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Second language acquisition and its effects on the social and emotional development of immigrant teens in a small Midwestern middle school
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the social and emotional effects on bilingual Hispanic students as they use language to create meaning in their environment. As students acquire language proficiency, successful communication results. Students who have not reached the linguistic level necessary for successful communication are at greater risk for school failure. This study considers the social and emotional effects of second language learning. Participants were twenty-five Latino students who immigrated or migrated from a variety of different geographical regions in the U.S., Mexico and Central America. These students have reached different levels of English proficiency. The study utilized focus groups as the primary source of information. Individual journals were kept by each of the six students who were selected from these focus groups for in-depth case studies. In addition, observations of the six case study participants were made in a variety of educational settings, to determine how students used language to make meaning in their environment. The significance of this study established the importance of maintaining the primary language while incorporating the acquisition of a second language. In the process of acquiring a second language the individual becomes a different person through the transformation process and acquires a different language and a different way of viewing the world. Five substantive themes evolved and from these themes a grounded theory emerged. This theory states that monolingual users may be indifferent and unaware of their limited language in a bilingual world but once they begin to process both languages disequilibrium occurs. During this disequilibrium state, a metamorphic change in the way they process information and make meaning in their environment transforms them. Some people are caught indefinitely in this metamorphic disequilibrium spin and negativism, chaos, conflict and negative powershifts result. Those fortunate few who are able to transcend this state of disequilibrium become truly bilingual and are empowered with a gift few people are able to achieve, the gift of second language acquisition.
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching|Language arts|Teacher education
Recommended Citation
Nielsen, Diane Leevon, "Second language acquisition and its effects on the social and emotional development of immigrant teens in a small Midwestern middle school" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9902971.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9902971