Social contexts of Second Language Acquisition

One section of the readings this week that really interested me was the macrosocial factors in SLA, in particular, the global and national status of L1 and L2. Last semester I did a research paper on English-Only proponents. For many people, language is a form of patriotism. Many Americans oppose having other languages in the U.S., but I see this view as close-minded. Why do some people think of other languages as unpatriotic? America is made up of immigrants. We all came from somewhere. Our culture would be that much richer to be able to incorporate others' traditions, identities and languages into what already exists. 

Language is a part of each person’s identity. Acculturation is not just the learning of language, but also of culture. Before this summer, I had never realized how much weight culture holds in learning a language. When I studied in Guatemala and was immersed in the culture, I learned so much more about the language, the people and what made their identities than I ever could have in a classroom. Motivation plays a large part in SLA. I would not have learned as much Spanish in the classroom had I not been motivated to learn it. Like the examples in the book of dominant language speakers working or having ample contact with speakers of a non-dominant language, like in Paraguay Spanish speakers and Guarani speakers, the Spanish speakers generally do not learn to speak Guarani. This shows that there is a degree of separation between the dominance of language groups. This separation affects the social aspects in which a second language is acquired. In Guatemala one of my teachers was Mayan. She taught me a lot about the discrimination that raged between the indigenous and dominant cultures of Guatemala. She herself was Mayan, but did not know her mother’s native language because of the prejudice and violence that Mayans endured. It is so sad that because of the social factors, some languages are endangered. I think that for the benefit of monolinguals and multilinguals, societies should move towards greater appreciation of all languages despite social implications.