Alvarez 1

Sebastian Alvarez Espinoza

Instructor-Ingram, Suzanne
12/03/2014
Literary Narrative: Spanglish
Since learning English in Chile and the United States. It took a great amount of learning
since the need speak a foreign language and having the ability to communicate with my peers
was the basis to my schooling. When moving to Raleigh I didn't have a choice ,but to try my
hardest in learning how to speak English as well as writing it. I was placed in fifth grade due to
the switched hemispheres making school calendars being different. The first class I took in
reading and grammar was ESL which stands for English for Second Language, a class for
foreign students moving to the United States trying to learn the new language. This class taught
me a lot of grammar and many slangs words used in here in the south which I wasn't accustomed
to due to me only having knowledge of northern slang. My instructor, Mr. Pratt, taught me a lot
on how construct sentences and how synonyms in English come before nouns unlike in Spanish
which is the opposite way. Even though ESL was helping me learn English it would only be a
year in which I would remain in 5th grade and have to move on towards middle school the next
year.
Furthermore, when moving to middle school, my mode of speaking had change
completely and I was able to communicate with my peers more as well as my instructors. When
going to middle school I had to take two more years of ESL learning due to my difficulty in
passing the state ESL test which we had to take every year. It was big struggle for me being not
able to be with my other peers in English class. It was not until 7th grade when I passed the ESL
state test and I was able to advance to the 8th grade to take normal English classes with my

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peers. Though my English was not as crisp as others being able to learn proper English instead of
learning the language itself was a huge advancement due to my language barrier. Though being a
long time ago middle school played as a transition for my writing. I was well considered in my
English class as well as my film class, but was not well appraised for my writing style.
Throughout the year I was able to learn a lot of information about how write a proper essay and
how to clearly state your thesis. Though nervous most of the time due to my strong Chilean
accent I was still able to push myself into writing fluently to master the English language.
Moreover, towards high school my knowledge of English became broader, but had some
trouble due the limit of teaching in my school. At the beginning of the year most of English was
limited to reading books and online assignments, unlike other classes that were being taught how
to properly write an essay. My class was not different than other, but had the unfortunate luck to
lose our teacher in the middle of the semester and to rely on substitutes. Though my difficulty to
learn, I was still able to teach myself how to write a good essay without any further trouble. The
real challenge had not come yet until the end of the year when I had to take the end-of-course
exam for English in which I scored a 86. This was a great achievement for me due to all the
hardships that the class had placed upon me.
In addition, my English kept improving during my time in high school, it wasn't until
junior year where my English took a great major importance in my life because of the many
recommendation letters and essays I had to write for my admission into college. During that year
I had taken two English classes, AP English III and University College Writing which allowed to
expand my knowledge of thesis writing and narrative writing. Throughout that class I learned
many subjects to write about and the many ways that writing applies to the reader. Since my
school was a on the magnet program we had to create a Graduation Project which came along

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with a Graduation Paper which had to me a ten-page paper explaining the thesis one had picked
for their project. My thesis was the "How has Chile changed politically, economically and
socially after the seventeen year dictatorship?" My paper thoroughly explained how Chile had
change since it's return to democracy in 1990. Here is sample of my thesis statement:
It was September 11, 1973 when the republic of Chiles democracy was
obscured by a dictatorship lasting seventeen years. No matter how high up the sun was
that day Chileans remember this day by hard the day when jets of the Chilean Air Force
would pass by the congress legislature house and assailed it. Or the day when all the
political parties in Chile would be dissolved to establish a ruthless fascist dictatorship and
all the intellectuals of the time would be send to a concentration camp to obliterate their
socialist ideals. This day was Chiles coup dtat when the Socialist government of
former president Salvador Allende was toppled. Even though of how bad it sounds the
dictatorship that was established ended in 1990 bringing great exponential growth over
the last twenty years. All of this has led to Chile to be the leading Latin American country
in the world and has also shaped its democracy to fit with the mind of the people in Chile
to also lead the country into a better lifestyle."

I had many facts and papers that proved my thesis to be correct and understanding. My paper
was a great achievement of mine due to how correctly written it was and how it explained Chile's
actual change through the eyes of a real Chileans who experienced the change as well as what
they thought about it. I enjoyed much writing my essay because of my better English grammar
and the message I was sending about how much progress my country had made.

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In conclusion, the change in my English has made a huge advancement in my life and has
allowed to speak fluently and smoothly. The many classes I took and the many late nights I had
to stay up truly helped me become the writer that I am today. This will not only help me for my
future jobs, but will stay with me to teach many others what I learned and how I can help them as
well. Throughout school I always had trouble communicating using my English, the many runon sentences and the many wrongly placed commas. Learning a new language was not only my
work, but also the work of many others such as teachers and friends that gave me good advice to
further my knowledge of the English language. As I was growing up in the United States since
2006, I've come really far in learning English whilst mastering grammar. My literary
development not only changed my literacy, but as well as my life.