Hello Everyone,
Today I interviewed Mr. Dang. Mr. Dang was born in Palacios, Texas but his family moved away from the tight-knit Vietnamese community to Lafayette, Louisiana when he was still in Elementary. Once they moved to Louisiana he was not exposed to the Vietnamese community as before. He mentioned in his interview that growing up his L1 is Vietnamese. To this day he still speaks Vietnamese but English has became more dominant of the two.
Mr. Dang admitted a downfall in his L2 is digraphs. When he pronounces his "th" as it should in English he knows its incorrect. "There is robust evidence that L1 transfer cannot radically alter the route of L2 but it can impact the rate of learners progress" (Ortega, 2013, p. 34). Therefore, he does shy away from using words with "th" to his peers. His L1 plays a major role in this because although he is aware that it should be pronounce with the "th" sound something between his L1 and L2 just will not link up for him to pronounce those digraphs correctly. In chapter 3, Ortega mentions there are negative and positive exchanges between studies of L1 and L2 acquisition.
Also, he admitted to speaking slang when he was younger and not knowing it was improper until he attended college. "The hypothesis is that L1 knowledge can inhibit certain L2 choices and prime others, thus resulting in the underuse and overuse of certain L2 forms in spoken and written learner production" (Oretga, 2013, p. 41). Me. Dang’s experiences with language as a child is a result of his surroundings. In addition, its result effected his limited vocabulary and writing skills too. Since he was not expose to different social class as a young boy he did not have the same experience has his college peers. Now that he is working medical field his colleagues would often correct him for using words out of context. He understand that for him to be fluent in both L1 and L2 he has to have the opportunity to use his L1 and L2 just as equally.
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Hello Thom, your video and reflection both reflected much of what we are learning in the course. You mentioned that Mr. Dang felt his L1 impacted his ability to say the digraph- th. The person whom I interviewed felt that she was able to learn English more fluently without an accent because she was only five, but that her brother who was a couple years older than her was not able to acquire it as fluently and still speaks with an accent. Ortega states “…that there is clear evidence that accents are likely to develop when the L2 is first learned later in life, (2013, pg. 34). I was wondering the exact age that Mr. Dang began learning English and if this correlates to my interviewee’s situation.
ReplyDeleteHi Christine, he learned English when he started Elementary. His learning setback is only with him though. I have met his siblings and neither of his brother or sisters have any problems pronouncing digraphs as I can tell. I am also wondering why he has this problem. Is it a transfer solution? According to research, "Interlingual identifications, however do not always involve a conscious judgement, as transfer will always occur at the subconscious level as well" (Ortega, p. 33). I know there are words in the Vietnamese language that are different curving of the tongue to create a different sound, so this might be the reason why my interviewee has this issue.
DeleteReply to Christine Gadbois under Thom Tran
DeleteI know exactly where Mr. Dang lived. Palacious is this not far from where my parents still live on the South Texas Coast. Thom said that Mr. Dang now uses his L2 as his dominant language Gass and Selinker also refer to this when they say, “Heritage language learners have knowledge of two languages (the home language and the language of the environment/ school), and they are usually dominant in the second language,” (Gass and Selinker, 2008, p. 23). You also mention that your friend became more fluent without an accent since she learned English at the young age of five years old. My friend’s sister is the same. She entered the public-school system in the United States when she was five and is very fluent and speaks with hardly an accent at all.
(Gass, Susan M., and Selinker, Larry. Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge, 2008, Print.)
Hello Thom, that is extremely interesting that he is the only of his siblings whom has trouble with digraphs. Are his siblings significantly older or younger than him? Ortega states that “for L2 development, the general implication is that marked forms tend to be more difficult to learn and therefore cause more interlanguage solutions,” (2013, pg. 38). The concept of markedness is somewhat confusing to me but my interpretation was that sometimes the way something is sounded in the L1 is different than the L2 and this is where mispronunciations occur. I wonder if this might be why he struggles with digraphs in English. I would love to hear your opinion on this.
DeleteHello Stacey, I’m glad that you mentioned that Mr. Dang is a heritage learner. “The recognition of heritage language learners as a variable in second language research is recent,” (Glass and Selinker, 2008, pg. 23). I often forget this term because it is only briefly mentioned in the Ortega book. It is important to note that Mr. Dang versus my interviewee and your sisters’ friend are different types of second language learners. Also, I am finding age to be a highly mentioned topic. My interviewee and your sisters friend both support the large amounts of research that state age is a highly influential factor on second language learning.
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ReplyDeleteHi Thom,
ReplyDeleteI was very intrigued by your interview with Mr. Dang. Mr. Dang said that his main difficulty with the English language, is properly pronouncing the digraph-th. I am not too familiar with the Vietnamese language, but it makes me wonder that if the -th is used in a different format or is it just pronounced differently in the Vietnamese language. In which could have hindered Mr. Dang's ability to pronounce and use the digraph more often (Ortega, 2013, p. 34). On another note, It was very fascinating to hear that Mr. Dang's learning in his L2 language, carried on into college. In a way you could also consider Mr. Dang as a diagonal bilingual. According to Gass and Selinker a diagonal bilingual is "someone who is bilingual in a nonstandard language or a dialect and an unrelated standard language (Gass and Selinker, 2008, p. 27)." This could partly be because in the medical field he mentioned that formal English was necessary to use, but he mainly knew the nonstandard form of English, which was slang. Overall, Mr. Dang seems like he had a great experience learning the English language and it's great knowing that he still practices his L1 around his parents so that he can remain fluent in both languages.
