My understanding of the learning of an additional language
has changed drastically with the information I have learned thus far. I came to this class assuming that since I have
experience in learning a second language I would have an upper hand in this
class. Boy was I wrong! The “A” in SLA, “mean the process of learning
additional languages” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 5) was not even what I thought it was
going to be. My definition only skimmed a minute part of the term. Learning a new language is a lengthy
process. However, the information this
course provided was so much deeper and richer than I originally thought. According to Ortega, “…attitudes towards the
L2 and its speakers will contribute to increased or diminished L2 motivation”
(Ortega, 2013, pg. 174). I was motivated
on starting this journey and it reflected in my understanding of learning
Spanish for our language blog. Also, it
helped me connect with my Spanish-speaking peers and gave me pleasure knowing I
mastered greetings and introductions in the targeted language. This experience
aided me in understanding the steps behind learning an additional language. It
gave me a different perspective on SLA.
This class
has broaden my view because I was able to observe SLA as both student and
teacher mode. My time practicing Spanish
with the stems provided from our learning blogs gave me the opportunity to put
myself as a beginner learner. I practice
pronouncing the new terms and only used the language I learned with my peers I
am comfortable with. The more difficult
the Spanish words were for me the more nervous I was in speaking the words
aloud. Ortega mentions, “some
individuals report experiencing intense feelings of apprehension, tension, and
even fear, when they think of foreign languages” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 200) Since
I have this same nervousness of speaking a foreign language I give my ELLs the
opportunity to participate in speaking discussions if they choose. Also, in my planning I give more thought into
planning my lesson in how to differentiate my lesson for ELL students. I am practicing on giving students more wait
time. I think overall I am more
conscious of everyone’s learning style and I want to give my ELL students the
same opportunity.
I found foreign
language aptitude the most interesting.
Going back to my experience as a young child I was able to grasp the
understanding of speaking, reading and writing quicker than my other Vietnamese
classmates. “People greatly differ in how fast, how well and by what means they
learn an additional language” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 145). In comparison with my peers, we had the same
bilingual teachers and all came from similar backgrounds. We all grew up in a really tight-knit
Vietnamese community all within a few blocks of one another. So how come the changes among us varied
greatly? This topic also mentions
cognition, conation and affect as concepts researchers studied to understand
differences. Because of my childhood
upbringing this topic really interest me.
I have a
love/hate relationship with our Vblogs. I
learned a lot from the interviewees I did for my post. Reading my classmates reflection gave me
their point of views so I was able to see how they relate to what we were
reading that differs from mine. Some of
my peers were creative in making the language blogs and it made me think how
come I did not think of it first. All in
all the connection I felt posting the comments and replies felt like community
of learners. We all shared a common goal
and that is to be future educators. The
not so good news I have about our Vblogs and I know I am repeating myself on
this, but for someone who is not technology savvy it took a tremendously amount
of time transferring my interviews onto my computer. It took me even longer to figure out what all
I needed to do for the mp3 audios. There
has to be an alternative to make the assignments more efficient in sharing
within the class.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Thank you for an exemplary entry. I can see how well you have mastered many of the concepts and I am glad to see that your perspective on SLA has changed. It simply means you have learned a lot. I understand your frustration with technology and I am sure you will be more prepared to be a teacher whois not afraid to use technology in your instruction. I guess you are not familiar with technology and I wonder if you have taken that class on IT. I know it is part of the program. About this class, you can make the videos with your phone, upload them to the Drive (provided you have the application on your phone) in a matter of minutes. If not, you need to explore these tool since it will become really handy once you have to deal with so many things in your class. Once again, thank you for a great entry.
ReplyDeleteHi Tom, it is great to see that your own nervous experience during the second language experience allowed you to relate more to your students and allow them the wait time they needed to compose their responses. The lengthy process that SLA is, is filled with obstacles that are not only based on the language being learned but also the individuals own feelings. Just as anxiety affect students with public speaking, the same situation when speaking in a language one is learning, can build up into a high-anxiety situation. It is a responsibility of the instructor to know the emotional stresses that their students may go through in their SLA journey. “High-anxiety foreign language students exhibit many symptoms, but the most common ones are two: freezing up when asked to say something in the L2 in front of the class and blanking on the right answers during a language test despite having studied hard and even knowing the answers” (Ortega, 2013, p200).
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for misspelling your name Thom.
DeleteSad thing is anxiety does affect a student's growth. What I have notice in my MT's class is she will give ELLs the opportunity to share in group discussion but they are never force. They have the option of participating or not. Foreign language anxiety is different in the part they have to speak in the L2 they are learning. One example is forgetting the information even though you know the information is the same one you have been practicing for weeks on.
DeleteHey Thom,
DeleteI’m glad you mention anxiety, because I think anxiety hinders many students learning. I believe that many ELL students have anxiety because they are unsure if they will be correct. Not only correct in the content area but correct in how they communicate their L2. Although I don’t have many ELL’s in my field placement, I do have two. These two students are complete opposites as one we struggle daily with getting him to stop speaking out so much and the other with speaking at all. I believe that the ELL that does not speak much has anxiety because she tries everything, she can to not be called on to speak and she doesn’t even care to speak quietly one on one with a teacher. I am thankful this student has my mentor teacher because she works hard with her and I’m also thankful to be able to learn from my mentor teacher how to handle a situation like this.
Thom,
ReplyDeleteI believe that technology is something very complicated as well. I feel like I did not enjoy them as much because of how much work it was to transfer them from my phone to the computer. I agree that there should've been an alternative assignment. I also agree that I learned a lot from those who I interviewed. I learned a lot, and when it was over I was very happy that I interviewed them. I find it very interesting that you found foreign language aptitude interesting. I found motivation to be something I found very interesting. I believe it was interesting because we all have a drive and a motivation to do things. I mainly found it interesting because we can use it to help our students be successful. Ortega states that intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within, and extrinsic motivation comes from motivation that comes from external rewards (Ortega, 2013).