VBLOG: ENTRY 4

Wow, this was a very challenging, yet, eye-opening course to take! I think that the underlying challenge was linked to the content.  I was surprised to read that most children, except in the Western middle-class contexts, grow up speaking more than one language (Ortega, 2013, p.1). To be honest, I never really put a whole lot of thought into the variety of components and struggles that ELL's experience. This course has helped me open my eyes to factors like; the age one begins to learn the L2, the crosslinguistic influences, the effects of the linguistic environment, motivation, second language as a form of cognition, etc. Taking a closer look at these factors and grasping a more in-depth understanding of how they all interplay with each other will help me tremendously, not only as a teacher, but also as an individual interacting with society. In the classroom I will be more consciously aware of our ELL's vocabulary bank and their need to learn about 3,000 new words in order to minimally follow conversations in the L2 and about 9,000 new word families if they want to be able to read novels or newspapers, etc. (Ortega, 2013, p.88). This is important to know because Ortega states the United States is on the rise for implementing "sink-or-swim" educational policies. It is hard to stand up for what is right if we lack the knowledge of what is harmful for our ELL's and what is not. The insight I gained from age alone makes me feel like these children are struggling to "fit" in our schools. They are driven to learn but need a variety of components to assist them in being successful in their L2 learning. As teachers, we need to be aware of their background and understand that they will struggle with comprehension and lack vocabulary (they have not had the time and experiences to develop their L2 like their L1 peers). Thus why the sink-or-swim educational policy is crazy! How will that benefit these children? I feel like that is more like placing them in a strict survival mode and that can hurt these children. I do not know about you but I cannot live with that in my heart. I always placed a high value on getting to know each and every one of my students as an individual. Every student will bring something different to the classroom, which is just life. I really want to place an emphasis on creating a safe, positive classroom environment that portrays a little of all of our cultures! A community! The most interesting topic, besides the information I learned about L2 and age of onset, was motivation. It is important to have a growth mindset. More importantly, it is important to encourage and assist our students in having a growth mindset. I believe developing rapport with our ELL's and their families, learning about their culture, likes, and dislikes as an individual will help me in the future to implement strategies to encourage intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is considered optimal because it is shown to be consistently associated to higher levels of achievement (Ortega, 2013, p.177). Knowing that my ELL's will place such high value on me as an influential person in their life, makes me want to be the best teacher/person I can be who motivates them from the inside out. If I am determined, in turn I pray they are determined and together we can work through the challenges. As Gass states, how do people learn a second, third, or a fourth language? Well, with great difficulty (Gass & Selinker, 2013, p.1). All things are possible and together we got this!

Regarding my input on creating a VBLOG. Well, here is my honesty, I did not like it! However, reflecting on it, I am super-duper proud of myself for doing it! I would definitely consider myself technology impaired! In fact, a couple of years ago, Santa, brought a game system for my youngest child. My oldest, who is my tech savvy hero, was at his Fathers for Christmas. I tried and tried and tried to figure out how to connect the game system. Hours later I thought, who can I call on Christmas to help me with this? Well, my amazing neighbor's' teenage son came over. Apparently, all I had to do was push "input" on my remote. Silly me. By the way, that button on my remote is now my go to if I cannot figure out what to do on my television! We live and we learn. Needless to say, I have officially learned how to create a VBLOG, with much difficulty! I know how a feeling of self- accomplishment! I feel like our blogs brought us closer as a class. I have taken online courses before and it is more like you log on, do what you need to do and are done. There was no personalization into who was enrolled in the course with you. I feel that our blogs created an opportunity for us to grow together as not only a class, but also provided a variety of perspectives through the videos and blogs. We each brought our own story and shared others stories. This assist in contributing to gaining additional perspectives about second language acquisition. I do not think that the course contributed to my writing skills but the course has motivated me to learn more about SLA. During my interviews, I found myself asking additional questions, not because we had to for the course, but because I was interested in learning more! I appreciate everyone sharing their stories and I enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and watching your videos. To our professor, thank you for being patient with my trillion emails! I hope everyone has a blessed rest of your summer and enjoy it! The fall semester will be here before we know it! 

Ortega, L. (2013). Understand second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

Gass, S., & Selinker, L. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York: Routledge.

