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Hi everybody! My name is Jenny Tran, and I am a senior at the University of Houston. My major is Teaching and Learning, EC-6, and I hope to teach somewhere between grades K-2nd. I am currently doing my Student Teaching 2 at HISD, and I look forward to graduating this spring and getting one step closer to my own future classroom! Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope you are able to get some insight into my life from watching my video. Click here to watch my blog!
Hey Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed watching your video and learning a little more about you. I had a similar experience as you when it came to speaking English at school and a different language at home. I think the way you learned English was a very good combination of naturalistic and instructional way (Ortega, 2013, pg. 6). I think the combination of having the teacher help you with English, and then putting in practice what you would learn in school and other settings is what made you very fluent in English. I can’t wait to learn more about you through this course.
Hi Axa,
DeleteI also read your blog and watched your video, and I just wanted to inquire about: 1) How long you were in a bilingual class for? 2) Approximately how long did it take you to fully learn the English language? 3) In your bilingual class, were you taught English some part of the day, every day? If so, I think you were taught in an instructional way, in which you learned “through formal study in school” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 6). Although you were taught instructionally, I also think that you being in a bilingual class also meant that you were able to learn naturally through conversation with other students in there who were also learning the English language.
Hey Jenny ,
ReplyDeleteThis blog has really help me understand more about your background . It's crazy how we work in the same school and hardly know about each other background . I see you and communicate with you almost everyday at school . I would never thought of you being a former ESL student . I have always predicted that you was born in this country . Perhaps because you speak English so well . I think the reason you speak English so fluent is because you never fully grasp your first language . According to Ortega , a child develop a sense of language at an early stage of life but does not become dominant until around the age of four or six ( Ortega , 2013 , pg. 12). This probably the reason why you are more better at English because you never had chance to fully develop your ability to learn your first language . In the video, you stated you migrated to the U.S around the age of 3 . I think you was still in a process of learning the language . I have few quick question s, Do you speak to your parents in English majority of the time ? Do Vietnamese people makes fun of the way you speak to them ? Which language was harder to learn and why ?
Hi Immanuel,
DeleteI think I am able to speak English so well due to the ESL instruction I received in elementary school. During this time, I was taught the language in an instructional way, where I received formal study and private lessons (Ortega, 2013, pg. 6). I actually disagree with you where you said I didn’t “fully grasp” my first language. I am pretty fluent in the Vietnamese language actually, and although it is informal and has a bit of dialect, all of my family (who are Native Vietnamese), are able to understand me fully. To answer your questions, I speak to my parents in Vietnamese all of the time, sometimes my cousins make fun of me because I have an American accent and I think English was harder to learn. I think English was more difficult because there are so many rules that come with the English language and there are so many different meanings for words.
Well my bad Jenny , I did not mean to put the statement like that . I did not know you were fluent in both . In the video , you stated that you speak in a slang terminology . So I predicted that you were not fluent in Vietnamese . Well I'm glad you speak to your parents at all time because I have a few friends that are Vietnamese they tend to speak in English to their parents . Yes I agree with you , English was definitely hard to learn in my opinion . I myself grew up trying to learn English too . I had a hard time connecting words because of the different meanings it contain . So I guess you don't believe in Psychiatrist Norman Doidge's idea about how one language can become dominant over period of time .
DeleteHello Jenny Tran
ReplyDeleteI can see where you are coming from because my family comes from Colombia which means Spanish and English are the two main languages in my family. The older family members like aunts and uncles speak mostly Spanish and the younger ones likes cousins speak mostly English or both. It is stated in the text that “Knowing about the language benefits afforded by the environment is thus important for achieving a good understanding of how people learn additional languages” (Ortega). Older generations learn English when they move to America from their home country but would prefer speaking in their native language because it was more dominant in their lives. The same principle would apply to the next generation except in reverse because English would be the more dominant language due to their environment.
Ortega, L. (2011). Understanding second language acquisition. London and New York: Routledge.
Hi Bryan,
DeleteI can totally relate to what you are saying in that my older family members (aunts, uncles, grandparents) speak Vietnamese mainly, and my younger family members (my cousins, nieces, nephews) speak English or both. The majority of my cousins, and myself included, were all born here so English is our dominant language. I agree with everything you said and I couldn’t have worded it better myself! Was Spanish your first language because you grew up with your family who predominantly spoke Spanish, or did they speak to you in English when you were growing up? As mentioned in the text by Ortega, “as [we] grow older and [our] life circumstances diversify, [we] will embark on very different kinds of literacy practice and use language for widely differing needs” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 3). I think this corresponds with us because we are the next generation and growing up in America, we needed to learn the English language because that is the dominant language spoken here and it is how we succeed in this world.
Hello Jenny,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job on your video! I loved learning more about your childhood and how you came to obtain English as a second language. I completely agree with your opinion that submersion is the best method for truly learning a second language. I can only imagine how difficult it was for your parents to deal with the day-to-day tasks of going to the grocery store, working, and interacting with strangers. With that said, I'm sure that they are now fluent and are able to move about our English speaking society easily. I also think that it was amazing of your parents to put you into daycare at two so that you could begin to be introduced to English. The theory behind the idea that there are critical and sensitive periods for language acquisition is states that "... data [supports] a natural predisposition in the child’s brain for learning the first language, together with anecdotal observations that children were also adept foreign language learners, when compared to adults" (Ortega, 2009, p. 12). If this is true to how we acquire a second language, introducing a second language to a person as a young child would obviously be better than when they are adolescents. I think this will be important information to ourselves as teachers. We will need to be understanding that students that are ELLs have the plasticity that will allow them to learn as long as we are supporting them with differentiation to our lessons.
Hi Celisha,
DeleteIn my observation field right now, I have 2 students who are ELL learners and they have both come a long way! Their English vocabulary has definitely grown and they are able to be more confident when they speak because it seems as though they actually understand the true meanings for these words now. I totally agree with your research findings from Ortega’s book and I also think that young children learn a second or foreign language best when they are adolescents. Ortega outlines that there is a hypothesis that states, “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” (Ortega, 2013, pg. 13). I support this hypothesis and I think that second or foreign languages are best learned in the early years of childhood because that is when we are experiencing the most growth and absorbing everything that we learn and hear like a sponge.
Hi Jenny!
ReplyDeleteIt was really interesting that your parents put you in daycare in order to learn English, yet going home and speaking all Vietnamese confused you a bit. I personally learned English naturally and was never “taught” the language. Because you learned from your ESL class and in daycare, you seemed to learn English in “a mixture of both naturalistic and instructed” experience (Ortega, 2013, p. 6). I am curious to learn which way is better to be taught. Your video about the languages you speak really gave me a lot of insight to language development and how each and every person’s story can be so different!
Hi Shelly,
DeleteI am also curious as to which way is best for learning a second or foreign language, but I think that being taught with a mix of both naturalistic and instructional methods really did me well! The one-on-one formal instruction corrected my grammar, pronunciation of things, helped me improve upon my writing skills, and so on and so forth. Through this instructed method, my teacher was able to examine my capacity for learning English through my oral and written records I produced when I used the language (Ortega, 2013, pg. 6). On the other hand, the informal, naturalistic way helped me practice with Native speakers and work on my listening skills to better my oral skills.
English is your second language but it is also your dominant language. Due to use and schooling, kinds can lose fluency in their mother tongue. J'adore aussi le Français. Vous pouvez le practiquer avec moi ici. J'aime votre votre philosophie de la enseignement.
ReplyDelete