An auto-ethnographic study of a triplet concerning language acquisition in a conflicted environment.

摘要

This thesis is an auto-ethnographic study that examines linguistic confusions among triplets who were living in a conflicted home environment caused by their mother and grandmother (Nonna). Researchers such as Bessel Van der Kolk, James Paul Gee, Jean Berko Gleason, Lev Semynovich Vygotsky, and Maryanne Wolf, among, others illustrate how critical language acquisition combined with trauma affects a child during their primary years of language development. The thesis demonstrates the difficulties the triplets had transitioning from their Cryptophesia, "private language" to their home language environment. Additionally, it demonstrates the triplet's challenges with their language transitions from English to Italian while living in Italy, and the transition back to English after returning to the U.S., while living in a conflicted home environment in both locations. During the high school years, the mother's persistence regarding language acquisition garnered the school's support, which enabled the triplets to overcome the linguistic difficulties.