SLAGomezMelissaFall18

For this entry I interviewed my mother, Norma Gomez. She was born in the United States, but her primary language was Spanish. Her parents are only fluent in Spanish, so that was the dominant language of her household. She did not begin learning English until the age of five. Most of her acquisition at such a young age is a result of communicating with her peers and other fluent English speakers around her.                She explains that she is still fluent is both English and Spanish, however, now English is her dominant language. Her everyday routines require her to speak English as she is constantly surrounded by fluent English speakers. This may also contribute to the formality of her Spanish. She states that because she does not practice speaking Spanish as often, the times she does speak it, it is very informal and often slang. Due to her constant practice of English, she is able to speak it formally and...

Melissa Gomez's Blog Welcome to the first entry of my blog! My name is Melissa Gomez, I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. My mother was born in the United States and my father was born in Mexico. They are both fluent in both English and Spanish, however, I am only fluent in English. I do speak a limited amount of Spanish. The primary language practiced at home was English, but I was able to pick up Spanish through other outlets. First, my Spanish speaking skills improved after spending summers in Mexico with my grandparents. Ortega (2013) mentioned that many are forced by life circumstances to learn enough of the additional language to fend for themselves in selected matters of daily survival. This is a concept I am very familiar with as this how I managed learning Spanish in Mexico. It felt as though I was forced to learn in order to get by and communicate. I think many can relate to being put in these types of situations. I also learned Spanish through my high school Sp...