With the start of a new term I thought I would review the previous term's courses, as well as assess my own performance.
Being my first foray into the lively forum that is modern post-graduate academia, I was expecting a certain amount of challenge, and I was presented with several. One challenge was whittling down the huge amount of readings available and digesting them in a timely manner, and another involved producing output in the form of papers and essays.
LIN 5000 (The Nature of Language) was a very satisfying course that provided a good survey of language in general, which is no small task. The readings were very helpful and the textbook was well organized and informative. The assignments that I was responsible for during the term were fairly large scale, and if I was able to do it all again I might get started a little earlier on them. In the end I think I did fairly well in the class, after a sub-par performance with my first assignment.
LIN 8001 (Second Language Learning) was a much more challenging course, and I think that taking these two at the same time might have been a little too much to handle for a first term. I would have liked to have taken this course after completely finishing LIN 5000 - the format and style of the assignments would be much more familiar. Also topics addressed in LIN 5000 seemed to come up fairly often. I did rather poorly on the first assignment, partially because of the time constraints that I inflicting upon myself, and partially because I was writing this assignment almost concurrently with the LIN 5000 class assignment. The second assignment was even more ambitious, and although I feel like I improved a bit, the results were much the same. Unfortunately I don't have access to comments because it was a take home test situation. So the end result was a pass (60% or so) in this course, but now I feel like I am better equipped to take on the next two courses.
Being my first foray into the lively forum that is modern post-graduate academia, I was expecting a certain amount of challenge, and I was presented with several. One challenge was whittling down the huge amount of readings available and digesting them in a timely manner, and another involved producing output in the form of papers and essays.
LIN 5000 (The Nature of Language) was a very satisfying course that provided a good survey of language in general, which is no small task. The readings were very helpful and the textbook was well organized and informative. The assignments that I was responsible for during the term were fairly large scale, and if I was able to do it all again I might get started a little earlier on them. In the end I think I did fairly well in the class, after a sub-par performance with my first assignment.
LIN 8001 (Second Language Learning) was a much more challenging course, and I think that taking these two at the same time might have been a little too much to handle for a first term. I would have liked to have taken this course after completely finishing LIN 5000 - the format and style of the assignments would be much more familiar. Also topics addressed in LIN 5000 seemed to come up fairly often. I did rather poorly on the first assignment, partially because of the time constraints that I inflicting upon myself, and partially because I was writing this assignment almost concurrently with the LIN 5000 class assignment. The second assignment was even more ambitious, and although I feel like I improved a bit, the results were much the same. Unfortunately I don't have access to comments because it was a take home test situation. So the end result was a pass (60% or so) in this course, but now I feel like I am better equipped to take on the next two courses.
I'm reading about theories in second language acquisition, and I see that this field is nearly as controversial as first language acquisition. Several models are introduced, but the most interesting to me are the sociolinguistic models. Second language learning has a huge social component to it. I see the social environment playing a large role in the success or failure of learning a new language.
Every day I teach elementary school Japanese students in an all-English environment, and I know that this environment tends to make the students uncomfortable. Although I speak English the whole time, they are allowed to use Japanese here and there. At this age all English is maybe a little unrealistic - their vocabulary is very limited.
Schumann's conditions that he outlines for successful L2 acquisition are particularly striking because I can easily find examples of each one in my daily life. It kind of takes the thinking out of the theoretical world and puts it squarely in mine.
Every day I teach elementary school Japanese students in an all-English environment, and I know that this environment tends to make the students uncomfortable. Although I speak English the whole time, they are allowed to use Japanese here and there. At this age all English is maybe a little unrealistic - their vocabulary is very limited.
Schumann's conditions that he outlines for successful L2 acquisition are particularly striking because I can easily find examples of each one in my daily life. It kind of takes the thinking out of the theoretical world and puts it squarely in mine.
Lots of information to digest lately. I'm reading about how to critically evaluate research papers lately, and it is an interesting topic. The papers that I have come across to date tend to be more discussion based, rather than research based. The style of the discussion based papers lends itself more to free thinking, while the research papers are pretty much just reporting on facts.
I am starting to see the structure and connections behind the different styles of papers, and how they relate to uncovering new ideas. I'm also starting to get more familiar with certain names that keep popping up, and connecting the names with the different theories is like identifying the heads of state of warring nations.
I am starting to see the structure and connections behind the different styles of papers, and how they relate to uncovering new ideas. I'm also starting to get more familiar with certain names that keep popping up, and connecting the names with the different theories is like identifying the heads of state of warring nations.
Note: These entries serve as my first impressions of a topic before reading and/or studying them in class. They can be pretty rough.
First Language Acquisition and Second Language Acquisition are fundamentally different in that they take place at two different stages of a person's development. With the possible exception of children raised in a bilingual environment, people learn their first language as children, and there is a significant gap in the learning process before they begin to learn their second. Also, children learning their first language have less mental work to do to learn the words for the objects and ideas around them.
In my experiences teaching in Japan the Japanese student learning English shows a great reluctance to stray from their first language, and taking a chance while learning a second language is rare. While this really is a social factor, my point here is that while learning your first language there is a social requirement to learn it, while the second language has no such heavy social burden of requirement.
First Language Acquisition and Second Language Acquisition are fundamentally different in that they take place at two different stages of a person's development. With the possible exception of children raised in a bilingual environment, people learn their first language as children, and there is a significant gap in the learning process before they begin to learn their second. Also, children learning their first language have less mental work to do to learn the words for the objects and ideas around them.
In my experiences teaching in Japan the Japanese student learning English shows a great reluctance to stray from their first language, and taking a chance while learning a second language is rare. While this really is a social factor, my point here is that while learning your first language there is a social requirement to learn it, while the second language has no such heavy social burden of requirement.
Or in lingoese, Children and FLA. I don't have any children myself, and despite overcoming this challenge myself first hand I don't seem to recall quite exactly how I did it. I won't this apparent lack of evidence keep me from spitting out some ideas, however.
Children seem to pick up their language quite easily. I am of the opinion that they are somehow biologically equipped with the mechanism to learn their first language at an accelerated rate. Children at a young age tend to do better with learning a second language as well, so it seems that whatever is in place in their youth fades over time.
Just how do children accomplish this? I believe that it is through a series of trials and errors (mostly errors). The child studies the reactions of those around it while speaking and starts to realize what utterances make words, and what word elicit reactions and responses from people (and animals) around it.
Anyway, these are my impressions of the learning process before my studies begin, and I'll be interested to review these thoughts once my studies complete.
Children seem to pick up their language quite easily. I am of the opinion that they are somehow biologically equipped with the mechanism to learn their first language at an accelerated rate. Children at a young age tend to do better with learning a second language as well, so it seems that whatever is in place in their youth fades over time.
Just how do children accomplish this? I believe that it is through a series of trials and errors (mostly errors). The child studies the reactions of those around it while speaking and starts to realize what utterances make words, and what word elicit reactions and responses from people (and animals) around it.
Anyway, these are my impressions of the learning process before my studies begin, and I'll be interested to review these thoughts once my studies complete.
