Second Language Acquisition: A Hmong-American Perspective

I am a 23 year old, male, first generation Hmong-American descendent. Hmong is my native language. In this case study, I will explore Second Language Acquisition (SLA) key concepts through my personal testimony as a second language learner in America.

Student’s History and Linguistic background in First language
When I turned eight, I discovered that English was an essential tool in my life, and no longer resent from it. As a Hmong child to three siblings and a single mother, it is tradition for a male descent such as me to firmly hold onto my roots. After my parents were divorced, my family lived in poverty. My mother spoke in broken English, and she had trouble finding ways to meet our needs. We were very limited to education. My siblings

I began showing interest in the English language because I wanted to make new friends at school. Metaphorically speaking, I believe that language is the key to unlock communication. Because of this intrinsic motivation, I started allowing the English language to soak in my brain. My acceptance in English began to show through the number of friends that I made at school. At the time of learning English, one of my biggest barriers was trying to comprehend whole sentences. I had an extremely difficult time understanding the connection between words when placed in a sentence. Communication was definitely a struggle that I faced in elementary school. I picked up meaning simply by listening to words that I was familiar with. I was very limited in English. The words I remembered using the most were, “yes,” “no,” “paper,” “pencil”, “broke,” “sharp,” “restroom”, “okay,” “don’t know,” and “go play.” I did not attempt to deliver full sentences unless I was assigned to read a passage from a

She mentioned that children between the ages three and seven could acquire any language better than an adult. For a long time, I was convinced that the reason why I could not acquire English well enough was due to age barrier. However, this is just a theory, and it is called Critical Period Hypothesis. Based on the key concept Critical Period hypothesis, the only advantage between a child and an adult is the motivation to acquiring language. An adult would feel more pressure to quickly acquire a language versus a child who would feel less pressured to do so. The difference is the method of instruction by two different teachers teaching at two different approaches. Language can be acquired by using the basic principle of BICS - first listening and then imitating the language. Learning the accent of another language can be more difficult for adults to acquire because their mind is nearly reaching a maturity state, which the brain might become complacent or used to the accent of the first language. Therefore, it may be hard to acquire another accent as adult. The real advantage between the age differences is the ability for a child to pick up the accent of a language better than an adult, because a child spends most of their time listening to their nurturer. It may be more difficult for an adult to spend all their time listening to their teacher without investing