Blog 4
When coming into this class, I had very little understanding
of what second language acquisition was other than learning a new language. In the
short amount of time we have had this class, I have learned a great deal. I
never took the time to understand how a second language was learned, but I know
so much more now that the class is coming to a close. This class opened my eyes
as to how incredible all of the different languages are, and how lucky we all
truly are to be able to communicate in such an amazing way. Like Ortega said,
we take for granted being able to speak to others in at least our native language,
and most in many other languages (2013).
Knowing
what I do now after this class, will help me tremendously with my ELL/ESL
students. I will better understand the struggles they might be going through,
or even how to get them to communicate with me and their peers. Using the information
from this class in my future classrooms will give my non-English speaking students
a better chance at being able to communicate and truly learn the English language.
But with this class, there are some topics that stuck out the most to me.
I never
truly thought about age effecting learning a new language, but it definitely
does. Having a sharper mind like younger children do, they will obviously have
a better chance at retaining the language unlike adults and older children. Age
has such a big effect on SLA, and I never truly thought about that before this
class. Next, motivation was the next big topic that I found the most
interesting. It is so interesting, because there is so much responsibility on
both party’s part that you do not really think about unless you are either
party. I knew that students needed to be able to motivate themselves if they
really wanted to grasp the understanding, but it never truly occurred to me
everything that the teachers needed to do; or how crucial it is to the student’s
success. I never thought about what teachers had to go through to find the
perfect books activity that would inspire the ELL students to want to go and
learn more and talk to their peers more.
Creating
the blog for this class was really interesting to me. I enjoyed having the
interaction with my peers and getting to talk to different people about their
experiences with SLA, but I do not feel like it truly helped me learn the
material better. I truly enjoyed interacting with my peers but going through
and finding citations from the textbook made it feel a tad bit more disingenuous.
It did not feel like we were attempting to communicate to understand each other
better, but instead to get the citation in for the class. Overall, using the vlogs
really helped me learn the material better, and interact with my peers more
than I normally would in an online class. Not only that, but it kept me
up-to-date on my writing skills and encouraged me to dig deeper into the text
to find genuine citations that would enhance what I was saying in my writing.
I have enjoyed this class and interacting with everyone!
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language
acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Tobi! I too found both age and motivation as interesting aspects of second language acquisition. There are so many different findings to consider when it comes to age in SLA. For example, adult learners have an advantage over young learners but learning young is better in the long run (Ortega, 2013). Another interesting find is 5 to 25 % of best case learning are made up of late learners (Ortega, 2013). While we can't control their age, we are partly responsible for their motivation. We should try our best to motivate our students as best we can.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hey Veronica. It is interesting that you bring up motivation. Ortega (2011) describes motivation as "Motivation is usually understood to refer to the desire to initiate L2 learning and the effort employed to sustain it." (Ortega, p.168) In order to provide our ELL students with the best education possible we need to understand where their motivation comes from or lack thereof. This will give us as educators the basis for a comprehensive lesson plan.
DeleteReference:
Ortega, L. (2013). Summary . In L. Ortega, Understanding Second Language Acquisition (p. 190). New York : Routledge
Hey Veronica! When originally reading that quote, I found it so interesting because you never realize the difference age makes on learning a language. Especially that adults may learn quicker, but they will not retain the information nearly as much. I found it interesting that after 5 years, children catch up to adults and younger children, and most surpass the others (Ortega, 2013). Teachers are definitely responsible for motivation, and I think that we all have the ability to help the students even more now.
DeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Tobi, thank you for your post. I especially liked the quote from Ortega that you mentioned. I found it very inspiring, and we do take for granted the fact that we are able to speak our native language, or even a second language, so well. I could not imagine a world without communication. Ortega (2011) states that language dis one of the most unique traits our species as humans possess (pg.1). I found this statement very powerful, because we are lucky to be able to share our thoughts and feelings with other. While we like to speculate, and there are some studies that have shown other species do communicate, it is not to our level of sophistication. This is what makes humans truly one of a kind.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Haylee.
DeleteYou are correct, how complex our communication is as humans is one of the defining differences between us and other species. Ortega (2011) states that language is one of the most unique traits our species as humans possess. This is a rather large abstract idea but if instructors keep this mentality in mind when they are educating ELL students, then they will bew able to provide a more complex and comprehensive instructional plan.
Reference:
Ortega, L. (2013). Summary . In L. Ortega, Understanding Second Language Acquisition (p. 190). New York : Routledge
Hey Haylee, taking this course really put everything into perspective for me. We really are so blessed and fortunate that we are able to have the ability to speak our native language so many places, but also have the ability to learn new languages. But knowing that we are the minority in this aspect, and that most children grow up knowing more than one language from an early age baffled me at the beginning of this course (Ortega, 2013). That really is such a powerful statement because we have evolved so much and have the ability to speak and understand so many people from around the world.
DeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hey Tobi.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you about how daunting it must be being an ELL student. I grew up in monolingual household and was only taught content in English. It is difficult for me to REALLY understand what is it would be like to be an ELL student. However, I think that as educators we need to be as empathetic as possible when instructing ELL students. Ortega (2011) said, we take for granted being able to speak to others in at least our native language, and most in many other languages. I never actually sat and thought about the fact that I was learning history in English or Algebra in English. It was just learning. So when an ELL student is in my classroom I need to make sure that I wrap my mind around the fact that they are still having to learn the science content I am teaching as well as the progression of their L2 acquisition.
Reference: Ortega, L. (2013). Summary . In L. Ortega, Understanding Second Language Acquisition (p. 190). New York : Routledge
Hey Jerome. I grew up the same way, so it never occurred to me all of the struggles ELL students may face. I could never imagine what it would be like to go through school having to do all of the activities and learning a new language at the same time. It is absolutely incredible to me how students are able to do this. Not only that but having to keep a positive attitude and having the desire to learn a new language in the daunting atmosphere of school is incredible to me (Ortega, 2013). ELLs are so incredible to me, and I commend them so much, and want to do everything in my power to make their lives easier in my classroom.
DeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.