INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DEL PROFESORADO
“DR. PBRO. A. M. SAENZ”
DEPARTAMENTO DE INGLÉS
INGLÉS Y SU ENSEÑANZA II
Lecturer: Prof. Laura Renart
Student: Andrea Dallape
Academic Paper 2017
¨Crossing
bridges through languages¨
Abstract
The case study
presented here aims to demonstrate whether a second language can be acquired
during adulthood through the process of examining a Russian woman who has been
exposed to the Spanish language from the age of 27. For this purpose, the
evidence given by the woman will be analysed in the light of some the most
important figures in the field of L2 acquisition such as Brown (2000), Krashen (1985) and
Baker (2011). Two approaches of second language acquisition will be presented:
‘The critical period hypothesis’ by Lenneberg and ‘the creative construction
theory’ by Krashen. Furthermore, what appears to be the inestimable importance
of modified interaction and motivation factors in second language acquisition
will be highlighted. Finally, some of the most salient differences between
Russian and Spanish will be exposed.
Introduction
Numerous
causes contribute to the emergence of bilingualism, since socio-cultural,
economic and political arrangements of the world have changed. Half of the
world’s population today uses more than one language while engaging in basic
activities.
This case
study on bilingualism aims at making it clear that a second language can be
developed during adulthood. It emphasises the fact that although age is an
important factor as regards second language acquisition, it is not the only
variable that influences this process. As a consequence, this discussion also
attempts to prove that other variables such as motivation and L1 are key
factors in second language learning.
In order to
carry out this academic paper with the intention to prove the issues mentioned
above, a Russian immigrant was interviewed. Yuliya Omelianko is a 27-year-old
woman who arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina where the variety of Spanish
spoken is known as ‘dialect of the River Plate’ (Oxford Dictionaries | Spanish,
2017). As
this research paper focuses on a particular case study, analysing what was
happening in Russia and Argentina at the time of Yuliya’s arrival in this
country will prove to be relevant.
Several approaches will be examined in this
paper with the intention to bring some light to the concept of bilingualism.
Moreover, those issues which differentiate L2 acquisition from L1 acquisition
will also be mentioned. It will be necessary to make a point on an approach
that attempts to explain second language acquisition: Krashen’s Creative
Construction Theory. (Krashen and Terrell, 1995) Motivation factors play an
important role as regards language acquisition, so special focus will be placed
on how it appears to influence this process. The concepts of ‘critical period’
popularized by Lenneberg will be mentioned through the paper. Last but not
least, the role of ‘modified interaction’ and its effects in second language
acquisition proposed by Long will also be discussed.
A Russian doctor in Argentina
Yuliya
Omelianko is a 44 year old woman who was born in the borderlands of The Soviet
Union before its dissolution. After finishing secondary school, Yuliya started
studying medicine because she wanted to be a doctor, like her parents. As soon
as she got her degree as a clinical doctor, Yuliya decided to emigrate from
Ukraine to Argentina due to serious economic problems the country was going
through. In 1998, Yuliya left Russia since low incomes and inflation affected
people’s everyday lives. As the basic salary was twenty-five United States
dollars per month, most of the inhabitants were uncertain about their future
and many of them decided to emigrate. Boris Yeltsin was the president of Russia
at that time. Yuliya was then 25 years old with no knowledge of Spanish, so her
degree was useless since she did not know the language. Initially, she used
signs to be understood but the possibility to get a job was reduced. Yuliya
depended on her friend Andriy, who lived in Valentin Alsina, to communicate
with people. So, in order to learn the language faster, she bought a book
called Hablar Español en 30 días.
Those were
difficult times in Argentina, as well. The quality of life of a huge percentage
of citizens was being affected and the work rate was declining. The country was
undergoing a great depression and, in terms of income, over fifty percent of
the population of Argentina were poor. The Argentine peso was devalued which
produced a banking crisis. Fernando de la Rua was elected president in
1999 but the new government devalued the peso, which triggered serious economic
unrest. After living three months in Argentina, Yuliya was able to say and
understand some phrases and commands. For that reason, she applied for a job in
a nursing home where she worked for six months There she met a doctor, her
current husband, who encouraged her to validate her degree in medicine.
