Language is a system of arbitrary, vocal symbols which permit all people in a given culture, or other people who have learned the system of that culture to communicate or to interact (Finicchiaro, 1965). One’s linguistic identity is based on multiple factors, these factors include but are not limited to; family, friends, profession and religion. In this paper, I will be discussing my personal language profile and being that is applicable, I will include my experience of what it was like to learn a second language as a teen.
Let’s dive into what I believe to be the first step of all language, sounds!
In order to get to the more advanced aspects of language, one needs to learn how to identify sounds and then eventually speak words using these sounds. As a baby, I learned from hearing sounds and as I matured I connected them to images and people around me. For example; as a hungry baby I am sure I gained some comfort and language/communication skills after continuous repetition of seeing and hearing the sounds associated with making a bottle.
When maturing and growing accustomed to this sound, communication skills in language were learned.
After a few months of growing and maturing, I began to make more sounds and eventually babbled words. My “pretend” words were exactly what I needed to get me moving to the next step in the learning process of my first language. At about 11 months – 1 year old, I began saying real words and learning how to pronounce them correctly.
I then was able to connect them with the meaning I was taught they were associated with and use them correctly in my speaking. Both of my parents as well as the majority of my family were American, English-speaking individuals and so this is the first language I was introduced to as a baby. Being that english was the first language I was introduced to meant that the first words for me were connected to english language. Words like, “momma”, “dadda” and “baba”. As a baby, the first set of vocabulary words we learn are usually the words our family is repeating around us the most. Some more examples of these first words I learned are; me, bottle, please, milk, thank you, mommy, daddy, nana and a few more.
As I continued to grow into toddler years, I began connecting my learned and recited vocabulary words into short sentences such as “Me want a babba!” or “Please, give me cookie!” As I continued to grow in my toddler years, I eventually started getting better at properly reciting sentences, pronouncing words and asking questions; “Can I have milk?” or “Thank You for my cookie!” are some great examples. From the ages of about 3-5, I continued to get better with my sounds, speaking, sentences and questions. I was able to even give reasoning behind some of my sentences. Reasoning such as; “I am hungry so, can I have a cookie?” Finally, I reached school age and began to learn more language skills and vocabulary through my teachers. I remember always being very verbal and asking a lot of questions. A lot of my family says I was advanced in my vocabulary and speaking skills at a young age. In fact, they said I drove them crazy at times with all my talking and questioning!
All through elementary and middle school, I absorbed so much new vocabulary, sentence structure, reading skills, pronunciation, writing skills and more. After all, I did need all of these skills for each and every subject I was taught. I developed my learning of language even more as I began to read stories, to then books, and write more sentences, to then essays. Identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives and sentence structure also became a huge part of my language.
As a teen, I remember loving music associated with the spanish language. This is where my second language began to be acquired. I would look up english translations of the songs I enjoyed and eventually learned sounds and meaning of those words through my studying of the translation as well as singing of the songs. My Godfather who helped raise me was Puerto Rican and so, he also spoke and taught lots of spanish language words to me. He also listened to a lot of spanish music that caught the attention of my ear. In high school and college, I had many friends of different backgrounds, all over the world and many from different spanish speaking countries. I would talk with them as well as listen to them communicate with their family and other friends and I would always ask lots of questions. At the age of 18, I met my husband who was from the Dominican Republic but raised in America. His first language was spanish however, he was also perfectly fluent in english being that he was raised here in the US. I would talk to him a lot, text conversations in spanish and english as well as sing songs with him in spanish. He helped me understand so much more than I already knew and I even gained a new dialect in my speaking spanish. A lot of his side of the family spoke only spanish so this helped me practice sentence structure and pronunciation at a very intense level. I learned so much through my husband and his family and for that I am grateful because learning a second language as well as a third and fourth, although 100% possible, is not so easy. Now, we are blessed with our children and we try our best to incorporate both languages and language sounds in their vocabulary.
In conclusion, I am proud to say I identify as an American Italian who speaks and understands Spanish. Learning language helped me survive in my everyday life. Expanding on and strengthening my language as good as possible also helped me obtain the career I am in as an educator. Acquiring the second language of Spanish allows me to explore Spanish-speaking countries and communicate effectively in them and that makes me proud. It also allows me to connect more with my family members and friends who only speak and understand the Spanish language. Language and communication is unique, it is creative, essential, it is necessary, it is individualized and it is overall, fun. I enjoy exploration of communication and languages of the world and I look forward to a third language acquisition!
Remember! This is just a sample.
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