Welcome to my blog! My name is Brianna Baxter and I am a
senior at the University of Houston. I am a third-grade student teacher at
Dickinson Elementary School in LCISD, the district I attended from Kindergarten
to graduation. I enjoy working with this age and I see myself enjoying third
grade through sixth grade the most.
As you can see from my vBlog, I am monolingual. I remember “learning”
The Itsy-Bitsy Spider in Spanish when I was in daycare at age 3 or 4. I have a silly
home video of me singing the song, and it sounds barely intelligible, but language
is first acquired as simple phonetics to children. “Child language acquisition
happens in a predictable pattern, broadly speaking. First, (…) infants attune
themselves to the prosodic and phonological makeup of the language to which
they are exposed…” (Ortega, 2013, p.3). Even though I was not an infant, the
first step of repeating this unfamiliar language was sounding out the
phonological makeup that I heard.
In the textbook, it states that “Naturalistic learners learn
the L2 through informal opportunities in multicultural neighbourhoods, schools
and workplaces, without ever receiving any organized instruction on the
workings of the language they are learning. Instructed learners learn
additional languages through formal study in school or university, through
private lessons and so on.” (Ortega, 2013, p.6). In my case that I provided in
my vBlog involving my fiancé knowing a good amount of the Spanish language, it
is appropriate to say that he learned it the informal way. We are taught the
formal way in high school, which differs immensely from “conversation Spanish”.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language
acquisition. Routledge.
Hello Brianna, thank you for your video blog post. Like you, I am not fluent in any languages other than English. I like the point you made about those who speak a second language can learn that language either naturally in their environment or formally at school. I often only think of a second language being learned formally in school. I also thought that something Ortega stated was interesting. Ortega states that, “Many language teachers make a sharp distinction between foreign and second language teaching and are mystified when they realize the same distinction is often obliterated in SLA studies, as if learning contexts were of little consequence,” (2013, pg. 6). I think this is an important distinction and was surprised to hear that many studies do not consider them as different categories.
ReplyDeleteChristine –
DeleteIt is appropriate that you think that a second language of being only learned in school because it is hard for us to imagine a situation where we learn a second language in the household due to us both being native speakers. “Language teachers across institutions all over the world hotly debate whether students in their classrooms need to be directly taught grammar and vocabulary in order to get the basic building blocks of a language first, or whether it is better to somehow approximate in their classroom
the richness of natural language meaning-making processes (Ortega, 2013, p. 8).” This may encompass the predisposition that language is best learned in the classroom setting.
Hello again Brianna, I remember seeing that quote and thinking that I personally would learn a second language best if I did know the grammar and structure of the language first. I remembered that a friend of mine studied abroad for a semester, so I asked him how he was able to learn Spanish fairly well in such a short amount of time. He said that he believes it was because he was forced into a natural environment where he had to use the language day to day and that he simply picked up on the grammar by being immersed. Ortega states, “Whether in second, foreign or heritage language teaching, the battles have been for and against traditional grammar teaching and alternative meaning-oriented proposals, including communicative language teaching, task-based curricula, content-based instruction and focus on form instruction,” (2013, pg. 8). I think there is no best way to learn a language simply because everybody learns differently.
DeleteI am really glad to hear that you are interested in becoming certified in ESL since not only in your district but in Texas in general there is a dire need for teachers with this type of certification. I am confident that this class will help you achieve these goals and become more qualified teacher. Your language experience was very similar to that of many people who in the United States attempt to learn a second language. Most teachers continue to believe that the best way to learn the language is through exposure to vocabulary and grammar. this unfortunately he’s not the best methodology to learn a language. It’s important to mention that part of learning a second language requires a silent period, Just as we do when we learn our first language; we need time for our brain to get used to the new code and to start organizing the sentences. One word or a short phrases is the best approach to start learning a language. In this class in this cour just as we do when we learn our first language; we need time for our brain to get used to the new code and to start organizing the sentences. One word or short phrases is the best approach to start learning a language. In this course, you will be able to learn the many factors that contribute or hinder the learning of a second language.
ReplyDeleteHi Brianna! Student teaching has been great for me so far as well and I am so happy to hear that you are enjoying it at your school too! I agree that the Spanish language taught in school is very different from that in comparison to conversational Spanish. I have many Hispanic friends who families all come from different countries and the way they speak Spanish at home is very different from each other. I dated a guy who’s family only spoke Spanish. So trying to be involved in the conversations and understanding what was being said was an everyday struggle. Ortega (2013) states, that many are forced by life circumstances to learn enough of the additional language to fend for themselves in selected matters of daily survival. Even though I did not have to learn the language to survive, I still needed to learn a few key phrases to understand what was going on. I’m sure you can relate to this with your fiancés parents as well! With this class, it will help us to break that language barrier.
