Many people can read and write a second language almost as well as a first language after several years of practice, but until a person studies abroad or immigrates, true fluency cannot be achieved.
No matter how many years one spends learning a second language in the classroom, the realization of exactly how much one does not know after full immersion is always a shock; this is especially true of adult learners.
Dulce Garrido was born in Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic where she lived until she attained a bachelor's degree in chemistry, around the age of 21. Dulce then attended Western Carolina University in Cullowhee , North Carolina for graduate school; it was there that she met her husband and decided to live permanently in the United States .
Despite years of practice in the Dominican schools, Dulce still had a lot to learn in the English language before becoming fluent.
Transcription
English Class
L: How much emphasis was placed on learning English in Dominican schools. Mmm, cuz here you start, if you want to you can start in middle school, but you usually have to start in high school learning, really learning language. D: Well, I started in first grade, and usually from the first grade on they had English class. I can't say that everybody that goes through sch-the twelve years of school comes out speaking English fluently, but at least they do have some, some knowledge of it. And uh, I was fortunate that the school I went to from the sixth grade on, the, from one to, f-from first to fifth grade, I was in a school that had English, but the program was not as good. The s-school I was in from sixth grade to twelfth grade did have a good English program where they had different levels according to your knowledge and, so you were, you were not bored if you knew more than the others. And, umm, and th-that's where I learned all my basic English, and... L: Yeah, when I was in elementary school and they were teaching Spanish (I kinda lied about the middle school...), uh, they only taught us a couple words, and I already knew most of the words, but, emmm, did you learn any grammar when you were in, like in that young age, or did you, or was it just words like it was for us? D: Young age like sixth grade and uhh...? L: Like, or, or elementary school. D: Yeah, we sorta had some grammar. We could put sentences together and things like that. Yeah, it was more than just vocabulary; it was sentences and we had to memorize dialogues! L: [laughs] D: [laughs] About common situations and greetings and, and we had to write little sto-paragraphs about things and... L: "Hello, why are you so happy?" D: "Hello John, why are you so happy?" [continues part of a silly dialogue learned] L: [laughs] Oh yeah, cuz we were just...Even in middle school, the people I heard, th-that when they came to high school they would just know the vocabulary. That's, you first, you just start learning some grammar in Spanish one, but I really don't think as much importance is placed on learning Spanish as it is in English.
Dress Codes
Laura: Do you remember anything that was difficult to adjust to, anything in particular? D: One, one thing was like, like the-uh, the dress codes, let's say, let's call them dress codes. L: Okay. D: I-I remember one time, going to my first party, and back home, whenever you went to a party you would dress up. But, I remember it was myself and my roommate who also was from the Dominican Republic, and we, we had been invart-invited to a party that was, weh-was on the college campus. So we all dressed up: we were wearing nice dresses and heels and everything, only to find out that when we got there that everybody was wearing jeans and sneakers. L: [laughs] D: And it was sort of embarassing and strange, so. L: Were there any amusing mistakes that you made when you were learning English? Anything that anyone laughed at? D: Can it be when I was learning English in school? L: Yeah. D: I remember one particular one where, sometimes we were asked to...k-when we were learning the words we would, they, the teacher tried not to translate into Spanish, but to explain the word with using some simple English words or pointing at something, and we were sometimes asked to do that, to describe the meaning of a word.
And I remember one time that the word was "toes," like on your feet. And the way I described it was, "Well, toes are like...the fingers of your feet!" because in Spanish, the same word is for toes and for fingers. And I remember that my English teacher just found that so funny, she laughed so hard at that. And she was even apologizing, saying, "I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at what you said!"
