Prior to
taking this course, I knew some of the advantages of knowing an additional
language. However, this course also taught me to take a step back and explore
the processes of learning those languages from the perspective of my English
Language Learners in my classroom. This class not only taught me to be flexible
with my lessons, but to also be sure I am accommodating the needs of the
different learners through activities and instructions. Taking the perspective
of my students allows me to identify their process of learning an additional
language- which are influenced by their growth from childhood to adulthood.
During the
SLA course, I was able to reflect on a lot of the practices and techniques
during student teaching. Not only was I able to be flexible and accommodate
some of the needs of my students even further, but it became a habit to keep my
eyes peeled for struggling students. For example, motivation plays a crucial
role to the learning process of not just children, but adults as well. During
my student teaching, many students were unable to recall the advantages and disadvantages
about Energy Resources. However, when they were asked to create a visual
product where they could create a fictional character using these Energy
Resources, their retention and motivation increased significantly. According to
Ortega, students are able to retain information longer when their level of
activation is high (Ortega, 2009, p. 93). Therefore, it is important to
understand both the psychological needs and capabilities of ELL learners.
Topics
that I think should have received more attention are the: morphology and
phonology. Even though we had reading passages from the textbooks, I would like
to physically see these two topics broken down into multiple content courses.
Although this course is online and relied heavily on independent reading, I
found it helpful when some students included these practices in their video
blogs during the interview. On the other hand, a topic that took quite an
appeal were the psychological development from children to adults in their
learning a second language. From reading the textbooks and watching my peers’
video blogs, I was able to understand the perspective of ELLs and their
learning a second language as a child or adult.
In regards
of the video blogs, I found them to be extremely useful when looking at the
multiple perspectives from watching and reading the reflections of my peers.
Although my peers and I are all teaching different content and grade levels, I
could reflect on their techniques and apply them towards my content. Doing
these video blogs, reflections and interactions allowed me to understand
multiple perspectives compared to a single perspective. In addition, the
interview was probably the most resourceful assignment. Not only was I able to
have a one on one interaction, but observing my other peers’ interviewing with
their mentor gave me a better insight of their insight of learning languages
with their students. I enjoyed this course and I hope I will be able to apply
some of the techniques in my classroom.
Ortega, L. Understanding second language acquisition. New York:
Routledge, 2009.
