Teresa Pica's Second Language Acquisition And Applied Learning

These are called energizers and can be subject specific such as a quiz or a fun activity or game which gets the learners moving about. Always have a contingency plan in case anything you planned to use isn’t available, or if some learners finish before others or don’t wish to partake. Whichever way you use an icebreaker or energizer, it should be designed to be a fun and light-hearted activity to:

Many popular theories of second language acquisition have been analyzed throughout history. The socialization of L2 learners, their present emotional state that is present at time of acquisition, as well as the comprehensible input and output with the use of scaffolding play a major role in second language acquisition. Let us also not forget the importance of written expression as well as reading comprehension with these L2 learners. Each play a role in language development. However, I believe that in acquiring a language, one must use a variety of techniques that work together to create a balance within the learning environment. Furthermore, all L2 learners learn differently and so a variety of resources will need to be used based on the ability of each student. There are many theories that have been developed by highly qualified experts in the field on linguistics. However, I will address those areas that I agree with as I present my personal theories on second language acquisition.

Judie Haynes’ article, “Stages of Second Language Acquisition”, clearly states five stages that a new learner of English may go through. In Haynes’ theory, there are five stages in total, and they are pre-production, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency. According to Haynes, new learners of English acquire language by going through the same stages. However, how much time each student spends at a particular stage may be different. Despite the different time length, the stages of people acquiring new language are worth discussing.

Ensuring the learners help write the ground rules will ensure everyone feels included. Also using an ice breaker assists learners to feel part of a group.

Literacy in the classroom setting is often paired only with reading and writing; script literacy. Video games are not commonly associated as a beneficial strategy, in

at the beginning or end of a lesson as recap or during a lesson to reinforce learning. Another benefit of this technique is that involves the “shy/quiet learners” and will ensure that every learner is “kept on their toes” as at anytime they can be asked a question.

My seminar provided an overview of chapter 4- explaining second language learning. During my introduction, key points from each of the 5 perspectives were discussed. The cognitive perspective was given priority as it contained many subcategories within itself. This section also allowed my group mates to connect theory and practice of second language learning. My group mates were able to connect to the noticing hypothesis, processability theory and the three principles of practice through their own personal experiences while learning a second language. The first discussion question asked my group members to evaluate their own understanding of how language learning occurs and compare it with the perspectives we covered. The second discussion question provided them a chance to assess each perspective and think of one weakness and one strength for each. Overall if I were to re-do my seminar, I would like to provide more attention to the other perspectives. I would add more discussion questions in order to stimulate more in-depth discussions. Similarly, adding supplemental information from an outside source to further discussion and connect the theories to pedagogy. Additionally, I would create an activity that focused more on teaching of a second language and how these theories have influenced the current practices used.

In the group experiment only two students engage while the other four were left waiting this could have been improved by having either enough supplies so that student could have each participated or have done the experiments in small groups of three and she would only have to divide her supply. If students are not participate less than 50% of the time it is not productive ((Echevarina, Vogt & Scott, 2013) Last I feel that vocabulary terms could have been advance by having the teacher go over out loud with the class the vocabulary term and their meaning to be sure they were understanding of what she was talking about if applicable use visual to explain. Connecting prior knowledge to new material is imperative for the ELL students to connect to the language we are teaching them (Haynes, J. (1998).

Briana English is a full time student pursuing a career and neuroscience. She received her associated of Science in General studies from Georgia Military College. Her volunteer experience includes The Food Bank of Flint,MI October 2013, Special Needs Tutor, Augusta, GA, 2014 to Present and St. Theresa of Avila Church, Grovetown, GA, June 2015. Her honors and awards include HOPE scholarship recipient ,Deans List recipient and 2012 Iota Rho Lambda Scholarship recipient . Briana's clubs and activities include Community Involvement Club, Member, October 2014- present.

Communicating what we want to say, how we want to say it is the goal of expressing ourselves linguistically. For English Language Learners (and their teachers), the ability to do that successfully in their new language presents a challenge. In the content areas of instruction, it is especially important to draw out the information that a student already knows in their native language – even when they do not have the linguistic ability to express themselves in English – in order to assess their level of understanding and engage prior knowledge. Using non-linguistic representations provides a way of bridging that gap between actual understanding and the ability to express that

Many popular theories of second language acquisition have been analyzed throughout history. The socialization of L2 learners, their present emotional state that is present at the time of acquisition, as well as the comprehensible input and output with the use of scaffolding play a major role in second language acquisition. Kirsten Hummel states, “The one most effective way to increase L2 competence was by exposure to ‘comprehensible input’.” (Hummel, 2014, p. 73) Let us also not forget the importance of written expression as well as reading comprehension with these L2 learners. Each plays a role in language development. However, I believe that to acquire language one must use a variety of techniques that work together to create a balance within the learning environment. Furthermore, all L2 learners acquire language differently and so using a variety of resources that are based on the ability of each student is neccesary. There are many theories that have been developed by highly qualified experts in the field of linguistics. However, I will address those areas that I agree with as I present my personal theories on second language acquisition.

In our everyday lives, the origin of our ability to communicate is usually not often taken into consideration. One doesn't think about how every person has, or rather had at one time, an innate ability to learn a language to total fluency without a conscious effort – a feat that is seen by the scientific community "as one of the many utterly unexplainable mysteries that beset us in our daily lives" (3).. Other such mysteries include our body's ability to pump blood and take in oxygen constantly seemingly without thought, and a new mother's ability to unconsciously raise her body temperature when her infant is placed on her chest. But a child's first language acquisition is different from these

This portion of the Play Project was done back at Wendell Johnson. We met with Jihan and the teacher aides to discuss what we thought was working well in their classroom, and our suggestions to further facilitate language development. Since the last reflection, our goal was to come up with strategies the teachers could use to continue to promote language development for their children. Me and my other group members tried to attain this goal by providing handouts and examples of strategies that we thought would be helpful for the teachers. We used the acronym FIGS (Fill in the blank, Interactive Play, Gestures, and Speak) to help them remember the strategy. They seemed to respond well to this and thought it was a good way to remember the strategies.

method gained higher average score than those who had not. Other methods such as story-telling, singing songs and games are also favorable to children L2 learning.

Games have a great educational value and can be used in the classroom to make learners use the language instead of just thinking about learning the correct forms. They involve students in the process of learning. Lee(1979) says that games are enjoyable and that the essence of games lies in the goal which is visible and stimulating, and that is, among other things, to improve one’s own performance. Because the activities in the class are interesting, learners look forward to their language lessons. Lee adds: “it’s hard to see any difference between ‘work’ and ‘play’ – there is a pleasant, informal, and often relaxed atmosphere, favourable to language learning… A language is learnt by using it – and this means using it in situations and communicatively” (Lee, 1979: 1). Most language games distract the learners’ attention from the study of linguistic forms. They stop thinking about the language and instead use it productively. Repetition is basic to the language learning, but not the repetition of mechanical drills, although they should not be entirely eliminated. By