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My Language Autobiography

Kristi Heald

Los Angeles Pacific University

ENGL 420 Principles of Language

Professor Gentry

March 17, 2023

My Language Autobiography

Language acquisition is something that every human on earth has some voice in.

Language is how one communicates with one another and how one understands what others are

trying to say to them. It is understood that letters make words, and words make sentences that

mean things. This is not something that can’t be taken lightly and with the greatness, that

language (written and spoken) brings to everyone, there are some roadblocks for some along the

way.

When it comes to my earliest memories of spoken and written language are from two

different times of my life. My earliest memory of spoken language (I know I talked before, but

this is something I remember vividly) was when I was in the car with my mom. She was driving

me somewhere and I saw a Wienerschnitzel restaurant sign, and as my mom retells it and I

remember, I started saying “W mommy, W. W mommy, W”. Then my mom got excited

because it was at that time when I first noticed a letter that was on a sign. She tells me that I had

just watched an episode of Sesame Street and on the show, they were talking about the letter W.

When it comes to written language, I remember doing weekly spelling assignments in

elementary school and then on Fridays, we would have a spelling test. I do not remember

learning to sound out words and using the correct phonology of them. All I remember is

memorizing words and writing them down. Growing up, my parents were big on reading. I

remember like it was yesterday running down the hallway and into my room and grabbing my

Little Golden Books by the handful and bringing them out in the living room for my mom to read

to me. I loved being read to and when it came time for me to start reading, I was so excited to

learn. We would read every day. I also was allowed to watch Sesame Street which helped me

learn my letters for the alphabet.

When it comes to English Language Acquisition, I can see how my childhood memories

relate to language and literacy. I grew up in a home that had a lot of language and literacy, but

not all children grow up in this manner. I can say that I went through all the stages of ELA even

though my memory does not remember all the stages. As a baby, I started out in the silent period

only listening and retaining as much information as I could. This is why researchers always talk

about the importance of talking to and reading to your babies. They are learning and retaining so

much information during this silent period and this is where they absorb and maybe even start

repeating some of the languages they are picking up on. My favorite memory of me speaking

must have been in the early production phase of my language development and it still to this day

means so much to me. I cannot thank my parents enough for the time they spent talking to me

and teaching me because, in this critical time of my development, it really has helped my life of

communication. From there my speech emergence started to unfold rapidly. When I started

learning short phrases and talking, all I wanted to do was talk and read and communicate with

the world. From there I moved on to immediate and now advanced fluency and I am so

comfortable with the English language.

Because I love reading and communicating so much, I decided that now as an adult, I

want to do more and give more. I decided to go back to school to become a teacher. I want to

do for my students what my parents did for me, and I understand that some will not have the

same upbringing as I did and that some don’t have any talking or reading done for them (or any

support) at home, so I want to step in and be that for them. When it comes to English Language

Acquisition, I do believe you need someone willing to step up and give the time to them and let

them go through all the stages and I want to be that for them. As stated in The Journal of Applied

Linguistics and Language Research, it states that “as an experienced speaker of the language, the
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teacher can supply learners with practical models of language, and can also use natural input

from CDs, television, video, websites, magazines, and books” (Al-Zoubi, 2018). I want to play

the videos and do my talking and reading (pointing out important sight words along the way) and

let them listen and absorb, and then I want to be there when they start repeating or writing their

first one and two words. From there we will move on to learning short phrases and writing

practice and then before they know it, they will be able to communicate with their friends in

class. I understand that I can't get them to the advanced level in one school year, but with hard

work and dedication to them, I know I can make a difference.

From my own experiences with language and literacy and what I have observed from

others who did not have the same upbringing, I can say that being exposed to language and

literacy from an early age is imperative to the success of the individual communicating in life.

Early language and literacy experiences are some that can help a child become a more confident

person later in life. When using language, there are observable milestones that one must meet in

the language process. Whether you are learning a language during infancy or when you are 20,

you still must go through the milestones in your language development. One learning a language

will learn all the information needed to know during their critical period of learning as a young

person so when they are older, they are confident in their communication skills and language

skills as well as comfortable in their literacy. Someone who does not learn language and literacy

as a young child tries to learn everything when they are older so now going into job interviews,

or talking to other adults is not going to be as second nature to them so they will be less

confident individuals and might not use language as much which will end up causing them to go

in a downward spiral maybe not teaching or talking with their children and so on and so forth.
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When it comes to language, there are many different aspects of it that helped me to learn

and communicate. The Overview of Language Principles and Procedures talks about the 5

subfields of language phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. All these

subfields helped me learn and turn into the best communicator that I can be. When you can hear

sounds and produce or understand words you are experienced in phonology. As you keep

learning you learn morphology and the roots and bases of the meaning of words as well as

affixes, prefixes, and suffixes. A lot of the ‘fixes’ come from different languages and cultures

such as Latin or French so these can be easier to learn as dual language learners may have seen

them before. Syntax helps us learn the grammar of words and which order they go in sentences.

This can be hard for dual language learners because in different languages the sentence structure

is laid out differently. Next is semantics and knowing the meanings of the words you are saying

and last is pragmatics and how we are using language in social situations.

These theories helped me as a child to learn English and feel confident today in

communicating with others through verbal and written language as well as my literacy when

reading. Language acquisition is so important to have and feel confident in knowing. It can

change your life and the life of others. I hope as I add to my language autobiography, I can help

the future of this country in their passion and learning of language and literacy. If I can make a

change in one student, then it makes all my hard work worth it!
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References

Al-Zoubi, S. (2018). The Impact of Exposure to English Language on Language Acquisition.

(Volume 5, Issue 4). Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samer-Al-

Zoubi/publication/328492845_The_Impact_of_Exposure_to_English_Language_on_Lan

guage_Acquisition/links/5bd0fa07299bf14eac831300/The-Impact-of-Exposure-to-

English-Language-on-Language-Acquisition.pdf

Overview of Language Principles and Processes.

https://course.lapu.edu/pluginfile.php/1563977/mod_resource/content/3/Overview%20of

%20English/index.html

Stages of Second Language Acquisition: ESL, ELL, LEP & Bilingual. Teachings in Education.

Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk7_lBaFC5w
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