Entry 1: Course Introduction
Katiana Munro's Blog
Hello! My name is Katiana Munro, and I am a senior at the University of Houston. My major is teaching and learning with a EC-6 certification. I would love to teach 1st or 2nd grade,knowing that i can make a difference while kids are still young motivates me to become an elementary teacher.
I was surronded with spanish around me my whole life, but it wasnt spoken as much for me to learn in my household. My mother and her side of the family speaks fluent in spanish, she is from Panama.She spoke to my brother and I in English most of the times and sometimes she would say some of the the the basic spanish words to us.
Ortega mentions in the article, that "A Second language learner needs to learn the grammar." (Ortega,2013). My mother who speaks spanish always have problems in her grammar,For example she may send a email and ask me to look over it just to make sure it sounds correct.Her grammar was not 100%, it was just enough to get her by, so I definetly agree when ortega mentions that it is very important to learn grammar. Ortega also states that " In some parts of our world, most children grow up speaking one language only" (Ortega,2013) I find that very true, because people usually speak the language that they are spoken to when they are younger and nowadays there is so many languages in the world that people are becommin bilingual.
I remember when i was in highschool I took two years of spanish and I also took beginner spanish my first year in college and honestly i struggled when it came time to start forming sentences or having a conversation. Ortega mentions that "Second Language Aquisation, because of its complexity and its reliance on an import for other disciplines, is not placed so easily." (Ortega,2013) And that statement is very true i was never disciplined to learn spanish as a child so it was harder for me to learn as i grew up just learning bits of pieces.
Refrences:
Ortega, L.(2013)Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Routledge
Click here for video
I was surronded with spanish around me my whole life, but it wasnt spoken as much for me to learn in my household. My mother and her side of the family speaks fluent in spanish, she is from Panama.She spoke to my brother and I in English most of the times and sometimes she would say some of the the the basic spanish words to us.
Ortega mentions in the article, that "A Second language learner needs to learn the grammar." (Ortega,2013). My mother who speaks spanish always have problems in her grammar,For example she may send a email and ask me to look over it just to make sure it sounds correct.Her grammar was not 100%, it was just enough to get her by, so I definetly agree when ortega mentions that it is very important to learn grammar. Ortega also states that " In some parts of our world, most children grow up speaking one language only" (Ortega,2013) I find that very true, because people usually speak the language that they are spoken to when they are younger and nowadays there is so many languages in the world that people are becommin bilingual.
I remember when i was in highschool I took two years of spanish and I also took beginner spanish my first year in college and honestly i struggled when it came time to start forming sentences or having a conversation. Ortega mentions that "Second Language Aquisation, because of its complexity and its reliance on an import for other disciplines, is not placed so easily." (Ortega,2013) And that statement is very true i was never disciplined to learn spanish as a child so it was harder for me to learn as i grew up just learning bits of pieces.
Refrences:
Ortega, L.(2013)Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Routledge
Click here for video
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ReplyDeleteHello Katiana, your video blog was interesting to watch! I am also an EC-6 education major; however, I hope to teach the upper grades. I especially enjoy third through sixth grade. You stated that you struggled to learn Spanish when you took it in high school and as a college course. This correlates to an idea mentioned in Ortega’s textbook, as well as my own experiences. Ortega states that a hotly debated issue “...pertains to the possibility that a biological schedule may operate, after which the processes and outcomes of L2 acquisition are fundamentally and irreversibly changed,” (2013, pg. 12). Essentially, it is believed that it becomes increasingly harder to learn a second language with age. In my experience of learning French in high school I was unsuccessful, and I believe that my age was one of the factors that worked against my learning. I was wondering if you felt your age worked might have been a factor in your struggle to learn Spanish?
ReplyDeleteHi Christine, and yes i feel like my age is definately a major factor in my struggle of learning spanish. If i was learning it while i was younger and through out my life im sure i would be somewhat fluent to this day.
