INTRODUCTION
This report presents an interview with a bilingual called H.D . H.D. is a daughter of a Turkish immigrant family who lived in Australia for 12 years .H.D. gives examples from her personal life about how she became bilingual background , the challenges of second language acquisition , benefits and the role of languages in her life.
H.D was asked the following questions : (a) Could you please explain how you became bilingual? (b) Could you describe the bilingual environment you grew up in? (c) Which language do you feel more confident in speaking? And why? (d) How did you develop your reading and writing skills in both languages and what kind of challenges did you face during the learning process? (e) How did you feel as
Thus, H.D’s statement supports that the general factors that influence second language learning are: age, aptitude and intelligence, cognitive style, attitudes, motivation and personality (Ellis 1985).Additionally, characteristics of learners and situational factors determine the rate at which second language is learned. (Dulay et al.,1982;Ellis,1985)
H.D’s honest reply to the question about her feelings while growing up as a bilingual child , whether she felt special or had any negative feelings , might reflect how a bilingual child can feel and how he/she might be affected emotionally.
“This is very childish but in Australia , I remember feeling embarrassed while my parents spoke Turkish when my friends were around. I use to get angry with them and tell them to talk English in public. I do remember occasionally feeling embarrassed when we first got back to Turkey at the age of 10. I also felt awkward when adults tried to hear my Aussie accent and forced me to speak English. When I started school , I realized that my peers did not understand my Turkish since I had an accent and sometimes I used to code switch unintentionally which made it difficult to express myself. My parents sent me to a private school giving bilingual education, and my English turned out to be an advantage because all my peers were asking for help in English lessons. Then