Upon taking Second Language Acquisition, I thought learning a second language revolved around memorization. It wasn’t long into the course that I learned there were many aspects to learning a second language. I shortly realized that motivation, cognition, and social dimension played a huge role in SLA. Ortega (2013) states that, “Motivation is usually understood to refer to the desire to initiate L2 learning and the effort employed to sustain it, and in lay terms we all understand it to be a matter of quantity, as in the everyday observation that some learners are highly motivated and others have little or no motivation,” (p. 168) There are many forms of motivation, but integrativeness is the form of motivation that many ELL students attain. Ortega (2013) mentions on page 170, that “Of all antecedents, integrativeness is the one that has played the most central role in the development of a theory of foreig...
Unfortunately, there continues to be a huge gap between what theory says about how languages are taught and how they are taught. For the most part, foreign languages continue to be taught through giving drills of vocabulary and grammar. Rarely do learners have the opportunity to use real language in meaningful, real life situations. Many of the activities teachers have students do are never done by native speakers. This artificial language use is what impacts learners’ motivation which is one of the most important predictors of language attainment.
ReplyDeleteHi Professor Avellaneda,
DeleteI can definitely relate to foreign languages being taught through vocabulary and grammar. I can still picture all the worksheets and charts I had to fill out in my high school Spanish class. I remember for the quizzes and tests I would cram to remember the vocabulary and grammar to get the test write it all down then forget it as soon as I turned it in. I think if my Spanish teacher would of taught us different strategies to understand the language I might of retrained the language. According to Ortega (2011), “…strategies are conscious mental and behavioral procedures that people engage in with the aim to gain control over their learning process” (pg. 208).
I completely agree. Unfortunately, most teachers just repeat what they saw their teachers do when they were the students, even if they are aware of the fact that they did not learn much in those classes. I hope that in our case by reading and thinking about what we have our students do and why w do it, we become better teachers. I wonder, for example, if there is learning value in this activity that we do in our SLA course.
DeleteHi Rachel! Researchers has mentioned L2 acquisition may arise from marriages (Ortega, 2013, p.6). From what I can take away from your video your fiance is a lucky guy. Learning a new language at any age is difficult. I hope that one day soon you would be able to hold an entire conversation with your future in-laws. I believe this would be a great journey for you as you see progression in learning a new language. As for myself, even maintaining a language I spoke from birth is hard. I would love to hear about more of your journey at the end of the school year. Best wishes to you and your studies.
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteYes, learning a new language can be very terrifying and somewhat intimidating. However, it has taken me this long to realize that, just by taking this course. Growing up, I never understood what people meant when they said Spanish was too difficult to learn, or it was just impossible to understand. For me, I learned Spanish first and then English, which according to Ortega Spanish is considered my L1 and English is considered my L2, I could never really relate (Ortega, 2013, p.5). However, now that I am taking the French course, I can now thoroughly understand what all my friends and coworkers meant when they said Spanish was hard to learn. When you mentioned it was difficult to watch a video in Spanish and take notes, I can agree with you because I am also having trouble watching these French videos and taking notes. However, difference between yours and mine is that mine has the English translation, which makes it a little easier. I cannot even imagine how you might have felt watching videos that were ONLY in Spanish. Hopefully, the Spanish course you will be taking this semester will be a better experience for you.
References: Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print
Hi Priscilla,
DeleteSpanish really has been tough for me to learn. That’s great that you’re taking the French course now, so you’ll be familiar with three languages. That will really come in handy for you once you are a teacher! Before being placed in the field, I really just thought of ESL students being Spanish speakers but after all the observations we’ve done and now student teaching I realize that it’s not just Spanish speakers. That’s really a great opportunity for you to be able to learn three different languages. Good luck in your French course as well as your other courses!
Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI like you was not very successful in my high school Spanish courses and did not get much from it. I did many worksheets and used many flashcards to drill the vocabulary words into my head just to forget them after taking the test. "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). I think it would be more beneficial for teachers to incorporate more of the natural language meaning-making process into the classroom because I like you learned more Spanish in real world settings than I ever did in my classroom.
Hola Rachel!
ReplyDeleteIt is a huge service to your future students that you are eager to learn Spanish to give them the best possible learning experience. According to Ortega (2011), there are prejudices regarding complete acquisition of the L2 and understanding various learning circumstances may help us counter these prejudices (p.8). In your case, you are eager to learn Spanish to help the needs of your English language learners. In many cases, L2 learners learn the language as a means of survival. Learning these building blocks of L2 acquisition can prove helpful in assisting your own students in L2 acquisition.
References: Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print
Hi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteOrtega states, “In our globalized world, multifarious opportunities for L2 acquisition arise from travel, employment, migration, war, and marriage” (Ortega, 2013, p.6). With your situation, I think you can relate to this statement. By being surrounded by a second family who will soon become your own who speaks Spanish, this will help you to develop your L2. You will be exposed to the language more. With exposure to new things comes learning from those new things. You also have the desire to learn the language which is also a helpful tool when learning a new language. You care which will show as you are learning the new language.
References: Ortega, Lourdes. Second Langage Acquisition. London: Rutledge, 2013. Print