Second Language Acquisition

For my interview I had the pleasure of speaking to my mentor teacher, Amy Baxter. When we spoke, Mrs. Baxter had much to say about her experiences with ESL students. By listening to her speak about their desire and motivation to learn, the obstacles they face, and the methods she uses in her classroom to facilitate their learning—it was clear to see how much Mrs. Baxter enjoys teaching her ESL students. During our discussion, Mrs. Baxter spoke about how one of the things she enjoys most about teaching ESL students is their strong desire to learn. Motivation plays a huge role in learning a second language, and Susan Gass covers that in her text. She states: “A social-psychological factor frequently used to account for differential success in learning a second language is motivation. This has an intuitive appeal. It makes sense that individuals who are motivated will learn another language faster and to a greater degree” (Gass, 2013). Although there are times when students struggle wi...

Click here to watch my interview with Mrs. Baxter :)

Today I had the opportunity to interview one of my friends, Ana Gonzalez. While speaking with Ana, she informed me that she and her family moved to the United States when she was only four years old. When they came to the United States, they lived in Texas and they have remained here ever since. Ana was kind enough to share some background information on what it was like to learn English as her second language, which can be seen in the video.  In the interview, Ana spoke about some of the difficulties she had as an English language learner, and sometimes still struggles with today. One of the main things she struggled with, she says, was grammar. She explains how different English and Spanish are and how a lot of times words and phrases don’t translate the same from one to the other. Susan Gass speaks about this in Chapter 1 of her textbook. Syntax, according to Gassis, “…what is frequently known as grammar, referring primarily to the knowledge we have of the order of elements i...

Click HERE to watch and listen to my interview with Ana! 😊

As you saw in my video, I grew up as a monolingual in Texas. Although my father speaks Hindi, my brother and I do not. I actually don’t remember ever hearing my father speak Hindi until I was in my teens. One day I overheard him speaking to someone on the phone and it took me by surprise. It’s interesting to me that, according to Ortega, I am part of the minority that grows up only speaking one language (Ortega, 2013). I think that it would have been nice to grow up speaking my father’s native tongue in addition to learning other languages. Although I did take Spanish courses in high school I do not how to speak Spanish fluently. I think the language is beautiful and there are certain words that I can understand when spoken and piece together sentences, but as far as speaking the language goes, my capabilities there are far below average. It is a dream of mine to travel the world and maybe even teach English in another country where I can also learn the language of the people...

Hi everyone! My name is Danielle Pinto, but I like to go by Dani. I am currently a senior at the University of Houston pursuing a degree in Teaching and Learning to become an EC-6th specialist. I plan to graduate this December and I can't wait to start my career, doing what I love! I am excited to learn all about second language acquisition and take what knowledge I get from this course so that I am able to implement it in my own classroom in the near future.  Intro Video Here  😊