The content in this course, Acquisition,
as well as Second Language Methodology have given me a little more insight into
teaching and advocating for English Language Learners. My experience being in a
military family and then joining the military myself, has given me a good
amount of perspective when dealing with individuals who do not speak English as
their native language. These skills along with the content provided in this
course will ensure that my future English Language Learner students will be
provided the most efficient and effective education possible.
One particular area that I was surprised
by when taking this course was the concept of the actual complexity of this
topic. With the Methodology course, it did not make me realize what actually
goes into the cognitive process of learning an additional language. This course
really dived into not only the cognitive aspect of learning another language
but also environmental factors that may affect the learning process. Simple
concepts like the fact that adults and older children initially have an
advantage over younger children when learning another language but after
roughly 5 years the younger children are better at learning their L2 than older
children and adults. (Ortega, 2011) Through research we as educators are able
to learn certain aspects of Second Language Acquisition and therefore
incorporate specific teaching strategies to accommodate L2 learners more effectively
Going
into my first year of Student Teaching I have already had a good amount of L2
learners and think that I will do well identifying where they are struggling
and why. I would hope that the knowledge that I ascertain from this course will
aid in my teaching career by providing skills to one of, if not the largest
growing demographic in our school systems. I think that courses such as these
are necessary for future educators to ensure that no student is left behind
simply because their L2 acquisition is not as strong as their L1.
In
regards to the course, I think it was partially my fault in not getting
everything that I was hoping to get out of this course. A good amount of the
material was concepts that I had already had a good idea about but now I have a
technical term for these concepts. I feel as well that because it was a summer
course the material was considerably rushed and I do not feel that I got as
much time to really soak in the information as I would have liked. I understand
that it is a summer course, I should have taken it during the fall, however,
graduation is in December and I had no choice but to take the class this
summer. I was not that impressed with the formatting of the tests with audio
and video clips. I felt that watching videos, one being an hour and half, and
uploading audio files is not the most conducive to a testing environment.
Reference:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language
acquisition. Routledge
