Free Tutoring Second Language Writers by Shanti Bruce Page A

Spanish to clarify a suggestion she has made. She rephrases the colloquial English phrase you got it to a more specific phrase, in Spanish, “ Que viste el commercial. ” [“That you saw the commercial.”] Roberta used the colloquial “you got it” to ask Stephanie when she viewed the video, implying that the date Stephanie first saw the video was the date she “got it” from the Internet. Stephanie responds “August 10, 2009,” which may be the date the video was either created or posted to the Internet. Roberta responds by asking Stephanie again about the date she “got it,” emphasizing the word you in hopes that Stephanie would recognize that Roberta was not asking about a production date but about the date Stephanie first watched the video. Stephanie hears Roberta’s emphasis on you and recognizes Roberta’s intention, so she responds with “ Ah, que yo .” [“Ah, that I.”] As Stephanie says this, Roberta clarifies her intention by stating “ Que viste el comercial. ” [“That you saw the commercial.”]
    This was the first time during the session that Roberta used Spanish to clarify a language issue Stephanie had with English. The language issue in this case was not one related to the assignment; rather, it was related to a question Roberta asked. While a native English-speaking (NES) student may have been able to understand Roberta’s intention (though that is not guaranteed), Stephanie was not able to recognize Roberta’s intention by using “got it” in place of “watched it” or “accessed it” from the Internet. Roberta’s explanation, then, prepared Stephanie for future experiences with the ambiguity inherent within a phrase such as got it .
    Roberta and Stephanie: Code-Mixing—Session 2
    Stephanie worked with Roberta on a second assignment about two weeks after the session discussed in the previous section. Stephanie’sassignment was to write another short research paper, and, since Stephanie had already drafted and revised her essay, the two focused most of their time on lower-order concerns. During the session, Roberta noticed Stephanie had been translating some of the ideas expressed in the paper word for word from Spanish to English. The excerpt below shows two examples of this.
    STEPHANIE: . . . for example, Farmville. This webpage I always use it because I can communicate with my friends, family, and also it reminds me of birthdays from others.
    ROBERTA: Okay. This webpage I always use.
    STEPHANIE: Used?
    ROBERTA: No, not the tense. This webpage I always use. In Spanish, sí . [In Spanish, yes]. Que tú digas que esta página siempre la uso, pero in English, translating it doesn’t work. [For you to say “this web page I always use,” but in English, translating it doesn’t work].You have to swap it. I always use this webpage.
    STEPHANIE: Ya, ahora sí. ¿Así o . . . [Ok, now I get it. Like this, or . . .]
    ROBERTA: Así , and you can take out that it . [Like that, and you can take out that it .]
    STEPHANIE: I always use this webpage because I can communicate with my friends, family, and also it reminds me of birthdays from others . . . yo no sé si hay una coma aquí . [I don’t know if there is a comma here.]
    ROBERTA: No. Look, the same cosa que pasó aquí with “birthdays from others.” [Look, the same thing that happened here with “birthdays from others.”]
    STEPHANIE: It reminds me—ah. Okay.
    ROBERTA: It reminds you of what?
    STEPHANIE: It reminds me of date?
    ROBERTA: No. What you’re doing is thinking about it in Spanish: que es los cumpleaños de otros . [What you’re doing is thinking about it in Spanish: that is the birthdays of others.] And then you’re translating it into English, but when you put it in English, “birthdays from others” doesn’t make sense. You could say “it reminds me about other people’s birthdays.”
    STEPHANIE: It reminds me about other people’s birthdays. ¿Con coma arriba o no? [With a comma on top or no?]
    In