Entry 2: Interview with a...
The individual I chose to interview is my mom, Aracely Napieralski. Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico her first language and for most of her life she has spoken Spanish. Some of the English she knows she learned in school growing up. When she married my dad she moved to the United States where she continued to develop her English. I hope you enjoy the video!
Hi Alessandra ,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your interview with your mother. It is interesting to compare her experience with learning English in Mexico to others who began learning English in American public school. It is interesting that she mentions how "living here and being married to an American make a difference." She also describes how children learn english without cognitively recognizing that they are learning or even putting effort in learning and believes that this makes it easier to learn English as a small child. Automatic processes require small effort and take up few cognitive resources, and therefore many automatic processing routines can run in parallel (Ortega, 2013, p. 83). This sounds similar to what your mother described. Ortega (2013, p. 84) goes on to mention the limited capacity model which claims that when we voluntarily attend to one thing, we need to block out the rest. Therefore, if several demands are competing for controlled processing, they will be prioritized and certain processes will wait in line while only one is being executed (Ortega, 2013). She expresses how when she began learning English, she was mainly learning vocabulary in a classroom setting, which did not give her much room for automatic processing of the language. That being so, she had to make a conscious effort to learn it while in class which as Ortega describes as limited. She does seem to speak fluent English, but as she mentions, it is apparent that there are still some language gaps.
Hi Angel! Yes, I have found it interesting to compare how other countries teach. I want to believe that it is easier for those who learn English here because they are sort of forced to practice it outside of school. They have to deal with people who may not speak their first language. Where as in the case of my mom they would practice in the classroom and possible with someone outside the classroom if they chose to. Being married to someone who spoke English and living in an area where there were not many who spoke her language it pushed her to learn more. Like you mentioned, Ortega (2013) says how learning in the classroom is limited. I agree with her in this because when you first start learning a language in a school they teach you vocabulary. Then once you have all the vocabulary then they work on your grammar along the way. I think some people tend to learn better being immersed in the language. Having grown up speaking Spanish and taking Spanish in school I think being immersed also helps you with conversation skills. The classroom can be limited in that they may not show you conversational speech, it may be more formal. Which leads me back to the language gaps. My mom knows her vocabulary and grammar but the expressions used in English she does not know all of them. So those are things that a formal setting cannot teach, you learn them through experience.
DeleteHi Alessandra. I like how y’all spoke about how your mother being married to an English speaker has helped her develop English more as an adult. Ortega states that “the outcomes of language socialization are far reaching and include normative ways of viewing the world. That is, by increasingly participating more actively in activities with others, learners acquire new ways of saying, doing and being (p.253, 2013). By being around you and others who are proficient in English, she is able to say words in different ways and learn words that we say that she may have never learned through instruction such as “y’all.”
ReplyDeleteHi Asia! I agree with you that Alessandra’s mother being around English speakers is definitely beneficial for her development of English as an L2 language. Ortega states, “Second Language socialization studies have further revealed that learning outcomes can be greatly improved when L2 learners are not construed as definitional novices and instead their invisible expertise is made visible during socializing events” (p.238, 2013). The fact that Alessandra’s mother is able to communicate with her family and other English speakers on topics she enjoys socializing about is valuable so she feels comfortable practicing and enhancing the L2.
DeleteHi Asia! I thought it was important to talk about it because I know people who are learning another language often hear that they should practice with a native. I know this can be intimidating because you are worried that you will sound funny or you are pronouncing it incorrectly. It really does help though because it lets a native speaker help you with not only pronunciation but with the use of words. Languages can be so tricky with all the rules they have and having someone try to explain can be helpful. Ortega (2013) mentioned the identity model and the right to speak being unequally distributed. I think besides it being placed by others, L2 learners have a part in this as well. Sometimes we get too shy or nervous that we prevent our right to speak. Which is why I think finding someone who you feel comfortable with is helpful like we saw my mom with my dad.
DeleteHi Marissa! Yes I think it was beneficial for her as well. I even see it in my life too. I learned English and Spanish simultaneously but having people from both sides to practice with all my life helped me form both languages. You hear about those who maybe started out with both but then used more of one than the other so now they feel stronger in one than the other language. Like you mentioned for someone to be able to talk about their interests in the second language it helpful. Any shyness or nervousness that was there slowly fades. Ortega (2013) mentioned a story about Besty Rymes who became more involved in the classroom when they started to talk about things he knew about. I imagine it is frustrating for someone to keep up with a conversation and not fully understand what it being said.
DeleteHi Alessandra! It is so awesome that your mother learned English back in her home country and in her city of Monterey! My mother is from El Salvador and she was never exposed to a second language until she came to the United States so it is great to see that she was able to be exposed to that early on. Ortega mentions in her text that people tend to think children learn languages speedily and effortlessly (Ortega, 2013, p. 16). I believe this because your mother is so proficient and fluent in her second language. Unfortunately, like I previously mentioned, my mother did not have exposure to an L2 at an early age so she in not fluent and struggles to communicate.
Delete