Scribd
Upload
81 views

Major Assignment #1 - Learning Language Autobiography

The document describes the author's experience growing up speaking both English and Spanish. The author's mother spoke English while their father's parents spoke Spanish. At school, English was used but at home Spanish was spoken with grandparents. This caused the author to develop "Spanglish" and struggle academically until taking English classes. Later as a teacher, the author appreciated speaking Spanish with students and regained value in being bilingual.

Uploaded by

Jessica Pulido
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
81 views

Major Assignment #1 - Learning Language Autobiography

The document describes the author's experience growing up speaking both English and Spanish. The author's mother spoke English while their father's parents spoke Spanish. At school, English was used but at home Spanish was spoken with grandparents. This caused the author to develop "Spanglish" and struggle academically until taking English classes. Later as a teacher, the author appreciated speaking Spanish with students and regained value in being bilingual.

Uploaded by

Jessica Pulido
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Major Assignment #1

Language Learning Autobiography

“Spanglish,” is a very complex mix of Spanish and English. Growing up, my experience

with language was a constant mixture of speaking English with my mother and Spanish with my

father’s parents. Being bilingual has made me realize my language learning autobiography has

gone through several positive and negative stages.

As far as I can remember I have always understood both my mother and father’s parents,

despite the fact that there were times when one language prevailed over the other. My father, a

Colombian immigrant, explained the struggles of learning English as a young child in school.

Due to his English learning obstacles, he heavily enforced his children to learn English so they

would have the tools or the foundation of becoming academically successful. On the other hand,

he explained that Spanish is a language that would be spoken “socially” with family members.

Although both of my parents came from different ethnic backgrounds, they agreed and stressed

upon the importance of education.

During the day, my sisters and I attended a local Catholic Elementary school that solely

focused on mastering the ability to read, write and speak English. Not only did we speak English

during school, but socially with classmates and on sport teams. At dismissal, we were under the

close care of my father’s parents. As immigrants, they spoke a limited amount of English and

primarily spoke to us in Spanish. In school, we spoke English, but as soon as we got home,

Spanish was the language of choice that my father’s parents spoke with us. Initially it was a

challenge trying to balance the two languages, but I slowly grew to enjoy speaking Spanish with

my family. Spanish became reminder of home and almost seemed like a private language.

Through Spanish, we learned to share feelings of love, acceptance and security.


As time went by, speaking Spanish began to place a negative effect on my academic

development. Since I spent the majority of the time speaking Spanish to my father’s parents, I

developed a new language "Spanglish.” I often interchanged words with similar dialect in my

writing, reading and speaking. Not only did I struggle academically, but socially I experienced

bullying from certain classmates in my school. This academic decline brought my parents

immediate attention, and they enrolled me into an afterschool program that would improve English

skills. Since I began to dedicate my time with school, I began to have fewer interactions with my

father’s parents. As my grades grew stronger, I slowly began to forget how to speak Spanish. I

often found myself grammatically correcting my father’s parents English and becoming frustrated

with trying to communicate with them.

Once I became a teacher, my perspective changed when I was challenged to teach several

English Language Learners how to achieve in an English academic classroom. This experience not

only made me a better teacher, but it also made me appreciate speaking Spanish again. Through

speaking Spanish with my students, we learned to share feelings of love, acceptance and

security.

Although being bilingual can have some challenges, I love speaking both languages and

feel that it has helped me shape my thoughts about what language can mean to individuals and

families.

You might also like