Entry Two: Bilingual Interview- Jessica Maldonado
For
this interview I selected my bilingual friend and co-worker Jessica. Jessica
was born in El Salvador and the first language that was taught was English. A
few years later her family moved to the United States and have lived in Houston
ever since. Throughout this interview I gained insight on Jessica’s upbringing
and her challenges and journey of learning a second language.
One
of the many things that I learned from the interview with Jessica is that both
of her parents speak Spanish fluently, but she learned English through school. Jessica
stated that the way she was able to become more fluent in English was with the
help of her sister and friends. I found this interesting because she was able
to not only speak Spanish fluently, but learn English fluently while only
practicing it at school. This makes me question how much time is the necessary amount
of time that it takes to learn a new language even at a young age? As Rowland
stated “One factor that has a major effect on multilingual language development
is the age at which the child starts to learn each language…a second issue to consider
is the type and amount of input that the children are receiving” (Rowland p.
175). This further supports the experience Jessica underwent while learning
English. Since Jessica and her family
moved to the US when she was relatively young she learned English at a young
age. This made me inquire whether she felt it was easy to learn two languages
at a young age or maybe she was in the critical period of learning a new
language. She stated that she felt it was easy for her to learn a new language.
Another aspect that I found very
interesting during our interview was that Jessica stated that neither one
language was her dominant language. I have witnessed this when we are at work
she speaks only English due to our customers speaking English. But, when we are
with her family or out she will speak Spanish. She has been able to maintain
both languages as dominant ones in her life without one overshadowing the
other. The reason I found this interesting was because I would feel that to
learn two languages and still feel like you use them both somewhat equally is
amazing. Throughout the interview I learned many things about Jessica and have
a deeper understanding of learning a second language. I was able to connect
some of the material we have learned in class to her personal experiences. Please see our interview below.
https://youtu.be/EEF4pDUrT9I
https://youtu.be/EEF4pDUrT9I
Hi Victoria, it is great that your friend still remains equally fluent in both languages. It is common for one language to become more dominant than the other, so it is interesting that she speaks both equally. So, Jessica sees herself as a balanced bilingual. According to Rowland (2014), “children who are equally competent in two languages (balanced bilinguals) are rare” (p. 176). For someone who is a balanced bilingual I wonder if she believes she is better at speaking a specific language when it comes to certain situations. Some words may come easier to her in Spanish than in English or vice versa.
ReplyDeleteRowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Hi Melissa, thank you for watching my video. Yes it is very interesting that Jessica is fluent in both languages and uses them both on a daily basis. I think by using them at work and at home it allows her to remain fluent in them and not lose either. I do believe that she may feel more confident in certain situations by speaking in Spanish, but if those moments arise she usually will say something in Spanish and then learn how to say it in English after.
DeleteHi Victoria,
ReplyDeleteAs I watched your interview I had wished that my friend, Tami, was fluent in both languages because I feel like I could have gotten more information from that. Jessica explained that learning language at a young age with her parents who spoke it to her really helped and Ortega explained that “the most important and well-studied sources of universal influence are age, mother tongue, environment and cognition” (Ortega, 2013, p.9). Both Jessica and Ortega cross paths with the ideas that mother tongue and age play a key role in English as a second language and it was interesting to be able to compare the two.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London and New York: Routledge
DeleteHi Rachel! Thank you for watching my video. Yes I completely agree that learning language at a certain age and the exposure to it can be a major impact. Jessica learning English at a young age and still speaking Spanish helped her in many ways. First, it helped Jessica maintain Spanish as her first language, but it also helped her learn English a little easier since she learned it at school.
DeleteHello Victoria, I think it is very interesting to know that your friend, Jessica, was able to keep both languages as her dominant languages; balanced bilingual. "For most, one language is dominant, and this is often the community language rather than the home language" (Ortega, 2013). I have a sister who was four years old when we moved to the US. Even though her firs language is Spanish she struggles the most when it comes to writing. In this case I would say that her dominant language is English because she know how to write, read and speak it fluently.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
Hi Karla! Thank you for watching my video. Learning that Jessica was able to not consider either language dominate was very surprising to me as well. However, I later looked back on our interactions at work and can see how much she uses both Spanish and English almost equally which explains why she does not favor one more then the other. Similar to your sister I do know she struggles at times with writing in English but is constantly practicing to get better.
DeleteHi Victoria! There are several similarities between your interview and mine. My wife is also a balanced bilingual. She learned English through her friends and classmates when she first moved to the United States. Speaking English was very difficult for her because her mother did not speak English at all, and she learned through watching television and going to school in the United States. She did struggle at first but as Rowland explained, "many bilingual children are from immigrant families whose social and economic circumstances are difficult" (p.176). What I learned from her was that the only practice she got with English speaking was at school with her friends. She told me they would teach her words and phrases on a daily basis. Another important aspect of speaking another language is the amount of exposure. She did say it took her a while to learn because she was the only one in her family to speak any English at the time.
ReplyDeleteRowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Hi Chris! Thank you for watching my video. It does seem like both of our interviewees share similarities especially with both learning English as a second language and being one of the few people in their household to speak English. I think it is inspiring that your wife not only learned English through school, but was taught through different avenues such as friends, tv, and was able to learn an entire new language.
DeleteHi again Victoria! Yes, both our interviewees do share many similarities, and that's exactly what I was thinking when I watched your interview! I also see she said that to learn, you will make mistakes. What would you learn from if you don't mess up? How would you learn? Trang has had her fair share of 'embarrassing' moments at school when it came to her English, which is one of the reasons why she was so dedicated to learning it. Rowland states, "possible influence on the success of bilingual language acquisition is the amount and type of input that children hear" (p.193). Imagine learning another language from just the television...you'd be speaking to the television? No. You would need a receiver that can give you feedback. Plus, it would be kind of weird to be speaking to a television. Again, awesome interview!
DeleteRowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Hey Victoria! Loved your interview with your co worker and friend. A lot of our interviewee’s has similarities. My interviewee parent is from El Salvador as well and she also learned more English through school. I’m really impressed on how she is fluent in Spanish and both English. This aspect is also not surprising. According to Ortega, you can learn to develop the ability to use an L2 fluently and naturally (Ortega 2013). I am however surprised neither language is dominant for her. This is very impressive since she learned one language before acquiring the other. A big benefit for her in being bilingual.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, Lourdes. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge.
Hey Kenielle! Thank you for watching my video and hope you enjoyed it. I am surprised to see how many bilingual people share some of the same similar experiences. As you saw both of our interviewees learned a large amount of English through school which I think is great. But, she later told me that she wish they would have incorporated her first language into the classroom to make her feel welcomed.
ReplyDeleteHi Victoria! Great video I really enjoyed learning about how your friend learned English and Spanish. I find it really interesting that she was able to keep both languages, most people that I know, including myself, one language became more dominant than the other. According to Ortega, “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, 55), I feel like in her environment she was encouraged to speak both languages and she is very lucky that she can still speak both.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, Lourdes. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge.