I came into this class knowing very little about second language acquisition. The most I knew about SLA, was the idea it was better to learn a language at a young age due to personal experience. I am leaving this class understanding second language acquisition is so much more than when is the best age to learn another language. SLA is a combination of age, linguistic environment and more, but overall it is "scholarly field of inquiry that investigates the human capacity to learn languages other than the first, during late childhood, adolescence or adulthood, and once the first languages has been acquired" (Ortega, 2013, p. 1-2).
There are a number of factors that effect how a person learns a second language. Ortega defines this as universal influences compromised of "age, mother tongue, environment, and cognition" (2013, p. 9). The factor that stood out to me most was the linguistic environment because it plays a large roll in how a student learns their second language. More specially, Mackey's "positive findings for the link between interaction and acquisition" (Ortega, 2013, p. 65). In her study, she found the English language learners encouraged to communicate and interact were those who showed the most progress. Therefore, as teachers we should encourage our ESL students to speak in English and interact with their peers. If our ESL students consistently interact, they will gain longterm benefits (Ortega, 2013).
I found the age to be another interesting factor because it corrected my thought it is easier to learn a second language a younger age. For example, Snow and Hoefnagel-Höhle (1977, 1978) found "that adults and adolescents were better than children in a 25-minute instruction session" (Ortega, 2013, p. 16). Although, "younger is better in the long run," it surprised me to learn there were any findings where adults learners had an advantage over younger learners (Ortega, 2013, p. 16). However, I found it most surprising that those who learn from eleven to seventeen keep their advantage over young learners because it is older than young learners and younger than adult learners (Ortega, 2013). When I become a teacher, I shouldn't be discouraged if my students are having a hard time learning the English because eventually they will catch up.
I was wary of the vblogs process at first, but I have found the process to be decidedly informational in all aspects. Creating the videos and then reflecting upon them gave me an opportunity to connect what I have learned from the book and from someone who has gone through the process. Reading other people's vblogs and their comments to my post furthered my knowledge because some of them made connections I did not make. I particularly liked the interview aspect because everyone has a different story and it gives us multiple real life examples.
Overall, I enjoyed this course. It allowed for a level of understanding very few courses are able to induce. There will be second language learners in my future classroom and this course will help understand them. I learned a lot from this class and my peers I am delighted to take part of this course.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Monday, July 2, 2018
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Entry 3: Mrs. Avalos
Mrs. Avalo's Interview
This week I interviewed Michelle Avalos. Michelle teaches first grade at Rita Drabek Elementary school. She has been teaching for thirty years. This past year she had fourteen ELL students in her classroom.
During this interview, she spoke about two specific students who spoke no English in the beginning of the school year, a Russian girl and Vietnamese boy. Throughout the school year, Michelle would check for understanding with those students (Ortega, 2013). When there was no understanding between them, she would use Google Translate to bridge the gap between their languages. I thought was admirable how she found a way to reach her students in anyway she could.
She mentioned in the interview she found her English language learners are most motivated by external factors like stickers. However, since some students do not completely understand the language, they don't pay attention to the lesson she puts forth. Unfortunately, if students do not pay attention to the lesson, they miss out on critical information needed to learn the language (Ortega, 2013). The two students she mentioned progressed throughout the school year but they did not reach the level the other students were at. The Russian student flourished throughout the school year and her vocabulary depth expanded while the Vietnamese student's vocabulary depth grew at a sluggish state. After the interview, she mentioned the Vietnamese student was not motivated to learn English for most of the school year. By the end of the school year, he was motivated to learn English because he did make many friends during the school year.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
This week I interviewed Michelle Avalos. Michelle teaches first grade at Rita Drabek Elementary school. She has been teaching for thirty years. This past year she had fourteen ELL students in her classroom.
During this interview, she spoke about two specific students who spoke no English in the beginning of the school year, a Russian girl and Vietnamese boy. Throughout the school year, Michelle would check for understanding with those students (Ortega, 2013). When there was no understanding between them, she would use Google Translate to bridge the gap between their languages. I thought was admirable how she found a way to reach her students in anyway she could.
