Findings: Post-Intervention Interviews
All names, countries, and languages have been changed to protect the identities of the participants.
Interview with Lucy
Post-Intervention 1 March 10th, 2015 1:00PM E: First of all, thanks for interviewing with me. Would you like a coffee or anything before we start? L: No, I’m okay. E: You’re okay? L: I’m okay. E: Basically this interview is just to dig deeper into the responses that you gave me on paper. You know the yes, sometimes, and no? And asking you what your thoughts are on the activities we have been doing and whether or not they have expanded your knowledge changed your goals, or anything. So we’re just going to go through five questions and then at the end if there anything else you want to tell me you will be free to tell me. Okay? L: Okay! E: Okay, so first of all. Over the last week and a half, what information presented to you were you already aware of? You already knew? L: Only the countries that speak English. But I didn’t know that Australia speaks English. I don’t know what language they were speaking, but I didn’t know it was English. E: Alright, so you didn’t realize that they were part of the native-speaker, inner-circle countries? L: Yep E: Cool, did you realize where Argentina was on that list? L: I know that it must be in the third one, the expanding-one, because for the second it was impossible. Because we start learning English but not well. E: So your government doesn’t use it? English is just used to communicate between Argentina and other countries? L: Yeah, no so much. My government, they are so lazy. I don’t think so that they speak English. My president cannot speak English. E: That’s interesting! So, was there any information that was surprising to you that we went over? L: The native, the way that the native, the fact that you cannot speak like a native speaker. I know that, but I didn’t know that it was at six years. I thought that maybe if you tried it would be okay. I talked with my family about this too! I told them it was impossible! E: You told your family about it! What did they say? L: I explained the thing that you explained to me and they said ‘Oh maybe you can get near’. Because I think that it is necessary or useful to try to speak like a native because with your accent sometimes they cannot understand you. Sometimes it is good because then people can say ‘Oh you are from this country’ and normally they want to know English – the English from America or Britain – but if you learn with a combination with your accent then they can’t understand you because you say the words different. They say ‘Oh, what you say?’ You can’t say ‘Sorry it is my accent, I cannot change it’. No, you have to try and speak more clear as you can. E: As clear as you can, okay. So you circled that one of your goals is to sound like a native speaker. L: Yeah. E: Has that changed at all? L: Yeah. E: Tell me about that. L: The first time I was thinking about it, I thought I want it. It was easy to want to try and sound like a native speaker. But now I know that it is impossible I know that I cannot try to sound like a native speaker, but I can still try to get close. I will not try to change my accent, because it’ll be really hard, more so if I live in the US rather than my country. But in my country maybe speaking English with my accent is okay. I’ll try to keep some of my accent but not change my accent completely because it is impossible. E: So how has that made you feel in terms of this community of English language speakers? If your goal has been that you want to sound like a native speaker, but you did not learn English before the age of six, how has this made you feel? L: I don’t know, I feel like first I was confused about how I should feel. It made me feel like, why didn’t I start learning English early? I think about that in my town and I started learning Spanish at six years old and it was impossible to start learning English at the same time because I was learning my first language then. E: Okay, that’s interesting. L: So at six and seven years, maybe five, I was learning how to speak and it would be impossible to learn how to speak two languages at the same time. So I thought to myself why didn’t I try to learn early but then I realize I couldn’t. And then also, how could I learn a language that my father don’t know? Probably if they know they could teach me to improve my English. But they know nothing. E: So your parents don’t speak English at all? L: Right now my mom is trying to learn how to speak because she knows that it is useful. But it is impossible. And my father he travels a lot, China, and a lot of parts of the world but he has never tried to speak English. He uses his own way, with people who speak English and Spanish and those who can translate for him. But he’s never tried to speak English. E: Interesting! L: Yep. E: So, in terms of your identity – yourself. I’m going to guess that you identify as an Argentinian female. Right? L: Yep. E: So this is part of your identity, do you consider English to be part of your identity. The fact that you can speak this language or do you feel as though this is a community you are not a part of? L: How? E: So, when I tried to learn Mandarin I felt like I was an outsider trying to learn this language and I felt like it wasn’t mine. I felt disconnected. But you have been learning English for a while now, do you feel like you are part of … Do you feel like you identify with English? L: I feel in the middle. Here I can speak English and do whatever I want, but at the same time I’m not because I don’t think I could speak English with a native – native speaker. Like the teenagers who speak slang. E: The teenagers do have a lot of slang. L: If I tried to talk to people the same age I probably wouldn’t understand. It happened with my cousins and they started talking in English and sometimes I understood what they were saying and then sometimes I felt lost and it was impossible to understand what they were saying. E: So you’re saying that in general you can speak and communicate, but if it is a specific population – like teenagers, the language, there is a disconnect between. You know the language you are taught in school…. L: But not the street language. E. Exactly! Interesting. So, and I want you to be honest. What information did I give you that you found the least useful. The last helpful. The information that you didn’t really need to know? L: I think all the information we needed. Probably some students know some information, but I never knew it. So it is good to know about that in other countries they try to speak English so that you don’t need to speak like a native to communicate with others in other countries. You can say that I’m trying to speak English and he’s trying to