Southern Accents and Mass Media
L: How long did it take to learn English, to speak it fluently? D: Well, I really never spoke it fluently until I came to the United States because I was not in a situation where I had to speak it every single day, so although I could probably carry on a conversation with someone before I came here, I think that it, but it really took living and speaking it every day for me. L: Uhhh, so what did ummm...you ca- you say you had to come here, ummm...what did American English sound like before you were fluent? Was it fast, or did it sound weird, or like, what...what was different about it than Spanish? D: What was...? [confused with question] L: Like, what was...I dunno, was...I heard that sometimes some foreigners say it sounds like we sound like snakes since we use a lot of "s"'s. D: I dunno, but I can make a comment on what Southern American English sounded to me! L: [laughs] D: I think that I had been used to classroom English where...I guess the teacher was speaking clearly so we could understand, but when I came to North Carolina, I had trouble understanding some people with Southern accents, and of course I didn't know a lot of the slang terms, and what, one thing, it was a lot easier for me understand people if I was speaking with them face-to-face. I had more trouble over the telephone, but...something like that. L: You watch a lot of TV or listen to a lot of music to learn language, er- what do you wanna say about that? D: Well, not TV because TV was all dubbed in Spanish, all the TV I watched, but the music, yes. My sisters and I used to listen to a lot of American and British music, like, for example groups like, like th-the Beatles, and, so a lot of the albums had the words to the songs in them, so I think we learned a lot of English from, from those songs. L: Ummm, was it difficult to understand the Beatles at all? Cuz sometimes it's hard for me to understand them even though I really like them. [muffled comment in background] D: Well, yes, it was difficult to understand i-i-any of them, but when you, if we could, until we could read the words that they were saying and realizing how they were saying them and what it was. But even, even like that I didn't always understand what was meant, and I realized that in a lot of the songs had some words in slang and I didn't understand exactly what they were talking about until years later when I had lived here for a long time and I had said, "Oh! Okay, that's what that song meant." But then I just repeated the words and didn't know exactly what they-I was saying. L: Ummm, okay, how 'bout when you got here? Then...I dunno if you had access to a television, but, in college, but did you watch TV when you got here? Like American television, did that help? D: We watched some. We didn't have, I didn't have a TV in my dorm room. There was TVs in the, in, in the common areas and stuff like that, but I didn't watch that much TV until after I graduated I think. And yeah, I watched American TV. L: Did youuuu watch any...were...Are all the movies dubbed in Dominican Republic? D: They have subtitles, so that, that was one way of picking up some, picking up some more English, just by listening to th-the actors in movies and looking at the subtitles and seeing what they were s-saying.
Analysis
Although she began learning basic English at an early age in elementary school and onward until graduating from high school, moving to the United States was Dulce's first complete immersion into the English language and American culture. According to linguist Steven Pinker, because immersion into a second language occurred after the critical period, Dulce still retains a relatively strong Dominican accent.
Attending school in the mountain region of North Carolina did not help accent-wise; as Dulce stated, it was very difficult for her to decipher English under a heavy Southern accent, and there were many slang terms that she had yet to learn. Teachers of foreign languages speak more slowly and clearly in order for their students to understand; many native speakers do not give the same kind of consideration to foreigners, hence why immersion is necessary to understand all speakers, whether they speak quickly, slowly, or with an accent.
As for learning language through music and television, Dulce received a taste of popular slang, although she did not understand most slang until achieving fluency. Studies performed by ESL teacher Robert Lake advocate utilizing second-language learning through music; he states that, “Phoneme production emerges out of this matrix of pitch, emotion, and stress in [language 1] and [language 2] acquisition.” Combining foreign words with the universal language of music helps to build confidence in speaking and mixes learning with the emotions associated with the music.
Adjusting to American culture and language can be difficult for any adult foreigner, and many mistakes, both linguistic and social, will, inevitably, be made. However, conversing and interacting with native speakers, listening to American and British music, and watching American movies with subtitles and American television aided Dulce in both learning to speak English fluently and blending in with American culture.
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Sources:
Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language . New York :HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1994.
M y name is Laura Bubacz and I've lived all of my life in lovely Cary , NC , but I do not have a Southern accent because my father was born in Florida and my mother is from the Dominican Republic . I am not fluent in Spanish (hopefully one day I will be), but I have always grown up around the language. I have visited my family in the Dominican Republic every other year since I was born, so I've been beyond the beach resorts and into the realm of street vendors and window-washers.
My hometown is certainly not as interesting as the above, but it's a few miles from Raleigh and has a high living cost, not to mention is the home of the country's second most expensive school parking lot, Green Hope High School's. I attended Cary High School and was in the band for four years. I began band in 6th grade with the flute but switched to euphonium (yeah, you probably don't know what that is; I didn't until I started playing it) in 9th grade. I still play both instruments (mainly euphonium). I also like to draw even though I'm not a master, and I dabble in the art of clay sculpture when the mood strikes. My passion has always been writing and English, but I also love Spanish, which I have studied formally for three years so far, especially the grammar.
Technology? I'm not exactly a wizard with computers, but I do know a great deal of HTML and currently have two websites that I've neglected for the past two years. I can also fix simple problems on my computer, but usually I just end up calling my boyfriend (the computer genius) for help.
I am very interested in how languages are formed (I like to know how things work, how things began, etc.) and how we perceive and learn language, so I hope to get an insight into that through this course.
Many people can read and write a second language almost as well as a first language after several years of practice, but until a person studies abroad or immigrates, true fluency cannot be achieved.
Although she began learning basic English at an early age in elementary school and onward until graduating from high school, moving to the United States was Dulce's first complete immersion into the English language and American culture. According to linguist Steven Pinker, because immersion into a second language occurred after the critical period, Dulce still retains a relatively strong Dominican accent.