Contact Information
Email: katebarba10@gmail.com
Phone: (267) 261-4551
Learning Outcome 2
"Students will demonstrate understanding of the process of
language acquisition and its effects on language learning."
Throughout my education, I had opportunity to study three foreign languages. The first language, Latin, peaked my interest in languages and culture and introduced me to the intricacies of grammatical structures. It became the foundation that I was able to apply to my future language studies. Latin also appealed to me because I never had to speak the language as it is considered to be a dead language. However, when I began learning Russian and Spanish, I did have to orally produce the language. I was afraid to make mistakes and embarrass myself in front of the class. My personal experiences with language learning have had a profound effect on my teaching because I do not want my students to suffer from the same anxiety that I myself felt when learning a language.
At Gonzaga University, one of the areas I focused on was corrective feedback. I was interested in understanding how to provide my students with feedback without raising their anxiety level. I believe that this topic is important for all teachers to be aware of which is why I submitted an article to the English Teaching Forum journal on the effectiveness of providing the different types of corrective feedback.
My Peace Corps service has also provided me with opportunities to observe the process of language acquisition. Within one classroom, there would be students in language stages anywhere from preproduction of the language through speech emergence. At the bottom of this page, you will find four journal entries written by students in the Ecuadorian equivalent to 10th grade in the United States. The journal entries highlight the different stages of language learning that can appear in the same class. The first entry relies heavily on a translator whereas the other journals show more complex thoughts without the reliance on a dictionary. The differing levels of language development become even more apparent during speaking activities. In such diverse classes, it is easy to see the different stages of language development.
The strategy of scaffolding is often overlooked in language teaching in the classes that I have observed in Ecuador. The students are often presented with information that is too challenging for their language level because the teachers must meet certain requirements set by the government. Previous information is also rarely recycled and many students continue to advance to their last year of secondary school with the same level of English as a first year student. The observations that I made during my two years teaching in Ecuador have helped to shape my teaching strategies. In order to promote the importance of incorporating scaffolding into language teaching, I presented the information to a group of teachers in my area. My knowledge and experience of the subject allowed me to feel confident and comfortable presenting on scaffolding.
Journal 1
Journal 2
Journal 3
Journal 4