speak English and we’re not speaking perfectly like a native speaker but we can try together. Why not. I feel like I can talk to everybody in the world who speaks English now. You can speak with anyone – not just native speakers! It can be other people in other countries. E: Exactly. L: Before this I did not consider myself to be an English speaker. I thought maybe I tried to be one but I knew I didn’t sound like the people on TV. Now I know I am an English speaker because I speak English. Shyness isn’t here now. And I have to continue practicing and continue learning. Everybody does. Especially the developing countries. Then everyone can learn a lot from each other. Nobody can say, okay I know so I cannot try more. E: Yes, you’re right. The language will continue to evolve and change. And what you’re talking about is exactly right – and something we learned is that 80% of speakers are non-native speakers. Does that lift the pressure up a bit to sound like a native speaker because now you know you’ll probably be speaking from other countries who have different accents and sound different. Does that make you feel better, neutral, or worse? L: It makes me feel better because now I know I have my accent and I don’t need to change it completely. The way I speak I don’t need to change it. I don’t need to change my accent when I speak Spanish and then when I speak English. I can use my accent to communicate in both languages. I can speak how I speak. E: Yeah! So, do you have anything else to add? L: Something that I was impressed by was about the things about the language that you told us that the languages are 6000 and later there will be 3000. Now, Argentina has lots of languages that are useless and nobody uses it. I know that some dialects will stop being spoken soon and there are languages that destroy dialects around the world. I know for sure that languages will be destroyed. E: This makes sense to you? L: Yes, definitely. E: Great. Thank you so much for interviewing with me! We are all done! |
Interview with Kiko
Post-Intervention 1 March 10th, 2015 1:30 PM E: Okay. Well, first of all. Thank you for interviewing with me. K: You’re welcome. E: We missed you in class yesterday. K: I know, no I’m kidding. E: Okay, so basically what the interview is going to be like is that I will ask you a few questions and then at the end I will give you the opportunity to say anything you want if you’d like to say something. K: Okay E: So, first of all. What information presented to you were you already aware of? You already knew? You were like yep, I know this, I know this. K: I didn’t know any of the information. E: You didn’t know anything? K: No E: Could you have recognized the native-speaker countries? K: Yeah, I guess. But maybe there are other ones that I don’t know. E: Okay. Interesting. K: I know the five countries, USA, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Britain but maybe there are other ones I don’t know. E: Okay, you’re right. E: So we talked about the circles of English and we discussed France a little bit. So when I described these to you – inner-circle, outer-circle, expanding-circles – did it make sense to you? Or were you surprised? K: No, it didn’t surprise me. I knew that France was in the third category because the government don’t use English for things and I know that we learned English in school so no it is not surprising for me. E: Good, good. Perfect. So the second question is what information was particularly surprising to you? K: I didn’t know that if you don’t learn the language before the age of six you can’t have the native accent. E: Okay, great. So how did that make you feel when I told you this? K: I could believe it because I know when you are little if you learn some languages it is easier. So, it can be true. E: So it makes sense to you? K: Yes. E: So you filled out on your first questionnaire that native speaker is one of your pronunciation goals but on the second one you wrote that it is not. K: Yes, it changed. E: Can you tell me a little bit about that? K: Well, first of all it isn’t because it is impossible for me. It is not a goal now because why would I now want the native speaker accent if I was not born here. Or in Australia? Or wherever. E: Okay. Good. So it is no longer your goal because you’re from France and not a native-speaking country? K: Yeah, and I don’t need to use English every day so it is okay with this bad accent. E: Your accent is not bad! K: Come on. E: Well, so in terms of your speaking goals then. What are they? If you now think that you don’t need the native-speaker goals then what are your new ones? K: Just to be understood by people and me be able to understand people when they speak. It is very hard. E: Do you think that has gotten better since you’ve been here? K: No. E: Not yet? K: No. E: Okay. So what activity did we do that you found to be useful or informative? You can say no, of course. K: No, yes yes. It was useful. E: We did the true or false worksheet we did…. K: Yes, yes that was very interesting and helpful! E: On the other side, what activity did we do that was the least useful or informative? K: I think the things with the circles are useful but maybe it is better if we try to guess. E: So you guys doing the activity and then me explaining instead of me explaining and then you doing the activity? K: Yes. E: That is a really good suggestion. Thanks! K: Maybe it’ll take a long time. You could keep it like it is maybe. E: Okay! So one last question. K: Okay E: So you know that I’m interested in this idea of identity within the English language and I feel like a lot of students find themselves outside of the community of English speakers and this is a big reason why I’m doing this research. I want to encourage students to feel more a part of the community. For example, when I was learning Mandarin I felt like I was trying to learn somebody else’s language. Like it wasn’t mine. Do you have this feeling trying to learn English? Or how do you feel? K: Yes, I do have this feeling. It isn’t my native language so I am not part of it. E: So how long have you been speaking English? K: Speaking like now? E: Learning English? K: In France we learn English but it is not useful. I can choose my skills that I learn for traveling or something. So I don’t completely learn it. I would say, I don’t know. Because in September I arrived in B1-3 so I have the basics. But we can say that I learned maybe when I was …16? 17? E: So you’ve been learning for a while. But you still feel like it is not yours? K: Yeah. E: Is there anyway that you could feel like it is yours? K: No. E: No? Never? K: No. E: Okay. Interesting. Do you have any suggestions for me? Anything you’d like to add? K: I think I said it all. E: Alright, well thank you so much! |