Alex:
When I was eight years old, I moved to Germany. I did not speak any German at all, luckily I went to an international school where the all students spoke English, and while they were in English class I was in a classroom with other American Students learning German. It was pretty easy for me to learn the language because I was surrounded by other children speaking the language. I became nearly fluent in the language, but now eleven years later I am sad to admit that I can barely speak the language.
I went to Austria over winter break with a German family, and at first I had could barely comprehend what they were saying, but as the week went on I got more and more comfortable with the language. I was able to hold short conversations, but I had to pause and ask what a few words were in English. Since I was fluent in the language, I feel that I can pick it up more easily than when I had to learn Spanish in school.
Courtney:
It has always been a goal of mine to become fluent in another language. I think it is so valuable to be able to communicate with others who aren’t able to speak english. My future career goal is to be a nurse. If someone is sick or injured and can’t speak english, I think that it is important that there is someone there to communicated with them or be able to translate to another doctor or nurse.
I have declared a spanish minor and I am in my last semester of my minor. The reason that I chose a spanish minor was so that I could become fluent in spanish and use it in my career. Unfortunately, in my last semester of this curriculum I could not say that I am fluent. I can read and write very well and with correct grammar. Many students who speak spanish at home (immersion) and enroll in spanish grammar classes are fluent in spanish but can’t read and write with correct grammar. I find it very interesting to compare the two ways of learning a language. There are definitely both pros and cons to both learning a language in a classroom setting that emphasizes grammar and learning a language by exposure/immersion while focusing on communication.
I think both ways of learning a language are important and teach different types of valuable skills. I am planning to go abroad to Spain this summer and stay with a host family so that I can fully expose myself to spanish and become fluent. This way I will have the grammar aspect from my minor but also the fluency from exposure. I think that both of these aspects are necessary for learning any language completely.
Alex and Courtney:
We wanted to look into the topic of learning a second language in the context in which the learning occurs in a stigmatized minority language community that’s bilingual with the surrounding majority language. This context can relate to the situation mentioned above regarding non-english speakers visiting the hospital in the United States. It is so important that someone who is in need of medical help can receive that help by communicating with doctors. It is difficult to learn a second language when all other speakers around you are familiar with the language. It also can hinder learning due to feelings of discouragement and insecurity. It is important that there are bilingual individuals to translate and teach in an English community.
We found an article online titled “The Best and Fastest Way to Learn Another Language”. It is about the best ways to learn a language. The article's main point was that in school we learn a language by pure memorization, which is not the best way to learn it. The best way is through immersion. When a baby first learns to speak they do so by listening to the language all of the time. Some teachers try to mimic this by having the students only speak the language being learned in the classroom. But this is only for a few hours a week. The article shows that language as far as communication should be learned by immersion. On another note, we do feel that grammar should be learned in a classroom setting. Babies learn to communicate in their homes through immersion but they learn how to spell, write sentences and add punctuation through english classes in school. This is shown through how everyone learns their first language and it should be repeated when trying to learn a second language. Both aspects are necessary to truly understand the language.
Article :
Works Cited:
Scalfani, Charles. "The Best and Fastest Way to Learn Another Language." Medium. N.p., 28
Aug. 2016. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
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