After taking this Second Language Acquisition course, I
feel a lot more knowledgeable about second language and especially in how to
teach my English Language Learners in the classroom. I had no idea there was so
much information regarding SLA and my lack of knowledge on the topic drove me
to want to understand it much more. My initial thoughts about second language
changed each time I learned something new.
For instance, my
knowledge was expanded in learning how age doesn’t necessarily play a huge
factor when learning about a second language as there have been findings that
adults have an advantage over children depending on when the critical period
ends (Ortega, 2013, p. 16). With my acquired knowledge on SLA, I can make my
classroom more welcoming to ELLs and understand what would be appropriate to
teach them and what will help get them to flourish and succeed. Mainly, my
perspective changed a lot about this topic as learned more each week in class
and it will help me plan out lessons more effectively for my future ELLs. I
know now what is in the best interest of those students and what types of
factors contribute to their learning process.
Also, something that I
learned from this class that I want to ensure my students have would be motivation.
Motivation combined with the help of antecedents (attitude, integrativeness,
orientations, social support, etc.) make it utmost effective (Ortega, 2013, p.
172). I think it is important for the students to be driven intrinsically as to
help further develop their positive attitudes towards learning a second
language. According to Ortega (2013), students should be able to develop, “positive
attitude towards the L2 speakers and culture, and general high interest in
learning foreign languages” (p. 187).
I really enjoyed
creating blog entries and I thought that they were a great way to learn more
from my peers, besides just from the textbook. I found this to be an
interesting and fun way to interact with my peers and not only teach them
something about Second Language Acquisition but learn from them as well. I
believe that reading all the information about SLA directly from the textbook
and then trying to remember key points is not as effective. I felt like through
the video blog entries, I was able to learn more about each of the topics we
covered in class. This student-centered activity was probably my most favorite
we have done this semester and I never had a class that asked us to create blog
entries like this one. However, a downfall I have noticed is that not everyone
would get enough comments on their blog. I think there should have been a
statement stating that if there are already ___ amount of comments on a
person’s blog, they should go find someone else to comment on. I think this would
be great to implement for future classes going onward to help even out the comments,
so everyone will get an equal, fair amount.
Overall,
SLA is something that I think that every teacher needs to be aware of and understand
so that all students are able to achieve greatness. How else will teachers be
able to make the classroom warm and inviting for ELL students and have them
feel comfortable in that environment? I am glad that I had the opportunity to
take this course during my first semester of Student Teaching I. It really has helped
me understand how to better educate my ELL students in the classroom and
utilize the information I learned from this class.
