Being an African American, raised with both parents that had minimal knowledge about literacy was a problem. My history with literacy has been inspiring, especially mastering the English language. During my early days, I would spend more time reading and writing vowels. Thereafter, I would construct simple English words using the vowels which were even a hard task to my little brains. The English language seemed so hard and it took me 2-3 years to fully start reading and writing English words correctly. My literacy journey specifically the English language has been challenging.
My socio-cultural linguistic environment is dominated by the use of local languages, and every quarter of the population has its own. Thus, it is very hard to communicate with others since there is no homogeneity in terms of the languages used. Although English is used as the formal language, many people do not subscribe to it, citing its complexity nature. This is an indication that to formally communicate with other residences with the different local language, learning English was a necessity.
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My experience with language and literacy has been fascinating. Firstly at school, language has been facilitated by the fact that no student was supposed to speak their local language. This move created room for use of English, influencing further my memory to master the commonly used language. Being one of the children with more knowledge in language and literacy, I took the opportunity to teach my siblings the language they did not know. Reading and writing was also part of my extra activity at home with my brothers and sisters. We would learn, in the process make jokes whenever one of us mispronounced a word, but at the end of the day, every one of us learned the basics of language and literacy.
My personal relationship with reading, writing and speaking has been influential and encouraging. This is because whenever I knew one word, it would encourage me to learn more words. I would read and write without looking at them. At home, I would try speaking with my family members just to test my fluency about the same language. The practice I put in every day motivated me to learn reading, writing, and speaking. This has led me to pursue an associate degree in education, a bachelor degree in psychology and at the moment pursuing my masters.
The most memorable moment I remember about learning to read, write and speak my language in deeply in its pronunciation. Considering that the local languages had almost the same accent, it was hard to differentiate the way to pronounce, write and read them. Before knowing how to pronounce, I had to take quite some good time associating with those who had mastered the language than me. I managed to know how to pronounce the complex words, and what followed was how to write and read them. My continuous learning facilitated the way I spoke it, and as time elapsed, I fully knew how to pronounce and fluently speak with other community members that spoke the same language.
Both my home and school language practices were significant in influencing my learning process. Considering that at home people embraced the local language, it gave me the opportunity to fully understand it. I would learn from people who understood it as they guided me through most challenging words to pronounce. While at school, the English language was universal, and it was the official language to be used by every student. It provided room for me to learn how to read and write. By associating with students from a diverse culture, I was able to speak English since it was the channel of communication.
I grew up with traditions that embraced its cultures. The language was one of the basic cultures that were adored by my local community, a factor that needed every individual to know it. As an observant individual, I knew that the culture of English brought about identity in the community and also implied the uniqueness that existed between various social races. This motivated me to learn without questioning the existing cultures.
