Hi Marina, I enjoyed watching your video, I agree with you. I believe that kindergarten is a very tough and essential grade in one's life. As you mentioned, that grade is the foundation of the students' educational career. Every grade is challenging to teach but in most of the grades the students are more independent, and that makes it a little bit easier for the teacher. I believe that we similarly learned English because when I was 12 years old, I moved to Houston and the way I learned English was by watching T.V, interactions with others or by just listening. Another method I used to learn English faster was by teaching myself. In my free time I would take notes or use look up words in the dictionary; so I'd say I'm a "mixture of both naturalistic and instructed experiences" (Ortega, 2013, 6). I believe that being around English speakers is the best way to learn and improve your English.
Hi Karla! Thank you for your feedback. I like finding people that agree with me on the Kindergarten issue because I have sadly heard of many people who believe it is not important and it does break my heart little bit. I also think television and what we listen to influences the way we think and pf course speak. According to Ortega, Parents who regard elective bilingualism as a social value wonder what the optimal age might be for their children to begin learning a foreign language (Ortega, 2013, 7). I see that we both learned English at a very different age but in a similar manner which means both of us at our own pace and based on what influences we had were ready for sure.
Ortega, L. (2014). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
I totally agree with you Marina! and we did learn at a different age. Something that caught my attention from the book is that it states that "SLA often favours the study of late-starting acquirers, whereas bilingualism favours the study of people who had a very early start with their languages" (Ortega 2013). I always thought I was under bilingualism but it turns out I'm more under SLA due to the period of age I started learning English or my second language. It is very interesting to find that not everyone has the same story of learning a new language and it could totally be under different categories depending on the age they learned the second language.
Hello Marina! All I have to say is AMEN girl, Kindergarten is extremely under appreciated. It is NOT the easiest grade level to teach and it is NOT easy to teach a classroom full of little babies who may have never been involved in a classroom setting. It is the foundation to every child’s life and I couldn’t agree with you more. I did my first semester in student teaching in kindergarten and LOVED it and then transitioned to 3rd grade and there is a huge difference in many different factors. I love how much you love kindergarten it is a beautiful time for children! I also loved how you mentioned in your video that your parents understood English just as well as Spanish. So as you spoke in Spanish and may have gotten tongue twisted you automatically wanted to say it in English. Ortega stated "how bilingual speakers switch and alternate between their two (or more) languages" (Ortega, 2013). As many of us say we speak “Spanglish” when you know both English and Spanish. It’s just a technique naturally in those who speak any kind of 2 languages.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.
Hey Shelly and Marina! First of all THANK YOU both for your time well spent working with and shaping those precious little minds in kindergarten.That's such a critical age that many students are learning in a classroom for the first time surrounded by other students and an environment they have never experienced before. As I've said before to other teachers, since I work with 3rd grade, it's easy to take things for granted, like my students being able to read, write, and participate throughout the class very easily, but that all started with kindergarten teachers like you two, and I am forever appreciative of that! Just as Ortega pointed out, "The hypothesis is that there is a specific period of time early in life when the brain exhibits a special propensity to attend to certain experiences in the environment (for example, language) and learn from them" (2013, p. 13). the way I see it is that kindergarten teachers certainly have their work cut out for them because you all work with children when their brains are attentive to so many things constantly and they are learning from every little thing you do with them in the classroom. Thank you both for your hard work with those young children, they certainly need it to continue to be successful when they move on to other grades!
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.
Hello Shelly! Thank you for your feedback. I loved growing up bilingual.To this day, it is a skill I am very glad I possess. I think that it has opened many jobs for me and helped me in ways I wouldn't even think it would have but I am so glad that it did. According to Ortega, In some parts of our world, most children grow up speaking one language only. It should be underscored that this case is truly the minority in the large picture of humanity, although it is the norm in many Western middle-class contexts (Ortega, 2013, 3). I am glad we were not in that minority!
Ortega, L. (2014). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Thank you for sharing your video, I really enjoyed watching it. I applaud you for wanting to teach kindergarten. As many of our classmates, I agree that teaching kindergarten is tough because it is the foundation of every single thing they will be learning as the students get older. I have thought about teaching kindergarten before but so far, I am really liking second grade so maybe in the future once I have more experience. I can say I learned English as a mixture of naturalistic and instructed experiences. I started learning English by interacting with my sisters who were older and already knew English very well and I also transitioned into all English classes in first/second grade. Ortega mentions that “Language teachers across institutions hotly debate whether students in their classrooms need to be directly taught grammar and vocabulary in order to get the basic building blocks of a language first, or whether it is better to somehow approximate in their classroom the richness of natural language meaning-making processes” (2013, pg. 8). What do you agree with?
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.
