Entry 4: Reflection
Taking Second Language Acquisitions has been an eye-opening experience. Before taking this course all I knew was that I was bilingual, able to speak, read, and write in English and Spanish. Yet, I never understood the remarkable transformation that my brain had to undergo in order for me or anyone else, for that matter, to become fluent in both my/their L1 and later L2 languages. Embarking on the mission to acquire a second language at any age comes with its challenges because there are many factors that influence these acquisitions. For example, I learned of influential factors such as age, cross-linguistic, cognition, and motivation that are crucial factors to English Language Learner or second language learners.
While some of these influential factors were new to me, age was not one of them. I was always aware that it is easier to acquire and retain a second or third language if you begin learning it at a very young age. What did resonate with me was the hypothesis that Ortega mentions in her book that "A child learning an L2 language only has a small window of opportunity in which they can learn a second language with ease before reaching puberty" (2013, p. 13). I've even witnessed it with my youngest niece and nephew who began learning their L2's at the tender age of three and five and are fluent in Spanish and English and proficient in Cantonese, while my oldest nephew is only fluent in English and Spanish.
Yet to my surprise, there are exceptional learners who break down the "critical-age" hypothesis and learn their L2 at a much older age, as was my husband's case. It was intriguing to find that Ortega (2013) mentions that, "the critical period explanation does not sit well with the fact that one can always find exceptional learners who began learning the L2 after puberty and who perform within the range of native-speaker controls in their grammatical intuitions" (p. 24). Although age does influence the rate at which a learner acquires new information motivation also affects the speed of learning.
The more I learned about SLA and how a learner acquires their new L2, the more I began to understand how cross-linguistics plays an integral role. While I was learning English, my L2, I would notice similarities from Spanish, my L1, that would help me make sense of what I was learning in my L2. Of course, being a naive young student I was unaware of the vast similarities that many languages share, but upon taking SLA and reading Ortega's, Rowland's, and Gass and Selinker's books I began to see the importance of the cross-linguistics connections that allow and facilitate, in many cases, the acquisition of a second language.
To conclude, my experience with learning about Second Language Acquisitions has better prepared me to become a better educator. I am able to make meaningful connections to my students, the content, and their learning that I was unable to make before. I have also learned to not judge a book by its cover and to always make the effort to assist all learners, no matter their age, in order to get them motivated about learning.
While some of these influential factors were new to me, age was not one of them. I was always aware that it is easier to acquire and retain a second or third language if you begin learning it at a very young age. What did resonate with me was the hypothesis that Ortega mentions in her book that "A child learning an L2 language only has a small window of opportunity in which they can learn a second language with ease before reaching puberty" (2013, p. 13). I've even witnessed it with my youngest niece and nephew who began learning their L2's at the tender age of three and five and are fluent in Spanish and English and proficient in Cantonese, while my oldest nephew is only fluent in English and Spanish.
Yet to my surprise, there are exceptional learners who break down the "critical-age" hypothesis and learn their L2 at a much older age, as was my husband's case. It was intriguing to find that Ortega (2013) mentions that, "the critical period explanation does not sit well with the fact that one can always find exceptional learners who began learning the L2 after puberty and who perform within the range of native-speaker controls in their grammatical intuitions" (p. 24). Although age does influence the rate at which a learner acquires new information motivation also affects the speed of learning.
The more I learned about SLA and how a learner acquires their new L2, the more I began to understand how cross-linguistics plays an integral role. While I was learning English, my L2, I would notice similarities from Spanish, my L1, that would help me make sense of what I was learning in my L2. Of course, being a naive young student I was unaware of the vast similarities that many languages share, but upon taking SLA and reading Ortega's, Rowland's, and Gass and Selinker's books I began to see the importance of the cross-linguistics connections that allow and facilitate, in many cases, the acquisition of a second language.
To conclude, my experience with learning about Second Language Acquisitions has better prepared me to become a better educator. I am able to make meaningful connections to my students, the content, and their learning that I was unable to make before. I have also learned to not judge a book by its cover and to always make the effort to assist all learners, no matter their age, in order to get them motivated about learning.
Hi Jessica! I completely agree with you that this class has been an eye-opening experience. Similar to your story, I only understood what I was capable of, primarily being able to read, write, and speak English but only being able to understand Spanish. I had no idea that the reason for this might have been because I missed the ‘critical period’ to learn another language other than English. I also agree with you that knowing what happens in the brain when learning the L2 will help me in becoming a better teacher because I will be able to understand what they are going through.
