Entry 4

As the semester comes to an end, there is two main factors that I am mainly walking away with. These two factors consist of hard work and motivation It takes a lot of practice and dedication to learn a second language, as well as, motivation from internal and external forces. It takes hours of studying and rehearsing. I have been continuously working on my second language for a few months now, and am still having trouble finishing two complete sentences without any notes. I have not dedicated my life to learning it, but am steadily trying to gain more and more as I go.  After reading parts of the textbook and understanding what the brain is going through, I can better understand my troubles.

From my understandings, I have came to the conclusion that second language acquisition is more than just learning how to translate a word from one language to the next. It is about being able to translate words in the correct context, as well as understand words being told to you. There were times when I attempted to take Spanish into my world, and deliver what I learned from this class. Sometimes it would be clearly understood, and other times the listener would become confused and lost. There was even a time when I made an effort to speak Spanish to a group of native speaking Spanish students. However, when I made my statement in Spanish, their initial response was to laugh and ask me what language was that I was trying to speak. This uncomfortable moment better helped me to put myself in the shoes of an adolescent coming to America without being able to speak English. I began to see the fear and nervousness that comes along with entering a new environment, while not being able to communicate in that environment. It is a scary to feel this way.  However, at the end of the day, the main idea I walked away with is that there are factors, both internally and externally, that push a student to want to gain a second language, and Integrative orientation is the main piece needed. Ortega discusses this type of motivation and refers to it as integrative orientation. Ortega states “ integrativeness is an attitude defined as ‘a genuine interest in learning the second language in order to come closer to the other language community (p.170). I ultimately had to agree with this statement, because you could have outside sources pushing you to learn it, but if you don’t want to learn it yourself, then you will never master the language.

The most interesting parts of learning a second language is the major difference in syntax and how you see language based on your L1. When trying to learn Spanish,  I really had to grasp the way it worded its phrases in a totally different way. Instead of saying the teacher’s phone, you would say the phone of the teacher. That was something that I had to continuously focus on. What made  it so interesting is how my brain began to train itself to start thinking this way. If your connection to your L1 is strong, then it will be hard to learn a new language. But if you can look passed your L1, and try to unlearn what you have learned , then learning a L2 may be much easier.

I believe this class was great for professionally preparing me for ELL students. I was not fully educated on the learning cultures of second language students, and this class has helped me a lot. It was not only the Ortega readings but also one-on-one conversations with Professor Avellaneda as well.  There was an eye-opening moment when he pointed out to me that all of these students are not totally concerned with a high grade. In fact, some of them had no idea about an A, B, OR C grade system. Their main concern was fitting in with the majority of the school, having friends, and being able to follow the dialogue in everyday life. At the beginning of the semester I believed that students in intervention classes at my student teaching school needed help. But, after analyzing how second language acquisition works, and what type of motivation is needed, I re-evaluated my ideas altogether. I found that even if I am teaching math, some students will be on a different course to master different subjects. If I have students who have not mastered the language being spoken in the classroom, then, there is no way that I should expect them to do the same work as my language speaking students. I must learn to modify my lessons and assignments to help my ELL students do the best work they can. I can not and should not grade them based solely on the standards of my fluent English speakers.

The student blog did not really help me with my L2 acquisition. It helped me understand the backgrounds, likes and dislikes, as well as culture of my classmates. For example, the first blog was a basic background of students. The third blog was a interview with any teacher. I think these blogs would be better if they added a  more Spanish/ French twist. For example, for Blog three we could have instead found a teacher who acquired English as their second language. I believe this approach would have been more meaningful instead of any random teacher. Or, for Blog 1, we could have introduced ourselves but also add where in life were we first introduced to Spanish or French. Those were the worst parts of the class, because I felt like I was doing busy work instead of actually learning. I really enjoyed the Language Learning Blog more than the student blogs because it felt like it was more of a real life approach. I believe I walked away better because of the assignments I did in the Language Learning over the assignments from the Student Blog.       

  

Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Routledge

Blog Entry 3

           During our dialogue, the statement that stood out to me most was that Mr. Harthan
believes that students create a form of intrinsic motivation through their home life. He believes
that the individual student’s background, such as parents and friends, will determine if a child
finds importance in their L2 or not. This stood out to me because it was something that I totally
disagreed with. I believe that a student can want to learn an L2 because he is genuinely
interested in learning it. Ortega states that "when individuals engage in behavior that they
understand as self-initiated by choice and largely sustained by inherent enjoyment in the
activity, then they are said to be intrinsically motivated" (2009 p.176).  Especially in school,
children could like the slang and delivery of the new language and want to personally acquire it
for themselves. That is why Mr. Harthan stated that during open house, some of his students
had to translate for their parents. The parents probably didn’t feel a need to learn or have the
time and resources to acquire a new language. However, the child still managed to find the
importance of it and feel inclined to learn it for whatever reason.

