Since we read about the psychology of SLA, I thought this question seemed appropriate and rather fitting.
For those of you that speak second languages, have you ever taken the time to try and figure out your mental process when you listen, speak, read or write in your L2? As hard as I try, I cannot figure this out. For example when I read, I think I read the words in Spanish, but then what? How does my mental process work? Surely a study couldn't be done to tell me this (at least, I don't think).I know I have to read things multiple times sometimes to understand. I Does my brain change it to English somewhere in there and switch it back to English? When asked to translate though, I have found that it is much more difficult. IThe same goes with speaking. I could tell someone that I have an understanding of the reading, but directly translating takes so much more effort. Interesting.
When I speak, I feel as though I think in English and somehow manage to convert the words to Spanish while thinking in my L1 at the same time.
Do you understand your mental process? Have you taken the time to consider it? I understand that our reading addresses different theories of acquisition, but it doesn't really explain mental process. What do you think?
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Ooops, and I forgot to mention about Victor! I really enjoyed the movie and found it to be very interesting and unfortunate all the while. I believe that Victor benefited most from when his teacher rewarded him with water. He had to mimick the action his teacher did, and then received a break and his water.
I read your post and now you have me wondering "how my brain does it?" It is really a good question for the reading that we had this week. Since we find it hard to even answer this question, it makes sense that there are so many different theories and ideas about this concept.
ReplyDeleteI know that when I read and speak in Norwegian, I don't have to always translate from Norwegian to English or English to Norwegian unless the material is unfamiliar to me. However, how is it that I am able to go from one language to another? Good question...you now have me puzzled.
When I try to read Korean, I definitely try to translate every single word before I try to translate the entire sentence. However, I find that this only confuses me more than if I were to just read the entire sentence first and then translate.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when I talk to my mom on the phone, I find myself dwelling on certain words that she had said (she speaks to me in Korean while I speak Konglish (Korean mixed with English) to her). The certain words that I think about are words that do not have a direct English translation but that I can understand in the Korean context more than I can in the English context.
I don't know if I answered your question, but I have to agree with Elise when she says good question.
Katie! You have me stumped. I used to think about that all the time. I think I'm thinking in French but that's only when the vocabulary and sentence structure is easy. If I'm trying to say something complex, I'm definitely translating the entire thing in my head. Good question though...it gets confusing! I wish I could fluently think in French; I feel like I would speak more efficiently if I didn't have to translate the words in English. Thanks for such deep thought!
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