A Recovering Bilingual -

Language Autobiography
Heaven Snyder
C&T 598
Family Background
Maternal Grandmother - Theresa

Learned Spanish as an adolescent after a family trip to Mexico

Studied the language and culture went on to get a Masters in Spanish

Taught it at the highschool and university level for 30+ years, she is at a
near native proficiency level

Lived in Mexico on and off and throughout her life

Mother lived in Mexico with my grandmother for a few summers and picked up
Spanish informally
Other Important Domains
Neighborhood

Wichita has a significant number of Spanish speaking inhabitants, many live in

the area that I grew up in: Midtown/ the Historical District

Church

At the churches we attended the services were in Spanish

Sometimes attended bilingual churches with simultaneous translation or ones that

had one service in Spanish then the following in English

Home

My family always made movies and books available to me in both languages, my

mom read to me often in both languages and encouraged me to speak both
regularly
Education Background - Early Childhood
The daycare I attended was with English speakers but the babysitter I had for
several years was a spanish speaker, Mariana.

For a year while I was young a high school exchange student from Columbia
stayed with our family, Veronica and I were good friends and this gave me
another outlet for using Spanish
Elementary School
The school I attended was Horace Mann, a K-8 Spanish/English Dual Language
Magnet School

Its one of the only Spanish bilingual programs in the state

At the time that I attended the student body was 80% families whose primary
language in the home was Spanish

In the elementary grades the school alternated between using English one day
and Spanish the next, the classrooms had all items in them labeled in English
and Spanish to build vocab
Middle School
In the middle school we used
different languages in
different subjects

For example in 6th grade I had

Social Studies in Spanish and
Math in English, in later
grades the schedule was
flipped
High School
Spanish Acquisition:

I attended a high school that offered Spanish as foreign language but by this point
I had lost a lot of interest in Spanish and didnt excel in the class

English Acquisition:

I remember near the end of highschool we did a unit over poetry, studying stress
and meter made me see English in a new way, encouraging me later to look into
Linguistics
University
Spanish:

I tested out of some Spanish courses and began in the 300 level at KU

In summer 2016 I studied abroad in Argentina

Argentina pushed my Spanish to new levels as I was learning an unfamiliar dialect

and it was my first time in a totally immersive Spanish environment since I had been
to Mexico as a child

English:

Taking Linguistics classes made me consider language very differently than I had
previously, the biggest revelation being that all dialects and languages are
equally important
Language attrition
Attrition is loss or weakening of a language in person or a community

I began to use less less and less Spanish in late middle school because I associated
it so strongly with my childhood, I wanted to distance myself from childish
things

I experienced attrition going into highschool, my self-esteem was poor and this
insecurity extended to my language skills

I went from being fluent across both languages as a child to not even admitting I
understood or spoke Spanish in high school for fear of my proficiency being
judged.
Language as Identity
In some ways my pull toward linguistics and studying bilingualism specifically
was based out of wanting a label for myself

I wanted to be able to explain scientifically why I lost and (imperfectly) regained a

language, to be able to align myself with a body of research that could explain
my linguistic identity

My Spanish skills are still growing, there are things I struggle to communicate
and I notice my abilities wax and wane depending on how often I choose to
speak it

Ive been unable to find an exact label to describe my situation so Ive come to call
myself a Recovering Bilingual
Present
Presently Im studying abroad in South Korea

I know how to say Thank you, Hello, Im struggling to remember the word
for Sorry most of the time and learning Hangeul on the fly

Im interested to see how my concept of the power of language will change while
Im here as I continue to navigate situations where Im limited in what I can
communicate and Im teaching young women who are investing in English to
benefit their own future