Entry 2 Interview
Entry 2. For entry 2 I interviewed one of our classmates, Damaris. Click here to watch the video!
Entry 2 reflection:
Entry 2 reflection:
First it was great getting to know more about Damaris background and how ever though English was not her first language but she feels the most comfortable speaking English. Ortega states that the learner who began acquiring their L2 at such a young age tend to exhibit intuitions that are very similar of that language (Ortega, 2013, p.19). That is a reason why Damaris feels so comfortable speaking English to this day. In school it was hard for Damaris to do her work without the help of her siblings and with it seeming like the teachers just pushed her aside and just let the other students help her. Damaris did state that reading was hard for her because not only was she just learning to read but she was trying to read in a different language. Damaris had stated that one of her classmates would help her because that student knew both Spanish and English. According to Ortega, "We all tend to think that children pick up languages speedily and effortlessly. Like
many apparently undeniable truths"(Oretga, 2013, p.16). Damaris picked up the language very fast considering at the time schools did not have bilingual or ESL classes.
I have known Damaris since I transfer to University of Houston and when I first met her I could tell she had an accent, "We have said that there is clear evidence that accents are likely to develop when
the L2 is first learned later in life" (Ortega, 2013, p.25). When I would hear her talking on the phone I knew she spoke Spanish fluently because sometimes she would say things in Spanish to refer to something we where talking about in English. I think that it is great that she is fluent in both languages. It was great learning more about how Damaris learned English I think the most interesting thing that I learned was that she was of naturalistic rather than instructed learning when learning her second language (Ortega, 2014, p.6).
Hi Taylor, I like how you focused on how Damaris was able to communicate with her teachers and peers at school when she came into the setting not knowing how to speak any English. Gass and Selinker (1994) explain how most children learn to speak through mimicking what is heard around them and almost establishing a habit of stimulus and response (p. 92). Damaris being able to communicate with the one other student who spoke Spanish and English and her siblings furthered her learning and made her more successful when she started kindergarten. Especially since she attended a school that was not very accommodating to ESL students.
ReplyDeleteHi, Taylor. I liked how you focused a lot on her early childhood. Being that she did not know any English when she was younger and her parents did not know English I can imagine how hard it must have been for her. I also liked how you went in depth with your questions about her educational experiences. I found it interesting how she was good in math since it is a universal subject and she struggled with reading. Gass and Selinker says “if a learner comes from a language that has no phonemic contrast between two sounds (e.g., /l/ and /r/) and is learning a language where that contrast is obligatory, she or he will have difficulty (p.179, 2008). This can explain some of her reading difficulties as a child.
ReplyDeleteHello Asia! Yes I focused on her early childhood because that was when Damaris was first exposed to English. According to Gass and Selinker they explain how most children learn to speak through mimicking what is heard around them and almost establishing a habit of stimulus and response (1994, p. 92) That was kind of the case for Damaris as she also explained that she learned from one of her classmates and that helped her learn. She did tell me that she would pick up some sayings by watching the other students use the bathroom she would see what they would tell the teacher.
DeleteOrtega states that “by increasingly participating more actively in activities with others, learners acquire new ways of saying, doing and being (p.253, 2009). Because she was around other students and kids her age, she was able to learn little things that maybe she would not have learned through instruction with the teacher. Being around people who speak the language can help the person who is learning the language pick up on it more if they are constantly around it.
DeleteHey, Taylor! Thanks for sharing your video with Damaris. I enjoyed learning about her story learning English as a second language. First off, I think a lot of people just assume that all ELL's have classes in school that help them learn English, and that is not always the case. I enjoyed hearing how Damaris didn't have that option and how most of her knowledge came from her siblings. I found it interesting learning about how she was able to acquire her second language. I feel like the acquisition of another language is a process that can take years to master. Gass and Selinker talk about how the acquisition of a language has a very broad definition. They say it can be anything from linguistic knowledge of the language all the way to knowing how to use it in speech and understanding the language in real time (Gass and Selinker, 2008, p. 81). I feel like it was difficult for Damaris to fully acquire her second language because she didn't have that support in school. This made it so interesting to hear that now she is more comfortable with English.
ReplyDeleteHello Remy. I agree to what you said about how it is interesting that Damaris feels more comfortable speaking English instead of Spanish. According to Ortega "We all tend to think that children pick up languages speedily and effortlessly. Like many apparently undeniable truths"(Oretga, 2013, p.16). Damaris picked up her language with the help of her siblings and that made it easier for her to be able to speak with her classmates.
DeleteHello Taylor, Damaris has an interesting background in second language acquisition. Rowland could consider her acquisition as simultaneous multilingualism where “children start to learn one language first and then learn another later in life” (2014, p.175). This gives her a lot of useful context to teaching ESL or bilingual students. Students undergoing SLA can relate to the same experience of not know what is going on as Damaris felt no matter their native language. Experiences like these and her bilingual abilities will support her teaching. It seems that she was a little hesitant that her L2 acquisition may have not reinforced her L1 capabilities, but it is good she has found confidence in them now.
ReplyDeleteRowland, C. (2014). Understanding Child Language Acquisition. New York, NY: Routledge
Hello Franklin! I completely see how Damaris was feeling lost or confused by not knowing the language that was being used around her. I am doing my student teaching and see some of the bilingual kids struggles because they do not understand English, but luckily at the school I am at they have bilingual support so they are able to teach them in Spanish. Gass and Selinker explain how most children learn to speak through mimicking what is heard around them and almost establishing a habit of stimulus and response (1994, p. 92). When children are exposed to some English they will be able to pick up on it.
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