The first article I chose was an article about the Akan Twi alphabet. This article detailed the creation of the alphabet, and talked a bit about the sounds the letters made. I used the article as I continued to learn Twi, I used the article to practice reading the alphabet and practice Twi Digraphs. My senior project has two parts to it, and this article helped with the first aspect, which is simply to learn Twi. The second article I read was an article from language magazine, about  how one’s native language impacts one’s acquired language(s). 

“For second language learners, some cues are easier to pick up than others, such as which consonants are common in starting and ending words. An example is the “z” sound, which is a common end to words in English but is not often found at the beginning of words.

Other cues, such as intonation, are harder to master and are more likely to be influenced by a speaker’s native language. Tremblay points to English where a stressed syllable is a strong indication that a new word is beginning. But in French the opposite is true; prominent syllables tend to be at the end of words.”

The article detailed how one language can impact another, and the cultural distinctions that native speakers make that they unwittingly use while speaking. The second aspect of my senior project is exploring the connection between culture and language, and this article definitely validated my hypothesis that language and culture are connected. 

The difference in subject matter between these two articles exemplifies the change that my senior project has gone through over time. My senior project has slowly shifted from mainly learning Twi, to an exploration of language, culture, and the ties between the two.