Blog Entry 3 Reflection
The person I interviewed for this blog
entry was Phyllis Flores. She was a bilingual and second language teacher in 1st,
2nd, 4th and 10th grade. Most of her experience
as a teacher was working with students trying to learn the English language at
various ages. I really enjoyed the interview because the information and experiences
she shared with me were relatable to what I am learning now. The experiences
she shared connected to what have read in the book and what I have listened to
in videos.
One thing that stood out to me throughout
the lesson was the language learning differences in children depending on their
age and grade. In the interview Mrs. Flores stated that the older children in
her classroom had a harder time learning English compared to the younger
children she taught. This may be true because of research by Oyama, “Five long term
studies reveled that when accomplishments in the L2 were compared after at least
5 years of residence in the L2 environment, then younger starters were clearly
better than adulty starters.” (1976).
Another thing that stood out to me
during this interview was when I asked about student motivation. As stated by
Mrs. Flores, in this case student motivation was very high among students in
her 10th grade class. “Gardener (2001) believed the highest and most
facilitative form of motivation was the integrative motivation. (Gardener,
2001). This motivation was seen in the students she taught in 10th
grade because these students were determined to learn English. They wanted to be
able to speak English in their new country and excel at it. Overall, I thought
the interview was very informative, because everything Mrs. Flores talked about
connected to what I have learned in this class. Please enjoy my video, thank you.
References
Oyama, S. (1976) A sensitive period in the acquisition of non-native
phonological system. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 5, 261-85.
Gardener, R.C (2001) Integrative motivation and second
language acquisition (pp. 1-19).
Hi Shawn! Nice interview. I really liked how you asked about the difference of aptitude from an elementary stand point to a high school. According to Ortega, " late-starting learners will vary greatly in their facility and relative success with the task, depending on how naturally good their analytical capacities and their memory are." (Ortega 2011 Pg. 158). The author also believes theirs a correlation to aptitude and the age of students in which they learn L2. Similar to what Mrs. Flores was saying, older students tend to struggle with acquiring a new language, even if they've just moved to the US. I also liked how Ms. Flores address that students environment,such as their home life, affects their personality, which affects their willingness to learn. Nevertheless, great job on your interview!
ReplyDeleteOrtega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2011. Print
Hi Celester,
DeleteThank you for your comment. I agree with what Ortega stated and Mrs. Flores. Older students have a deeper background in their home language. So, when they transfer to a new country and must learn a new language they are going to struggle. This was a great point Mrs. Flores brought up in our interview.
Hey Shawn! Great interview. From what I got about Mrs. Flores is that her language class really focuses on beginner level attainment. She mentions that she “constantly gives students encouragement” in order to boost their confidence. I believe that positivity really does help with student motivation, however “By the mid-1980s, it was becoming apparent to SLA researchers that positive attitudes and plentiful input and interaction, while important, were not sufficient to guarantee successful grammatical acquisition.” (Ortega 2011). I was wondering the level of difficulty Mrs. Flores give each student depending on their grade level and learning capacity. She did say she used a variety of Input but is it comprehensible input? Meaning was the information she gives to her student at a level where they can interpret the information properly. What I also heard from the interview was the affect of personality for students. In Ortega, the study of Wes a Japanese artist, his personality was described as “the kind of social personality that avidly seeks people and engages in skillfully designed reciprocal interaction.” I believe that personality is one factor in the motivation to learn but outside factors also affect learning as Mrs. Flores mentions. She said that family life and other environmental factors can cause her students to be distraught or distracted from learning and in turn affect their attitudes some days.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge
Hi Joseph,
DeleteYes, Mrs. Flores worked with a lot of students that were just beginning to learn the concepts of the English language. As a result, she used encouragement and positive feedback to help students along in their studies, so they will not become discouraged. I also agree with the personality construct of learning new language because learning a new language is heavily correlated to speaking the language you are trying to learn. So, if a student is shy or does no talk much, this could negatively affect this student when trying to learn a new language. Thanks for the feedback!
Hey Shawn,
ReplyDeleteIn the interview there is a discussion of the language learning differences in children, depending on their age and grade level. At the moment in my 7th grade class that I student teach, I have been able to help those students that are native language learners trying to learn well the American language (English). My advantage is that I speak both English and Spanish very well and I am able to speak Spanish to those students and then help them to translate it to English. My experience here has made me see that the age of the students matters a lot when they are learning a new language. “Bilingualism and language activation and dominance effects operate across all ages, beginning as early as age two of life…”(Ortega, 2011,pg.19). If you can start your development of a language at age 2, imagine starting at an older age when you have been speaking only language your whole life. My 7th graders struggle to speak it and feel embarrassed. I have also done my best to motivate these students to speak the language. I usually let these students’ pair up with another native learner and an English speaker to work together as a team. I do activities such as the Frayer models with them to motivate them to surpass their fear of speaking their second language.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2011. Print
Hi Griselda,
DeleteI glad you made a connection to my interview post. From what I have learned from this course and from the interview is that students who are older have a harder time learning new language than younger children in the beginning because they are so used to their home language. So, for these students it does get frustrating and it can be struggle in the beginning for older students to grasp the concept of learning a new a language. Thanks for the comment and I will take that strategy into consideration.
Shawn,
ReplyDeleteGreat interview and reflection. In regards to your reflection, you said that motivation was more prevalent in 10th grade students that younger students; I concur with this. I spoke to my mom who has been an Arabic teacher for 25 years, across all grade levels, and she says the same thing. Students learning English or a new language seem to be more motivated to want to learn more because of society and making it, but for younger students, they have not grasped that concept yet because they are kids. It comes easier for them, even then! Ortega (2014) states that initially adults will grasp a language faster than a child up to 5 years, but then the child will make strides more so than an adult can.
Excellent video and reflection!
Hi Hussein,
DeleteThank you, Hussein. I am glad you formed a connection from my interview post. Although I have not learned a second language, from what I learned from this course and from heard from other that do speak a second language is that they had some sort of motivation to learn their second language. Rather it me a culture shift, personal growth or for work purposes older students tend to have more motivation than younger students because these students have a goal that they want to meet. Like you said younger second language learners do not realize what they are learning a second language for sometimes, so the motivation is not as clear for younger students. Thanks for your feedback!
Mrs. Flores talks a lot about what Ortega labels as integrativeness. The idea that her students were more successful because of their genuine desire to learn and be able to use the language to communicate/ participate with their peers (172). Students who have that desire and see the importance of that language are much more likely to learn the language and be able to use it.
ReplyDelete