Hello, my name is Angel Foster. I am currently a senior at the University of Houston pursuing a degree in teaching and learning 4th through 8th grade math. I will be graduating this upcoming December with a Bachelors of Science in Education. I am very excited to pursue a career as an educator and be able mentor, teach and inspire young people to achieve their full potential through education. In this video, I will discuss my experiences with learning new languages.
After discussing my experiences with learning new languages, I can note that I have experiences many different approaches to teaching a language. When I was learning Spanish, as I stated in the video, I had no intentions to learn Spanish. I learned Spanish subconsciously through experiences and interactions. Krashen argues that the fundamental difference between learning a language and acquiring a language is that language acquisition is subconscious (1998). I have found this to be true because when I was taught Arabic in a formal classroom setting, I unfortunately was not able to acquire the language. I did in fact learn many things about the Arabic language, but not enough to fluently converse and comprehend the language. When learning Arabic, my teacher focused on the language rules, grammar and vocabulary rather than by teaching me to understand complete messages. In the input hypothesis, Krashen mentions that language is acquired by understanding messages, not by consciously learning about the language and not by memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary (1998). When attempting to learn the Vietnamese language, I was not able to comprehend complete messages because the tapes moved very fast and I could not remember what ever word in each sentence meant by the end of each section. When learning new vocabulary is Spanish on the other hand, I normally only asked a friend to tell me the meaning of a word in order to understand a message or dialogue from a peer. I subconsciously became familiar with sentence builders, and was able to find the meaning of any words in between which I did not know in order to comprehend a message.
Wright, Wayne. Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2015. Print. Second Edition.
Buenos días Ángel, como escribimos su nombre en español. Marhaba.كيف حالك؟
ReplyDeleteFrom your language experiences I can tell that the teaching of second and foreign language is done the same way no matter what language it is and that people continue not to learn due to this methodology. It is wrongly assumed that people need vocabulary and grammar as the only component of a language. The reality is that learning something without context or interaction makes no sense to the brain and therefore there is little to no learning. Usted menciona que aprendió español y me pregunto cómo contribuyó el ver películas con subtítulos a este aprendizaje. I have met Romanian students who learn Spanish from watching soap operas but the explanation is that Romanian is more marked that Spanish and therefore easier for learners. How fluent are you in Spanish?
Hola Eulises,
Deleteالحمد لله أنا بخير. وانت كيف حالك؟
I found that I was learning more through naturalistic experiences, that I was learning in language classes. Watching movies with subtitles was helpful to my learning of the Spanish language because sometimes I was able to understand most of the words in a sentence, except for one or two words. Since there were subtitles, I could read and discover the meaning of these words. Connecting the words with the images also helped me retain more, since movies are somewhat like experiences too. I feel like I am very fluent in Spanish, although there are still some words and dialects that I cannot understand. Lately, I have not had many opportunities to exercise my Spanish, so I feel like it is decaying a bit. I do still listen to music in Spanish and try to translate what is being said for my friends who do not understand.
Hello Ms. Foster,
ReplyDeleteWow! I find it amazing that you have trilingual skills in Arabic, Spanish, and English. My goal during high school was trying to learn Italian but with the lack of exposure and motivation, I ended up resorting to translating dictionaries. Thus, I only know a few words or short phrases like today is a beautiful day, left, right, and that’s pretty much it. Sharing this with your future students, you will impress and inspire them to find the immersive experience it is to learn a new and exciting language. As Wright (2015) states, ELLs vary widely by race, ethnicity, home language and ranges in levels of schooling (Wright, 2015, p.2). Hence it is extremely important to consider all factors when meeting with ELL students and investigating their learning preferences, struggles, and some personal background. This will help them better grasp content and like you stated, if we move too fast like the Vietnamese tapes, by the end of the lesson students may be clueless.
Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (Second ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.
Hi Mayte,
DeleteI am all about inspiring students to become life long learners! I want to inspire my students to develop a passion and enjoyment for learning new things, whether it be math, science, or a new language. I totally agree with the fact that knowing your students' individual backgrounds makes a huge difference on how you are able to support them and their distinct leaning needs. Wright (2015, p. 23) actually fives list of 7 things an educator should know about their English language learning students. Wright (2015, p. 24) goes on to mention how teachers can use information gathered to obtain further information about students educational background such as the history of the education system in their home country or other important information that can aid the teacher in supporting the student in their classroom.
Angel, that is awesome that you are so familiar with many different languages. I think this will be a great tool for you to connect with your different ELL students. I find it very interesting that you were able to pick up Spanish on your own, but not the other languages that you learned in a class setting. I think this shows that to learn a language it needs to be important to the learner. Growing up in schools that are primarily Spanish speaking make it more important for you to learn the language than if you are simply in a Spanish class. I think this is something you will be able to use with your future ELL students by making what they are learning relevant to their life. As well as building upon the schema that they already have for the language.
ReplyDeleteHi Vanessa,
DeleteThanks for your input! I really enjoy being able to communicate in different languages when I encounter people who speak them. Even if the conversation is short, since my Arabic is not proficient, people are always interested in knowing whether I can speak Arabic and often encourage me to continue learning. Wright (2015, p. 52) describes the affective filter hypothesis explained by Krashen. It states that although the language learner may understand some input, anxiety and self-esteem associated with learning a new language can cause them to keep it out. I feel that the support and community within my schools was very welcoming and supportive to my learning of the Spanish language. On the other hand, although my family and friends who spoke Arabic were also supportive, I was not motivated to actually learn the language since I was not required to speak it at home or with friends since we all spoke English. You are on to something when you mentioned that learning to speak and understand Spanish was probably more important to me than I considered. Since many of my peers spoke in Spanish, and I wanted to be included in their conversations.
Hello Angel,
DeleteI am really fascinated by all the languages you know. Even more the fact that you picked it up all by yourself. The fact that you like to know your mistakes when you are learning a new language shows that you have the capability to deliver feedback to your students when they are learning as well. Wright (2015) says, “Thus, the more the teacher knows about a student’s experiences, the more he or she can assume about the expertise that student is likely to have” (pg. 17). In the future, I hope you take this quote with you and use it to remember how you are the ultimatum in helping your students. As long as you know their zone of proximity, then you can activate prior knowledge, link new information to old information and link different schemata to each other.
Angel, thank you for sharing your language learning experiences with us. I found it very interesting that we, like so many others, had such a similar experience trying to learn a second language. My teacher also focused on drilling in vocabulary and the rules of the language, like how to conjugate a verb in Spanish. While this was important to know, I feel as though it was meaningless and had know real connection to my prior knowledge or life. Wright (2015) states that “experience leads to expertise”. This is very applicable when it comes to learning a second language whether it be a foreign language other than English, or learning English as your second language. Having meaningful experiences, will help you to retain the information.
ReplyDelete