,” (Gass and Selinker, 2008. p. 24). This is the case for both of these subjects. After learning her L1, Thom learned her L2 in elementary school and Ruth learned her L2 in her teens after already being fluent in her L1. Even though Ruth had a later start in her English language than Thom, she has become very fluent in the English language.
Gass, Susan M., and Selinker, Larry. Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.
Stacey,
DeleteI also believe that Ruth would be considered a dominant bilingual. Gass and Selinker state that a dominant bilingual is "someone with greater proficiency in one of his or her languages and uses it significantly more than the other language" (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p. 27). Although Ruth may use English more to communicate with others, it is evident in your video that she is more dominant in Spanish. Ruth also states that her dominant language is Spanish because she has been speaking it since she was born.
Gass, S., & Selinker, L. (2013). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course.
Kenia,
DeleteI think that both of you and Stacey’s interviewees are dominant in both languages, dominant bilinguals. I am jealous that they are able to switch between two different languages with ease. Ortega states, “Bilingual speakers can switch and alternate between their two (or more) languages, depending on a range of communication needs and desires (Ortega, 2013, p.4). I think that it is important to be able to switch between the two languages when you are a bilingual. That way you don’t lose one language or the other. Even though they are able to switch between two different languages, they feel more comfortable with one or the other.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.
From reading your post and watching your interview, Thom and I had a very similar language learning experience. Vietnamese was also my L1 until I got to school, and I think both Thom and I would fall under the categories of early and coordinate bilinguals, but I think I diverge because I would fall under dominant bilingual. Dominant bilingual is defined as “someone with greater proficiency in one of his or her languages and uses it significantly more than the other languages” (Gass and Selinker, 2008, p. 27). I find that I was speaking more English because I was using it the majority of the time to communicate with the people I spent eight hours with at school and even with my cousins who are also American born but spoke it as frequently as I did. As a result, I was losing my Vietnamese and English became more dominant. Having a friend who was born elsewhere and immigrating here, she spoke Spanish the majority of her life and picked up English starting at eight, and with the various support systems in place, she ended up fluent in Spanish and English to this day as her circumstances and mine were different from our early childhoods.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteNguyen,
DeleteI definitely agree with you on the dominant bilingual. I believe that I would also fall under that category considering my my dominant language is English now, versus when I was 4 and Spanish was my dominant language. I believe that Thom could also fall under this category as well because English is her dominant language now. Gass and Selinker state that “Some learners may have been raised by parents who only spoke the heritage language,” (Gass and Selinker, 2008. p. 24). This was the case for me and Thom. We both grew up with parents speaking only our heritage language. With that being said, just like you, being exposed to English and using it more than our heritage language, we began to slowly become more dominant in English.
Gass, S., & Selinker, L. (2013). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course.
Nguyen, I think that is neat that Vietnamese is your L1 yet you are more dominant English. You mention being surrounded by your English speaking peer for 8 hours a day and American cousins. "Learners obtain comprehensible input mostly through listening to oral messages that interlocutors direct to them and via reading written texts that surround them, such as street signs, personal letters, books and so on" (Ortega, 2013, p. 59). It sounds like you became dominant in English by being surrounded by so much comprehensible input.
DeleteOrtega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print
Hi Kenia,
ReplyDeleteI like how in your interview, it was mentioned that Thom is now dominant in English instead of her first language which was Vietnamese. It is evident that perhaps, this is because she was put into an environment where the majority of individuals around her spoke English and so Thom did not need to use her L1 as often. According to Ortega, “Bilingual speakers [can] switch and alternate between their two (or more) languages, depending on a range of communicative needs and desires (Ortega,2013, pg.4). Based off of the interview It seems like this quote is similar to Thom and her experiences.
Ruth,
DeleteI agree, environment definitely had a huge impact on Thom’s dominant language being English. Ortega states, “Knowing about the language benefits afforded by the environment is thus important for achieving a good understanding of how people learn additional languages” (Ortega, 2013, pg 55). It is possible that because Thom was exposed to an English dominant environment, she developed a greater understanding of how she learns and what works best for her.
Hello, Kenia. Your interviewee, Thom, was very interesting. She stated that her first language is Vietnamese, but she lost confidence in her fluency. Does she now only speak English with her parents? She mentioned that she began her English learning journey at the tender age of three. Although she learned Vietnamese first, she was so young that by the time she started learning her second language, she most likely did not yet have mastery of her first language. Ortega (2009) sheds some light on the effect adults have on children’s language development. “In order to build an L1 grammar, children only need to be exposed to the language that parents or caretakers direct to them for the purpose of meaning making” (p. 60). Therefore, it makes sense that the presence of English over took her L1 of Vietnamese at such a young when she was, technically, still acquiring her L1. Teachers are like care takers, because as a child, you spend most of your waking hours under their supervision. In the case of the L1 Mandarin student in Thom’s student teaching classroom, she probably does understand input but cannot yet comfortably produce output. “Comprehension does not usually demand the full processing of forms. During comprehension, it is possible to get the gist of messages by relying on key content words aided by knowledge of the world, contextual clues, and guessing” (Ortega, 2009, p. 62).
ReplyDelete