Here is my interview for entry 3.
The teacher that I had interviewed
is a certified ESL teacher and has been teaching for over ten years. She stated
that it is important for students to be able to be immersed in an inclusive
classroom. The interactions of the students with their peers is a good way to
help students become assimilated to the culture as well as get practice with
other native speakers. According to Ortega (2011), the more accustomed a
student becomes to the target society and the people in it, the more successful
the learning outcome will be for the student (p. 57). As the type of environment
can largely impact how an ELL learns, it is important that the learner has a
positive attitude and is active and engaged in the process of second language
acquisition (Ortega, 2011, p. 59). I agree with her in that it is very
beneficial for students to be surrounded by native speakers as a way to practice
authentically and consistently throughout their day. She states that age is an
important factor and the younger a child learns another language, the easier it
is for students to grasp the overall language as they grow up. As she was talking
about motivation, her students sounded like they had integrativeness as their
learning attitude. As integrativeness is a student’s own genuine desire to
learn another language and be closer to its community (Ortega, 2011, p. 170).
Her students are genuinely trying to learn English to be involved in classroom
discussions as well as to communicate with their peers. Many points that she
has said in the interview are those that I agree with when it comes to how
important an ELL’s environment is and the different attributes that help students
succeed in learning another language.
Hi Jennie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your interviewee in that it IS important for students to be completely immersed in an inclusive classroom. I have an ELL student in my field observation that speaks Quiche, and he is completely immersed in a self-contained, regular, English classroom. This classroom that I student teach in is a kindergarten classroom. The student has made exceptional progress in the English language, and he has been able to pick up on the English language very quickly. Although I definitely see growth, there are some setbacks. As stated in the book, “school immersion from kindergarten to sixth grade afforded these children optimal development in discourse competence, but not in grammatical competence or in sociolinguistic competence for aspects that demanded grammatical means” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 62). I have undeniably observed this setback, and can positively support this statement; the child is able to use the language in the context of school and play, but outside of school, he is unable to use the language outside of context. School immersion does not provide “sufficient opportunities for the children to actually use the language in meaningful ways, through speaking and writing” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 62). Thanks for sharing!
Hi Jenny! I’m glad that your student has made a lot of progress in the English language. That is amazing to see progress with your student acquiring a second language by being immersed in a self-contained English classroom. It is definitely a challenge to learn a new language if they are not using it in a meaningful and authentic way. Thanks for the response!
DeleteHello Jennie. I like your work with regards to the Second Language Acquisition/ESL interview with the third grade teacher. Seemingly your chosen teacher is very experienced and I guess we can all learn a lot from her. I note the outlook of her class room whereby she caters for the child’s learning needs. I do agree that learning a second language as a child is the most natural way of acquiring another language. They are certainly ‘sponges’ at this age, and the sooner they start to learn a second language, the better it is for them as they are not affected with the negatives of school life, as was pointed out. As stated in the text, “age effects may be present in additional language acquisition much earlier than previously thought, perhaps at age four” (Ortega, L. 2011. pp. 25).They must therefore interact, in a positive classroom, to gain that confidence they need. Great post. Nice job.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan!
DeleteI agree with you that learning a second language as a child is the most natural way of acquiring another language. Students at a young period of their time learn a second language easier in the long run than adults as a positive and comforting environment can lead to students acquiring a second language more effectively. Thanks for the response!
Hello Jennie, great interview you did. I want to point out that as I grew up I used my native language to help me learn my second language. I was able to pick up my grammar as I developed my L2, and from what I remember it was not easy at first but the teachers I had really made a difference in my life. Having to do that I learned my second language very young I was able to grasp the language very well. Age really does matter when learning a new language. As a child we might learn slower compare to adults and adolescents, but the language acquisitions stays longer when you learn at a young age compare to an adult. According to Ortega (2011) the advantage of the older learners began diminishing after ten months or so. Older adults may be able to learn in a 25-minute instruction session, faster than a child, but the what they were able to learn in those 25 minutes slowly will fade away if they do not continue to learn.
ReplyDeleteHi Griselda!
DeleteI agree with you that it helps learning another language at a younger age. I believe that a large reason I still understand and can speak Chinese is because that was the language I grew up learning from birth to high school. Having parents who also only spoke to me in Chinese helped me practice in authentic situations and gave me daily practice. Thanks for the response!
It’s interesting that your interviewee mentions that Positive attitudes play a part in how students learn a second language. Ortega mentions that a key of higher motivation is if a student has a positive attitude about learning a subject (170). Replicating this idea in her teaching will allow students to also have a positive attitude, increasing their intrinsic motivation level. The way in which she responds to her students learning also impacts their motivation. Her behaviors constitute a positive sociocultural milieu in whish is ideal to foster student motivation within a healthy environment (174). Students who have a higher motivation are more likely to succeed and your teacher has certainly given them that opportunity.
ReplyDelete