Hi Angela! I thought it was interesting that your first language was Vietnamese, but since you do not use it as often anymore you have become more comfortable with English. Ortega states that “children learning their L1 may receive of the order of 14,000 hours of exposure” (2013, p. 17). As you began attending school, you lost a lot of exposure to the Vietnamese language and as a result, you started to forget how to say some words. I still think it’s great that you can have simple conversations with your family members. I wish that I was able to have simple conversations in Spanish with my dad or Tagalog with my mom, but unfortunately, I only know a few words and small phrases.
Hi Krystal, thank you for your reply! I hope that you do not feel too discouraged. Although you may only know a few words and small phrases as of right now, you still have the chance to learn more Spanish and/or Tagalog! According to Ortega (2013, p. 16), “adult learners and older children learned at a faster pace than younger children because adults may be able to use cognitive and metacognitive abilities and strategies to learn many aspects of the L2 initially faster.” I definitely believe that you are more than capable of learning the languages, and I wish you the best of luck! 😊
Hi Angela! I think bilingual programs are very important in the school system. Like you mentioned, you lost a lot of your Vietnamese language because you were constantly surrounded by classmates, teachers, and school workers that only spoke to you in English. A bilingual program could have easily provided you with instruction in both English and Vietnamese to ensure that your L2 was not replacing your L1. Regardless of that, you had a success in learning your second language at a young age. Ortega states that, "a number of environmental and socio-affective factors may mutually interact and become important predictors of success at earlier as well as later starting ages" (2013, p.27) I believe that your family’s support and your schooling provided you with a positive language learning environment.
Ortega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Hi Kallie, you make a good point about bilingual programs. I wished that there was a bilingual program in my school that would have provided me with instruction in both English and Vietnamese. If there was one, I believe that it would have helped me retain my fluency in Vietnamese. Ortega states that “most learners who begin acquiring the L2 before a certain age, typically before puberty, will develop levels of morphosyntactic and phonological competence that are very close to those of native speakers of that language” (2013, p. 28). Since I learned English when I was four years old, I was able to successfully learn my second language. Thank you for your reply!
Hey Angela! Ortega states that, "young children may have a slow start when acquiring an L2 can be an important research-based argument against harmful attempts to promote so-called sink-or-swim educational policies that attempt to reduce or even completely withdraw the first and second language support that is to be provided to language minority children by schools" (2013, p. 28). I find it extremely insensitive that individuals would use something like maturity or young age to push a sink or swim agenda. Being a young learner of English, yourself, I am wondering your take on this?
Ortega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Hey Angela, I can really relate to what you said in your video. I also grew up speaking Vietnamese and English, but we really do not get the support to speak Vietnamese outside of the house. My Vietnamese is only at a conversational level too. I wish I had the vocabulary and knowledge to get into deeper conversations. One question of interest in bilingualism is "how bilingual speakers switch and alternate between their two (or more) languages" (Ortega 2013, p.4). You displayed an example of this in asking your mom for food. I know sometimes I will accidentally switch languages with people who might not even speak Vietnamese. I wonder if this happens with you as well?
Ortega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Hi Franklin, I also wish that I had the vocabulary and knowledge to get into deeper conversations with my family members. I do sometimes switch languages with people who might not speak Vietnamese, but it does not happen often. Rather than that, I think I tend to switch Asian languages more. For example, I would be talking to my mom in Vietnamese and end up saying the word with a Chinese pronunciation instead of a Vietnamese pronunciation. Since there are many words in Asian languages that are similar, I tend to get them mixed up sometimes. Thank you for your reply!
Hi Angela! My sister went through something similar as well. She spoke mostly Spanish but when she started Pre-K she lost her Spanish as soon as she started learning English. It seems like maybe it is a common thing with children who grow up speaking multiple languages. She eventually learned it again and is now fluent, but at the time she could not converse with anyone in Spanish. Like you and Franklin, I tend to switch languages sometimes. I don't really do it with people who do not speak Spanish. I do it more when I either do not know the word in the other language or there is not direct translation. Kind of like your example of pineapple. That is how I tend to switch the languages if I do. Like Ortega mentioned, a key question is "how the two (or more) languages are represented in the brain" (2013, p. 4). This is why we tend to switch. I know you said your Vietnamese is not as strong as when you were younger but you probably think sometimes in Vietnamese. I know I have caught myself to think in both which can cause the switching as well. I have also done the mix up in pronunciation as well. Sometimes I will try to read a word that is in English but looks similar to the Spanish word in Spanish. I eventually realize that it is the English spelling.
