Reflection
This class has been very beneficial in allowing me a chance
to learn so much about second language acquisition, which as a future teacher
is essential. I will encounter ESL students in my classroom so I need to be well
equipped to be able to help accommodate them and meet their needs. This class
has help taught me about how important it is for ESL students to feel safe and
comfortable in the classroom. If they are satisfied with their teacher and
instruction they will be a lot more motivated to learn English and interact
with others (Ortega, p.190). They can be motivated either intrinsically by
their need and want to learn English or extrinsically to do well in their
classes or to get a good job (Ortega, p. 176). It’s important to help keep that
motivation alive whether it is intrinsic or extrinsic.
ESL students will learn more from their everyday
conversations as oppose to the information that they could read about or from just
hearing English being spoken to them. It is important for them interact with
native speakers and learn English through conversation; their mistakes
will help them grow as their inter-language develops into proper English. Negative
feedback can also be effective in helping L2 learners improve their
understanding of a second language such as their grammar or form. It is okay to
correct your students English by asking them clarify what they said or having
them try to correct their mistakes (Ortega, p. 71). As a teacher we should not
let our concern of embarrassing them stop us from correcting their mistakes
because that is how they will learn. This class has taught how there are so
many factors that influence learning a second language such as memory capacity,
attention, intention, noticing, as well as their first language (Ortega, p.
91-97). Their first language can negative or positively affect their ability to
learn a second language depending on differences or similarities that can be
found among their first language and English. As a teacher I need to be aware
of this and understand that a student may struggle with the
grammar rules or form in English because it is so different from their native language. I learned that having a
positive attitude is not enough for a student to learn an L2. All the key
ingredients need to be there. In the book Wes was unable to master English as a
second language because he did not pay attention to his mistakes in English or
try to correct himself when his English confused others around him. He did not
put in the effort needed to successfully speak English (Ortega, p.58). I will
keep these important facts in mind when working with ESL students to help them
be as successful as possible.
As for the blogs we did in this class, they were very helpful
in allowing me to connect what I read each week to actual experiences by my
classmates, second language speakers, and ESL or Bilingual teachers. I got to earn about my classmate’s experience and journey with learning a second language
in their first blog. It was interesting to see how all of our experiences
of learning an additional language were similar. I learned about how important
being dedicated to learning a second language can be no matter how old you are.
In Blog 2 I was able to get a glimpse into the lives of other second language learners
and their real life struggles. This will help me identify with my future ESL
students and be more mindful of what they are going through. From blog 3 I was
able to learn from different teacher’s perspectives what working with ESL and
bilingual students is like. I was not aware of how important visuals and hand
gestures can be in the learning process. I was able to understand even more how
important motivation is in the learning of an L2. I realize now how the teacher's role is in providing the best instruction by using different strategies like sentence stems and group work.
Lastly, one change in this class that I think would contribute to the
learning process would be to have this class in person. Each week there was a
lot of material to cover including readings and videos so I think meeting in
person and being able to discuss the readings and videos weekly would have been
more helpful for me personally.