DeleteHello again Katiana! After Reading chapter two more closely I found an interesting paragraph pertaining to age and the ability to learn a second language. Based on three men’s finding in regards to reviewing 23 studies, Ortega states, “They concluded that older is better initially, but that younger is better in the long run,” (2013, pg.16). I thought it was fascinating that at first it is easier to learn a new language when you are older but that overall it is easier when you are younger. This partially supports our own beliefs that age might have negatively impacted our ability to learn a second language.
DeleteDid you learn that Colombia and Panama usted to be one country? We share many cultural things besides Spanish. I am sorry that you were not given the opportunity to become bilingual, particularly since you grew up in a place like Brooklyn where there are so many languages and cultures in the same area. I imagine you have relatives who speak Spanish only, so how do you interact with them?
ReplyDeleteYessir, my mom has mentioned that to me before, and so far i havent met any family members that is not bilingual.The family members that only speak spanish lives in Panama and since i havent been there since i was 3 it hasnt been an issue.
DeleteHi Katiana, Nice to meet you!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your video. I was wondering since you surround with Spanish around your life would be a benefit for you in learning Spanish as your second language and why what type of struggle you have faced? I notice the interesting in your story that is related to me with your mom is she always has a problem with her grammar. For me, as a second language learner, I also need someone who is a native English speaker to help me to correct grammar. Ortega mentioned, "A Second language learner needs to learn the grammar." (Ortega,2013). English grammar is very difficult for ELL ( English Language Learners).
The struggles that i face is that people expect me to know spanish because my mother is bilingual.
DeleteKatiana Monroe
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and want to make a difference early on in my students’ life. Lawrence Ekeke brought up a good point when he wondered why our parents did not pass our language from our home down to us. I am guessing they chose the English language because it is so dominant in the world we live in. I also tried to learn Spanish in high school. Most of what little I learned, I have already lost. There are only a few phrases I can still remember. In our text Ortega says, “Many people will learn at least a few words and phrases in a foreign language (Ortega, 2011, p.1). With the assignments we will be doing in this class, I think we will all get better at whatever language it is that we chose to try to further learn. The text also has good suggestions for ways to learn languages.
Ortega, Lourdes. Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Yes, and also my dad only spoke English so my mom chose to speak that in the house and just like you some of the words stuck with me and i am able to understand some words when people talk to me here and there.
DeleteHi Katiana,
ReplyDelete“In some parts of our world, most children grow up speaking one language only… it is the norm in many Western middle-class contexts” (Ortega, 2013 Pg. 3). When I read this I saw how true it was in the United States where English is the main language. Here children grow up only speaking English. Which you talked about in your reflection. I grew up in a household where my first language was Spanish and I learned English in school. I am baffled that children who have parents that have a mother tongue other than English don’t learn their parent’s language. Now reading your blog I come to the understanding that sometimes is not the children’s fault that they don’t know how to speak their parents’ mother tongue.
ReplyDeleteHello, Katiana! I really enjoyed watching your video. Salsa dancing looks so fun! I could not imagine living in Brooklyn. It seems like such a busy city. Spanish is an interesting language, and I am sure that your language learning journey will be successful. According to Gass & Selinker (2008), “Bilingualism, or at least some form of knowledge of more than one language, is so common throughout the world that Cook has proposed that the “normal” propensity is for humans to know more than one language” (p. 30). Although your mother’s family is originally from the Caribbean, would you consider Spanish your heritage language, because of your mother’s connection to Panama? Fishman (2001) notes that heritage language has to do with “exposure to a language of personal connection” (Gass & Selinker, 2008, p. 23). In other words, Valdes (2001) asserts, “it is the historical and personal connection to the language that is salient and not the actual proficiency” of the speaker (Gass & Selinker, 2008, p. 23). These are more open definitions of heritage language and heritage language speaker, while Polinsky is more restrictive, depicting heritage language as the first language acquired and only mitigated by another dominant language (Gass & Selinker, 2008). I know there are many stances on heritage language, but which do you find applicable to you?