Otherwise she would not have been able to work as a doctor in this country. It
was a real challenge since she not only had to speak Spanish but also to read
it. Only then could she validate her degree, but what Yuliya really wanted was
to do a postgraduate course and become a Psychiatrist. She succeeded in it and
in a short period of time she got it. Afterwards, Yuliya started working in the
Experimental Psychology Department of Evita Hospital, where she currently works
as a Psychiatrist.
Historical background: Yuliya’s disintegrated country
The collapse
of the Soviet experiment, and of the country that embodied it, has surely been
among the most dramatic and consequential events of the post-war-world. It
marked the disappearance of the world’s largest state, one that had been
central to Eurasian political life for four centuries or more. That reform
process was associated with the end of the communist party rules which
occasioned new instability in many places along the borderlands of the former Soviet
Union. Yuliya’s homeland disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Now she
was a Ukrainian citizen and, for that reason, she had to adopt the new country
policies and language. That collapse caused the most profound depression of the
twentieth century which was accompanied by a brutal decline in living
standards. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017)
Theoretical Framework
This paper
will examine the topic of bilingualism. In order to do so, an attempt to define
it should be carried out.
Upon analysing
different authors, it appears to be no easy task to define what bilingualism is
since it is considered an ambiguous term. Some theories and definitions about
it will be mentioned.
To start with,
Valdés and Figueroa (Baker, 2011) claim that having the ability to ‘perform in two languages is not as simple as
having two wheels or two eyes’. According to Baker (2011), bilinguals can
be classified according to:
● Age: a bilingual person may have acquired both languages simultaneously, one after the other (sequentially) or one may have been
acquired late in life. (p.16)
● Ability: an incipient
bilingual is that ‘who can only manage a few words and phrases in the second
language’, a receptive bilingual
‘understands the second language but cannot produce it’, and a productive bilingual can ‘understand the
second language and use the second language as well’.
(p.16)
● Balance of two languages: it refers to whether ‘both
languages are used to the same extent or one prevails over the other’. (p.16)
● Development: if the language ability of a bilingual person is ascendant, it means that the second
language is developing; if it is recessive,
one language is decreasing. (p.16)
● Contexts ‘where each language is acquired and used’. (p.17)
● Elective bilinguals are people who choose to learn a second language;
on the contrary, circumstantial
bilinguals are those who need to learn another language in order to ‘survive’
in a society. In this case, the first language is in danger of being replaced
by the second language. However, over the past century there have been an
increasing number of migrations due to different socio or economic problems and
it entails the necessity of learning the language of the host country.
Krashen’s
Affective Filter Hypothesis mentioned in Lightbown and Spada (1999) can be
related to the personality factors that influence second language acquisition.
In the same line, Brown (1994) states that the learner’s personality factors
influence the process of second language acquisition considerably. As a
consequence, it will be worth making a point on motivation and its different
varieties. Keller (in Brown, 2000) refers to motivation as “an inner-drive, impulse, emotion or desire
that moves one to a particular action”. There are five different kinds of
motivation:
● Instrumental: it aims at
attaining goals such as furthering a career.
● Assimilative: in this
case, the language learner wants to use the second language in order to get to
know about or communicate with the members of that particular culture. In order
to do this, direct contact with the culture in question is not necessary.
● Integrative: the person
has the need of identifying himself/herself with the members of a particular
group exclusively.
● Intrinsic: the person uses the language for
personal reasons, without considering the possibility of being rewarded.
● Extrinsic: in this case, the person uses the
language awaiting for a prize, or a high mark, for instance.
It is also
worth mentioning the Critical Period
Hypothesis, stated by Lenneberg (1967), in which he states that there is a
biologically determined period of life when language can be acquired more
easily and beyond that time, a second language is increasingly difficult to
acquire.
To conclude with the theoretical framework it
appears to be relevant to refer to Long (1985) who postulated The second language interactionist view.
Long alleges that interaction and comprehensible input is necessary for
language acquisition. Long sees ‘interactional modifications which take place
in conversations between native speakers and non-native speakers as the
necessary mechanism for this to take place’ since these modifications make
input comprehensible. This is necessary to promote learning. Some examples of
these conversational modifications are: comprehension checks, clarification
requests and self-repetition or paraphrase. It took Yuliya some years to fully
understand interactions around her in Buenos Aires.
