When thinking about what to write,
I have realized that through this course I have learned a lot about how an
individual learns a second or additional language. I have also learned that
there are many factors that goes into learning a second or additional language
and there are many factors in teaching someone who is wanting to learn a second
or additional language. The process is not as clear cut as you may want it to
be. There are many things someone must take into consideration when teaching
someone a second language. One must consider their age, their first language
and how it could affect their second language, the environment they are
learning in, how they are learning the new language, how they are in their
development in general, their aptitude, their motivation, and so much more. There
is a lot that goes into language acquisition. Through this course, I was able
to put things into perspective and see how language acquisition really works.
In this course, we had to maintain
a blog as well. Making a blog through using Google’s blogging services was not hard
to do. Google’s blogging service is very user friendly and streamlined. Using
blogging in this class, we were able to share our assignments with our classmates
and get input from our classmates. It’s a good way to have interactions with classmates
especially when it is an online class. Blogging did bring that sense of
community to the online class because typically with an online class you may
feel very alone in your learning. Through blogging, I was able to see what my
peers thought about something and I was able to comment on it. I also really
like the interviews we had to do because through interviewing others we were
able to gain a lot of insight. Then, through posting it on our blogs, we were able
to go to our peers’ blog to watch their interview and gain even more insight. In
this class, we were able to learn through blogs, videos, interviews, and the
textbooks. It was differentiated as best as it could have been seeing as it was
an online class. There were many ways to learn the material which I really
liked. The course was differentiated for us as best as it could be, and we were
able to learn from our peers by blogging.
After reflecting on this course and
seeing how it affected me. I now wish to get my ESL certification. In Texas,
there are many English language learners. Now, I see that it would be most
beneficial to learn more about how people acquire a second language in order to
better teach the growing second language population. To do that, I should
pursue my ESL certification. Through this course, I have learned that differentiation
is key when trying to teach English language learners. In other courses, I have
learned that as well. That key aspect has changed how I think about how
students learn. I know that students are different, students learn differently,
so differentiating should happen daily to reach and teach students at their
level. That is how this course has impacted me.
