Entry 4

This Second Language Acquisition class has given me new insight and a completely different mindset on second language teaching and learning. A lot of different topic and theories were given and introduced during this course and I believe that every single one of them are important in their own way when dealing with second language acquisition. Lourdes Ortega does a great job in her book Understanding Second Language Acquisition, to help explain the many theories in this course and explain them in ways where people that are brand new to this topic can understand easily.

A very simple yet interesting topic in this course was the differences of naturalistic learners and instructed learners in the field of second language acquisition. Ortega explains naturalistic learners as people who “learn the L2 through informal opportunities in multicultural neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces, without ever receiving any organized instruction…” (Ortega, pg. 6) On the other hand, instructional learners would be direct opposite of naturalistic learners where they do have a formal form of learning such as: school, lessons, tutors, universities, and so on. Although there are two different types of learning, people are actually benefited by both types. I learned through this class that people are in most cases, naturalistic and instructed. People are benefit in instructed learning because of the obvious learning of the second language and learning the fundamentals and learning how to speak. Although people can learn the same in naturalistic setting, there are other things that they can learn through these settings such as: slang, work-related terms, and things that a regular formal lesson would not teach a person. I thought this was a very interesting topic in second language acquisition although it sounds very simple, it goes really in depth into the learning experience.

This class will impact my professional career as a teacher in a way where if I have second language English learners in the classroom, I will have a better understanding of how I may be able to work with them through this class. This class has given me a very good introduction and start of a foundation in what it takes to teach English language learners and what to do and what not to do. Living in America and especially in Houston, where there is so much diversity in a huge city, there are so many different ethical groups that you will never know who you will meet being in the teaching profession.

It was actually my first time using Vlogs for the first time and it was an interesting form of learning exercising what I learned during the class semester. Although it was interesting, I did not think it really helped me learn the material at hand and I found myself learning more through self-teaching and reading the textbook on my own time. I found motivation decreasing because of the Vlogs and my motivation would be higher by just reading the textbooks or having some sort of lecture feature. For example, I found myself procrastinating the Vlogs activities and towards the end of the due date. Although not enjoying the Vlogs, I was open to try anything for the first time and it allowed me to learn what I liked and didn’t like. Communicating with the classmates were the positive side of the Vlogs because I got to see what the other classmates thought about the theories in this class and got to see in a different point of view. 

In conclusion, I learned that learning in both formal and informal setting both have their benefits to second language learning and they bring two different sides of learning to the table. I also learned what type of learning format I dislike and it was interesting to try this new form of learning. Ultimately through this class, I the basic skills and fundamentals in SLA so that I may be prepared as a future teacher for any student that may be in my class that is a L2 English speaker. 

               

Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2013. Print.