Reflection
For this assignment, I interviewed Ms. Hernandez, whom is a bilingual kindergarten teacher at the local elementary school. Although she graduated college about 17 years ago and did not know how to respond to most of the interview questions, she still managed to make connections between second language learning and what she has witnessed and experienced as a teacher. Some of the topics that were vaguely discussed were learning rate and crosslinguistic influences.
When asked about similarities and differences between bilingual and monolingual students, Ms. Hernandez made a reference to learning rate. She discussed that her monolingual students spoke Spanish and that her bilingual students spoke Spanish and English, and that they both learned [English] but at different capacities. A dependent factor of this was how much background knowledge of English the students had, as well as the amount of exposure. Learning rate was referenced again later when she stated that ELLs with bilingual family members learn at a faster rate due to exposure and practice at home. This brings to mind Ortega’s (2011) statement that “increased practice leads to lower levels of neural activation, because with more practice the same processing task will consume less resources” (p. 22). In other words, the more practice someone gets, the less mental effort they put in and the easier it becomes.
Ms. Hernandez also talked about crosslinguistic influences, specifically problems that students had with syntax and language mixing. When asked what area of English she noticed her ELLs struggled with the most, she answered with grammar and word order, which is essentially syntax. This was intriguing because her students are about four or five years old, and Rowland (2014) states that “studies show that bilingual children develop syntax and morphology early, easily and in accordance with the target grammar of each language” (p. 181). In other words, studies say bilingual children learn syntax early and easily, but Ms. Hernandez experiences the contrary with her students. She also mentioned that beginning proficiency ELLs code switch (Rowland, 2014). They specifically perform lexical mixing, which is “when one or two words from one language are inserted into a sentence made up of words from the other language” (Rowland, 2014, p. 177). However, intermediate proficiency level ELLs will speak in English, their L2, but phrase it incorrectly. This can best be explained by Rowland’s (2014) statement “that the children had only one language system, which included words from both languages. At this stage, the children had very few translation equivalent words; which means that if they had a word in one language they tended not to have a word with a similar meaning in their other language. When they did have similar words, they tended to use them for different meanings” (p. 177). This can best be exemplified by Ms. Hernandez’s example in the video, in which her students use the word “coming” when translating “vamos” (going) incorrectly.
References:
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Routledge.
Rowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. New York: Routledge.
Hello Yazmin! I enjoyed watching your video. What I found interesting was the connection that Ms. Hernandez made about how bilingual parents influence higher learning rates of English language learners. A student belonging to a bilingual family would have more opportunities to speak both languages at home and school rather than a student belonging to a monolingual family would only have school to enhance their second language. According to Ortega, “research suggest that a number of environmental (e.g. opportunities for exposure and use of high-quality L2 input and amount and quality of L1 use) and socio-affective factors (e.g. motivation, L2 instruction and overall education) may mutually interact and become important predictors of success at earlier as well as later starting ages” (2013, p.27). This means that the more practice an ELL receives, not only through instruction but also naturalistic experiences, the easier it will be to pick up the language.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Thank you for your comment, Maria. I completely agree with your statement that the more practice a second language learner receives, the easier it is for them to learn a language. Rowland (2014) states that “the degree of language transfer is determined by differences in the amount of exposure the child has to each language” (p. 189). In other words, if a child is exposed to their L1 significantly more than their L2, it will be more difficult for them to learn the L2, as well as keep the L1 from greatly influencing the L2. Also, research has concluded that “delays may disappear after sufficient exposure, especially if the children are exposed to language-rich environments” (Rowland, 2014, p. 192). In hindsight, exposure is a crucial element to language learning and children must be given ample amounts f it in order to progress.
DeleteReferences:
Rowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. New York: Routledge.
Hi Yazmin! I found it interesting how Ms. Hernandez mentioned her students who have a more than a beginners basis of English tend to translate their words incorrectly but around what they are looking for. This could be explained through Kellerman's 1979 study. Kellerman found second language learners "rely on their L1 knowledge and arrive at a fully target-like response" (Ortega, 2013, p. 39). Eventually they will restructure their word choice to the correct one. This Gass best describes this as, "qualitative changes [that] occur in a learner's internal representation of the L2 or in the use of procedures - generally from inefficient to efficient" (2013, p. 259).
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge
Gass, S. (2011). Second language acquisition: an introductory course. Routledge.
Thank you for reading my post, Veronica! I think plenty of ELL students’ experiences can be explained through your connection to Kellerman’s study. As for second language learners restructuring their word choice, I believe this would best be done through comprehensible output. Otherwise known as pushed output, comprehensible output is when “learners are “pushed” or “stretched” in their production as a necessary part of making themselves understood. In so doing, they might modify a previous utterance or they might try out forms that they had not used before” (Gass, 2013, p. 326). In other words, in order to prompt children to correct themselves and learn, they are “pushed” to elaborate or clarify what they stated. What are your thoughts on this method?
DeleteReferences:
Gass, S. (2013). Second language acquisition: An introductory course. New York: Routledge.
Hi Yazmin, great questions! What I found interesting is the power of practice when it comes to learning a second language as Ms. Hernandez briefly explains. Ortega mentions that practice can help an individual process information into long-term memory (2013). This explains why students who are able to speak both languages at home have a better chance of attaining and maintaining the new language. In addition, I found it interesting that practicing verbally at least, as Ms. Hernandez mentions, is quite not enough, there has to be a combination of practice at home and instructed practice as mentioned by Ortega (2013). This means that students are to practice in a way that helps them comprehend all four domains of language being speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Thank you, Nancy! As you said, practicing verbally is not enough. The child must receive sufficient exposure to the second language, on top of practicing, in order to build fluency. Hellyer (2014) also supports the idea of practice outside of school by stating that “procedural memory which is used to make sense of grammar requires extended practice; more than can be provided in a classroom environment.” He then goes on to state in his video that after “constant exposure and practice of a language, we enter our teens with mastered phonology and grammar and are able to speak fluently and accurately” (Hellyer, 2014). So as you mentioned, practice both at and out of school are important, but the exposure that goes along with it is also crucial.
DeleteReferences:
Hellyer, M. (2014, Dec. 23). TEFL teaching - Language learning & memory [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/8ut9R-9VMPc