Blog 4 Reflection piece on SLA
Understanding of SLA
From my understanding of learning a second language, there are many factors that affect its attainment. Some of these factors such as age, cross linguistic/ cultural influences, environment, mental capacity and personal investment all affect the extent to which a language is learned. These influences impact the way we understand and interact with one another, particularly true for educators. The implications for learning a second language extends beyond the classroom. Learning a second language could mean survival for a foreigner, an advantage in the business setting, or even something as simple as wanting to understand the cultures of another language.
From my understanding of learning a second language, there are many factors that affect its attainment. Some of these factors such as age, cross linguistic/ cultural influences, environment, mental capacity and personal investment all affect the extent to which a language is learned. These influences impact the way we understand and interact with one another, particularly true for educators. The implications for learning a second language extends beyond the classroom. Learning a second language could mean survival for a foreigner, an advantage in the business setting, or even something as simple as wanting to understand the cultures of another language.
Age is a debated and highly researched area in second
language acquisition. From what I learned about age is that older children and
adults has an advantage in learning a second language for the first year or so
but eventually the younger children who had an early start will surpass them. The
age that they learn greatly influence the level of attainment and it is
typically before puberty. Another factor in learning another language is
cultural and cross linguistic interference. Students who learn a second
language typically know a first language and their grammatical rules. Because
of that, it is difficult to translate what they know into another language
because of those already established rules. Because of the pre-existing
knowledge, it could either advance or delay their progress of learning another
language.
The environment in which someone learns a language is
also a tremendous factor in how effective a second language is learned. There
are five environmental factors that contributes to attainment; acculturated
attitude, comprehensible input, negotiated interaction, pushed output, and a
capacity. An accultured attitude constitutes having a mind frame that thinks in
terms of the “new” culture that they are in. Being able to adapt and assimilate
makes learning a new language transition smoother than being culturally sheltered.
Comprehensible input refers to all data or instruction that is exposed to the
learner in a way that the learner can still understand the input. Along with
interaction with others, a back and forth conversation with negative feedback
builds a more solid comprehensive learning experience. These factors speak
volumes in the role of an educator to facilitate these variables for English
second language students.
Impact on professional practice
Impact on professional practice
One variable that affects learning in general comes
from the self, or motivation. Environmental factors influence learning but
motivation to learn can be seen as a deciding factor as to the quality of how
much a person is willing to learn. In my professional practice, I believe
motivation and how to inspire a student to learn will be an important part of
my teachings. Educators need to consider all of these aspects when teaching a
student who is ESL or not. In general, teachers need to incorporate
motivational lessons as well as competent lessons for all students. This class
makes me think about how a person struggling to learn a second language may be
going through or missing vital factors of learning another language. With this
being the case, I have learned multiple views to approach a situation to
incorporate into a lesson or to direct instruction for ESL students.
Focuses of the course
Focuses of the course
The focus of the class emphasizes the way a person
learns a second language and the mental and environmental factors that
influences them. I think that those aspects were thoroughly examined. What I think
we could have improved on was to focus more on actual student-centered learning
and how to incorporate the research of what we learned. However, this
reflection makes me think how I would want to cover ESL students and
incorporate these factors into actual learning strategies.
Blog impact
The role of the blogs let us bounce ideas off one another, but it also acts as some sort of reflection piece to solidify what we have learned about. The blogs act as a way to verbalize the content that we learned from our readings along with the videos. Research shows that if you are able to verbalize and state the information in your own words, the person would have a more complete understanding of the content. Another thing that I like about the blogs is that other students can add on to your learning if it was incomplete. The constructive criticism we receive and reassurance from one another makes the learning more authentic. Furthermore, when we make videos, we actually have to go out to the field to do our own research or questioning and that alone makes learning more concrete and real.
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.
Indeed understanding a second language does benefit you in many occasions. I am a bilingual student and I have been able to use both of my languages to this day wherever I go. It has given me many opportunities in life to succeed with my use of languages. But in a classroom we have many student that only know what they were born with, their native language. In schools English is our first language and which is why we have ELL students trying to learn that language. Motivation comes in play at this point because without it how would you want your students to succeed and have someone to encourage them to learn that language. It might be difficult to learn the grammar, syntax, and phonics but if you show them what motivation feels like they will soon develop these components. For successful grammar acquisition, attention to form is probably necessary. This attention focus on form can be externally achieved by instruction or internally sought by self-study and self-directed analysis of the linguistic material available in the environment (Ortega, 2011, pg. 79). And because of this students will be able to quickly detect relevant stimuli. As a teacher I would be focusing on this cognitive skill to better help my students grasp and understand the language.
