· Age: 21
· From Van Nuys, CA
· Length of L1 study: Native
· Education level: Junior at UCSC
· Linguistics major
· Father and mother both speaks English
· Mother is native english speaker, Father is Guatemalan.
1. When did you begin to study English?
My mother was a college freshman when she gave birth to me. As a result, she needed a babysitter or some sort of daycare to take care of me while she went to school and worked. She taught me basic English words and phrases that any parent would begin to teach their toddler. However, while she was busy, and once she found a trustworthy but inexpensive daycare to drop me off at, my English learning was picked up from there. I learned some numbers and some alphabet from a native Peruvian couple that spoke some English.
Since they had multiple kids, and my mother later added my two younger siblings to their roster, the daycare had the money to buy interactive toys and activities to teach the youngest children some English. This included a very large rug that had every letter in the alphabet, along with a corresponding animal whose species started with that letter.
I would watch American English television programs for kids (in addition to some Spanish ones). My own father is native from Guatemala. To this day, his English is sometimes a little broken and ungrammatical. But it did not hinder my English learning.
0. How long have you studied English?
The last time I had an English class, where I learned grammar rules and how to read and write would be in high school. I’ve been learning English from when I was a toddler to senior year of high school, when I was 18 years old.
This question is a little odd for me, because I’ve never seen my English learning as anything other than inherent and intuitive. It was my first language, and because of some personal family issue, my only spoken language, despite my mother and father speaking fluent Spanish at home. Every book I’ve ever read, every article, every youtube video I’ve ever watched or listened to in the English language had secured such reasoning in my head. How could I have studied English past elementary school, if I could think in it?
I don’t really remember studying the grammar of English. Over the years, through speaking, listening, and reading in English, the grammar is ingrained. It’s just been so long that I don’t even remember any specific grammars. If it feels right, it feels right. Not even the red or blue squiggly lines in word processors can change my learned views over what I’ve studied and observed in the English language for years.
1. How did you study English at school? (all years studied)
Starting from Kindergarten, I began to formally learn the alphabet, and how to write. I already understood many words, because I was a child, and children are learning-sponges. From then on, my teachers would teach me concepts, like math and music, and use English to give directions, rules, and discuss patterns. I studied through writing really short essays, and I learned new words through pictures and history books.
I don’t quite remember learning the grammar in my early years, but I do remember being formally introduced to proper sentence structure in high school in order to write academic essays.
2. Was English spoken at all at home?
My parents had taught me both English and Spanish at home until it was discovered that my younger brother had a speech issue. He was taken to speech therapy, and to help him focus, my parents had to cut back on the Spanish studies. This occurred when I was young, and still in elementary school. So instead of becoming fluent in English alongside Spanish, English became my only language. I can still associate some Spanish words with English, and I have a small bit of an ear for it. But now I have to take Spanish classes to formally and officially learn to be fluent in it. I wonder if this would have happened with my English studies if for some reason my family had moved to Guatemala. My studies would parallel that to my years in English, and it just fascinates me sometimes.
3. Did any family members know English?
All my immediate family members know English. My father and his immediate family moved to America almost twenty two years ago, yet their English (especially his family) is broken, and they aren’t quite fluent in it, despite living in California for over twenty years. My mother’s side are from North Carolina, and they’re predominantly white Americans, so English is all they know.
4. What did you find most difficult while learning English?
The most difficult thing I found while learning English was essay formation. It was the bane of my existence to form an introduction paragraph. I found it weird to start things off with “Then, Thus, Finally, etc.” Also, after learning English for many years, there are some manners of speaking and writing that I had gotten accustomed to, which were found to be incorrect by my teachers. Learning how to correct them purposefully was difficult, since they weren’t intuitive to me.
5. How about now?
Other than just hating essays in general, I don’t have any of those difficulties any more, or in any other area of the English language (presumably). Though I may not know or care for the differences between “who’s” and “whose”, I’m sure there are many old formal grammar rules that I do not know about, even as a native English speaker.
But I must add that because of my intuitive process on the language, learning new and fresh lingo from meme culture has led to an accidental study in modern English language changes (as it has changed alongside the technology boom, and its corresponding lingo). And I find that neat.
6. Do you have any trouble with verb conjugations? EG. Past tense, current tense? Plurality of nouns?
I have a very good grasp on verb conjugations. However, even as a fluent speaker and writer in English, there are some verbs that I either briefly forget the conjugation to (Example: the past tense of “cut” being “cut” and not “cutted”, ungrammatical orally, but if I were to write something that included that word, I would have used the correct tense) or just find an ungrammatical version of it more personally grammatical.
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L2 learner
· Age: 21
· From Shenzhen, China. Moved to USA 4 years ago
· Shenzhen learners of English tend to have a better grasp on English due to the international industries and economy of Shenzhen.
· Length of L2 study: 6 years actively studying, not just basic in class studying(little attention given during previous studying of L2)
· Education level: Sophomore at UCSC
· CS game design major
· Father and mother both speaks English
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1. When did you begin to study English?/How long have you studied English?
· As a normal Chinese student, I started to learn English when I was studying at pre school. I start by learning English alphabets at first and learning more later. Our educational system required us to learn English, so I learn through out my years at school from primary school to high school and continue to US highschool and University now.
2. How did you study English at school? (all years studied)
· At first, our teacher at pre school will just teach us english alphabets and some simple words like apple. Our pre school teacher basically let us remember those alphabets with reading out loud and watching image representation. Then, once I enter into primary school, our teacher start to teach us more about English with more vocabularies and reading english paragraphs. Our textbook usually come with audio recording which we can listen to and follow in order to imitate the pronounciation. Each morning, we will be lead by our teacher and read English paragraphs together. Our teacher usually have okay english pronouciation and strong grammar. After we learned some lessons, we will have exams to test our understanding about the material we covered. Before high school, the level of difficulties just increased, and the pattern of learning English didn’t change. I don’t pay too much attention during my early stage of English learning, so my English basic grammar is pretty bad. I start to pay more attention to English when I need to take the high school entrance exam. One of the required exam is English. It took me so much time before I started to become okay. My English skill has a major improve at my high school as I enter into the study abroad program which apply for America High school. Majority of my English grammar, vocabularies, and speaking skill comes from preparing the TOEFL exam. Later when I enter into America school, I basically enter into English environment which English is used every where. My English skill also improved a lot by studying in English only environment. But the improvement arc is increasing a lot faster at first, now the progress is limited and the arc of progress is increasing slower and slower than before.
3. Was English spoken at all at home?
· My dad’s job is working to negotiate conflict between foreign business and chinese business, so he will use some English and be able to talk in English. My dad sometime speaks English and wants me to speak back. My mum didn’t have strong English background at first, but after I went to study abroad, she start to study English as well and become comfortable to speak in English.
4. Did any family members know English?
· Majority of my old family members have the same generation as my dad, they understand a limited amount of English. I would say primary school level. People who have a generation above me, like my cousins, they have better English as the education system in China start taking care about English. Majority of them have middle level of English, which is good and grammar and writing, but not good at speaking and listening. One of my cousins who came to America University and study has good English skills. Then it is my family members who have the same generation or lower generation as me. At this point, the China education system have hard focus on English and provide lots of money in building up English study resource. The result is many of us have okay English skill but still leak in listening and speaking.
5. What did you find most difficult while learning English?/ How about now?
· I found out the most difficult part of learning English is writing and speaking. Where writing require clearity in sentences and good grammar, which I left a lot at first and hard for me to catch up. Speaking required practice with other people where English environment is hard to find in China and I and many Chinese people felt shy to speak with other people in English as we tend to make mistakes. Now these problems are still present, the grammar is hard to improve, but the speaking skill has increased a lot when I study in America where each day requires English.