Running head: LITERACY NARRITIVE: FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER

LITERACY NARRITIVE
FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER

Caley Leask
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO
LITERACY NARRITVE: READING AND WRITING

Growing up, I always found myself peeking at the tabloid magazines in the checkout

aisles. I would flip through the pages and become intrigued with the rumor filled stories and

redundant Hollywood gossip. While my mother would slide the groceries to be scanned and

purchased, I was busy yelling out the largest titles and headliners I could see. Brad and Angelina

move in together, Oprah brainwashed by Cult, Hillary attacks Bills secret lover, ouch. My

constant curiosity as a child in the supermarket jumpstarted my urge to read. Coupled with my

regular readings and research in the athletic world, I developed a knack for reading, if the topic

was of interest.

As a child, I was always getting into trouble. If I wasnt making a mess outside, I was

causing a ruckus inside. My parents, both of whom worked for corporate entities back in Canada,

were very busy when work was brought home and needed a quiet atmosphere to work, an

atmosphere I couldnt accommodate to. Filled with energy and vibrancy, I would run around the

house kicking my soccer ball around or chasing my older sisters newborn cat. This wouldnt sit

well with my parents so I often found myself in punishment. My dad thought it would be a good

idea to stimulate my mind during these punishment as to seize the opportunities in every

moment so they would send me to the basement that quickly converted to a study room when

my sister began high school. The study room had four tall wooden bookcases stuffed and

crammed with books of any and almost every genre. It was in this room that my hunger to read

was fed and my curiosity roamed free.

Growing up where nearly eight percent of the citys population conversed in French, it

was rather easy for me to pick up on the secondary language. I found it easier to acquire the

accent and pronunciations as my parents regular spoke throughout the house in French. Constant

travels and sports trips around the country of Canada made it almost a requirement for me to
LITERACY NARRITVE: READING AND WRITING

learn French. During the early years of my life, I played club soccer. A lot of our matches were

held in Quebec City, Saint Jean and Laval, all of which are cities within Quebec, a French-

speaking province. As I got older and started competing more seriously in soccer, I found myself

reading about some of the most prominent soccer stars like Boulleau and LeBlanc. My once

curious tabloid reads developed into an excavate on anything and everything pertaining to

Canadian soccer. I lived and breathe soccer for the most part, so why not become that much

more knowledgeable in the sport? I wanted to know everything about everything. I found myself

watching countless highlight videos from the England vs. Canada Womens World Cup as well

as reading post-game interviews of several Canadian athletes when they appeared in the Olympic

games. I would go as far as reading up on the diets, habits and workout routines of Stephanie

Labbe to train like the best. It was my love for the game that unknowingly seeded my constant

urge to read and become knowledgeable. My father would always tell my older sister and I

Knowledge is power and you should always be powerful.

Although as a child, allowing my curious eyes to skim the books and novels within the

study room allowed for a door to be opened when it comes to reading, writing was another

subject. I always had a difficult time putting my ideas on paper. When I was in grade school, I

either had the teacher next to me helping me bring my ideas from my head to my paper or I

struggled and was one of the last to turn in my assignment. It wasnt that I wasnt smart enough

to construct a proper sentence or that I was incapable of writing essays and reports, I just saw no

interest in it. Reading about the soccer stars, their crazy workouts or just glancing at the

commentary from an old match sparked lights and grabbed ahold of my attention while the

correction abbreviations and punctuations bored me. Being fluent in two of the provinces

dominant languages didnt make the situation any better. While I spoke French at home, I spend
LITERACY NARRITVE: READING AND WRITING

a majority of the life speaking English. In school and outside the portion of my life that is soccer,

everyone spoke in English. This created complication particularly in classes where essays and

reports were standard. My thought processes and self-conscious happened in French while my

assignments were due in English. Although fluent, I found it easier expressing my ideas and

phrasing my thoughts in French and felt that the translation to English created a loss of quality.

My writing would always appear boring and dry and I never got thrilled to write the basic reports

and essays that werent narratives. Another problem that affected my writing style was the

circumstances under which I learned French.

Even though I was exposed to the language of French through my parents, I received

immense exposure during my journeys as a soccer star. This meant that a lot of the wording,

pronunciations were predominantly slang, particularly in the areas where I competed during my

youth. Swear words, incomplete sentences and improper phrases were the normal presentation of

communication in the soccer community especially when we spoke in French. This formed

additional problems when writing I got older, making it harder for me to complete my thought

before having to translate them into a different language. The way in which I learned the

language, the form of the language and those who taught me affected my writing style with very

little effort and influence on my part. When I got to high school, I realized I couldnt continue to

struggle and took it upon myself to better my writing skills. After my practices, I would go to the

library and reserve a private study room. Books ranging from SAT Essay Practices to How-To

books focuses on the construction and placements in essays were borrowed and studied every

two to four weeks for almost three and a half months. Like Malcom X said in Learning to

Read, the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionaryto study, to learn some

words. I was lucky enough to reason also that I should try to improve (Grove Press, 1965).
LITERACY NARRITVE: READING AND WRITING

When my older sister and my parents read my essays during my last year in high school, they

would say that my writing skills drastically improved and the energy in my writing no longer felt

monotone and dry. I felt that like Malcom, it was difficult for me to write simple English due to

the slang that greatly influenced my speech pattern and construction. I even took a class in the

language of French during my sophomore year in high school to better help me translate my

thoughts and idea into English. When I look back at writing assignment and reports I had to write

in junior high and early secondary school, I am more appreciative of my efforts and am proud

not only in the quality of my writing but in my choice of word selection. Many of the vocabulary

I use, especially in the English language, are words that I would have and did not have a clue

about three four years ago.

LITERACY NARRITVE: READING AND WRITING

References

Haley. A. The Autobiography of Malcom X; Learning to Read. (1965). Grove Press.