Running Head; KITES 1

Language Acquisition Autobiography: Kites

Melissa Ralls

Los Angeles Pacific University

English 420: Principles of Language

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My earliest memory of spoken language is in the “silent period” of language learning,

according to Haynes and Arella (2016). I remember listening mostly to my mother, my grandma

and older brother. I was raised by a single mother, mostly, with at least two of my other six

siblings home at all times. So, that made for a lot of opportunities for me to hear conversation

from native English speakers. Not to mention, my family is very traditional, so we have huge

family gatherings for holidays, birthdays, graduation and even larger family reunions. Through

my first five years I had ample time, I am talking about weekly gatherings of five to twenty

native or fluent English speakers, and spending every day with at least three fluent speakers. I

was constantly immersed in social language. My mother recorded me as learning to speak at

seven months old, uttering a very clear “mama”, she made note because I was often standing

while holding on to things at that age. This makes sense as Yule (2017) stated that as a child

begins standing it gives them the ability to use more complex vocalizations. My mother,

grandma and brother also read to me a lot during those years. I began using more challenging

words like kangaroo by the age of one. I also learned the word school and constantly suggested I

wanted to go, like my siblings, who were preteens. So, my mom purchased me flash cards, books

for learning to write letters and draw basic shapes and there were plenty of reading books around

for me to access. By the time I was five I could read, write my name and draw basic shapes, like

circles, squares and triangles. The first true memory I have of communicating is reading, “Kites”

by Bettina Ling, to my mother. Obviously I was talking long before that moment, but it was the

first moment I read a book out loud all by myself. It felt so powerful. After that I was obsessed

with reading and always had at least one book with me. I often had a maxed out library card.

These first memories help me to reflect now as an adult on the importance of literacy and

language. Before reading our assigned texts I would have assumed it was all the memory games
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and alphabet tracing, but I have learned it was actually all of the social communication I was able

to experience that most influenced my early literacy. What I experienced growing up was a lack

of exposure to a second language. My grandparents immigrated from the Azore Islands as

children with their parents and are native Portugese speakers. In America they became fluent in

English and since they did not make their children speak Portuguese, there was no cultural

transmission of language. I could have grown up bilingual! Then maybe all my efforts

attempting to learn Spanish would not have been in vain. My experiences make me very

passionate about teaching in an environment that encourages second language acquisition in

elementary school. I feel I missed out not only on an important skill, but also a piece of my

heritage. Learning other languages could also help our future generations be better world leaders.

As they learn language they will learn culture and in turn maybe empathy, and love. I am also

very excited to help my students find an excitement and passion for books.

Exposure to language at a very early age is crucial to the development of language for

that child. As Yule (2017) stated, there is no such thing as spontaneous language. Which means

that a child that has never been exposed to language will not just one day spontaneously start

talking. That child has to hear the language to learn about and speak the language themselves.

I’ve unfortunately witnessed the efforts of neglect of this in my own family. My sister would

always tell her children to be quiet, or to go in the other room where there were no adult

speakers. She also rarely, and I mean almost never, let them go on social outings with

friends/peers. Because of this, my niece and nephews are feeling the effects as young adults. The

boys are still very “quiet people,” but I believe that is only because it is hard for them to express

themselves. It is like they literally do not know what to say. It is sad, but knowing what I know

now, it seems that due to their limited exposure to communication in their early years, their
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vocabulary range is very limited. The oldest is twenty two and his seemingly limited vocabulary

makes him very distant socially and emotionally. It is also preventing him from moving forward

with life and getting a decent job that he can provide for himself with. I feel blessed that I was

able to experience this situation so close to me so that I can truly understand and appreciate how

early literacy affects a person's entire life.

The theories of social interaction and the physical adaptation source make a lot of sense

to me and help me relate my experiences to the text. The theory of social interaction speaks on

the creature's innate need to be able to communicate with each other. It seems clear to me that

our ancestors would begin producing sounds to communicate with each other for survival

purposes. This theory puts language learning in a social setting, which relates to how children

only learn language when another human, fluent in the language, is interacting with them. The

physical adaptation theory goes hand in hand with what we know about children. Once they learn

to stand and walk they can produce more complex sounds that could indicate emotion (Yule,

2017). Our lips and teeth also help us to be able to have such a range of sounds we can produce.

It is that productivity, cultural transmission and our ability for displacement truly make language

uniquely human.
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References

Arella, F. & Haynes, J. (2016). Stages of Second Language Acquisition: ESL, ELL, LEP &

Bilingual. Teaching in Education. Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk7_lBaFC5w&feature=emb_logo

Yule, G. (2017). The Study of Language. Cambridge, United Kingdom. University Printing

House.