June 28th, 2016

Breanne Maier

Second Language Acquisition: Reflection

Learning additional languages can be a very beneficial asset in today's multicultural

society. Not only is it useful for any travel opportunities that may arise, but also for career
opportunities, and daily interactions with others traveling to Canada. However useful it may be,
whatever your motivation, second language acquisition can be difficult. When one has gone
through the majority of one's life speaking a single language, developing fluency in a second or
additional language can require learning strategies in order to be absorbed by the language
learner. Some of these strategies may work better for some than others, and it is important to
consider the strengths of individual learners.
In consideration for the varied learning styles and strengths of different individuals, many
educators and specialists, such as Lourdes Ortega, would agree that it is best to provide a variety
of instruction methods. For example, teachers can use online interactive games such as
Kahoot! or set up games using their smart board if their classroom is equipped with one.
Ortega suggests other strategies as well that educators can adapt for their own use. They can also
employ the use of songs that include repetition along with actions and visual aids. The latter is an
instructional strategy that engages several different learning styles and different parts of the
brain.
Though each lesson will deliver different content, it is important for many learners,
especially those who struggle with exceptionalities, to keep a routine in the classroom. It may
therefore be beneficial to begin each lesson with the same greetings. Based on ideas published by

Wilga M. Rivers, teachers and students can discuss their current mood, goals for the day, current
weather, and even plans for the weekend. The new content can then be delivered using a variety
of instructional strategies, allowing time at the end of the lesson for students to enter into a
language journal in order to make a personal connection with the content.
Andrew D. Cohen and colleagues explain that Comprehensible Input is a Second
Language Acquisition theory that allows for a personal connection with the content. When
educators deliver a lesson with comprehensible input, the language learner is able to understand
the content in the context of how it relates to them. For example, a language learner may be
interested to learn how to say what they prefer on their pizza because it will be unique to them
and something that they may use in a real life setting. Speech Act Sets, likewise, allow for
language learners to connect what they are learning to a real life situation. The language learners
can learn to express acts of gratitude, sincerity, congratulations, or many other speech acts sets,
in their newly acquired language. Correction of Speaking Errors, as well as Pronunciation, is
something that would do well left to the language learners themselves. Often language learners
benefit more learning from each other on the basis of peer correction than from their teacher.
Occasionally, though, it may be necessary for the teacher to intervene.
Some goals as a language teacher would be to create relevant and engaging lessons in
order to have students engaged in, and therefore connecting with and learning the content. As
teachers in British Columbia, there are prescribed goals, but this is not to say that a teacher
cannot create further goals for themselves. Teachers may choose to link to PDP goals such as the
goal to create life long and life wide learners who are interested in pursuing further language
acquisition and who look for ways to put it into practice, in order to experience this great,
multicultural world they live in.

References:
1.

Cohen, A. D. (April, 1991). The contribution of SLA theories and research to teaching
language. Speech presented at Regional Language Centre Seminar on Language

Acquisition and the Second/Foreign Language Classroom, Singapore.

2. Ortega, L. (2009). Second language acquisition. London: Hodder education.
3. Rivers, W. M. (1989). Ten principles of interactive language learning and teaching.
Washington, DC (1619 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington 20036): National Foreign
Language Center at the Johns Hopkins University.