Entry 4: Reflection

Through this course, I have learned a lot of new things about the process of acquiring a second or additional language. There are several aspects that come into play when helping an English language learner (ELL) successfully acquire English. As a future middle grade teacher, I must take advantage of the critical period for language learning mentioned by Ortega (2013), by giving ELLs opportunities to practice using English and develop new vocabulary within my content area math classroom. I also learned that it is the responsibility of the teacher to create a supportive linguistic environment to motivate and encourage students to learn content area topics as well as the second language. 

Learning about the ways I can improve my future students’ language learning experience had a tremendous impact on the way I will plan and design my lessons as a practicing teacher. One thing I felt really stood out to me was that learning a language is a social process. Ortega (2013, p.104) mentions that “language use and language knowledge are inseparable, because we come to know language from using it.” In other words, one cannot become completely fluent in a new language without practicing communicating in the language. As a teacher, I will make time in my lessons for students to use new content area vocabulary and practice their English with their peers by facilitating class discussions and other forms of productive talk. I can use some of the various techniques I have learned about in this class to support my students throughout their language learning process. 

The aspect of this class that I felt deserves more attention is the reading and writing aspect of second language acquisition. The central text used in this class does not spend much time focusing on how to support ELLs in becoming proficient when reading and writing in the English Language or any second language being learned. Learning to speak a new language is a challenging task on its own, but you cannot ignore the reading and writing aspects of language learning. A student may quickly develop oral fluency in a language by interacting with others who speak the language frequently, but this does not imply that the student is also able to express themselves fluently through their writing in the language. As an educator, I feel it is important to be able to support ELLs both in oral proficiency and in literacy. Learning to read and write in a new language goes hand in hand with developing oral proficiency. Through reading and writing in the L2, students can develop their grammar and learn new vocabulary. I feel that focus on the reading and writing aspect of second language acquisition is a crucial part of the acquiring a second language and should have been discussed more in this course. 

I found the use of the VBlog has been very helpful in learning more about the topics in this course. The use of the Vblog was effective for me because I was able to compare the interviews of my classmates to my own and gather a broader perspective of second language acquisition and how it impacts student leaning and teacher practices. Through the use of the Vblog, I was able to conveniently gather a variety of perspectives on second language acquisition from a variety of grade level and content area instructors. I was able to see how different approaches to second language instruction could be more or less effective based on the grade level being taught. Conducting interviews with ELLs and ELL teachers was a great way to collect information regarding course topics. Being able to share the findings of interviews in an online format made it easy to collect diverse ideas and make deeper connections to the text.