I find it interesting that you forgot some Vietnamese, but not all. Maybe there are somethings more deeply imbedded in your memory which helps you retain those terms. My father's native language is Arabic, but I was not able to fluently learn Arabic from him, also due to lack or interactions and conversations in Arabic. I like to say that I can speak some Arabic, but the words and fraises I know are normally spoken by children. As a child, I can remember my dad saying certain fraises to me rhythmically. It is those fraises which I still remember now. I really enjoyed hearing about your future goals about acquiring the languages you mentioned. Familiarity- involvement orientation is a theory which states that one is compelled to learn a language for reasons including empathy and desire to become familiar with the others who speak the language, or even to become an involved participant in the other’s community and fulfil a true integrative identification in Gardner’s sense (Ortega, 2013). I also would like to acquire Arabic more fluently in order to be more involved in my culture and community.
Ortega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Hi Angel, thank you for replying! The reason that I did not forget all my Vietnamese is due to my family. My parents wanted for me and my siblings to speak Vietnamese so that we could carry on our family’s culture and language and appreciate the traditions. The words and phrases that I know are elementary-level Vietnamese too, so I hope you do not feel too bad about that. I hope that we can both improve our language skills so that we can be more involved and connected to our families and cultures!
Hello Angela, I love the rich Vietnamese culture. I actually tutor Vietnamese kids and this lead me to take on learning Vietnamese, although I wasn't very successful. One of the main reasons I would like to improve my Arabic linguistic skills is because I want to e able to communicate fluently with my relatives from Jordan who are not fluent in English. Since my parents mostly speak English at home, I was not able to put my Arabic skills to much productive use (Ortega, 2013, p. 67). Although I still know a few words here and there, I was not able to build much on the foundation I had.
Hi Angela! I thought it was interesting that your first language was Vietnamese, but since you do not use it as often anymore you have become more comfortable with English. Ortega states that “children learning their L1 may receive of the order of 14,000 hours of exposure” (2013, p. 17). As you began attending school, you lost a lot of exposure to the Vietnamese language and as a result, you started to forget how to say some words. I still think it’s great that you can have simple conversations with your family members. I wish that I was able to have simple conversations in Spanish with my dad or Tagalog with my mom, but unfortunately, I only know a few words and small phrases.
ReplyDeleteHi Krystal, thank you for your reply! I hope that you do not feel too discouraged. Although you may only know a few words and small phrases as of right now, you still have the chance to learn more Spanish and/or Tagalog! According to Ortega (2013, p. 16), “adult learners and older children learned at a faster pace than younger children because adults may be able to use cognitive and metacognitive abilities and strategies to learn many aspects of the L2 initially faster.” I definitely believe that you are more than capable of learning the languages, and I wish you the best of luck! 😊
DeleteHi Angela! I think bilingual programs are very important in the school system. Like you mentioned, you lost a lot of your Vietnamese language because you were constantly surrounded by classmates, teachers, and school workers that only spoke to you in English. A bilingual program could have easily provided you with instruction in both English and Vietnamese to ensure that your L2 was not replacing your L1. Regardless of that, you had a success in learning your second language at a young age. Ortega states that, "a number of environmental and socio-affective factors may mutually interact and become important predictors of success at earlier as well as later starting ages" (2013, p.27) I believe that your family’s support and your schooling provided you with a positive language learning environment.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Hi Kallie, you make a good point about bilingual programs. I wished that there was a bilingual program in my school that would have provided me with instruction in both English and Vietnamese. If there was one, I believe that it would have helped me retain my fluency in Vietnamese. Ortega states that “most learners who begin acquiring the L2 before a certain age, typically before puberty, will develop levels of morphosyntactic and phonological competence that are very close to those of native speakers of that language” (2013, p. 28). Since I learned English when I was four years old, I was able to successfully learn my second language. Thank you for your reply!
