My interview video link:
For
my second blog entry, I decided to interview my younger-brother, Huy Ninh. Even
though we live together, I never really talked to my brother about his
experience learning English as the second language. Our parents do not know
English so it was harder for us to learn English. Usually, our conversations
are in Vietnamese so it’s a little bit awkward for me to interview him in
English.
According
to Ortega, (2014, p.6) “Most people learn additional languages from a mixture
of both naturalistic and instructed experiences.” For younger age, I think
there are more naturalistic than older age. Huy started learning English since fifth
grade at the age 10. According to Ortega (2009), children acquiring their first
language complete the fear within a biological window of four to six years of
age (pg.12). So, my brother already has a good L1 foundation at the time he starts
learn L2. Although he started learning the second language at the age of 10, it
was easier than me when I was 16. Ortega (2009) said, “younger starters were
clearly better than adult starters” (p.18).
At
the beginning of his journey learning English, he placed in ESL classes and spent
2-3 years in ESL programs, then he went to regular classes in 7th
grade. According to Ortega, “he five environmental ingredients that together
contribute to (but do not guarantee) optimal L2 learning are: acculturated
attitudes, comprehensible input, negotiated interaction, pushed output, and a
capacity, natural or cultivated, to attend to the language code, not just the
message” (p.79). I think his teachers did a great job of teaching him because
he was about to enter the university he wished. As a future educator, I would
like to focus and help ELLs students so that they can be success in their
future as well.
Reference
Ortega, L. (2009). Understanding second language
acquisition. London: Hodder Education.
Xin chào Quynh! I thought it vary awesome that you interviewed your brother. I see how that must have been a little accord because you have never talked to each other about what it was like learning English. Do you and your brother ever speak in English to each other or only in Vietnamese? When I was doing my interview, the girl I interviewed talked about how she thought in both English and Spanish. And I noticed that you asked your brother the same question. This is a very new concept for me because I am a English only speaker, therefore the concept of thinking a two languages is very new to me. According to Ortega page 47, this is referred to as the thinking-for-speaking concept. It is incredible to me how our brains for so adaptive and have such a need for communication that the way we communicate with ourselves in our minds can completely change.
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ReplyDeleteHello Elizabeth! First of all, thank you for say “hello” to me in my language Vietnamese. Second, I would like to answer your question. Me and my brother are mostly communicating in Vietnamese or few times we are using “Vienglish” – a mixture between Vietnamese and English. Also, according to Ortega page 47 “thinking-for speaking in an L1 will be transferred into the new language by L2 learners”, since my brother started learning English at younger age than me so his brain thinks in English more than me. Mostly, I think in Vietnamese and then try to translate it in to English.
Hey Quynh,
DeleteI want to learn how to say hello in as meany languages as I can so every time I hear a new language and try to learn how to say "hello" in that language. I have learned that a lot of people who come to the Untied States from a country that English is not their first language they develop a variation of their first language and English. I think it is so interesting how you think on Vietnamese and then translate to English to speak.
HI Quynh! I found it very interesting that you were able to interview your brother. I found multiple similarities in the journey your brother had with the journey my interviewee. I also found it very interesting that you were able to interview your brother. I personally never asked my own sister how her experience learning English was and this made me want to ask her. I am glad you were able to have this opportunity to get to know him even more! Since you and your brother have learned English, have your parents learn some English as well? I remember my parents did not know English and because I learned they were able to learn a little too. Thank you for sharing!
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