SLA VBlog 2
Hey Guys!
Welcome to my VBlog two. For this VBlog I decided to interview my friend
Cristian Servin. Cristian is 25 years old, and was born and raised in Houston,
Texas. His parents migrated to the US before he was born, however their
household remained pretty Spanish oriented. In this video Cristian talks about
how up until the time that he was put in school, he only spoke Spanish at home
and even when he was placed in school, he was placed in an ESL class so he
never felt too stressed out as opposed to being placed in an all English speaking
class where he would have felt very stressed and confused. According to Rowland
(2014), “the second pre-requisite we need to acquire language is an environment
in which we are exposed to a language.” (p. 16) He believed that because he was
placed in an ESL class, it allowed for an easy introduction and transition into
the English learning experience. Cristian talks about what his drive for
learning English was, and oddly enough he said that watching cartoons was what
really motivated him to learn how to speak English. He claims to have wanted to
understand what was going on, and discussing the cartoons in English with his
sibling also really helped. It was really
interesting to hear how Cristian now describes his dominant language as
English. He states how instead of avoiding certain things like speaking and
writing in the English language, he instead avoids them in the Spanish
language, stating that he feels awkward when speaking Spanish because he even
has an accent.
Rowland,
C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. New York, NY: Routledge.
Hi Joanna,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to interview Cristian and thank you Cristian for taking the time to be interviewed. I thought the cartoon motivation for Cristian and his siblings is pretty awesome and goes to show how powerful media can be for language learning. To me, it seems like Cristian would be considered a instructed learner of English. Ortega describes an instructed language learner as, "instructed learners learn additional languages through formal study in school or or university..." (Ortega, 6). I also think it is incredibly interesting how Cristian feels the least comfortable writing Spanish, although it makes sense in a way since he began studying English as a child and they may have fought against one another for proficiency. I would be curious as to know what Cristian's home is like now. Is Spanish still the dominant language in the household? Or has English now taken that title as him and his siblings have gotten older? Once again, thank you to the both of you for taking the time to conduct this interview.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Moriah! Thank you for taking the time to watch my second Vblog! I agree, media can be a wonderful and powerful tool. I found Cristian’s learning strategy of watching cartoons as a means of practicing his second language to be pretty awesome. I thought it was so great to hear how he was motivated to learn because he wanted to be able to understand what was going on in the show. Gass (2008) states, “Perhaps the most useful way of thinking of strategic learning is in terms of a larger goal and the steps that one might take to achieve that goal.” (p.440) In Cristian’s case, his goal of trying to understand the cartoons led him to become a motivated individual who ended up succeeding in becoming proficient is his L2.
DeleteGass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second language acquisition: An introductory course.
New York: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group. *
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DeleteHello, Joanna. I enjoyed watching your interview with Christian. I find it amazing how new languages can be acquired through different methods such as watching cartoons to understand the verbal messages being expressed. Your interview with Christian also revealed how cultural immersion is important in regards to learning a desired language. Christian was in the United States when he began learning English and it became his dominant language as time proceeded because of the context of his environment.
DeleteHello Joanna, I enjoyed your second post. I find it fascinating to hear the different ways on which ELL went about learning English. After reading and watching your post, I see that Christian is what would be described as an instructed learner. According to Ortega (2013) “an instructed learner is a student who is learning their second language in a formal setting, such as in a school (p. 6). Children are able to learn a second language in a variety of environments. However, it seems as though in a formal setting that is where the child is able to get the most help along with being around peers.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hey Caroline! Thanks for taking the time to watch my second Vblog. I completely agree with you, I think that Cristian can definitely be described as an instructed learner. However, because of his determination with wanting to understand the cartoons that he would often watch, I think that this was an informal way of him practicing/learning English. Because of that, I think he could be a mixture of an instructed learner as well as a naturalistic learner. Ortega (2013) states that most people “learn additional languages from a mixture of both naturalistic and instructed experiences.” (p.6)
DeleteOrtega, Lourdes. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London:
Routledge.
Hello, Joanna!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your video! It’s interesting how even though Christian was born in the United States, he was still placed into ESL because he grew up in a Spanish household. I was under the impression that ESL students are usually born in country. It is understandable that English is his dominant language because he uses a lot more often, but at the cost of his primary language! I also found it super interesting that he was motivated to learn English through cartoons. I remember when I first came here, I would often watch Sesame Street and that helped me learned English a lot. I’m glad he was able to find motivation through cartoons because according to Ortega, “being motivated nurtures more successful L2 learning, but, conversely, experiencing L2 learning success also boosts motivation to even higher levels, in a reinforcing cycle” (2013, p. 189).
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. New York, NY: Routledge.
Hi Mia! Thanks for taking the time to watch my second Vblog! I too found it incredibly interesting that Cristian was placed in an ESL class even though he was born in the United States, however he mentioned that he and his family only ever spoke Spanish at home, which resulted in him having very little understanding of the English language. However now that he is older, English is definitely his dominant language. Interestingly enough he also mentions how he now has an accent when he speaks Spanish, instead of when he speaks in English. According to Ortega (2013) “Ironically, then, foreign accents may arise ‘not because on has lost the ability to pronounce, but because one has learned to pronounce the L1 so well” (p.23) which makes me wonder why Cristian now has an accent in Spanish instead of when he speaks English.
DeleteOrtega, Lourdes. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London:
Routledge.
Hi Joanna! I enjoyed watching your interview with your friend Cristian. A thing that I have in common with Cristian is learning English from cartoons. I would especially watch Dora the Explorer because she is bilingual and I got to understand her in both English and Spanish. Ortega states, "Languages are almost always learned with and for others, and these others generate linguistic evidence, rich or poor, abundant or scarce, that surrounds learners" (Ortega, 2013, 55). Also, he was motivated to socialize with his classmates in his ESL class knowing that no one was going to make fun of them. And that is the reality. Children are horrible to each other sometimes and it is up to us, future educators, to make sure that does not happen in our classroom.
ReplyDeleteReferences: Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Joanna! Nice video, your interview was very interesting!
ReplyDeleteI noticed that you pointed out that your interviewee, Cristian, was enrolled in an ESL program. These programs are very helpful when structured properly. My interviewee, Zavi, was also enrolled in an ESL program after enrolling in public school after coming to America at a relatively young age. The public school environment definitely helped increase Zavi's language proficiency, as she was surrounded by and exposed to English on a regular everyday basis (Rowland, 2014, p. 16).
Rowland, C. (2014). Understanding child language acquisition. New York, NY: Routledge.