Thank You!
Priscilla Sambrano
References:
Gass, S., & Selinker, L. (2013). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. New York: Routledge.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print
Priscilla,
DeleteNow that I think about it I don't believe the Vietnamese language has any words that ends in -th. There are many words that start with th- but I don't recall any -th. Chapter 2 mentions, "foreign accents are so conspicuous that they can often be detected by the untrained ear" (Ortega, 2013, p. 22) because of this I can see why Mr. Dang shies away from speaking words he is uncomfortable with.
DeleteHi Thom,
Based on my understanding, it was not that the Vietnamese language had the digraph -th pronounced in a different way, or just any words in general that had a -th. It was due to the lack of that specific digraph not being used at ALL within the Vietnamese language in which hindered Mr.Dang's ability to pronounce the -th. I particularly asked because if there was that connection between the use of -th in the Vietnamese language and the English language then that could be the cause of Mr. Dang's difficulty. As a child, that is how I was able to either make those connections, or misconceptions, between the Spanish language (my L1) and the English language (my L2). I would find words or digraphs that were being used in the English language and connect them to the Spanish language, which in some cases worked, but not all. According to Ortega he would agree that as a child I had the "Judgment that something in the native language and something in the target language were similar (Ortega, 2013, p. 33)." However, as I grew older I realized that was not always the case. Furthermore, thank you for clarifying if there was a connection or not. It is always great to learn how other languages are structured and if there is some connection to the English language.
Thank You!
Priscilla Sambrano
References: Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Hi Thom,
ReplyDeleteI found your interview with Mr. Dang to be very interesting. I never took into consideration the fact that when learning a second language, you are inclined to pick up the accents, slang and way of speaking of those who are around you. He grew up learning English from people in Louisiana who didn't speak proper English. "“Languages are almost always learned with and for others, and these others generate linguistic evidence, rich or poor, abundant or scarce, that surrounds learners." (Ortega, 2011, pg. 55) He learned "poor" and informal language which heavily influenced his speaking. He learned later in life that certain words and phrases were meant to be said differently. Mr. Dang shines a light on other L2 learners who have also been influenced by those they are surrounded with and unable to learn proper English due to these circumstances.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2011. Print
Hi Allison,
DeleteI also never took into consideration the fact that you can pick up on accents around you when learning a new language. This can be proved by looking back to the place that I moved when I was in 3rd grade. I moved to Beasley, Texas from Richmond, Texas but I went to school in Needville, Texas. There were many students who were born to immigrants like I was but they had lived in Needville for their whole lives. When these students spoke English, they spoke it with a country accent. I found this so fascinating when I was growing up and now it all makes sense. I believe that our environment plays a huge role in the accents and slang that we pick up on. My family is from El Salvador and there are many words that you only hear in El Salvador. If I were to say these words in Spain, for example, they would look at me weird. Even if you were to go to England, there are many slang words that we use here that would make no sense in England. Mr. Dang really did show us how the environment that a person learns a new language in plays a huge role in how they speak that language and the words that they pick up on.
Thom – I enjoyed watching your interview while keeping one of my ESL students in mind. Her first and home language is Vietnamese, and she has passed all checkpoints to exit the ESL program with the exception of the speech portion. As I said in my own vBlog, cooperation from your peers can help you when negative feedback is given, similar to how Mr. Dang’s colleagues have done for him. Regarding graduated and uniform feedback, Ortega (2009) says that “graduated, rather than uniform, means that the feedback starts off as implicit prompts to aid self-discovery and slowly takes the form of increasingly more explicit clues, as needed” (p.225). When interacting with peers, second language-learners usually do not get this kind of scaffolding, but it is shown that prompting instead of giving direct corrections will lead to self-discovery and self-correcting. I strive to do this with my ESL student.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.
Thom,
ReplyDeleteThe interview with Tim Dang was educational to me in a new way. I had not yet seen someone born in the USA learn a separate language as a child then be exposed to a lesser correct form of English.
It appears to me from the interview that he has learned better English through his exposure and environment now that he no longer lives in Louisiana. His experience resembles that which Ortega (p.55) describe as the Linguistic Environment. His childhood experiences, living in a predominantly Vietnamese community in TX, then moving to Louisiana and being exposed to a very specific dialect of English appear to have had a significant effect in his language learning.
He stated his English is his second language, however, he also stated he does not practice his Vietnamese much anymore, so he seems to be caught in the middle. I find that interesting.
Hi John,
DeleteThe more I put thought into Mr. Dang's situation I feel as though he was a student that might have feel in the "in between gaps". I think if he was able to get better support at school or even scaffolding with this English Language Learning he might not have to avoid using words he is afraid of mispronouncing. In Chapter 2, "pronunciation is the only part of language which is directly “physical”" (Ortega, 2013, p.22).
Thom,
ReplyDeleteI like that you mentioned that your interviewee has trouble using the "th"sound. I grew up monolingual, and I would also feel uncomfortable speaking another language if I knew that I was constantly mispronouncing specific sounds. I found out recently that some languages are tonal languages, where different tones mean different words. I am tone deaf, and it makes me wonder what happens to other people who are tone deaf and grow up with those languages as L1s.
You also say that Mr. Dang recently found out that he was using informal language and he was unaware of it. This seems like it would be a common thing for early bilinguals. Early bilinguals are people who learn 2 languages at an early age (Gass and Selinker, 2013). I think this might be because many L2 learners learn their L2 when they get to preschool and the L1 is informally taught so they use informal language.