Non-Native Speaker Project

Amy Bishop, Paul Cao,

Chris Ho, and Judy Oh

Professor Russikoff

ENG323

Non-Native Speaker Project

     Non-native speakers all have their own experiences and challenges as they try to learn English.  Linguists over time have developed theories that explain how people learn a second language, which are commonly referred to as L2. These theories can predict the mistakes that non-native speakers will make and the issues they may face.  To test these theories, we conducted interviews to non-native speakers currently living in the United States having emigrated from their country of origin.  Through our interviews, we were able to see how Shuman’s Acculturation Model and Krashen’s Monitor Model were accurate in describing a non-native speaker’s experience.
It is important to have some basic information about our interview subjects.  Our project participants emigrated from areas in such as: China, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam. We had eight subjects, four that ranged from the ages of eighteen to thirty and four in the forty to sixty age brackets. We had interviewee in where; one was from China (Wai Shui), two from South Korea (Alice & Gloria) and Vietnam (Hanh & Trinh), and three from Mexico (Alex, Carlos and Hector).  Wai Shui was approximately 5, Alice & Gloria were 8 and 3, Hanh & Trinh were in their mid-twenties and Hector was approximately 2.5 years whilst Alex and Carlos were infants when they arrived into the United States.  All the subjects we interviewed were unable to speak English at their age except for the two immigrants from Vietnam, who both knew a little bit of English.  The interviewees that didn’t come from Vietnam all fall into the category which linguists refer to as Generation 1.5.
The term Generation 1.5 refers to children who are young enough to attend school. Children who are raised in a linguist enclave are also considered members of the Generation 1.5 population.  Gloria and Alice (the two interviewees from South Korea) came here at the ages of 3 and 8 respectively, and learned English through school.  At first, they both had difficulty in the learning and writing form, which is a major characteristic of members of the Gen 1.5 population.  When asked about what aspect of English was the most difficult for them, Gloria responded with, “Pronunciation,” while Alice responded that, “Grammar was the hardest part because the sentence structures are different.” Native Speakers can not directly translate a sentence from Korean to proper English. Alex, Carlos, and Hector (the interviewees from Mexico) are also apart of Generation 1.5 because they were infants when they arrived. All three of them also had problems with grammar and pronunciation like Alice and Gloria did. They all mentioned how sentence structure was a major issue for them to overcome.  Also, all three agreed that writing in English was the hardest thing for them to learn.  Learning to speak, write, and read in a second language is important and difficult, but another issue for non-native speakers was if an accent was retained while learning.
Many non-native speakers may feel intimidated and embarrassed that they have an accent while speaking English, while others may feel proud of having an accent.  Carlos, Alice, and the two interviewees from Vietnam (Hanh & Trinh) all agreed that others can tell they were not a citizen and that they do say some words with an accent.  Both Carlos and Trinh commented on how, while they liked American culture, they still wanted to retain some of their cultural value.  This connects to Schumann’s Integration theory.  Carlos and Trinh both were interested in their native culture; therefore they assimilated rather than fully adopt the culture of the second language.  Since they were just assimilating, they retained some of their old culture and their accent.  Hanh, however, was very interested in adapting to American culture and living the American Dream even though she retained her accent.  Her accent may still linger because she was older when she immigrated to the United States.  This relates to the fact that children can learn a second language faster at times, mainly because they have the time to learn a language. Adults usually don’t have that extra time.  Alex (one of the interviewees from Mexico) commented on how he did not think that he has an accent but in reality, at times he does.

Another strategy according to Schumann is adaptation.  Alex wanted to be a part of the American culture and that played a role in him “losing” his accent at the same time. However, a person can never lose their accent.  Hector (interviewee from Mexico), Gloria from Korea and Wai Shiu (interviewee from China) all said that they lost their accent.  However, as mentioned in class, a person cannot lose their accent but they can learn a new one.  The environment and people they interact with can also determine how well their language is developed.

Seven out of eight interviewees said most of their closest friends speak the same native tongue as they do.  This relates to Schumann’s comments on enclosure.  Enclosure can help a person learn the native language by letting them become more comfortable in the non-native country, but at the same time, it can negatively affect their learning of L2.  If they exclusively begin to use their native language, it could possibly hinder their second language development.  As seen with Schumann’s case study on Alberto, who lost his ability as an English speaker when he became so enclosed in his linguistic community that he never used English.  One of our interviewees had no friends that spoke his native language.  This also connects to Schumann’s integration strategy of adaptation.  He wanted to be apart of the American culture so much and immersed himself with friends that did not speak his native language.
Seven out of the eight interviewees rated seven or higher on how American they felt they were.  Trinh Le rated 5-6 on his degree of Americanism which is a low rating compared to the other interviewees.  One reason that Trinh may have rated himself so low is because he came to the United States at a much older age (26). Unlike the other interviewees who came at a young age, Trinh had to sacrifice more than the others.  He had to leave his friends, memories, and his culture that he was accustomed to for over two decades.  Also, Trinh’s five closest friends speak Trinh’s native language which can be another factor for his degree of Americanism. While his wife Hahn Le also came in her mid twenties, she rated herself an eight on Americanism because she achieved the “American dream”: having a house, car, family and a while paying job as a chiropractor.  Although the other interviewees felt more American with ratings of 7 or higher, none of the interviewees rated 9 or 10 and this shows that no matter how early or late someone arrives from their native country, they will always have ties to their native culture and want to keep some of their culture with them.
When they were asked whether they speak, read or write better in English, many interviewees said they read or speak English better.  Alice was the only one who claimed that she wrote better than speaking or reading.  It is common that non-native speakers and native speakers find reading or speaking easier because writing requires knowledge of various sentence structures, vocabulary, and the ability to express their ideas clearly.  Although Carlos had a hard time reading in English at first, he says that it is one of his strengths.  Some interviewees feel that speaking is easier, and therefore that they are better at speaking. Nevertheless,  Cardenas has claimed with his iceberg analogy that everyone has a superficial language that is more commonly used than the intellectual language.  This intellectual language is rarely used in social situations that people find themselves in very often, making speaking easier than writing.
After our extensive research, our study showed that people that are learning English as L2 indeed do struggle with learning English and do back up Schuman’s and Krashen’s theories.  Although results may vary depending on the test group conducted.  We were able to to understand how non-native speakers felt; whether it be out of place or within reach of L2.  The results also showed how many people felt speaking and reading were easier than writing.  Therefore we have established that all groups learn differently from each other.