Hello everyone- xin chào tất cả mọi người. My name is Quynh Ninh. I am a senior at University of Houston- College of Education and my major is Teaching and Learning. Since childhood, my dream is becoming a teacher and right now my dream is about come true.
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ReplyDeleteHi Quynh! First of never be shy of your accent! I feel that characterized your true identify and were you come from. I understand as second language learners it is difficult when pronouncing certain English words, and because we were not introduced to the language at a much earlier age it is very difficult for us to master English. Like Ortega mention in his book. If we begin to learn our L2 in an age before our puberty, 5-10 years of age, there a hope for us to competency the language. (Ortega, 2013, pg18) He also states that if we do not have a complete success when introduce to our L2, English, our level of pronunciation and the way we perform will be low. (Ortega, 2013, pg26). Therefore, it’s not that we do not have the capacity to learn the second language, it more the amount of time and age that needed to be introduce to us to master or skilled the language of English.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anali. I am feeling lucky because I have the opportunity to learn second language. “In some parts of our world, most children grow up speaking one language only.” (Ortega, 2009, pg. 3). Now, in my country, English is become an important part of education but it is only for the economic development or stable economy zones. Not all students have the opportunity to receiving it.
DeleteAccording to Ortega, “very young starters who did not attain the native-like levels of pronunciation we all assume of pre-pubertal children learning other languages” (Ortega, 2013, p. 25). I know there are many benefits to learning a foreign language in a young age. Do you think age is a obstacle for learner?
DeleteI think that age is obstacle for a learner. I believe the younger you are at learning a language or anything, the more time spend with it the more proficient you become. For example a child who has been playing soccer since the age of 5 will have a better chance to make the soccer team in high school then someone who was been playing for six months. The same thing when learning a language the sooner you are introduce to it. The better you will be at mastering it.
DeleteHello Quynh! I really enjoyed your video and you did not need to apologize for your accent. It is hard learning a second language and learning English must be especially hard. According to Ortega, there are researchers that emphasizes that motivation could play a big factor in language attainment, so if you are well motivated in learning the language, it can be done (Ortega, 2009, p. 24). I also really liked how your high school teacher accommodated for you by giving you an English-Vietnamese dictionary. It must have been tiring and frustrating going back and forth trying to connect the pieces to understand just one piece of information. “Knowing a second language well means knowing information similar to that of a native speaker of a language” which encompasses knowing the languages’ sound systems, syntax, morphology and the lexicon, semantics, and pragmatics (Gass & Selinker, 2008, p. 14). There’s a lot that comes with learning a second language but overall it just takes time. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Chenda, nice to meet you! According to Ortega, (2014, p.6) “Most people learn additional languages from a mixture of both naturalistic and instructed experiences.” I would like to have more guiding and instruction from my teacher than just “here is the dictionary”. My teachers didn’t teach much about grammar either and it’s become one of my obstacle.
DeleteHey Quynh! I loved watching your video and getting to know you better! I hope your last semester has been off to a great start. Like the last two ladies mentioned, you do NOT have to apologize for your accent. That makes you who you are and you can't be anyone else. As mentioned by Stephen Krashen in his video, there are three factors that go into successful second language acquisition: motivation, self-esteem, and anxiety. If you're highly motivated, have high self-esteem, and have little to no anxiety, SLA will come easily to you as well as our future students. Also, I bet that learning English at the age of 15 was very difficult and stressful for you. At least you had a Vietnamese to English dictionary, but that still must have been very challenging. As mentioned by Ortega, there are Naturalistic learners as well as Instructed learners. (Ortega, 2009, p.6). Would you say that you were one or the other or a mixture of both? If you were informally and self taught, that must have been very struggling. Especially after moving to a new home in a new country.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Haley. Because of self-esteem, and anxiety; my personality changed a lot. I was active and confident to shy and don’t like to talk. According to Ortega, “teachers debate whether students need to be directly taught grammar and vocabulary, or whether it is better to approximate the richness of natural language meaning making sense” (Ortega, 2013, p. 8). I think I am an instructed learner and need more support than what I received in my high school year.
DeleteHey Quynh, thank you for the reply. What Ortega mentions is very interesting because everyone learns differently. Some students may like to be directly taught such as in a classroom. Whereas other students may find it easier to learn from their friends, family, or any other informal settings. So, it makes sense that teachers would debate about this frequently. For me personally, I would like to learn in an informal setting like with friends in my neighborhood or school.
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