Running head: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1

Language Acquisition Autobiography

Xuxan Rodriguez

ENGL 420

Los Angeles Pacific University

14 March 2022
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Language is very important in someone's life. We use language to communicate with

others and this could be family, friends and/or strangers. We use language to communicate

our feelings, our thoughts, our beliefs, and what is important to us. Although language is so

important, we don't always look back to how we gain the ability to speak and communicate.

According to Deb Roy’s ted talk about the linguistic genius of babies. Kids do not come out

of nowhere but it is developed with time. He gives an example of how his son throughout the

months learned how to say the word water.

My earliest memory of speaking is when I was 3 years old. I remember I had a huge

party with all my family and my parents' friends. We went to church and later went to my

uncle's house where they had tables, had a Dj and had a bunch of candy and food. I don't

remember all of it, but I have always liked dancing and I remember telling my cousins to

come dance with me. I do not remember when was the first time being spoken to, but I have

seen videos from when I was a baby and my dad would talk to me a lot. He used a lot of baby

talk and words. He would repeat words to me and I would just look at him. My dad took time

to talk to me and my mom did too. I don’t think they ever read books to me. I feel like when I

started reading I would just read on my own. One thing I do remember was that my mom

would put kids music like ABCs songs and I learned a lot from those songs. I also remember

my mom helping me with my homework and going over the letters with my kinder

homework. I feel like I never had a hard time in school learning how to speak, except that

when I was 6 or 5 year old I had to get a surgery in my tongue because I was not able to

pronounce some words and some letters were hard for me to say. It was different because my

first language was Spanish and the R sound was really hard for me to say so I always did a D

sound instead of an R sound. Later, when I learned English it was totally different. I have

always been great at communicating with others and I think my language and communication
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skills growth was due to my dad’s and grandpa’s job. They were both taxi drivers and I would

go with them sometimes and I got to meet a lot of people and talk with them. I met lots of

amazing people and was able to practice communicating.

Now, when I had to learn English as my second language it was totally different from

learning Spanish as my first language. It was also different because I had an idea of English.

“The term acquisition describes the gradual development over time of ability in a language by

using it naturally in communicative situations with others who know the language” (Yule,

2016). To gain language you must put yourself into communicative situations. Language is

best when there are people communicating. Learning a whole new language was hard. I had

put myself in situations where English was the only language spoken. I remember feeling

very discouraged at the beginning because I could not understand others. Although I had a

hard time learning a new language, I had an amazing teacher. She was honestly the best

English learner teacher. She helped me and was so inspiring. When looking into my life, I

wish one day I am as good as Ms. Martina or at least get close to being like her. She also

taught me a lot. Also, being an English learner taught me how important learning a language

the right way is really important.

Early language exposure is so important for us humans and students because it allows

us to communicate but also to do it the right way. Being exposed to language allows and

motivates you to have great feelings about language and literacy. As early as possible it is

important to expose children to language. Talking to a baby while in the womb helps kids

recognize their parents voice and it influences their life in a huge way. While it is important

to expose children to whom it is so important to expose them as babies. This is how babies

learn how to speak and communicate their needs. Just like Deb in his ted talk, he mentions

how his baby was able with time developed from gag to water. This did not took one day or a
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week but it took time for the babies to be exposed and most likely parents were saying

something along the lines “Oh, you want water?” and point to the cup of water for the child

to understand that this was water.

Reading about how language is so important and how we gain language I think it is so

important. I feel like I can impact their lives later in life. We must introduce language at a

young age to be able to learn how to communicate but also love language and literacy! A

child's first language is gooing, later babbling, then the one word stage, and after telegraphic

speech. These are the steps of language development. It is a beautiful but long process but

with exposure to language it makes it easier.

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Reference

Yule, George. The Study of Language 6th Edition (Kindle Locations 7176-7178). Cambridge

University Press. Kindle Edition.