Analysis: What barriers does a SLA face? Can an adult fully
acquire a second language?
Through the
analysis of the data collected while interviewing Yuliya, it is possible to
believe that she has fully acquired Spanish after 19 years of living in
Argentina. However, the first months it was unclear how
her oral Spanish would develop over time. Since she depended on her
conversational skills such as comprehension checks or clarification requests in
order to sustain a conversation with native speakers, daily exposure and
modified interaction were the key factors that allow her to make the necessary
adjustments that could aid comprehension. Nevertheless, when she had to go
shopping for food, she experienced misunderstandings more than once. On one
occasion, she went to the greengrocer’s so as to buy vegetables, but instead of
asking for “zapallitos” she asked for
“zapatillas”. As the shopkeeper did
not understand her, she tried again but this time pointing out to the zucchini.
“El tener que ir a comprar una
cosa tan sencilla como el pan para mí era una odisea ya que no sabía cómo conjugar
los verbos. Se me mezclaban con los sustantivos. Un horror. Me acuerdo que la gente se me quedaba mirando
como si fuera un extraterrestre”. According to Long (1985), ‘it is thought that second
language acquisition takes place only when people can understand and convey
messages in the target language.’(p. 382) In those daily
situations Yuliya had to modify her conversational skills in order to be
understood.
Furthermore,
it must be taken into account the relevance of motivation as a component in second
language acquisition, as it is “an inner-drive, impulse, emotion or desire that
moves one to a particular action”. (Gardner, 1985, p.109) Yuliya’s motivation was a useful and effective factor
in her SLA as she not only needed Spanish to communicate but also to get a job
in order to survive. “...me estaba
quedando sin dinero..” Hence her motivation can be classified as, firstly,
‘instrumental’ because she needed to use the language to work, and, secondly,
‘assimilative’ because she needed to use the language to communicate with
Argentinian people and, lastly, ‘intrinsic’ because her aim was not to get a
reward.
Going back to
the concept of The effective filter hypothesis
proposed by Krashen and the influence of motivation in SLA, it can be inferred
that Yuliya appeared to have always had her emotional filter down because
motivation always prevailed in her pursuit of achieving her goal of learning
Spanish. The kinds of motivation (Keller in Brown, 1994) which prevailed during
her process of second language acquisition were: instrumental: because she
needed to use the language to work, assimilative due to the need to use the
language to communicate with Argentinian people and intrinsic since her aim was not to get a
reward.
Following
Baker’s taxonomy (Baker, 2011), Yuliya can be classified as a circumstantial
bilingual because she was forced to learn the language by the circumstances. In
other words, she could not choose to do it. It was a necessity in order to
survive and to obtain a means of subsistence.
She can also
be classified as a sequential bilingual because she acquired the Russian
language first and then Spanish, not both at the same time.
Taking into account that her first
contact with her second language (Spanish) took place when she was 27 years
old, Yuliya can also be classified as a productive bilingual since she can not
only understand, but also produce it without making mistakes.
Yuliya may as
well be considered a functional bilingual because she can use both languages
(Russian and Spanish) competently in any context.
As far as
balance of two languages is concerned, Yuliya states that although she knows
both languages well, in everyday life Spanish prevails over her L1.
In relation to
Yuliya’s ability, she may be classified as ascendant, since her second language
goes on developing within the context of the country where she lives. She just
speaks Russian when a relative calls her from Russia.
According to
the four abilities a speaker has, it can be assumed that Yuliya seems to be a receptive
and productive bilingual as she was able to achieve a full communicative
competence.
There may be
several explanations for this case study but we cannot deny is that Yuliya’s
case presents us with quite clear evidence that a second language can be
developed during adulthood.
Slavic languages’ family tree
Slavic
languages are those languages spoken in today’s Eastern Europe and Russia.
Slavic languages are ‘Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian to the east; Polish,
Czech, and Slovak to the west; and Slovenian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian,
Macedonian, and Bulgarian to the south. All of the Slavic languages are closely
related to each other, but they are also related to the Romance and Germanic
languages, including English and to others in the Indo-European family.’
(Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, 2017)
Here is a
chart of common Slavic languages:
Source: Encyclopaedia
Britannica
Russian (Русскийязык)
Russian is an Eastern Slavic language spoken mainly in
Russia. It is currently spoken by 150 million native speakers. Russian is an
official language in other countries such as Belarus, Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan, territories and international organisations, including Tajikistan,
Moldova, Gagauzia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and the UN. It is
also recognised as a minority language in Romania, Finland, Norway, Armenia,
Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Omniglot.com (2017) dates Russian’s appearance in
writing back to ‘the reign of Peter the Great (a.k.a. Peter I) (1672-1725) who
introduced a revised alphabet and encouraged authors to use a literary style
closer to their spoken language. The dialect of Moscow was used as the basis
for written Russian.’
Source: (BBC News, 2017)
Comparing Spanish and Russian
Spanish and Russian have some
differences. These differences will be analysed in relation to some aspects of
the language, as follows:
Writing:
Russian is
part of the Slavonic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is closely
related to other Slav languages such as Polish, Czech and Serbo-Croatian.
Spanish and Russian are very different in many
important aspects. One of the most important is their alphabet. They are Latin
and Cyrillic, respectively.
The modern Russian alphabet is composed of 33 letters.
Some letters coincide (e.g., a, e, o and k) other coincide in their graphical
symbols but represent different sounds (e.g., в / v, и / i, н / n, с / s, m /
t, у / u, x / j) and some others are different (e.g., Russian б, г, ж, з, ш, ы, ю, я or Spanish ll, ñ, s, z).
When a Russian student starts studying Spanish, the
difference between their alphabets causes difficulties. While reading they tend
to pronounce the Spanish ‘c’ like an ‘s’, the letter ‘g’ like a ‘d’, ‘m’ like a
‘t’ and the letter ‘y’ like ‘u’.
The Spanish orthographic rules are problematic too.
For instance, in Spanish the initial letters of the name of an institution are
written all with capital letters but, in Russian it is only the first letter of
the first word (e.g., Fondo Monetario Internacional
Международныйвалютныйфонд.).
Regarding punctuation marks, a typical mistake of a
Russian student is the overuse of commas.
Phonology:
-Vowels:
There are six vowels in Russian: /а/, /о/, /у/, /э/, /и/ e
/ы/ and they are always reduced with the exception of /о/ and /e/, which are
only distinguished when they are stressed whilst in Spanish the vowels are
never reduced. Thus, for example they pronounce the verbs ‘contar’ and
‘retener’ like ‘cantar’ and ‘ritiner’. As it is not the same to say ‘puedo
contar’ than ‘puedo cantar’, ‘Francisco’ than ‘Francisca’ or ‘Todos los niños van a contar cuentos’ than
‘todas las niñas van a cantar cuentas’. That is why some communication problems
may arise if Russian students do not pay special attention to the correct
pronunciation.
Morphology:
Learning the use of Spanish articles is a real challenge
for Russian speakers as well. They tend to:
-Interchange the determinate
article for the indeterminate one: ‘mi
marido me ha comprado el coche, nosotros
han ido a una playa’.
-Omit the article when it is
necessary: ‘trabajan en geriátrico, es
necesario bañar abuelos’.
- Use articles when they are not
necessary: ‘yo no tiene el trabajo, hay que tener los amigos
en todas partes’.
- Use articles instead of
possessive pronouns: ‘me están ayudando
los amigos’, ‘el hermano se parece
mucho a mí’.
Nowadays Yuliya does not face these difficulties.
She has achieved proficiency in Spanish.
Conclusion
All the
concepts reviewed so far, while using this case study as a model, have served
me to conclude that a bilingual person cannot be classified from a single
perspective, as there are many factors that affect or influence the person and
this person’s process of acquiring the second language, such as age, context and motivation.
After
analysing Yuliya’s case, it can be said that her need to communicate in order
to earn a living was always a strong force, a motivation to achieve the goal of
becoming proficient in Spanish. For that reason it can be concluded that
developing a second language during adulthood is possible, and that age is not
a barrier. We just have to believe that ‘crossing
bridges through languages’ is possible.
NUMBER
OF WORDS: 3186
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