ReplyDeleteMackenzie,
DeleteI like that you stated that in Ortega (2013), many of us are forced by life circumstances to learn the additional language to fend for ourselves. I also like that you said although you did not have to learn the language to survive, you still needed to learn Spanish in order to understand and communicate with your surroundings. I did not think of it that way. Ortega states that "...many people around the globe may learn, forget and even relearn a number of languages that are not their mother tongue..."(Ortega, 2013, p. 1). I believe this could be possible for both of us. Although it is my native language and L1, over the years I've had times where I forget how to say certain things. I also thinks this could apply to you because although you have gained experience from other people, it is not considered to be your mother tongue therefore you could unfortunately forget the language due to low exposure.
References: Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Hi Brianna,
ReplyDeleteI like you am with someone who comes from a family that speaks English as their second language. I am so happy to one day be marrying into this family and be surrounded by the different language and cultures. I think this will help both of us as teachers being exposed to the language in this type of setting so we can learn the language more and have a better chance at helping our future ELL students. "In our globalized world, multifarious opportunities for L2 acquisition arise from travel, employment, migration, war, marriage" (Ortega, 2013, p. 6). Like Ortega mentions in this sentence, L2 can often times arise from marriage which I hope is the case for both of us!
Tori –
DeleteYou made a wonderful point about how beneficial it is as teachers that we are marrying into a family that is a different culture than our own and speaks a different language other than our own. My fiance’s family’s language is Spanish, but this does not solely benefit in my interaction with students whose home language is Spanish, but others languages as well. “Lindemann (2002) was able to show experimentally
that some native speakers hold pre-existing negative attitudes against non-nativespeaking groups, and that these biased attitudes can affect the processes and outcomes of concrete interactions (Ortega, 2013, p. 78).” I believe that our situation allows us a personal insight into non-nativespeaking groups as native speakers and we have opportunity to remove bias by taking the opportunity to reflect on this.
Tori,
DeleteYou bring up a great point of a second language, or L2, stemming from a marriage. Ortega states, “Most people, therefore, learn additional languages from a mixture of both naturalistic and instructed experiences (Ortega, 2013, p6). In regard to acquiring a language as a result from marriage, I believe Ortega would consider this to be a naturalistic experience. I believe this approach can sometimes provide more opportunities for practice, as are constantly practicing at home.
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ReplyDeleteHi, Brianna! I thought your video was very interesting. I loved the pictures you used and appreciated how much personal information you shared. You stated that you have lived in Rosenberg, Texas your whole life and spent your primary and secondary school years in the LCISD public school system. I am presuming that LCISD encompasses all of Rosenberg, Texas. You shared that you would like to become a certified ESL educator to better teach the students in your district. According to Gass & Selinker (2009), although second language acquisition is not the study of pedagogy, language-teaching methodologies, or pedagogy, should be founded in language learning, acquisition, practices. Therefore, I believe this class can benefit not only your ‘foreign language learning’ of the ‘target language’ Spanish, but also your language-teaching pedagogical skills that can be applied in your future ESL classroom. Like you, I experienced Spanish in the classroom, memorizing selections from the lexicon, or vocabulary. In high school, I was also exposed to the morphology of the language, through learning the rules for conjugating verbs of different tenses. However, the field of second language acquisition has discovered “that language learning consists of more than rule memorization” (Gass & Selinker, 2009, p. 3). Your Spanish 1 Wednesday classes, in which students were required to only speak Spanish, juxtaposed this method by having students practice in an immersive environment. This exercise is aligned with SLA studies that have shown language learning “involves learning to express communicative needs” (Gass & Selinker, 2009, p. 3).
ReplyDeleteReference:
Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2009). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York: Routledge.
Audrey, your mentioning about the fact that language learning is more than just rules makes me reflect on why I had so much trouble staying on track due to my vehement focus on these rules while there are many more different aspects to the Spanish language. I felt a lack of motivation and questioned myself why I should even try to learn the language because I would never speak like a native speaker. “Post-pubertal learners, however, are not likely to perform in the native speaker range and this holds true regardless of the number of years they have resided in the L2 environment.” (Ortega, 2013, p. 29)
DeleteHi Brianna, your video definately showed me that it is never too late to learn a language and to never give up. I like the fact that your teacher would only talk to the students in spanish on wednesdays. Even though you didnt have that exposure at home you still was able to get it outside which is amazing. It is also great to here that you want to become ESL certified we always need more ESL Teachers. Ortega (2013) states that "many are forced by life circumstances to learn enough of the additional languages to fend for themselves in selected matters for daily survival". Being that your fiance parents are bilingual and you went on a trip with his side of the family it forced you to learn what they were talking about,which was translated to you to help you.
ReplyDelete