Entry
4
This course
of Second Language Acquisition has help me understand how people learn a second
or additional language based on different things such as age, motivation, environment,
and even one’s cognition in processing information. I have learned a great deal
about how one comprehends a second language based on multiple factors that may
quicken or even reduce the rate and effectiveness one can learn another language.
For
my future teaching practices, both this class, as well as Second Language
Methodology, has given me a wide range of information to better assist and
understand my current and future English Language Learners in my classroom. After
taking this class, I have grown a wider understanding of how my students who
may struggle with English as their second language may lack motivation or do
not have an environment at home that encourages the use of English as they might
be accustomed to only using their native language.
I
thoroughly enjoyed learning about motivation as I found that chapter to be the
most interesting as the desire to learn a language can really influence how
much effort, time, and investment is given to learning a second language. I can
see that there must be a level of motivation when one is surrounded by the
language, and they are trying to fit into the community by integrating themselves
to those around them (Ortega, 2011, p. 170). As I have a few ELLs in my
classroom, I see my beginner learners struggle to find the correct words to enunciate
their thoughts or feelings across when explaining a concept or idea during a
lesson. They grasp words to describe their thoughts but cannot find the exact
words at certain times. These students are trying to integrate themselves in
the culture and environment as the rest of their peers to feel included. I see
my students struggle, and in my classroom, I try to help them figure out their
thoughts by pointing to objects or helping them formulate their thoughts by more
questioning to ensure to the students that I am actively trying to understand
them. In future courses I would emphasize foreign language aptitude less. Although I find this chapter
interesting in how well different individuals can obtain a second language, I believe
that as an educator, it would be the least immediately helpful information in
the classroom as my ELLs would have to learn English regardless of their aptitude
to learn another language.
The
blogs and entries have been helpful to me in the learning of the content in this
class. Being able to see other people’s perspectives and ideas about Second Language
Acquisition helps me see new ideas and experiences that I would not have been
able to see for myself. It is useful as an educator to see what methods are used in
other classrooms and the perspectives of other professionals such as the ones
we have been introduced to from entry 3. The blog also helped me reflect in my
own personal learning about the material learned in class. I like that there is
a different way other than tests to show our learning and understanding. The blog also creates more
of a community within the class of learners as we are an online class. The blog
is creative and personalizes learning as it is our own thoughts and practices
that we can share for our colleagues.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennie. I agree that this course has enabled us to understand how others learn a second language. I feel the same as you regarding learning in SLA, in terms of the different learning factors, especially in relation to one’s cognition. I therefore see you point about understanding the struggles that your English Language learners face due to not having an environment at home that encourages it. As teachers, we will have to motivate our students, as you stated this to be most interesting to you. This is so because “motivation is usually understood to refer to the desire to initiate L2 learning and the efforts to sustain it” (Ortega, L. 2011. pp 168). Finally, I like that you mentioned that these blogs have been most helpful in learning the course content. This had afforded us the opportunity to reflect our thoughts, and to learn from the community within the class as you mentioned. Good job. Great post.
Reference
Ortega, L. Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York:
Routledge, 2011.
Hi Susan! Thanks for the response on my entry. I’m glad you found some of my points interesting. I found it interesting myself to learn about student motivation for learning a second language and their environment all correlate with each other. I look forward to implementing some of the things I’ve learned in this class to my practice when I am able to obtain a classroom of my own.
DeleteJennie,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your post and how this class has better prepared you for when you have a class of students of your own.
I am happy that we were able to demonstrate our understanding of the information through the means of blogs instead of just tests. I still do believe more weight should be given the blog, given how much time we spend as whole on them, versus the tests. I sometimes would watch and read other posts that I didn't leave a comment, just because I enjoyed hearing how different teachers answered things.
I also did enjoy reading about motivation and everything included in it. According to Skehan (1989), motivation is the second only to aptitude in learning a second language; knowing this, I know I can expect a lot from my students, if I make my assignments and activities meaningful to them. Even though aptitude does play a large role according to many, I would never let my mind believe that in a classroom full of children. I know anyone can learn a language if they exert the effort. I do not want to give myself the excuse or the child an excuse for not acquiring a language. If I do that, then I know I won't give it my all, and the student won't either.
Great post!
Hi Hussein! Thanks for the response on my blog entry. I appreciate the feedback on my outlook of the class. I found it interesting that you would watch videos just to hear what other teachers would say. A lot of the interview were also the most interesting entries for me too. I loved watching how each teacher had different strategies for ELLs as I have learned a lot from the other teachers too.
DeleteHi Jennie,
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of the same thoughts when writing my reflection as well. Motivation was my favorite chapter as I saw the immediate practical applications that it had for my classroom. I also felt that how students learned a second language was not as important as I couldn’t directly benefit me in the classroom. However details about Second language learners such when Ortega talks about their tendency to self correct themselves can definitely be helpful (68) I can directly apply this to my classroom by pausing and giving students space to correct themselves. Little things such as this that we learned can help me understand their struggles.
Hi Alexandra!
DeleteThanks for the reply on my post. I'm glad that you also see the practical applications that this class has given us. Much of the information can be used in my future classroom as seeing what motivates students can greatly impact my future instruction. It's a good point that second language learners may need more time to think and self-correct, and therefore, is important to give them more wait time.
Hello and thank you Jennie Chen for sharing this post over your thoughts about this course. We were able to learn a lot of new information from the videos and text from this class. Having blogs proved to be a grand impact since we can learn and comment about the experiences of the rest of our classmates.
ReplyDelete