ENTRY 3: REFLECTION

Interviewing Connie was an amazing opportunity! As a bilingual degreed woman with experience in teaching English Language Learners for over 10 years, Connie offered some valuable insight. Connie shared her experiences of what it is like to work with ELL's within the classroom. 

Connie stated that many ELLs struggle with understanding the meaning of idioms. Students did not grasp the meaning of "hold on" or "she got up on the wrong side of the bed."  ELLs also struggled spatial words like "away from" and "on top of." Ortega states that crosslingustic influences go beyond form-form or form-function correspondences, and that L1 knowledge across all layers of language can influence L2 solutions at the levels of form, meaning, and function (Ortega, 2013, p.47). Therefore, it is understandable that the ELLs struggle with comprehending the meaning of these words. How can we help these students?

Well, let me begin with the little boy in her classroom who only spoke Chinese when arriving. Connie mentioned that when the student would speak she would repeat back in English what she thought he was trying to communicate. Connie and this student used clarification requests, negotiated for meaning, and utilized confirmation and comprehension checks. Ortega describes these as interactional modifications (Ortega, 2013, p.61). Connie describes that she motivates her students through competition within the classroom.  Furthermore, Ortega states that the more the L2 learners notice, the more they learn (Ortega, 2013, p.63). Communicating, using interactional modifications all assist these students in language comprehension and acquisition.

The last topic I would like to comment on is the motivation aspect. As I have previously stated within my previous blog entry, Ortega emphasizes that motivation and language aptitude are two factors that play a vital role in second language acquisition (Ortega, 2013, p.9). When I think of the two students Connie described entering her room, each only knowing their L1, one has progressed throughout the school year, while the other has not. Upon her description, the little boy who only knew Chinese progressed significantly more than the little girl. I believe that one of the factors that played a role in the different outcomes of these two students involved motivation. The little boy was highly motivated and the little girl was not. Ortega also states that grammar acquisition cannot be successful without applying interest, attention and hard work (Ortega, 2013.p.58). In addition, there are studies that show an empirical link between interaction and acquisition. I believe that when Connie uses competitive games as a motivation within the blended classroom (native speakers and L2 learners) that the ELLs are benefiting in acquiring the English language.

In conclusion, I really appreciated a perspective of what it is like to work with ELL inside the classroom. I look forward to gaining insight and utilizing the knowledge within my classroom to better assist my ELLs. 

REFERENCES:

Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

VBLOG: ENTRY 3

CONNIE TOY-NG

The individual I chose to interview is Connie Toy-Ng. Connie has a Master's Degree in Bilingual Education and has been teaching elementary students for over 10 years! Connie was referred to me by me dear friend, Sue. The day I did my interview was the first time Connie and I met! I am very blessed and thankful that she was willing to assist me with my journey in school!

CLICK HERE to learn more about her experiences! 

ENTRY 2: REFLECTION

First, this was an amazing experience! Meeting with Sue and inquiring about her past helped me gain valuable insight in immigration as it relates to SLA. As mentioned, Sue came to the United States at the age of six. According to Ortega, the biological window for children to acquire their complete L1 is between the ages of four-six (Ortega, 2013, p.12). Sue's language during this time-period was Taiwanese. Therefore, her native language is Taiwanese. 

However, at the age of six, Sue experienced what is referred to in the video, "Why Is Learning a New Language after Childhood Harder?" true immersion. In this video, Dr. Norman Doidge describes true immersion as "if a hand picks you up and drops you with a family that speaks another language" (Fora.tv, 2010). Although Sue left Taiwan with her family, she was still immersed into a world, which the only language she understood outside of her home was the word "goodnight." Ortega states that learners who began acquiring their L2 at such a young age tend to exhibit intuitions that are very similar to those of native speakers of that language (Ortega, 2013, p.19). By listening to Sue's morphosyntactic and phonological competence, it is evident that this holds true for her. From the age of six until adulthood, she has shared her experiences with me describing what it was like to be immersed in a language that she did not understand. Sue does not recall the rate at which she picked up on the language nor strategies which assisted her in learning the L2. Sue did state that she recalled struggling with vocabulary. However, it was clear that socialization played a vital role in her learning. Sue informed me that children are children and all they wanted to do was play. She stated that through play with her peers is where she felt most comfortable and her learning enhanced. 

