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Learning English, Forgetting Spanish

Montserrat Santillan-Rodriguez

University of Central Florida

ENC1102 Composition II

Professor Mooney

February 25, 2020

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Learning English, Forgetting Spanish

I find it odd how a language and culture that was once so far out of my head is now my

prime mode of communication, whether it is the music I listen to or my first choice of language

when watching new TV shows. Somewhere along the line, I became heavily emerged in the

American culture and began to stray from my native culture. As this subconscious transition

occurred, I gradually began to lose small but unique qualities to my native tongue, such as my

“Rrrr” sound and adjective and noun ordering. Spanish, as stated by Robertson et al., was

something that aided me in learning the English language by “transfer[ing] what [I] learn[ed]

between contexts” (p. 187). As an example, I knew the meaning of obscure and explicate from a

very young age because “obscure,” meaning dark, and “explicar,” meaning explain, are two very

common words in the Spanish language. Nevertheless, today well over 70 percent of my

dialogue, and probably thoughts as well, are in English. Though my accent in English is present,

my accent when speaking Spanish is even more evident. This is a trend I see in many of my close

friends and family who are bilingual. Either they lack a strong foundation of Spanish, or they do

not know Spanish at all, despite of their origin and culture being rooted in the Spanish language.

With my research paper, I seek to find possible correlations between learning English and

the slow loss of Spanish among native Spanish speakers. As cited by Guiberson et al. (2006),

language loss “is a process in which an individual’s L1 abilities are reduced or impeded from

developing while his or her L2 skills become more established” (p.4). By conducting interviews

and ethnographic studies, I plan to answer the following questions: which factor(s), according to

the interviews, seem(s) to play the biggest role in the loss and/or maintenance of Spanish? What
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is the difference in the margin of error when native Spanish speakers read and conversate in

English versus Spanish?

According to Hakuta and D’Andrea (1990), retention of the Spanish language is

dominantly influenced by “adult language practice in the home” (p. 82). When a native language

is heavily enforced in the household, it makes it more difficult for a child to stray away from it.

Additionally, many Americans and Spanish speakers believe that speaking Spanish might hinder

them of assimilating into the American Culture (Tran, 2010). Similarly to what Mellix (1987)

states in his piece “From Outside, In,” the judgment of others, in a way teaches others “when,

where, and how to use” either language (p. 173). For example, an American gives a Hispanic a

dirty look for speaking in Spanish at the market. The Hispanic becomes intimidated and begins

to publicly talk in Spanish less to avoid being intimidated. Thus, bullying or humiliation of

one’s culture could affect the desire of an individual to continue practicing their Spanish

language and culture. With these concepts in mind, to detect possible correlations between native

Spanish speakers and their learning of the English language, I plan to conduct 3 interviews that

highlight the following questions and/or concepts.

1. When did you begin to learn English?

2. What the primary tongue used in your household growing up?

3. What major or minor techniques of the Spanish language have you loss all or some

retention of?

4. Do you listen to music in Spanish? Watch TV shows in Spanish?

5. How do you communicate with your parents, siblings, cousins, or any other close

family?

6. When did you realize you had loss some of your Spanish language?
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7. How does the loss of the Spanish language affect you?

8. What factor do you think plays the biggest impact on your Spanish retention?

9. How, if it did, did the American culture or beliefs impact your ability to speak

Spanish?

10. How often do you read and/or write in Spanish?

11. Do your family or close friends notice your loss of Spanish?

12. Have you ever been ashamed of your Spanish language?

13. What were the environments of your school growing up?

14. Where does your family originate?

15. Do you believe retaining both languages is beneficial? Why or why not?

16. Were you ever humiliated because of your accent or Spanish language and/or culture?

I will analyze the responses to these questions of each participant and organize it into a

percentage table to find any similarities and differences among the answers. The questions were

based on major factors that have been proven to have correlation to language development such

as racial identity, generation, school type, and family environment (Lutz, 2006).

According to EasyWriter, ethnography is done by “actually observ[ing] groups of people

in their environment.” My last step in my research paper will be to conduct 3 small ethnographic

studies with the same interview participants. I will do this by holding conversations with native

Spanish speakers in Spanish and English and counting the amount of errors and analyzing any

accent problems or difficulty they may have. In addition, I will ask them to read a short story,

“My Name,” an excerpt from Sandra Cisernos book “The House on Mango Street,” in both

Spanish and English . I will time how long it takes them to read the story in each language, count

the amount of errors and pauses, and note their preferred method of reading and writing. After
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receiving the final data, I will compare each participants data using a table and calculating the

averages of errors, pauses, and time taken to read.

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References

Cisneros, S. (1984). My name. In D.S. Moodie (Ed.).The House on Mango Street (pp. 10-11).

Arte Público Press.

Guiberson, M. M., Barrett, K. C., Jancosek, E. G., & Itano, C. Y. (2006). Language Maintenance

and Loss in Preschool-Age Children of Mexican Immigrants: Longitudinal

Study. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 28(1), 4–17.

Hakuta, K., & D’Andrea, D. (1990). Some Properties of Bilingual Maintenance and Loss in

Mexican Background High School Students.

Lutz, A. (2006). Spanish Maintenance among English-Speaking Latino Youth: The Role of

Individual and Social Characteristics. Social Forces, 84(3), 1417-1433. Retrieved

February 26, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/3844446

Mellix, B. (1987). From Outside, In. Writing About Writing. (p. 173). Bedford Press.

Robertson, L. (2012). Notes toward a Theory of Prior Knowledge. Writing About Writing.

(pp. 184-185). Bedford Press.

Tran, V. C. (2010). English Gain vs. Spanish Loss? Language Assimilation among Second-

Generation Latinos in Young Adulthood. Social Forces, 89(1), 257–584.