Entry 4: Reflection Writing

Blog Entry 4

            Throughout this class I have learned a lot about second language acquisition. When I started the course, I did not know how children and students learned a second language or the steps it took for people to learn a second language. So, throughout the course, l learned things that affect second language learning like motivation, aptitude, environment and age. These things that were talked about in the book were somewhat new to me and were an interesting part of second language acquisition.

            My understanding of second language acquisition has increased at a high rate. Like I said before, I had no idea that factors such as age, motivation or environment could play such a huge role into learning a second language. Throughout this course learning has happened by reading the book, interviewing professionals and second language learners and lastly by participating in the blogs. For example, from reading the book, I learned that learning a second language includes many factors. But one factor that could affect that rate at which someone learns a second language is their motivation. If I person is highly motivated to learn English, they will perform and accomplish their goals at a faster rate as opposed to someone that has little or no motivation to learn a second language. Although this is just small fraction of factors that go into the learning of a second language, knowing that motivation can contribute to the learning of a second language can help students and teachers alike because it can serve as a pathway for learning a second language. These resources alone have allowed me to expand my learning of second language, as try to convert what I learned in this course into the classroom.

            This class has impacted my professional practice quite a bit. It has helped me learn strategies to teach a second language and to help students in my classroom that are second language learners. The constructs we have learned in this course have already trickled down into the way that I teach now and should continue to form the way I continue to teach in the future. This course has also allowed me to see the relationship between SLA and ELA. While learning strategies to teach second language learners I was able to make connections to what we have learned and use them in the RELA class I am doing my student teaching in. I was able to use some of these strategies, like prompting students with sentence stems. Strategies like this has impacted my teaching practices so that I will be able to use it in the field.

            While reflecting on the course I could not think of any changes or additions that would be needed. I thought the course was well managed, and structured. There were specific dates for when things were due and directions for each assignment were clear. I liked the way the blogs worked also. I though it served as a great tool for students to share ideas and knowledge about what they have learned about SLA and for other students to read and learn from that. So, I don’t think anything should be changed.

            The role of the blog in my learning process was a big factor in how I learned in the class. The blog assignments allowed me to interview individuals in the field of second language and people that have learned a second language to really pick their brains and learn how they teach second language acquisition and or learned their second language. So, this part of the blog aspect was great, it really allowed my me to gain knowledge just off the interaction I made with other individuals. The other portion of the blogs, which was viewing other classmate’s blogs, watching the videos and reflections and commenting was also great. It allowed me to see other viewpoints and the connections that were made in this course. This allowed me to learn more because it showed another people’s experience learning a second language or teaching a second language. Viewing the videos helped me learn different strategies I could use in the classroom or strategies used to learn a new language which in turn will help me in the field.