Entry 2 SLA Interview
For my SLA interview, I interviewed my husband, Erick Duenas. Erick grew up in Houston Texas, and his parents are natives of El Salvador. As I interviewed Erick, I heard his accent throughout the interview. Erick was in the bilingual class through pre-k- fifth grade. Erick did not learn English until he was in sixth grade. Erick did say that learning English later in his pre-teens did affect him because he stated that the older you get the harder it gets to learn. Erick also mentioned that he learned English from his peers at school, with his older siblings and watching American TV. Erick feels that learning a second language has affected him in a positive way. Erick has found it very beneficial being able to speak two languages. Erick said that he found Spanish more difficult because of the accents that need to be added when writing and there are more letters in the alphabet. Erick did experience language cultural shock he found it very stressful and, in Second language acquisition: An introductory course, it states that “studies suggest that both language shock and culture shock are important for second language learners, but whether they truly affect acquisition is yet another story.” I also asked Erick if he felt comfortable with both languages. Erick is able to speak, write and read in Spanish and English. I detected that Erick is balance bilingual because he is “someone whose mastery of two languages is roughly equivalent
” (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p.27)
Click here to watch SLA Interview with Erick Duenas: Interview SLA
Reference
Gass, S. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. Routledge.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Damaris! I find it interesting that Erick found it more difficult to learn English as a pre-teen. He referred to the fact that he thinks that it affected his abilities to learn the language, and the textbook does support that saying that there is “an optimal, maybe even critical, age period for the acquisition of language…” (Ortega, 2014, p.12). That said, it is huge that he is able to note that Erick is able to recognize that this impacted his second language acquisition. I also like that Erick touched base on the fact that he learned English through peers, siblings, and television as well. That can be a very important part of language acquisition.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHey Noor! Thank you for taking some time out and give some feedback! As it was stated that “an optimal, maybe even critical, age period for the acquisition of language…” (Ortega, 2014, p.12) . Erick feels that he learned his second language at a critical age period but at then end of the day he is able to speak both English and Spanish fluently. Thank you Noor!
DeleteHi again, Damaris! I also just wanted to state that I find it interesting that Erick learned his L2 so late in life but did not develop a very strong accent. And is able to speak both English and Spanish fluently. In the textbook, it is stated by Ortega that foreign-sounding accents are more likely to develop when the L2 is learned later in life (2013, p.22) is it is interesting that he did not develop that accent, although he learned the second language as a pre-teen.
DeleteHello Damaris! It was nice and interesting to hear that you had interviewed your husband. His upbringing seems very similar to many people that I know, especially when it came to learning English around middle school. I have a lot of friends who learning English around then and it was quite difficult because they only had an opportunity to learn English at school, because no one at home really spoke English. Therefore, they never had any chance to practice at home. Additionally, these friends also had strong accents once they learning English this late. Ortega also states “the evidence accumulated since 1988 overwhelmingly shows that foreign-sounding accents are likely to develop when the L2 is first learned later in life” (Ortega, 2013, p.22)
ReplyDeleteHey Chelsea thank you for taking sometime out and replying to my interview! As Ortega stated that “the evidence accumulated since 1988 overwhelmingly shows that foreign-sounding accents are likely to develop when the L2 is first learned later in life” (Ortega, 2013, p.22)I feel that my husband Erick, does have an accent only when he’s under a certain circumstance, such as giving a speech in public but other than that there is no strong accent.
DeleteHi Damaris! I think it is awesome that your husband knows both Spanish and English! We share a commonality whereas both his and my parents are from El Salvador. Although he was fully submerged into the English language at a later age, he is still fortunate enough to be competent enough to speak a second language very fluently. Both Gass and Selinker describe this as a balanced bilingual, which is having the mastery in two different languages (Gass and Selinker, 2008, p. 27). He has so much so reached a mastery level that he has became a teacher and been able to transfer that onto his students who are also first language Spanish speakers.
ReplyDelete