ReplyDeleteHi Marissa and thank you for your comment! I'm so glad that many of us have felt this amazing sense of understanding and feel capable and ready to effectively assist our future students. I believe that through our own experiences and self-reflections we can help motivated future ELL and ESL learners in our classroom. We need to make sure that we continue to encourage our students and help increase their autonomy and self-esteem as Ortega states "Attitudes towards learning the L2, which we can see as probing how much enjoyment people report feeling when they learn the language" (2013, p. 170).
DeleteHey Jessica! I agree with you that we are all on the same page when it comes to understanding the impact we will have on our future students. Like you said this class and all of its self-reflections allowed us to see all the ways we will be impactful. I also agree that we need to keep our students engaged in the learning process as well as encouraged and motivated. I am very excited to be a positive impact in the life of my students.
DeleteHi Jessica! This course also made me take a step back to understand the concepts of how our brain develops when learning and using a second language. In addition, I like how you mentioned your perspective of age and critical period in the relation of an additional language. I somewhat believe this could tie into motivation as well because when children or adults become intrigued in their learning, whether intrisically or extrinsically, they are able to speed up their learning process (Ortega, 2009). Like you mention, external factors such as age and environment plays a crucial role to the learning capabilities of ELLs.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. Understanding second language acquisition. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Hi Michelle and thank you for your comment! This course has indeed made me reflect on my learning as well as that of my current and future students. It's interesting to me how I had never really taken the time to reflect on how much a student undergoes in order to be successful. I definitely agree that a learners age in a great influence on learners motivation. Whether the student is young or old Ortega mentions that they need to be motivated to learn their new L2 (2013). As future educators we can make sure that we encourage our students in any way possible in order to make the learning fun and interesting.
DeleteHi Jessica! I felt the same way as you when going through this class. You don't really think about what your mind or any other bilinguals mind must have gone through when learning another language. I just always knew that everyone had a different but similar learning experience from each other. My mother has an aunt who as an adult learned languages and she can speak them as if she were from that country even though she has never been. Ortega mentions how research suggests that environmental and socio-affective factors such as motivation can "become important predictors of success at earlier as well as later starting ages" (Ortega, 2013, p. 27). So I think at the end of the day it all depends on the circumstances and motivation of the person to learn the language. I also want to believe that some people have a gift for learning languages. I have met people who study and have even gone to the country of the language they are trying to learn but can not pick it up. They may be able to say phrases but not speak it fluently. I think this class helped us see our students, especially our ELLs and ESLs through another perspective. Even though I went through ESL classes I feel like this class gave me extra tools to further help my students and motivate them.
ReplyDeleteHi Alessandra and thank you for your comment! I completely agree with you that motivation is a defining factor in learners acquiring their L2 (Oretga, 2013, p. 27). I also mentioned in my response to Michelle (above) that motivation is a great influence on acquiring, any type of information, a students L2 regardless of their age. Keeping this in mind Ortega has mentioned several times that learning a second language can come from either in the form of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation and to be completely honest, I believe that either or can be extremely beneficial to anyone learning an L2.
DeleteHey Jessica!
ReplyDeleteOur feelings are definitely mutual, nonetheless, we learned an abundant amount of significant information in this course that is going to help us in our future classroom and experiences. One thing that really helped me throughout this course were watching the videos and vblogs by my peers. I think it's cool how we all were assigned the same thing but since we interviewed different people we were able to get distinctive insight from diverse people. Having to conduct the vblogs really helped me bridge the connection of knowledge and application of knowledge. For example, when I interviewed someone who was in ESL classes, I was able to make text connections with what she was revealing to me. I believe this class has made a huge impact on our experiences in the field already! I find myself applying what I know from this course in my student teaching classroom and I find what works best for individual students.
According to Ortega (2013, p. 175), “there is the self-determination theory where humans are considered volitional beings who are growth-oriented, predisposed to lifelong learning and development. Essential in meeting a few basic fundamental human needs is a sense of choice and personal causation in everything we humans do. Thus, human behavior in this theory is guided by the drive to self-determine our actions and activities.” I think this is a very powerful citation that can not only be applied in SLA but in other areas of learning too.
Hi Anicia! I agree with you that the vlogs, comments, and replies from our peers have really helped shaped my learning and understanding of Second Language Acquisitions. It was very interesting to see how every one had different approaches to completing the assignments, this on its own shows how different we all are and helps us understand that our students are exactly the same. This course also made me appreciate the importance of the classroom teacher. In an article the a read by Kaboody it is stated that "the role that a teacher plays in L2 classes are initiator, facilitator, motivator, ideal model of the target language speaker, mentor, consultant, and mental supporter" (2013, p.48).
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