For my second entry I decided to
interview my older brother. My brother is two years older than me and was born
in Thailand and came to America around 18-20 months old. I wondered if his experience
growing up was any different than mine just for the fact that he is older than
me and experienced how it was for my parents to immediately come from Cambodia
to America and be amongst the English language. After interviewing my brother and
hearing about his English language learning experience I feel that his
experience was very similar to mine. He grew up only hearing Khmer but heard
English around him, so naturally he was able to pick up English easily through
friends and TV. He was exposed to Khmer and English “within a biological window
of four to six years of age” (Ortega, 2009, p. 12) so learning both Khmer and
English could have been easy just because he was very young. One thing that I
have read that I feel holds very true is that “teachers can only hope to teach
successfully what learners are developmentally ready to learn” which basically
means if the learner is ready to learn they can learn (Ortega, 2009, p. 138).
In my brother’s case, because children naturally want to learn, he was ready to
learn and acquire English. The approach of learning English was through a naturalistic
approach and when he started school he learned English through an Instructional
approach (Ortega, 2009). The neighborhood that we live in was also full of
English language learners from many different backgrounds so not knowing much English
when we were younger did not make us uncomfortable. As my brother stated, half
of the students at the elementary school were English language learners so the
environment was conducive to our learning. At the same time, living in America
you just hear English all around you so it’s understandable why he feels that
being immersed in the language is the way to go when learning another language.
Hello Chenda,
ReplyDeleteI thought that your video was great and I really enjoyed watching it. I thought it was interesting because I know this must have been a great opportunity for you two siblings to kind of compare your experiences. One point that I found fascinating was that your brother never tested out of ESL like you did but, he considers himself to be more proficient in English. This might be, "...rationale related to language pedagogy has to do with the expectations that teachers have of their students" (Gass, p.3, 2008). While in school English was the priority I doubt maintaining his mother tongue was any of his teacher's goals.
Hi BreAnna! Thank you for watching my interview with my brother! I wanted to know how it was for my brother growing up as a second language learner and if it differed from my experience. Through interviewing him I found out that there were differences even though we are siblings. It’s interesting how language acquisition occurs for each individual person.
DeleteHi Chenda! I enjoyed your video with your brother. I thought that it was interesting that your brother picked up the language from television. I usually have heard of ESL classes only having a few ELL from different places. It most usually is Spanish. He had a wide range of students in the class with him. Stephen Krashen stated in his “Language Acquisition Presentation” that we acquire language in one way and only in one way, when we understand messages” (1980). Your brother explained that he learned most of his learning through visuals. In Krashen’s video, he demonstrated how using a visual to help learn a language was the most helpful. I also thought it was unfair for your brother and the other students in the class not to get the same learning treatment as others. Of course the other Spanish speaking students caught on quicker because the teacher was also a Spanish speaker too. Thank you for sharing your video!
ReplyDeleteHi Desiree! Thank you for watching my interview with my brother! Growing up, my brother and I picked up a lot of English from TV and from our surroundings. Even now, my brother has picked up a lot of Japanese just from watching anime and I have done the same with Korean. In our ESL classes in elementary school it seemed to be the trend to place many English language learners in the same class. The only difference was the class could be predominately Spanish speaking or it could be a mix of other languages. Although it was unfair that Spanish speaking students caught on quicker our teacher still taught us to the best of her abilities. I remember my K-2 teacher (she taught a mixed grade class, so I was in the same class as my brother at one point) even got picture story books translated into our own language so our parents could read them to us.
DeleteHey Chenda!
DeleteI always have found it interesting that people often learn quicker through television or other people. I hear this a lot from others too that watching television in the language you want to learn is beneficial. I am assuming it has to do with the visions and the verbiage. When you see the visuals and hear the words you slowly start putting two and two together. Growing up I do remember watching a lot of different novelas with my grandma and mom. I started to pick up a lot but quickly forgot. I do think that it was far for your brother and you to have to go through school like that. I guess on the brightside you probably can understand some Spanish!
สวัสดี Chanda!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your brother’s experiences as an English language learner. After watching your video, I think your brother learn additional languages more on naturalistic than instructed experiences. According to Ortega, “refers to the position that multiple internal (cognitive) and external (environmental) factors reciprocally interact (hence the word ‘interactionist’) and together affect the observed processes and outcomes” (pg. 55). I’m glad that your community and schools provide a good environment for ELLs.
Hi Quynh! Thank you for watching my interview with my brother! I too, think my brother is very much so a naturalistic learner. That is how he first started to learn English. Right now, for instance, my brother has learned a bit of Japanese just from watching anime. I think combining a naturalistic approach and an instructional approach to learning a second language is the best way to do it.
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