Reflection
For this entry video, I decided to interview one of my coworkers. Me and Ozzy have been working together for a few months or so now, and I have always had conversations with him. Although we speak often, being that we work together, I felt like after this experience I learned so much more about Ozzy and his background. All of which I did not know before this experience. I thought getting to interview him and getting to know about him and his experiences with learning English was awesome and interesting. One of the things Ozzy mentioned in his interview is how learning English from such a young age really beneficial in this journey to another language. He mentioned that if he had to learn English now it might not have been as easy as it was then. Ortega says “…learners who began acquiring the L2 before a certain age, which these studies locate to be around puberty, will tend to exhibit intuitions that are very close to those of native speakers of that language” (pg. 19,2013). Ozzy also spoke about how learning English was not very hard because he mostly heard English in the classroom and also the Spanish language and the English language are similar in many ways. Ortega states that “knowledge of the L1 can often have a positive impact on the rate of L2 learning” (pg. 42, 2013). Because he already knew his L1 language and it has similarities to his L2 language, Ozzy was able to pick up the language fairly quick. All in all, this interview helped me to see how difficult or easy learning a new language can be for some people. I felt like I understood more how SLA works by hearing Ozzy’s journey into learning his L2 language, and it also helped me to get to know him more.
Hello Asia, Ozzy seemed to have a very successful second language acquisition. He also retained a majority his mother tongue despite of it. Ortega notes that “the mother tongue (and any other known languages) universally influences the processes and outcomes of L2 learning” (2009, p. 53), so it is normal for him to still have some problems with spelling. The similarities between languages also helped him pick up English fairly quickly. His fluency in both languages was definitely promoted by learning at such a young age. This way he could pick up the language naturally with other peers. All of this seemed to build Ozzy into the bilingualist he is now.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2009) Understanding Second Language Acquisition. New York, NY: Routledge.
I agree Franklin. Being that Spanish and English are fairly similar i think Ozzy was able to catch on faster than if his native language was something else. Ortega states that “knowledge of the L1 can often have a positive impact on the rate of L2 learning. For many years now, Håkan Ringbom (1987, 1992, 2007) has been a strong advocate of the idea that relevant knowledge in the L1 can accelerate the rate of L2 learning (p.42, 2009). Since he was fluent in his L1 language, it made him more efficient at learning his second language.
DeleteHey Asia!
ReplyDeleteI also interviewed a native Spanish speaker and got a lot of similar responses. My interviewee also found that his Spanish declined a bit since he's learned English and uses English much more. It was interesting to hear that Ozzy did not start learning English till he was about 8, just because schooling starts with Pre-k and that is when you're about 4-5 years old. So, it just seems like he got a pretty late start if he did actually start learning at 8 years old. According to Ortega, "a child learning an L2 language only has a small window of opportunity in which they can learn a second language with ease before reaching puberty: (2013, pg. 13). Luckily Ozzy learned English long before that age!
I think that occurs a lot with ESL learners. They get so comfortable with speaking english because that is prodomently all that they hear. Ozzy mention to me that he still struggles with english still to this day from time to time. This coud be because of fossilization. “Fossilization was coined by Selinker (1972) and is used to characterize cases of ‘permanent lack of mastery of a target language (TL) despite continuous exposure to the TL input, adequate motivation to improve, and sufficient opportunity for practice (Ortega, pg.134, 2009). Ozzy may never master certain parts of English due to fossilization, but he still would rather speak in English than his native language.
DeleteHey Asia!! Wow, thats a very interesting point that you bring up about Fossilization. Ozzy probably will continue to struggle with English if that is the case. But Gass and Selinker do state that, "learning another language essentially comes from developing a new set of habits, that being the new language" (1994, pg. 95). So, maybe if Ozzy tries to make English a habit in everyday life he will be able to get the hang of it more! Or maybe when people are speaking to him in Spanish he would respond in English? That would still use his understanding of Spanish but help him practice more of his English.
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