Narrative Essay: Why English Is Not My First Language

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Recommended: Language acquisition

English was not my first language. I started to learn English when I was three years old. I was able to learn English through my older sister, watching TV and being exposed to the English language from my peers. I was lucky to be able to learn a second language so young because not everyone is able to do this. My older sister had to go to ESL classes and with her being exposed having to learn English as part of her curriculum, I was then able to pick up the English language. Throughout my life, the idea of the English language has always been related to education and success. Without knowing the English language in the United States, it is difficult for students that do not know English as well to be able to succeed in America. Therefore, I would like to be able to teach English as a Second language. Although going into college, I was always on the fence about whether or not I would like to go into teaching ESL or not, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. In my personal experience, I have always enjoyed teaching my family English. My family is from Taiwan and Malaysia. Although my first language was Mandarin, my English skills have become a lot more fluent than my Chinese. Therefore my family in Malaysia and Taiwan always would like to learn English and …show more content…

I would like to learn more about the linguistics of the English languages. I would also like to learn more about the techniques in teaching English to speakers of other languages. After I finish graduate school, I would like to teach English abroad in another country. I am not sure what country just yet, but I believe that teaching abroad would be a good experience for me to be able to teach English. Another goal in the United States would to become an ESL specialist, ideally, in an Elementary School to make use of my Early Childhood Education degree, but I would be happy to teach the English language to anyone who would like to

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