Entry 3 - Video and Reflection
For my entry 3 video I decided to interview my mom, Aracely
Napieralski. She was a bilingual teacher for Kindergarten and she taught
Spanish for Middle School. The reason I wanted to interview her is because I
wanted to get her perspective from the different areas she has taught. Being a
bilingual teacher is different from teaching Spanish and teaching opposite
grade levels as well. For those who may not have watched my last video, English
is my mother’s second language. I wanted to start the video by asking how her
experience learning a second language helped her teach her students. She
responded that she would share her experience with them and reassured them that
they could do it. I know in my case I went through ESL in the beginning of
Elementary school and if I would have had someone to relate to it would have
made it easier. It can be difficult for students sometimes to learn when they
feel frustrated.
Ortega mentioned how there are teachers who believe negative
feedback is essential to instruction and others believe that there is not
enough evidence that it helps (2013, Pg. 72). I asked my mom about her thoughts
on negative feedback. Before she answered the question, I defined negative
feedback as an error correction. She believed that giving that feedback is
important in helping the students learn. I agree with this because students are
not always going to get everything correct. For them to learn they need to
learn from their mistakes which led me in our conversation to how to give this
feedback. We both agreed that it is important to give the feedback in a way
that is instructional but not harsh. The students need to realize that they are
there to learn.
Towards the end of our interview I asked her if she thought
output is important for students in their learning process of a second language?
Ortega defines output as “Where there is interaction, learners engage by
necessity not only in comprehending and negotiating messages but also in making
meaning and producing messages” (2013, Pg. 62). We both agreed a hundred percent
that this is important in their learning. It gives the students an opportunity to
make connections and put in practice what they are learning without feeling
critical of themselves. My mom said students need the opportunity to just talk
about their day while practicing the language. She mentioned how her students
loved creating skits because they would write them and perform them in front of
the class. They were able to put in practice what they learned while creating meaning.
I enjoyed interviewing my mom again about her experience teaching students
another language. We both were able to reflect on things that we have never
really thought about until now.
Hi Alessandra,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your interview with you mother and I am glad that you asked her about negative reinforcement. Personally, I can see the benefits and weaknesses of using it in the classroom, but I have always been more pro-negative reinforcement. I am glad that you used Ortega’s definition of negative reinforcement because it allowed all of us to be on the same page. I think you also could have gone one step further to list the different types of, such as “clarification requests, explicit corrections, recasts, elicitations and several more (other-repetition, prompts, translations, etc)” (Ortega, 2013, p. 73). These examples would have given your mother a better idea of when she may have done this in the classroom.
Hi Chelsea! Same here, I think the cons to it though are based on how the teacher uses it. I think as teacher we need to have a balance on positive and negative reinforcement. Also how we use the negative reinforcement plays a part. I honestly did not think to include the different types when explaining it to her. I think if I were to do the interview again I would ask her to think of examples using the different types. Ortega also mentioned how these types differ in implementation so it would have been interesting to see how my mom used them (2013, p. 73). Thank you for the suggestion!
DeleteHi, Alessandra! It is awesome to see that you have such an experienced second language educator at your disposal. I noticed that your mom noted that the first step to learning a second language is to become accustomed with the sounds, and vocabulary of the language. Ortega (2013) states that second language learners must learn around 3,000 new words to follow a conversation, and triple that to read novels or newspapers (p.88). This is a lot of vocabulary to learn! It is no wonder that your mom begins by teaching vocabulary, so that ELLs have a solid foundation.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen! Yes, it is awesome to be able to have someone to go to for advice on things like this. Really knowing your vocabulary and sounds I think is key to learning any language. I think it would be hard to build on the knowledge of the language without having a solid foundation. Ortega mentioned how students should have meaningful opportunities in speaking and writing (2013, p. 62). I think having these meaningful opportunities give students an opportunity to put their vocabulary into practice without having to worry so much about grammar but content.
DeleteHi Alessandra! I feel the same way about negative feedback. I believe that it is important to correct students because they need to understand their mistakes in order to learn. I also thought it was interesting how you asked about the difference in learning pace between the students in kindergarten and middle school. According to Ortega (2013, p. 16), “adults and adolescents were better than children in terms of what they could learn in a 25-minute instruction session or up to a year of naturalistic exposure.” Your mother mentioned that the students in kindergarten and middle school had varying paces in learning the language. Some students were quick in picking up the language, while others were not. She also mentioned that some of the students in middle school had a fixed mindset where they did not believe in themselves. Although adults and adolescents have a head start with learning languages, Ortega states that “younger is better in the long run” (2013, p. 16). Overall, I enjoyed watching your interview with your mother!
ReplyDeleteHi Angela! I think negative feedback is super important because it allows the students to grow and learn that they are not perfect. They are going to make mistakes but that is part of the learning process of life. I wanted to ask her that because like you mentioned, Ortega talked about how adolescents learned more in a short period of time than children (2013, p. 16). I wanted to hear what my mom saw when comparing her experience in her classrooms. I think the fixed mindset definitely does not help them in learning a language. They do not believe in themselves and start to think that they can not learn it which blocks their ability to learn. It is like they put an obstacle in front of them before there is one.
DeleteHey Alessandra, this interview was interesting to hear your family’s experience in education. It is great that your mom tries to give students authentic opportunities to practice speaking English through skits. These skits could be adapted to help students with interactional modifications to negotiate for meaning (Ortega, 2009, p. 61). Students would model some common clarification requests, confirmation checks, and comprehension checks. This would then carry on into their informal conversations to practice their skills.
ReplyDeleteHello Alessandra. It was interesting listening to your mother’s perspective about her ESL teaching experience especially between two different age groups. In your interview, you mentioned about feedback and the importance of providing it without harsh. Ortega mentions that negative feedback is better overall than entirely ignoring the errors (Ortega, 2009, p. 80). In my perspective, I would do the same as you and your mother- correcting the student to the point it is not harming them emotionally. I think the main idea is that we want all students to grow, therefore it is alright for them to make mistakes- but to also learn from it.
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