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Entry 4: Reflection Writing

In taking this course, I have developed an understanding for how a second language is acquired. Personally, I have aspirations to speak a new language, so learning about this process was very enjoyable. I learned the multiple classifications for being a bilingual, and the many things that impact ones learning of a second language. For example, their age or their motivation. I feel that motivation is step one in learning anything new, so I really enjoyed reading about how it ties into acquiring a new language. I agree with Ortega completely when he says that motivation is the desire to learn something new and the effort put forth to sustain it (Ortega, 2013). This quote not only stuck with me throughout this course, but it will continue to stick with me throughout my teaching career. Although it is such a small quote, I find it brings a powerful message. Learning anything new is not just having a desire or a want to learn about something. It is also about continuing t...
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Entry 3: Interview with a Foreign Language Teacher

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I interviewed Mrs. Garcia, a Spanish teacher at Kahla middle School. I found out that Mrs. Garcia went to school to become a history teacher, but she struggled on the Texas History part of the content exam. This led her to teach Spanish instead which she is extremely happy about, and said she is glad things played out the way they did. When reading out chapters, several things stood out to me that I wanted to talk to Mrs. Garcia about. First, I was curious whether or not she believed it took a special kind of person to learn another language. Chapter 7 talks about how greatly people differ in how fast and how well they acquire an additional language (Ortega, 2014, p. 145). Mrs. Garcia stated she doesn’t believe it takes a special kind of person to learn a new language, and that children all have an equal opportunity. It is about applying themselves. Another question I wanted to be sure and ask Mrs. Garcia, was how she gets her students motivated to learn a new lang...
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Entry 2: Interview with an English Language Learner

        I interviewed a close friend of mine, Karla Olivo-Trevino, who learned English as her second language. She does not remember exactly what age she began learning English, but recalls being rather young when she started speaking another language aside from Spanish. Growing up her household spoke both languages. Her older sibling is also bilingual and her parents wanted them to know English because of their school. Because of this, Karla feels she was comfortable speaking both languages by the time she reached first grade. Gass and Selinker describe this as a balanced bilingual, which is having the mastery on two different languages (Gass and Selinker, 2008, p. 27).         In my interview with Karla, I learned that it was a rather easy transition for her in school because a lot of her knowledge on both languages was learned at home through her family and friends. Rather than receiving most of her instruction of the English language fro...
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Entry 1: Course Introduction

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Remy Colton's Blog Welcome to the first entry of my blog.
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