Entry 3: Interview with an ESL teacher
For this interview, I decided to step away from our traditional early childhood teachers and approached this interview with the question, "How do high school students learning a second language differ from early childhood second language learners?", and interviewed my best friend/ former colleague Ms. Angela Crowley. While our book focuses on second language acquisitions at an early age, I was curious to know about older students and their potential to learn a second language past their critical period which Ortega mentions is before the onset age of puberty (2013, p. 13). While Ms. Crowley has never served in a bilingual classroom before, she does spend more than 90 percent of her day surrounded by students whose primary language is not English and she has been able to serve them due to her training and ESL certification. Ms. Crowley addresses some topics that I found interesting like an older students motivation to learn and retain a second language has more to do with the students intrinsic motivation than anything else, which correlates with Ortega's belief when she mentions intrinsic motivation as a self-initiated choice (2013, p. 176).
After spending the evening with Ms. Crowley and learning more about her role in helping older students achieve and maintain their L2, I began to make connections back to something that I had read previously in the text book, that is "no matter the situation there are always going to be exceptional learners who do not fit the critical period theory" (Ortega, 2013, p.24). This interview/ conversation with Ms. Crowley strongly reinforced this notion especially when we spoke about those students who became proficient in a short period of time at an older age like her high school students.
Ortega, L. Understanding Second Language Acquisitions. New York: Routledge; 2013.
Click here to watch my interview with Ms. Crowley!!
Youtube video description -
While our book focuses on second language acquisitions at an early age, I was curious to know about older students and their potential to learn a second language past their critical period. This is why I decided to interview my friend/ former colleague, who is an admin at Houston High School in the Houston Independent School District. Her interview gives an insightful look into what she has learned throughout her 11 years of experience as an educator and as a second language learner herself.
Here are the questions that I asked her throughout the course of the interview... (I need to include them because I had some speech/ pronunciation issues.)
1: Ms. Crowley's introduction.
2: What do you know about second language acquisitions? Are you familiar with it?
3: Aside from ESL classes, what other bilingual education programs does Houston H.S. offer?
4: Do you agree with my textbook author Ortega that "all languages share fundamental commonalities, in no matter how different that languages may seem"?
**This is the question that I struggled with. I was having a problem verbalizing the whole question and in particular the word author.**
5: Have you noticed the students practice their L2 in a more naturalistic form or are they dependent on more formal instruction? Or a combination of both?
6: Strategies you use to help your students with their L2?
7: Do you think there is a correlation between the potential a student has for learning languages and language learning?
8: Do you believe it's easier for students to learn and retain a second language in early childhood? Or does age not really matter if and older student has the motivation to learn a second language? Age vs Motivation.
Throughout the duration of the interview many other questions were answered really without me having to ask them.
I think that its great that you decided to go outside the box and talk with a ESL high school teacher! Our class is primarily focused on childhood education but I think that it's important that we see what it's like for our older students if they don't learn their second language at a young age. Even though the students in high school who are just learning a second language aren't at the primary age to learn it easily. Ortega states, "learners who begin acquiring the L2 before a certain age . . . tend to exhibit intuitions that are very close to those native speakers of that language" (Ortega, 2013, p.19) Unfortunately, these older students will most likely not exhibit intuitions that are very close to their native speakers.
ReplyDeleteHello Lesley! Thank you for your comment. While I agree with you that these older students will most likely not exhibit intuitions that are very close to their native speakers, I can not take away from these students determination to acquire a new L2 so late in their academic and cognitive development. I spent four years working with Ms. Crowley and these ESL/ ELL students and we have seen some students defy all barriers and theories, like that of the critical period theory as mentioned by Ortega (2013, p. 24), and go on to become proficient in their new L2. It's incredible to see how these students use succeed despite all the obstacles that face them.
DeleteHi Jessica, it was interesting how you got the chance to interview a High School ESL teacher instead! In regards to ESL students switching languages amongst their peers vs speaking to their teachers, I find it very true that students feel comfortable talking to their friends than an adult figure. In addition, students feeling the desire to explore the certain language is a form of intrinsic motivation (Ortega, 2009, p. 175). In this case, I feel students desire this not because of the grade in school, but because they enjoy communicating with their friends which gives them a sense of belonging. As a future educator, I would want to try to achieve that level with my students by including small phrases into our lessons. For this one activity, my students had to create a character with a name. Some of my students decided to name their character in a different language, as long as they included the translation. Although this was a small way to introduce culture to the classroom, it also gave student-choice.
ReplyDeleteHello Michelle. Thank you for your comment. I also agree that most of the time students commitment and determination to acquire their L2 stems from the desire to communicate with their peers, rather than to get good grades in school. Ortega mentions that "individuals engage in behavior that they understand as self-initiated by choice and largely sustained by inherent enjoyment in the activity, thus being intrinsically motivated" (2013, p.176). So in many cases, maybe in older students, the desire to communicate with their peers overrule their desire to learn their L2 for their academics. Never the less, as educators we can use this intrinsic motivation the students has self-initiated to help them extend their knowledge by formally instructing them.
DeleteHi Michelle! I agree with your comments about students feeling more comfortable speaking with their friends rather than speaking to adults. In my own experiences I have noticed that when I am with my friends I tend to throw in more Spanish words that I have picked up from my naturalistic environment than when I am with adults. I also agree with you that letting students share their culture is very important in creating an accepting environment for all students. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing that you classroom integrated different names even if they were in a different language.
DeleteHi Jessica, I think it’s amazing to know that everyone must be ESL certified and must take extra courses to know how to support L2’s. I think this is something very helpful especially because Gass mentioned how adults do receive more negative evidence or corrections than children (2008, pg. 347). Technically, high school students aren’t considered legal adults until 18, but some teachers expect them to behave they are adults in high school because they look and act accordingly but they’re still in the process of molding into adults. I enjoyed watching this interview because it made me more aware how all this information is very useful to help SUPPORT others and students.
ReplyDeleteHello Cesia. Thank you for your comment. Becoming ESL certified is something that most school principal's require of their teachers, due to the increasing population of ESL's and ELL's that need to be serviced. It's also a great attribute/ skill for us as future educators because we will be better suited to help our students and their needs. While I know that most of us will become elementary school teachers, I wanted to showcase the importance of being able to service ESL/ELL even at the high school level. Ortega also touches base on the impact that negative feedback has on students acquiring their L2 (2013, p. 75) stating that providing students with negative feedback instead of ignoring the errors form better end results.
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ReplyDeleteHello Jessica, I really enjoyed your entry and how you explored different answers on this very important topic. Sometimes people get stuck on theories and do not explore outside of them. I really like how you mentioned Ortega's theory on critical period which is before the onset age of puberty (2013, p. 13) and later also talked about how he says, "no matter the situation there are always going to be exceptional learners who do not fit the critical period theory" (Ortega, 2013, p.24). This is a very important thing to understand as an educator because we are always exploring different ways to teach and introduce information. Students' fire to learn has to begin intrinsically before the actions are made. Learning a new language in an older age is difficult but not impossible as it is proven in Ms. Crowly's classroom.
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