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