Mr. Harthan and I discussed a scenario during the interview  in which I described child A and
child B. Child A had been in America since the last school year, but was not grasping the
semantics and morphology of the English language. Child B had only been here for six months,
but was already interpreting the new language fairly well. Child B was already showing signs
of being far ahead of his classmate in his second language acquisition. At first, I believed it to
be that Child A has low motivation. But, after reflecting on the interview I could see that this
student could be facing hard and controlled environments that are causing their interest to
diminish.  Child A may have had rough experiences such as a hard teacher or failing grades
that made him shut down as a language learning student. In Ortega, it states, “When individuals
construe their behavior as structured by a means–end, pragmatic–instrumental causation that
is imposed from the outside, their sense of self-causation and autonomy is low, if present at all,
and they are said to be extrinsically motivated (2009 p.176). Child B may have encountered a
delightful teacher, that was more patient and did not expect students to do so much rigorous
work. Even if the two students came with the same motivated spirit, overtime, child B’s
motivational level would not decrease. It may even increase due to personal interest/ intrinsic
motivation. On the other hand, if child A only has negative experiences when it came to learning
English, then he may be more inclined to stick to his native tongue. I truly believe that a students
environment can help and student create motivation to learn their L2. It can persuade them to try
100%, or it could cause them to shut down altogether.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3LtxZoO-S6g&index=2&list=LLnTbvPS_0W7QlpK4k85-iGQ&t=39s

ENTRY 2

For my interview, I questioned a long-time friend of mine. He is not in school but works as a carpenter. I wanted to get his ideas and approaches to breaking down a language, without him thinking about the class or what he should or shouldn't say. The interview with my friend was very interesting. It seemed that most of the facts I read from Ortega and the information from the videos all aligned with what he was stating. Even though he did not come to America as early as I imagined, he still seemed to grasp the English language rather quickly. I tried my best to do the entire interview without any stops because I wanted it to be as authentic as possible.

http://www.kizoa.com/Movie-Video-Slideshow-Maker/d219058153k1570422o1l1/language-learner-spanish

Entry 1: Introduction

Lawrence Ekeke VBLOG



           The introduction chapter of Ortega simplifies a lot of factors for me that pertain to not only speaking a second language, but the level of difficulty that it could come with. The most universal influence in which individuals learn a L2 is their, age, mother tongue, environment, and cognition (Ortega, p.9). This made perfect sense to me because it always amazes me to see Hispanic children flowing easily from Spanish to English. Sometimes I would even see young children being interpreters for their parents. I would ask myself, "Why can't the parents just simply learn to speak English like their child?" Well, it was not clear until after this reading. The underlying issue could be age and environment. If I was in an environment where I had a personal translator at all times, then I would not feel so inclined to learn an entirely new language. At the same time Ortega stated "the process of acquiring language is essentially completed by all healthy children by the age of four, in terms of abstract syntax, and by age five or six for most other "basics" of language (Ortega, p.4). So not only are they spoiled with an in-home interpreter, but their mature cognition will not allow them past that barrier to properly grasp the second language.
   
           Growing up I never had a passion to learn a new language. I was fine with being monolingual. I went to predominantly African schools, so I never really had a passion to learn another language. The first time I was officially introduced to Spanish was my freshmen year of high school. This was the year I took Spanish 1 and 2. It was a good course because I passed; however,  it did not truly connect me to the language. We learned basic vocabulary words like lapiz (pencil)  and libro (book), but nothing outside of everyday classroom vocabulary words. I could not say a full sentence in Spanish besides short elementary phrases such as "Yo tengo lapiz" or "Yo tengo libro," so communication in my L2 was almost impossible. I do not understand why schools do not demand you to learn a second language once you have been introduced to it. They just let you take the introductory classes, and once you pass, Spanish is gone never to be seen again.

           Now that I am older, I find myself trying to learn Spanish more and more. I find myself sitting with a  Hispanic friend and allowing him to teach me small phrases that connect me to people. Living in Texas, I feel learning Spanish is very important to a person's success in any field. There is such a a large Latino population in Houston, that not learning Spanish can even become a disservice in many cases. Even knowing simple phrases can go a long way.

           My parent mother language is Igbo, which is a Nigerian dialect spoken in southern Nigeria. They were raised speaking Igbo and English so they were bilingual. When my siblings and I were  born, they decided not to teach us Igbo. They still spoke it to friends and family members who were from Nigeria, but they spoke to us strictly in English. I resented that because I really wanted to learn my native language. These days I find myself intensely listening to their conversations trying to break down the words and deciphering them the best I can.

           I really want to gain knowledge about Spanish and learning the language. I hope this class equips me with the knowledge necessary to do so. I also would like to gain knowledge about the Igbo dialect and find literature that will further help me understand it.




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