LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1

Kristi Hahn

My Language Acquisition Autobiography

Los Angeles Pacific University

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2

I remember when I was 3 years old I could not pronounce the letter F, instead I replaced

it with the P sound. George Yule says “We use [f] and [v] for the labiodentals, which are formed

using the upper teeth and the lower lip at the beginning of ​f​at and ​v​at” (Yule, 2017). My family

thought this was adorable and would have me say the phrase “Put your feet flat on the floor”

which would come out as “Put your peet plat on the ploor”. They had recorded me saying this

on a cassette tape, and we would listen to it occasionally over the years and laugh. I am not

positive if my age 3 memories are real, or if I just think I remember this time because of that

tape. I spent a lot of time at my maternal grandparents’ house when I was young while my

parents were working. My grandparents were not educated past the second grade, so their

speech was very basic. We spent a lot of time watching television shows, I recall watching a lot

of game shows and old classics like ​The Andy Griffith Show​ with my grandmother. I did not

have any childrens books at their house and would spend the free time when I was not watching

TV coloring in coloring books. At my own home I did have children's books such as Little

Golden Books and Disney books, but that was about the extent of my own personal library. My

parents were not big readers, and I do not remember them reading to me, not even bedtime

stories. There was no major emphasis on reading and literacy in my home while I grew up. I

used to struggle with reading and phonics when I began elementary school and had to attend

tutoring while in grades 1-4. “Young children whose parents read them five books a day enter

kindergarten having heard about 1.4 million more words than kids who were never read to, a new

study found” (Grabmeier, 2019). My parents did not realize by neither reading to me nor

encouraging me to read to myself they were setting me up for a more difficult time with my own

language acquisition.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AUTOBIOGRAPHY 3

My becoming a mother finally caused me to find an appreciation for English language

acquisition. Witnessing my son’s milestones of language development and acquisition as a baby

was amazing to see. He began making cooing noises around 3 months. He began making

babbling noises around 9 months, but I recall he was a couple months behind in saying his first

word; he was around 14 months when he first started saying words, but once he started speaking

in sentences he was on track. “It’s important to remember that not every child is the same.

Children reach milestones at different ages” (Stanford Medicine, 2020). Keeping in mind that

not all children learn at the same pace is important, especially for me as a future educator. My

son used to struggle with reading and writing but some time in the 3rd grade it finally “clicked”.

Now he is a wonderful reader and has a very rich vocabulary. I read to him every night before

bed because I want him to grow up with a love for reading, something I never had.

I work in a middle school as a Special Education Assistant. The class I assist in is called

the Special Day Class. Half of our students are classified as ELL (English Language Learners)

English being their second language. Many of our students have challenges with syntax,

phonology, semantics, and morphology. We use an altered curriculum to teach these middle

school students the tools needed to master these parts of English language. Working with these

students over the past few years was the inspiration for my wanting to go back to school to

become a teacher. As much as I love being an assistant there are limitations on the things I am

allowed to do, but I want to be able to do more to help these children to the best of my ability.

When I am with them I am reminded of my own struggles with literacy. I see my own previous

issues with syntax, reading, writing and form, in these students. Thankfully there are services

available through the school as extra support. For example, the students who struggle with

phonology are able to have weekly sessions with a speech therapist. I wonder if I would have
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AUTOBIOGRAPHY 4

been placed in the same program had I gone to public school; I might have benefited from the

modified curriculum. I am glad I attended private school and was able to pass my classes along

with my fellow grade-level classmates, but I remember mainly earning Cs and my parents did

not seem to expect more from me. I didn’t start doing better in school until I decided on my own

to attend college here at LAPU. I am finally at a point in my life where I value working hard and

earning good grades. I hope I am an inspiration to my son, I hope his seeing me in college in my

40’s helps him realize that he can do anything he sets his mind to.

Early language exposure for young children is incredibly important and impacts their

success in literacy. As I saw with my own life, I did not have a childhood filled with an

appreciation for reading. My parents and grandparents did not emphasize learning, instead they

would plop me down in front of the TV, give me coloring books or send me to play outside. I

had an amazingly happy childhood; my parents and grandparents were kind and loving, I just

wish they had instilled a love of learning in me. My lack of early language exposure and literacy

experience affected my self confidence throughout my entire personal and educational life. Even

today, at age 42, I am still working on developing my self confidence. I am not very confident in

my academic abilities, but I am working hard on being more positive and recognizing my own

strengths. I still have a fixed mindset, but I am trying to have a growth mindset instead.

As a future educator I value knowing that all children learn differently and at different

paces. Many of my students will be English Language Learners and I will keep that in mind

during my daily classroom interactions with them. I need to understand my students' prior

knowledge and language skills and have the patience while guiding these students to success in

building their fluency levels.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AUTOBIOGRAPHY 5

References

​ etrieved from
Grabmeier, J., (2019). ​The importance of reading to kids daily. R

https://ehe.osu.edu/news/listing/importance-reading-kids-daily-0/

Stanford Children's Health. (2020). ​Age-appropriate speech and language milestones.

Retrieved from

https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=age-appropriate-speech-and-langu

age-milestones-90-P02170

Yule, G., (2017). ​The study of language, sixth edition. ​Cambridge University Press.

Cambridge,

United Kingdom.