Biliteracy Autobiography - Essay Example

Biliteracy Autobiography Biliteracy Autobiography Introduction I became bilingual as growing up in Saudi Arabia, both my parents often used to speak Arabic around the house and it is no wonder that this is the first language that I was able to learn. My childhood playmates also used to speak in Arabic and this helped me to further develop my Arabic language skills. However one day my father came home and announced that I would be starting school the following week, I was very excited about this as it meant that I would be bought new clothes, a bag and shoes. I was also looking forward to learning how to speak in English as had always been envious of how my elder brothers and sisters could speak in a language that neither I nor my other childhood friends could be able to understand. They would tune-in to the foreign television channels and enjoy the television programming that was being transmitted in a language that I didn’t understand. It was with a lot of eager anticipation that I waited for the day that my parents had promised me that I would be starting school. I woke up way too early before anyone else in the house had woken up and set about preparing myself for school, my mom heard the commotion that I was making and she smiled when she walked into my room and found that I had already dressed myself up and was eagerly waiting for them to wake up. She prepared our breakfast and I set out for my first day of kindergarten. The kind teachers at the school embarked on the tedious endeavor of teaching us how to speak and write in English and Arabic. We gradually learnt how to speak in English as we continued to advance our Arabic Language skills simultaneously, however, Arabic was not as difficult as English and we used to do a lot of code switching by using Arabic words in most of our sentences. Isurin et al. (2009) note that code switching typically occurs when an individual alternates between two or more languages all within the course of a given conversation. I would always practice my English language skills with my elder sister as my brother would always break out into a roaring laughter when phonological or orthographical interference from my first language caused me to involuntarily pronounce words differently or incorrectly spell some words. Harris (1992) points out that language interference is seen to occur when one language interferes with how you pronounce or write another language. Although my elder sister used to help in correcting me when I made any errors, It however use to greatly amuse her. She would smile kindly when I invented new English words that were neither English nor Arabic, she would tussle up my hair and teach me the correct word to use. Hoffmann (2014), points out that it is quite common for bilingual children to come up with new idiosyncratic linguistic creations. Over the years, my language skills continued to improve and by the time I was in high school, I was quite proficient in the English language. As I was learning the languages, used to use both Arabic and English every single day as I had a large number of friends who enjoyed speaking in Arabic and English. Wherever I happened to have conversations with my parents or some of their older friends, they always insisted that I address them in Arabic although most of them were conversant with the English language and could speak it very fluently. However, some of my friends really enjoyed using the English language and always addressed me in English despite my efforts to try and address them in Arabic. Nowadays, I still use both English and Arabic a lot as I have a number of friends from back home who can speak in Arabic and it is always a welcome change to get to speak in Arabic as opposed to English. However I still use the English language a lot as I have a lot of American friends and classmates who do not understand any other language and as such, I am forced to only use English when addressing them. When I go out shopping while on holiday, there are a number of stores owned by Arabs where I can be able to get food items and products from back home that would be impossible to obtain from other stores and supermarkets. When I go shopping at these establishments, I usually use Arabic to address the store owners as it is sometimes difficult to translate some of the names of these products from Arabic to English, besides when I use Arabic to address the store owners, I nearly always end up getting better deals on what I buy. However, when buying goods from other stores, I always have to use English. When speaking with my Arabian friends, we always tend to code-switch a lot and use Arabic terms a lot to emphasize or clarify our points but as we are all reasonably fluent in both languages, this never seem to impede the communication between us and we always joke that at the rate at which we code-switch, we might inadvertently end up creating a whole new language that will be a cross-breed of English and Arabic. I have a 3 and a half year old daughter that was born in Canada and as a result of her growing up in an English speaking country, she is very fluent in the English language and is not impeded by a thick Arabic accent. From a young age, I have been trying to teach her how to speak in Arabic and although she can for the most part understand what is said to her in Arabic she is nevertheless unable to respond in Arabic. To make it easier for her to understand what I am saying to her when I speak in Arabic, I usually use a lot of code-switching. Code-switching can make it easier to communicate with an individual who is not fluent in a second language (Gardner-Chloros, 2008). Over time, she has grown to enjoy the language and always insists that I tell her Arabian stories using the Arabic language and always smiles when I tell her the amazing tales of Sinbad the sailor, magic and Djinn’s. I believe that in a few years, we will gradually advance to language mixing which is the switching between two languages at the lexical level and usually entails one word at a time within a sentence before my daughter can eventually learn how to speak in both Arabic and English and become truly bilingual (Grosjean, 2010). Both English and Arabic continue to serve a number of functions in my life. Arabic is my native language, it is my heritage and I love using the language. I use the language every single day when communicating with my husband, my cousins, my family as well as with my friends in KSA. Not all Saudi people are able to speak in English as some of them grew up in Saudi Arabia and did not have the privilege of attending schools that offered English speaking classes. And as such, I am forced to use Arabic when speaking to them. Arabic is important to me as I am a Muslim and I use the language to read the Qur’an and do my prayers. I use English to speak to foreigners in my country as well as at school during the English classes. I also get the opportunity of using the language when I travel to other countries for summer vacations as well as to enable me in reading English books, magazines and newspapers. In addition to this, my knowledge of the English language helps me understand the movies that I watch. Conclusion Understanding my own bilingual language development is of great influence to my better understanding of students’ language development in communities homes and schools. This is because having had the experience of learning two different languages, I am familiar with how it feels for one to have to manage two or more languages. Mastering two languages requires a lot of dedication, hard work and endless support from parent’s teachers as well as from the school. Having had to undergo an education system whereby I had to learn how to use two languages, I believe that I am better placed understand student language development in homes, communities and schools as compared to individuals that can only speak one language. Trying to learn a second language is not so easy and individuals that have managed to do so are generally well placed to help students in attaining this objective. References Gardner-Chloros, P. (2008). Code-switching: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: Life and reality. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Harris, R. J. (1992). Cognitive processing in bilinguals. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Hoffmann, C. (2014). Introduction to Bilingualism. Routledge. Isurin, L., Winford, D., & De, B. K. (2009). Multidisciplinary approaches to code switching. Philadelphia, Pa: John Benjamins Pub. Company. Read More