ReplyDeleteYes, being bilingual is very helpful for us upcoming teachers. Motivation is a very big factor in my opinion and its just so important to be able to foster this motivation to our students. A lot of students feel embarrassed or insufficient because they struggle to fit in with the rest of the students. Other times student feel very anxious like everyone will make fun of them. This is especially true for students going through puberty or in middle school where students are in that egocentric stage. I recently learned that my girlfriend’s sister gave up on learning Chinese because of an incident that stuck with her since she was eight. She specifically remembered being made fun of for not speaking very well in Chinese and since then she has been hesitant or not confident in her speaking abilities. So again motivation and encouragement is a humongous factor in building confidence.
DeleteHello Joseph, I agree with both of you that motivation is a big factor when learning a L2. As educators we should be our students motivators because learning a L2 could be embarrassing for many. Based on Ortega (2011), “Learning and using a foreign language poses a threat to one’s ego. It makes people vulnerable” (p. 192).
DeleteHey Johanna, how would you make it so that your students wont feel "embarrassed" as Ortega puts it? I know that we have to make a safe classroom environment, but what are some ways that we can implement these strategies? for my classroom I would establish rules that the students can be apart of and they have to take ownership in making them. I is a bit tricky to figure out how exactly or what is effective classroom management.
DeleteHi Joseph,
DeleteI thought it was interesting that you mentioned how important motivation is for learning and that it is important for us as educators to foster that motivation in our students. I read this as something that you can almost impart to your students. Do you agree with this statement? If so, what are some ways that you feel that you could go about doing this? I feel like getting my students intrinsically motivated is so difficult. I have one ELL student that is highly motivated but doesn't seem to be progressing, even with other strategies in place to help support her. It amazes me how so many factors go into teaching with SLA.
Hi Joseph! Your perspective on environment being a huge factor in learning a second language is valid. This is why it is so important to form a safe learning environment for students, because it can really go a long way. Furthermore, motivation goes into play when building this environment and leads to building engaging lessons for our English language learners.
ReplyDeleteHey shelly, thanks for your comment. I believe that these factors build into my core for how I want to manage my classroom as well. All these factors really do work into many different areas of teaching and it is just one big cycle because they all fit into one another. Building and effective lesson means that it has to be engaging and also accommodating to all types of learners. To reach the students motivation and creating the big picture also means building interest or relevance. And to fully implement all these strategies, you would have to be able to create an environment that is conducive of learning. I hope that we are all able to incorporate all our good will and beliefs to our own classrooms one day.
DeleteHi Joseph.
ReplyDeleteI like that one of the areas of SLA that interested you was the importance of student environment. A classroom environment should be welcoming and a place where students feel at ease to participate and make mistakes. I also agree with you on how learning about motivation can make a large impact on your students and that it is something educators need to consider when teaching ELLs.
Hey Jennie.
DeleteYes having a productive classroom environment is very essential. What are some ways that you can make a student feel at ease to participate? I have learned that the way the teacher presents themselves is a huge factor in student participation. I recently watched a video on something called "not yet". Its when students dont do well, the teacher has a system of not just grades and values but rather a way of encouraging students to reach their potential by saying "you are not there yet". It shows how students take ownership of their learning and it gives students a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. I was thinking that this is one way to increase motivation for students.
Hi Joseph. I agree with you that the various factors, such as age, environment, culture, and so on, affect the attainment of the SLA. Surely this impacts our ways of understanding and interpretation of the SLA in terms of linguistics, methodology, and translational rules. We surely want to be effective by having an accultured attitude to make the language transition for those learning the new language. This will definitely help in motivating our students who are struggling, for whatever reasons, to attain proficiency. I know that you will be able to positively influence your future students, having incorporated what’s learnt into your teaching/learning strategies. I like that you stated if we verbalize the work learnt into our own words, we will have a better understanding. Grate post.
ReplyDelete