I found our conversation very intriguing when we discussed and compared her L1 to her L2. At this point in her life, Sue states that her L2 has become her "dominant" language. She described her struggles with communicating to her parents in Taiwanese.  Although Sue's parents live here in Sugar Land, they still only speak Taiwanese. Sue stated that often when communicating in her native language, much of the English rules transfer over and she has grammatical errors. Sue has difficulty in the ordering of elements in a sentence. She often applies the grammar rules of her L2, that she was taught in school, to her native language. According to Gass, these are referred to as syntax errors (Gass, 2013, p.6-7). Sue learned to speak Taiwanese as a young child but learned to speak, read, and write in English as a young child and throughout the majority of her life. According to Rowland these grammatical errors could be connected to the amount of input she did or did not receive. Rowland states that bilingual children are affected by the amount of language that they hear. The more a child hears in a language, the more that language develops (Rowland, 2014, p. 193). With that in consideration, it helps explain Sue's descriptions of feeling more dominant in her L2, while describing the feeling of her L1 fading. 

In other words, Sue's native language was her dominant language at the age of six. Most children are entering school at this time. Sue did not have an opportunity to develop the reading or writing skills in her native language. Over the years, she has experienced a gradual fading of her native language partly due to the consistent increase of exposure and input in English. It is the English language in which Sue feels she can fluently speak, write, and read.

I want to personally thank the Tong family for not only sharing their story with me, but also allowing me to share their story with others! Hearing first hand has helped me gain a better perspective outside my limited personal experience in SLA!

REFERENCES:

Rowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. New York: Routledge.

Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

Fora.tv. (2010, November 5). YouTube. Why is learning a new language after childhood harder? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DryHvm8-jxw

Gass, S. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course, New York, Routledge.

VBLOG: ENTRY 2

THE TONG FAMILY

The individual I chose to interview is Sue Tong. I met Sue through our church. Sue and her husband, Dave, are my small group leaders and over the past year and a half an amazing friendship has blossomed. Sue and Dave were both born in Taiwan and moved to the United States as young children. 

CLICK HERE to hear Sue's story!

ENTRY 1: REFLECTION

This introductory assignment had my mind reflecting on my childhood, early adolescence, to the present day. As you can see, English is my first language acquisition and I grew up monolingual. I was surprised to see that children growing up speaking one language is truly the minority in the large picture of humanity, with the exception of the Western middle-class context (Ortega, 2013, p.3).

As I read Chapter 1, I reflected on the term bilingual acquisition. This is the ability to learn two languages relatively simultaneously during early childhood.  As I continued reading, I saw that according to Ortega, early childhood is considered, before the age of four (Ortega, 2013, p.4). I thought to myself "If my son's father grew up in a Spanish speaking home, why did he not learn to speak Spanish fluently?" However, understanding that I was not exposed to any other language besides English, prior to the age of four, helped explain why I did not become fluent in American Sign Language nor Spanish. 

Upon learning that my little brother, Jeffrey, had to undergo a surgery that would prevent him from communicating in our first language, I remember feeling confused. I wondered how we would communicate. My Mother informed us we would be learning American Sign Language. According to Ortega, a defining feature of L2 acquisition is that individuals vary in how fast and how far they will go in learning a second language. This is based on individual differences which encompasses language aptitude and motivation (Ortega, 2013, p.9). Due to the nature, we were highly motivated at the time to learn a L2 in order to communicate with Jeffrey. However, as time went on and ASL was no longer needed, slowly the language began to fade because there was a lack of motivation.

When my son was born I also had a high motivation to learn Spanish. I wanted Dylan to be bilingual. However, after reading the chapter I have come to realize that Dylan would have needed more frequent and consistent exposure from his Momo and Popo. Dylan resided with his Father and I, both who are not fluent in Spanish. We were the mother tongue he heard day in and day out. Therefore, Dylan learned English as his L1 (Ortega, 2013, p.5).  

Reading this chapter has brought some clarity to the differences between the terms; first language acquisition, bilingualism, and second language acquisition. I am looking forward to diving deeper into the studying of second language acquisition and effective instruction to utilize in my future classroom!



Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.

VBLOG: ENTRY 1

Hello! My name is Amanda Ransford and I am a senior at the University of Houston! I am working towards my EC-6 Generalist degree and will graduate in the Spring of 2019. I look forward to the knowledge I will gain from this course.

Click here to watch my introductory video!