Hi Marina, I enjoyed watching your video, I agree with you. I believe that kindergarten is a very tough and essential grade in one's life. As you mentioned, that grade is the foundation of the students' educational career. Every grade is challenging to teach but in most of the grades the students are more independent, and that makes it a little bit easier for the teacher. I believe that we similarly learned English because when I was 12 years old, I moved to Houston and the way I learned English was by watching T.V, interactions with others or by just listening. Another method I used to learn English faster was by teaching myself. In my free time I would take notes or use look up words in the dictionary; so I'd say I'm a "mixture of both naturalistic and instructed experiences" (Ortega, 2013, 6). I believe that being around English speakers is the best way to learn and improve your English.
ReplyDeleteHi Karla!
DeleteThank you for your feedback. I like finding people that agree with me on the Kindergarten issue because I have sadly heard of many people who believe it is not important and it does break my heart little bit. I also think television and what we listen to influences the way we think and pf course speak. According to Ortega, Parents who regard elective bilingualism as a social value wonder what the optimal age might be for their children to begin learning a foreign language (Ortega, 2013, 7). I see that we both learned English at a very different age but in a similar manner which means both of us at our own pace and based on what influences we had were ready for sure.
Ortega, L. (2014). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
I totally agree with you Marina! and we did learn at a different age. Something that caught my attention from the book is that it states that "SLA often favours the study of late-starting acquirers, whereas bilingualism favours the study of people who had a very early start with their languages" (Ortega 2013). I always thought I was under bilingualism but it turns out I'm more under SLA due to the period of age I started learning English or my second language. It is very interesting to find that not everyone has the same story of learning a new language and it could totally be under different categories depending on the age they learned the second language.
DeleteHello Marina! All I have to say is AMEN girl, Kindergarten is extremely under appreciated. It is NOT the easiest grade level to teach and it is NOT easy to teach a classroom full of little babies who may have never been involved in a classroom setting. It is the foundation to every child’s life and I couldn’t agree with you more. I did my first semester in student teaching in kindergarten and LOVED it and then transitioned to 3rd grade and there is a huge difference in many different factors. I love how much you love kindergarten it is a beautiful time for children! I also loved how you mentioned in your video that your parents understood English just as well as Spanish. So as you spoke in Spanish and may have gotten tongue twisted you automatically wanted to say it in English. Ortega stated "how bilingual speakers switch and alternate between their two (or more) languages" (Ortega, 2013). As many of us say we speak “Spanglish” when you know both English and Spanish. It’s just a technique naturally in those who speak any kind of 2 languages.
ReplyDeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.
Hey Shelly and Marina! First of all THANK YOU both for your time well spent working with and shaping those precious little minds in kindergarten.That's such a critical age that many students are learning in a classroom for the first time surrounded by other students and an environment they have never experienced before. As I've said before to other teachers, since I work with 3rd grade, it's easy to take things for granted, like my students being able to read, write, and participate throughout the class very easily, but that all started with kindergarten teachers like you two, and I am forever appreciative of that! Just as Ortega pointed out, "The hypothesis is that there is a specific period of time early in life when the brain exhibits a special propensity to attend to certain experiences in the environment (for example, language) and learn from them" (2013, p. 13). the way I see it is that kindergarten teachers certainly have their work cut out for them because you all work with children when their brains are attentive to so many things constantly and they are learning from every little thing you do with them in the classroom. Thank you both for your hard work with those young children, they certainly need it to continue to be successful when they move on to other grades!
DeleteOrtega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.
Hello Shelly!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback. I loved growing up bilingual.To this day, it is a skill I am very glad I possess. I think that it has opened many jobs for me and helped me in ways I wouldn't even think it would have but I am so glad that it did. According to Ortega, In some parts of our world, most children grow up speaking one language only. It
should be underscored that this case is truly the minority in the large picture of humanity, although it is the norm in many Western middle-class contexts (Ortega, 2013, 3). I am glad we were not in that minority!
Ortega, L. (2014). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hi Marina!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your video, I really enjoyed watching it. I applaud you for wanting to teach kindergarten. As many of our classmates, I agree that teaching kindergarten is tough because it is the foundation of every single thing they will be learning as the students get older. I have thought about teaching kindergarten before but so far, I am really liking second grade so maybe in the future once I have more experience. I can say I learned English as a mixture of naturalistic and instructed experiences. I started learning English by interacting with my sisters who were older and already knew English very well and I also transitioned into all English classes in first/second grade. Ortega mentions that “Language teachers across institutions hotly debate whether students in their classrooms need to be directly taught grammar and vocabulary in order to get the basic building blocks of a language first, or whether it is better to somehow approximate in their classroom the richness of natural language meaning-making processes” (2013, pg. 8). What do you agree with?
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.