She mentioned in the interview she found her English language learners are most motivated by external factors like stickers. However, since some students do not completely understand the language, they don't pay attention to the lesson she puts forth. Unfortunately, if students do not pay attention to the lesson, they miss out on critical information needed to learn the language (Ortega, 2013). The two students she mentioned progressed throughout the school year but they did not reach the level the other students were at. The Russian student flourished throughout the school year and her vocabulary depth expanded while the Vietnamese student's vocabulary depth grew at a sluggish state. After the interview, she mentioned the Vietnamese student was not motivated to learn English for most of the school year. By the end of the school year, he was motivated to learn English because he did make many friends during the school year.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Entry 2: Bilingual Interview
Bilingual Interview
For my second entry, I asked my friend if I could interview her. She was born in Texas and she grew up with Spanish as her first language. In her household, her mother spoke only Spanish, while her siblings were bilingual. As stated in the video, she did not begin to learn English until she was in Kindergarten, making her a successive early bilingual. She found it was easy for her to learn English while she was younger which reflects the critical and sensitive period theory (Ortega, 2013). While she is currently fluent in English, she did have some trouble with keeping both languages since she was not allowed to speak Spanish within the classroom. Past the age of four, she began to hear more English over Spanish. Her siblings would help her learn English at home and she would learn English from her teachers when they took her out of the classroom. Since she heard more English, her vocabulary became English dominate (Rowland, 2015). Although she found it easy to learn English, she was slow to become fluent enough to leave the ESL program. She was introduced to English early but she did not have a wide variety of words to fill the gap between her and other monolingual students, which demonstrates why it took her time to leave the ESL program (Rowland, 2015). As she grew confident in the language, she gained friends and expanded her vocabulary in English because her friends only knew how to speak English.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Rowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. Routledge.
For my second entry, I asked my friend if I could interview her. She was born in Texas and she grew up with Spanish as her first language. In her household, her mother spoke only Spanish, while her siblings were bilingual. As stated in the video, she did not begin to learn English until she was in Kindergarten, making her a successive early bilingual. She found it was easy for her to learn English while she was younger which reflects the critical and sensitive period theory (Ortega, 2013). While she is currently fluent in English, she did have some trouble with keeping both languages since she was not allowed to speak Spanish within the classroom. Past the age of four, she began to hear more English over Spanish. Her siblings would help her learn English at home and she would learn English from her teachers when they took her out of the classroom. Since she heard more English, her vocabulary became English dominate (Rowland, 2015). Although she found it easy to learn English, she was slow to become fluent enough to leave the ESL program. She was introduced to English early but she did not have a wide variety of words to fill the gap between her and other monolingual students, which demonstrates why it took her time to leave the ESL program (Rowland, 2015). As she grew confident in the language, she gained friends and expanded her vocabulary in English because her friends only knew how to speak English.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Rowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. Routledge.
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Entry 1
Video Entry 1
While most of my family is fluent in both Spanish and English, I am not. Both of my brothers learned Spanish in school, while my parents learned it from my grandparents. Ortega (2013) states second language acquisition explores the how much a person can learn another language after learning the first. I am curious to know if my brothers' success in learning Spanish late in life is a coincidence, while my failure is not or vice versa. When I met other Hispanics like myself, who only know English, it makes it nice to know that I am not the only person who does not have that connection with their heritage. I hope I will eventually become fluent in Spanish because it would be nice to have a complete conversation with my grandmother and the rest of my family. Ortega (2013) also proclaims that children complete acquiring the basics of language by age six. It leads me to wonder if most adults miss their chance at fluency if they do not obtain a second language by this age. Throughout elementary onto high school, I did not know a lot of people who knew more than one language, however once I moved on to college, I found a lot more people knew at least English and Spanish. Most of them learned both languages at an early age and very few learned Spanish while in high school. This seems to suggest that adults do in fact lose their chance if they do not learn while they are children.
While most of my family is fluent in both Spanish and English, I am not. Both of my brothers learned Spanish in school, while my parents learned it from my grandparents. Ortega (2013) states second language acquisition explores the how much a person can learn another language after learning the first. I am curious to know if my brothers' success in learning Spanish late in life is a coincidence, while my failure is not or vice versa. When I met other Hispanics like myself, who only know English, it makes it nice to know that I am not the only person who does not have that connection with their heritage. I hope I will eventually become fluent in Spanish because it would be nice to have a complete conversation with my grandmother and the rest of my family. Ortega (2013) also proclaims that children complete acquiring the basics of language by age six. It leads me to wonder if most adults miss their chance at fluency if they do not obtain a second language by this age. Throughout elementary onto high school, I did not know a lot of people who knew more than one language, however once I moved on to college, I found a lot more people knew at least English and Spanish. Most of them learned both languages at an early age and very few learned Spanish while in high school. This seems to suggest that adults do in fact lose their chance if they do not learn while they are children.
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