Vblog 1: Introduction
Hi, my name is Haylee Anderson! I am going to be a senior this fall at the University of Houston, and I am majoring in education as an EC-6 generalist. I am excited to see what this class has to offer, and I cant wait to learn!
Hello Haylee, I really enjoyed watching your introductory video! I love the fact that you've been exposed to different languages other than the most common being Spanish. I on the other hand have not, just plain English and Spanish. What I found interesting about languages from the reading is that different languages share common characteristics or components as mentioned by Ortega (2013). Did you ever notice any similarities among words you heard between Vietnamese, Polish, and Spanish? As for your experience learning Spanish in middle school, I believe that you would have attained a great amount of help through experiences outside of the class. Ortega mentions naturalistic learners learn L2 (second language) through informal experiences, which can mean conversations with your classmates or perhaps even televised entertainment, basically anything that would have exposed you to a second language (2013).
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Nancy, thank you for your interest in my video. To answer your questions, I did not hear enough of each language to be able to notice any similarities in words among the languages. I only heard each language for short periods of time every once in a while, as they were friends of my parent that I did not see frequently. As far as informal experiences when learning Spanish, I to agree that those would have benefited me more. A perfect example is the study Ortega discusses about Julie, a woman who moved to Cairo with no previous exposure to the Arabic, but was able to learn the language within two years. I believe this was possible, because she had those informal experiences and conversation with others where she had to speak their language. This caused her to eventually pick up on the language.
DeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hello Haylee. Great video! I too grew up in a monolingual household but was surrounded by languages growing up. Like you I started learning Spanish at a younger age, and while I kept taking Spanish courses throughout high school I can say that I am the opposite of fluent. Ortega (2013) mentions "universal influences" that are studied in SLA research. "The most important and well-studied sources of universal influence are age, mother tounge, enviornment and cognition." (p. 9) I believe growing up in a monolingual household contributed to my ineffeciency to learn a lanugage. My age was also a factor, being a teenager and focused on other things aside from learning language. Do you think these "universal influneces" affected your ability to learn language as well?
ReplyDeleteReferences:
DeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge
Jerome, thank you for your comment. I also read Ortega’s thoughts on “universal influences”. I feel that at the age I tried to learn a second language, I was too old to be able to retain much of what I learned. Ortega says that after the age of nine, your brain loses plasticity (Ortega 2013, pg.12). To me this means your brain is no longer “like a sponge” and does not absorb information like when you were younger. I feel it was because of this that it made it more challenging for me to acquire a second language.
DeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hello Haylee! I really resonated with your post, I too took Spanish in high school, and honestly do not remember much of it. Ortega states that “In many parts of the globe, most children grow up speaking two or more languages simultaneously” (Ortega, 2013, pg.4). I think that learning a language at an early age is better than just starting to learn a second language in middle or high school. I also think that being able to experience the culture and having some kind of connection to the language would be a good motivator to maintain the second language as you get older.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Samantha, I also agree with this statement. Ortega says one of the big influencers on obtaining a second language is environment. If you submerse yourself in a culture where the dominate language spoken is not your native language, you will pick it up a lot faster. A perfect example is the study Ortega spoke about in chapter two of a woman named Julie. She moved to Cairo and was submerged in the language and culture, and picked up the language within two years of being there. Learning in school for an hour a day is not the best way to acquire a second language.
DeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hello Haylee! I am also sadly monolingual, my parents were both born and raised in Texas and never learned a second language. I also took Spanish as a foreign language, but not until I was in high school. Ortega says, "Many people will learn at least a few words and phrases in a foreign language" (2013, pg. 1), and this is something that you and I both did. Most monolingual people like us are going to have a similar experience that Ortega mentioned. For others if it's not a second language, they could be forced to learn due to jobs, traveling, or any other case of daily survival (Ortega, 2013, pg. 1).
ReplyDeleteHarlie, as you said we both learned a lot about Spanish from our teachers, but somehow retained very little of what we learned. I found this very disappointing, as I wanted and have always liked the idea of being able to speak a second language. Unfortunately, we have hit what Gass and Selinker call a “plateaus” that is very common when it comes to learning a second language. It is because of this “plateaus” that is far from the language norm, that hinders us from being able to fully understand Spanish.
DeleteGass, S., Selinker, L. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York: Routledge.
Hi Haylee! Your post was very relatable to me, as I was a nursing major and knew that was not the career path I needed to take. I chose to take on a career in education because it is something that I am truly passionate about, which is very important to me. My language experience is similar to yours in regards to only growing up speaking English. My father who is Indian actually speaks Hindi, but never taught myself of my brother how to speak it, so I grew up understanding and speaking only English. I found it very interesting when Ortega stated that those who grow up speaking only one language are the minority in the human population (Ortega, 2013, pg. 3). It would have certainly been nice to learn Hindi as a young child and have grown up bilingual. Instead, I took Spanish in high school like you and can understand words from conversations but unfortunately I never became fluent.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hello, Haylee! Could you please take a moment to comment on a blog post on my page? https://mstraciadams.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteCongrats on moving into your senior year and good luck with student teaching. It is the most overwhelmingly rewarding time. Although you decided to change from your childhood dream-job, I am proud that you had the courage to accept your true calling. Despite me knowing from a very young age that I wanted to be an educator, my reasons for wanting to teach were very similar to yours; helping students master the content and providing emotional support along the way.
I too am a Texas native whom grew up in a monolingual household with limited environmental influences. Aside from my required attendance in a foreign language in high-school, I had no interest in learning a new language. I credit my lack of interest to my monolingual social circle, and me missing the "sponge-like" window of brain elasticity (Ortega, 2013).
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge