Using a Transdisciplinary Lens to Make Sense of My Own Acquisition and Retrieval of Spoken English

Narratives and personal accounts of language learning experiences provide valuable insights into language development. However, the process by which multilinguals access and retrieve spoken language is not well understood. This paper aims to use a transdisciplinary perspective that draws on the interconnected areas of Mind (psychology), Brain (neuroscience), Health (well-being), and Education to explore my own English language acquisition and retrieval process. I acquired spoken English as a young child in the USA, lost the language while living in Switzerland for 18 years, and then rapidly retrieved it as a 22-year-old English language learner in New Zealand. Taking this transdisciplinary perspective and answering four key questions sheds light on my rather unusual ‘spoken English journey.’ The paper concludes with a discussion about pedagogical implications for language teachers.