DeleteHey Angela! Ortega states that, "young children may have a slow start when acquiring an L2 can be an important research-based argument against harmful attempts to promote so-called sink-or-swim educational policies that attempt to reduce or even completely withdraw the first and second language support that is to be provided to language minority children by schools" (2013, p. 28). I find it extremely insensitive that individuals would use something like maturity or young age to push a sink or swim agenda. Being a young learner of English, yourself, I am wondering your take on this?
DeleteOrtega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Hey Angela, I can really relate to what you said in your video. I also grew up speaking Vietnamese and English, but we really do not get the support to speak Vietnamese outside of the house. My Vietnamese is only at a conversational level too. I wish I had the vocabulary and knowledge to get into deeper conversations. One question of interest in bilingualism is "how bilingual speakers switch and alternate between their two (or more) languages" (Ortega 2013, p.4). You displayed an example of this in asking your mom for food. I know sometimes I will accidentally switch languages with people who might not even speak Vietnamese. I wonder if this happens with you as well?
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Hi Franklin, I also wish that I had the vocabulary and knowledge to get into deeper conversations with my family members. I do sometimes switch languages with people who might not speak Vietnamese, but it does not happen often. Rather than that, I think I tend to switch Asian languages more. For example, I would be talking to my mom in Vietnamese and end up saying the word with a Chinese pronunciation instead of a Vietnamese pronunciation. Since there are many words in Asian languages that are similar, I tend to get them mixed up sometimes. Thank you for your reply!
DeleteHi Angela! My sister went through something similar as well. She spoke mostly Spanish but when she started Pre-K she lost her Spanish as soon as she started learning English. It seems like maybe it is a common thing with children who grow up speaking multiple languages. She eventually learned it again and is now fluent, but at the time she could not converse with anyone in Spanish. Like you and Franklin, I tend to switch languages sometimes. I don't really do it with people who do not speak Spanish. I do it more when I either do not know the word in the other language or there is not direct translation. Kind of like your example of pineapple. That is how I tend to switch the languages if I do. Like Ortega mentioned, a key question is "how the two (or more) languages are represented in the brain" (2013, p. 4). This is why we tend to switch. I know you said your Vietnamese is not as strong as when you were younger but you probably think sometimes in Vietnamese. I know I have caught myself to think in both which can cause the switching as well. I have also done the mix up in pronunciation as well. Sometimes I will try to read a word that is in English but looks similar to the Spanish word in Spanish. I eventually realize that it is the English spelling.
DeleteHi Angela,
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you forgot some Vietnamese, but not all. Maybe there are somethings more deeply imbedded in your memory which helps you retain those terms. My father's native language is Arabic, but I was not able to fluently learn Arabic from him, also due to lack or interactions and conversations in Arabic. I like to say that I can speak some Arabic, but the words and fraises I know are normally spoken by children. As a child, I can remember my dad saying certain fraises to me rhythmically. It is those fraises which I still remember now. I really enjoyed hearing about your future goals about acquiring the languages you mentioned. Familiarity- involvement orientation is a theory which states that one is compelled to learn a language for reasons including empathy and desire to become familiar with the others who speak the language, or even to become an involved participant in the other’s community and fulfil a true integrative identification in Gardner’s sense (Ortega, 2013). I also would like to acquire Arabic more fluently in order to be more involved in my culture and community.
Ortega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Hi Angel, thank you for replying! The reason that I did not forget all my Vietnamese is due to my family. My parents wanted for me and my siblings to speak Vietnamese so that we could carry on our family’s culture and language and appreciate the traditions. The words and phrases that I know are elementary-level Vietnamese too, so I hope you do not feel too bad about that. I hope that we can both improve our language skills so that we can be more involved and connected to our families and cultures!
DeleteHello Angela,
DeleteI love the rich Vietnamese culture. I actually tutor Vietnamese kids and this lead me to take on learning Vietnamese, although I wasn't very successful. One of the main reasons I would like to improve my Arabic linguistic skills is because I want to e able to communicate fluently with my relatives from Jordan who are not fluent in English. Since my parents mostly speak English at home, I was not able to put my Arabic skills to much productive use (Ortega, 2013, p. 67). Although I still know a few words here and there, I was not able to build much on the foundation I had.