Entry 4: Final Reflection
This class has been very informative, and I have
learned a lot in such a short amount of time. When I entered the class, I
thought it was just going to be about how people gain a second language, and
the best way to do so. I soon came to find out it was much more than that.
Teaching English
language learners is a large part of being a teacher, especially for the area
we live in. I learned that there are a lot of things that influence how well a
person learns a second language. Ortega (2011) called these influences “universal
influencers”, which include age, mother tongue, environment and cognition
(pg.9). These factors have a greater impact on a person development of a second
language than most people think. As a teacher, this information is vital to
ensure that the English language learners in a class are being treated fairly
and equally. By a teacher knowing that age effects how well a person can learn
a second language, it can benefit a student by having the teacher work with
them on a more individual basis at a young age. It can also help older students
by having the teacher understand it is more difficult to learn a language at an
older age, therefore causing the teacher to be more patient with their English
language learners.
One of the topics I found
most interesting was how environment affects how well a person learns and
retains a second language. If a person is submersed in an environment that
requires them to learn a second language, they tend to pick it up quicker
because they need to use it every day to communicate. Then for a different view,
if a person is in an environment where they use a language every day, then they
are taken out of that environment, if the person does not continue to use the
language they will lose the knowledge of it. I found the idea of how one’s environment
affects their ability to learn and retain a language very fascinating.
From this class, I also
learned knew skills like creating a video blog. This activity was more than
just a plain discussion board, and made the work a little more interesting.
From this activity, I furthered my technology, interview, and research skills.
I had to become comfortable with interviewing another person, along with developing
appropriate questions for the interview. I also had to learn how to create an
online blog, and be able to add to it as well. All these skills were things I knew,
but might not have been comfortable with before. Another thing I liked about
this form of a discussion board, was that we were able to hear real interview
that our peers did with other people. This gave me more knowledge than reading
a post on a discussion board would have. Along with that, we had to comment on
these video with citations from our reading, therefore making us read the book.
This helped me in the long run, because I was able to use my research from the
comments and reflections to help support my argumentative essay.
All together I thought
the lay out of this course, and the assignments were enjoyable as well as
beneficial. I has taught me a lot more than I ever thought there was to learn
about having English second language students in my future classroom. It has
also provided me with valuable skills I did not know I needed. I am glad to
have had the opportunity to take this course.
Reference:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Haylee, I too feel that my technical savvy ways have grown since my enrollment in this class. Furthermore, my interviewing skills increased with each weekly submission. I learned to not only maintain the interest of the interviewee and the audience, but I became more aware of the constructing demands of an educator. For instance, the universal influences that you mentioned above. Due to the range of grades I will be certified in (4th - 8th grade), I believe that age and motivation are keys to engaging and maintaining the interest of all students. With L2's specifically, the likelihood of performing in the native range after puberty is significantly lower than younger children (Ortega, 2013). This along with a few other objectives we learned in this class were fascinating to me as well, Haylee!
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Due to technicalities, I do not have a link to my vblog available on blackboard. Could you please click the link to my blog below to interact with me as well! Thanks! https://mstraciadams.blogspot.com/
Hi Traci.
DeleteI agree that I did learn some aspects of interviewing while taking this course. It also gave me insight into how daunting being an English Language Learner can be for a student, who already is attempting to learn content and then having to learn a language as well. It is important to ensure our ELL students feel comfortable in the classroom. According to Ortega “Languages are almost always learned with and for others” (Ortega 2015, pg.55). Small things like getting to know our ELL students and attempting to meet them "halfway" by incorporating their L1 and culture into their lessons will boost the effectiveness of a lesson for ELL students.
Reference:
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2011
Jerome, you mentioned above that the incorporation of an English Language Learner’s native language and culture into the classroom will boost the effectiveness of your future science lessons. You further detailed how you will meet your students halfway. What are some ways that you will assist in including your ELL’s? As a recipient of instructional accommodations, I know the value in equity. In my future middle school mathematics classes, I plan to incorporate the usage of a graphic organizer.
DeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hello Haylee! I loved your blog post and definitely agree with what you had to say. I really did not know what to expect to learn when coming into this course, but now I can say that this course contained a lot of the important "behind the scenes" about a student that a teacher needs to know about. For example, like you had mentioned, the environment that a child lives in can play a huge role on how well or not well a child learns English. Even during my student and teacher interviews I gained much more experience knowledge about how the environment played such a big role. According to Wright, "Evidence of the greatest strength and improvement was found in the area of oral discourse competence" (2011, pg. 56). I find this statement to be very true, because from what I have learned, the more a child spends in their environment and around English-speaking people, the faster they learn the English language.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Hey Harlie, I can say the exact same thing. There are so many “behind the scenes” things about being a teacher that you never really hear about until you are in the program. This class contained so many amazing hefty aspects of teaching that I never really thought about. I never thought about the different forms of negative feedback a child could receive, but it definitely makes sense (Ortega, 2013). Now, I will be more aware of making sure every child feels more welcomed and involved, so that no child feels left out.
DeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Thank you for your comment Harlie! I did notice we have very similar reflection on the course as well. It was definitely not what I was expecting, but I feel as though I received a great deal of valuable information from this course. Information like the Universal influencers. Ortega (2011) said these influencers were age, mother tongue, environment, and cognition (pg.9). These are factors that I did not even think about affecting how well a person can attain a second language.
DeleteReference:
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hey Haylee! I enjoyed reading your blog post and I definitely agree with what you said. In regards to the environment being important, I did not realize just how important the environment was until taking this course. According to Ortega “Languages are almost always learned with and for others” (Ortega 2015, pg.55). I think that the native speakers play a big role in helping the nonnative speakers have interactions in their second language. The more that second language learners have the opportunity to practice using their second language, the more they will be able to learn. As teachers a teacher, I want all of my students to feel comfortable sharing ideas and communicating with each other.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Ortega, L. (2015). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Samantha, thank you for your you interest in my video this semester. I really enjoyed interesting with you over the course of this class. I also agree that I did not notice how important environment was to learning a new language. Ortega (2011) states that environment provides input, or linguistical data heard from fluent L2 speakers (pg.59). It is with this input of language, that a person receives the most benefit, and is able to learn and comprehend the language better.
DeleteReference:
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Ortega values the interaction between others, and how this interaction is facilitated by native- second-language skills (2011). Haylee, your blog has emphasized this point thoroughly. I enjoyed seeing your thoughts on several of my questions, and your interest in technology in modern day classrooms parallels my own desires to use technology. This course definitely embodied self-reflection and self-assessment. I especially enjoyed seeing how each of us grew - in part due to the compressed time we had with the subject matter. I am glad we have all grown in some capacity.
ReplyDeleteIla, thank you for your continual interest in my entries. I enjoyed our interactions throughout the course of this class, and agree with your statement that we have all grown through this experience. Ortega (2011) states that “language is one of the most uniquely human capacities that our species possesses (pg.1). I feel as though this call has really embodied that statement. Without language we would not have been able to have the intellectually stimulating conversations we had throughout this past month. It is through those conversations that I have gain the most knowledge I could have.
DeleteReference:
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Haylee.
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that as teachers in this area we are going to encounter a larger than normal population of ELL students, which we need to be prepared for by providing proper accommodations to ensure that they receive the best education possible. Because of this a major component to ensuring that our ELL students thrive we need to be aware of "universal influencers", which Ortega (2011) stated that included age, mother tongue, environment and cognition (pg.9) Meaning that in order to really understand our ELL students and provide them with a proper education, we need to be aware of their background and what influences have affected their L2 acquisition thus far.
Reference:
Ortega, L. (2015). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Jerome, thank you for your comment. I have greatly enjoyed interacting with you through the course of this class. I agree with your comment about how we need to make sure we can identify and work with the “universal influencers” that come with learning a second language, but we also need to make sure our ELL students are motivated. Ortega (20110) defines motivation as the desire to initiate language 2 learning (pg.168). If the student does not want to learn, then they won’t. It is our job to make them want to learn their second language.
DeleteReference:
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hey Haylee! After reading your reflection, I feel like we have similar feelings about where we were at the start of the class, and what we have all learned. As a teacher, being more knowledgeable about how to best work with every single one of the students in the classroom is so important, and this class definitely helped me open my eyes even more to the struggles ELL students go through. I never realized how much the environment would affect learning a language either. It is crazy that there are critical periods in learning a language, and the environment really reflects that (Ortega, 2013). If anyone does not use the different languages in their normal environment, they will lose that.
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed watching your vlogs and reading your reflections.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Tobi, thank you so much for your comment. I have really enjoyed watching your videos as well, and interacting with you in this class. I thought the idea of a “critical period”, or an optimal age for someone to learn a second language, was crazy to me (Ortega 2011, pg.12). I never thought about there being a “prime time” to learn a new language, but it makes sense when you think about how well our brains are able to process information as we get older.
DeleteReference:
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Haylee,
ReplyDeleteI also learned that “these universal influencers mutually interact and exert an impact on the internal processor system and the learner language it generates whenever learners speak or sign, interact, write, negotiate and express themselves in the L2” (Ortega p.9). I am impressed how children learn languages in a relatively short period of time and manage to construct grammar of a language just on the basis of what they hear. Comparing adults to children, adults acquiring a second language rarely gain native-like proficiency. It is so interesting to me that children could acquire a language just on the basis of their general cognitive abilities, which is unique.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.