The World Of Reading And The English Language

The process of learning to read is one of the most essential skills to master. One might not remember originally tackling this task, but it is certain that parents put copious amounts of effort into teaching this necessary skill to their offspring. As cultural backgrounds differ from person to person, methods of teaching do the same. The main topic in Andrea R. Fisher’s piece titled “Becoming Literate: A Lesson from the Amish” is the process and procedures of becoming fluent in reading in the Amish community. Throughout the piece, lots of sophisticated language describes the process, and the piece greatly benefits from such diction.

“My Spanish Standoff” by Gabriella Kuntz explains how the fear of prejudice against Latin America in the United States led her and her husband to avoid speaking and teaching their children Spanish. One reason that she decides not to teach her native language to her children is because she saw how the Anglo-Saxons in the community treated her because of her dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. Another reason, she mentions involves the fact that her children developed accents and were unable to understand either language completely. Because of this, Kuntz decides only to speak to them in English to prevent others from criticizing her children for speaking with broken grammar and thick accents. She believes

Born in the state of California to two Mexican parents my primary language was Spanish. My parent believed that learning English would be second nature because of the environment around me. It was extremely important to them as their first born to know the language that was inherent to me by the blood that runs in my veins. Therefore, when the time came to get enrolled into school my mother opted out for English only thought classes. It wasn’t until Mrs. Ledezma my third grade teacher suggested to my mother that it would be a benefit to transition into in all English class. She specifically said “A Spanish class such as mine is for children that are just arriving from other countries and do not know the English language, your daughter was privilege to be born here. Don’t take away an opportunity to

In my house my mother was always proud of being a Spanish speaker. She would tell my brother and me to speak Spanish at home and English would be educated to us at school. On my father’s side of the family, my brother and I are still until this day the only ones who are bilingual.

Have you ever read a word and pronounced it completely different than its actual pronunciation? Well I have! As a student, I have experienced many aspects of reading and writing. I am currently a junior in highschool so I haven’t experienced it all. English is a crazy language and the rules for the language are also very crazy. In this literacy narrative I will introduce my experiences in reading and writing and how they have impacted my life.

My mother and father are native Spanish speakers; they came to America when they were in there 20s. My father learned English better than my mom because he worked in hotel resorts and restaurants as a server so

My parents immigrated from Mexico in 1981 to give my siblings and I better lives. They didn’t want us to go through the hardships they did when they were our age. However, that didn’t keep us from learning about Mexican roots. My parents taught us Spanish from the very beginning, not only to lose our Mexican roots, but also because they didn’t know any English when coming to this country. My siblings were already in their teen years when I was

Dr. Suess once said, “The more that you read the more things you will know. The more you learn the more places you’ll go!” Ever since I was a child my parents encouraged me to read all the time. I am glad they did or I would not be the kind of person I am today. The English language is very tricky and there are so many rules to it. I did not understand it all when I was in elementary school but now that I am older I do. To learn more about my English journey there are three areas of analysis that must be discussed. The first area of analysis is my reading development. The second area of analysis is what my early words were. The third area of analysis that must be discussed is my writing development. The last but not least area of development is my stuttering and pronouncing my words problem.

Growing up in a Latino household is hard. My parents only spoke Spanish therefore my first language was Spanish. For the first few years of my life this was not really a problem, I enjoyed life as any normal little girl would. I got to talk to all of my cousins and all of the neighbor’s children. It wasn’t until I got to school that it became real that I was going to learn English. Don’t get me wrong I always knew I had to learn English my parents always talked to me about school and helped me as much as they could. It was also around this same time where I started to understand that it was not only hard for me it was hard for them as well. My parents had to live in this country not knowing the main language spoken.

I am no immigrant. I have been living in this country ever since I was born. My brother, sister, and I are all first generation citizens. Both of my parents were born in Mexico, and at an early age came to the United States. They are now living happily in the U.S as citizens. Growing up I only spoke one language, Spanish. Being Mexican this was the only way I could communicate up until kindergarten. Although it was such a long time ago, I remember how hard it was for me to adjust. I know I had a strong accent, and I was sometimes ashamed of it. On occasion I remember accidentally speaking Spanish to my classmates. “Did you finish your homework?" “Si, todo esta-”. “I mean, yeah, all done.” I often got these confused looks on their face whenever this happened. The next year in first grade I became accustomed to English. I no longer spoke spanish to my parents. When the realization that I could no longer speak Spanish hit my parents, they were shocked. Personally I was also disappointed. Especially today, in a school with a general population of Hispanics I would love to be able to converse with them. I often get people asking if I speak Spanish and I tell them why I can’t, but can understand what the words mean. All because I did not want to look different in a school where people were primarily white back then. I don’t recall many people of my race at this school at all.

For a child who is just starting to learn to read, they need sufficient practice in reading a variety of different books to achieve fluency. Reading can be complex and has many different aspects (Burns,1999). It is suggested that children who have problems reading and writing at a young age will find it hard to catch up as they get older and will not reach their full potential as adults, many will withdraw from school or society and some becoming involved with crime (MacBlain,2014). 40 percent of children find learning to read a challenge but with early help, most reading problems can be prevented (Reading Rockets, n.d.).

In the United States, it is important for a person to speak English fluently because it is the official language in America and everybody communicates in English. Many people believe that English should be the only language in America and that sometimes people may face prejudice when they speak English with an accent. For some parents, the fear of prejudice makes them decided not to teach their children their native tongue. On the other hand, there are many other reasons why some parents want to teach their children their native tongue. Gabriela Kuntz explains in My Spanish Standoff why she did not allow her children to speak Spanish at home. Kuntz’s explanations are acceptable, but some research studies reveal that most young children can

Migration can bring difficulties to parenting; language barriers may occur in the process (Bornstein and Bohr, 2011, p. 3). Children become more and more disconnected to their parents while they become attached to modern America as a result of peer pressure or solely because of the portrayal set out by the media (i.e. television shows, movies, music and magazines). It’s understandable that children want to fit in and that is something that parents should be more open-minded to. Dissonant acculturation, as explained by Bernstein et al (2011), “leads to increasing parent-child conflicts in immigrant families and adaptation challenges for children” (p. 3); children learning English and the ways of their new country can cause them to lose sight of their native culture and language (p. 3). I have often heard parents express their desire to ensure Spanish is learned and used so that it is not lost as well as how much more it is important for them to learn Spanish than English. Migration, overall, “affects intergenerational relations in the family” (Foner, n.d., p.

Being a young hispanic Latina I have always defined myself as Guatemalan but born in America. My mother has always taught me to appreciate my roots and where I originate from, so at home my mom made a rule in which I could only speak spanish. But most of all how important it was for me to speak a different language rather then just english, although that meant being the only form of helping my mother communicate with the outside world. Growing up, I realized that my mother relied on me to understand what doctors, teachers, and even some reading said because of how unlikely it was for a spanish translator. Throughout the years I have experienced racial discrimination, symbolic violence, and even how social cultural environment has a major affect

On the playground, I fluent English speaker while the other Hispanic children often supplanted their English with Spanish vocabulary I failed to understand. Consequently, this led to a de facto rift between those I could and could not be friends with because I did not know Spanish. Despite the fact I shared the commonalities of skin tone and having grandparents who lived in the “Lanes”, I was not “one of them”. My privileged upbringing, thanks to my parents, allowed me to succeed in school and experience little difficulty writing essays or reading a book for class. This was made obvious as my teachers often selected my school work to show other students and called on me to answer questions during class. As I aged my Spanish did improve, somewhat, but not as much as my friends’ English. Therefore, I was regulated to the Spanglish found in border towns that “fake” Mexican’s used and common phrases I felt comfortable with, since I did not speak fluent