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After taking two years of Spanish in high school, I feel like the
reason for not being able to use the language today is because of the time
period given. I can't imagine anyone being able to learn another language in
two academic years. My teacher in high school was using the repetitive
technique as his teaching method, but we would focus only on that one
particular topic for a few weeks and move on from it, for example the alphabet.
In our book it says, "A variety of techniques are important because of limited
language capacity "(As cited by Brown and Lee, 2015, p.142). My teacher should have added some different
teaching methods into his lessons that would be more beneficial to the
student’s retention of the information. I don’t remember ever doing any group
or paired work and from the research it shows the using different techniques
can help students learn different languages more efficiently. So when I left
his class I knew alphabet and basis beginner level functions, but since we only
took the language for two year and weren't required to continue exercising the
language I began to forget all that I had learned. If we want students to learn
second languages, why wouldn't we adjust the time frame from elementary to high
school? I believe we would have a better outcome of students graduating high
school being bilingual and more successful in their lives. I strongly believe
that bilingualism is a great asset to have, especially in Texas. We have so
much diversity in Texas, and with our previous history of being part of Mexico.
We have many Spanish history and a great percentage of Texans speak Spanish,
especially our cities close to the boarders such as San Antonio, Laredo, and
more. Since we do have many Spanish speaking citizen’s jobs are looking for bilingual
employees and most even get paid more for speaking two or more languages. After
reading the article The Cognitive Benefits of Bring Bilingual by Veronica
Marian and Anthony Shook I realized that being bilingual is more that making
more money it actually makes your brain activity increase. “For instance, when
bilingual people have to switch between naming pictures in Spanish and naming
them in English, they show increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal
cortex (DLPFC), a brain region associated with cognitive skills like attention
and inhibition”(Marian and Shook). For people that are bilingual in their
brains are constantly being exercised between their known languages, which can
allow the brain to strengthen and be able to process words faster. Being able
to process words faster means they can get more work done in a shorter amount
of time, therefore making them a more beneficial worker. I have said it in my
video blog and I will say it again, I believe that our education systems should
make learning another language a requirement starting in elementary school to
high school. We will be setting up our future leaders for success in their
futures.
Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook. “The
Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual.” Cerebrum: the Dana Forum on
Brain Science, The Dana Foundation, 31 Oct. 2012,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583091/.
Brown, Henry Douglas, and Heekyeong Lee. Teaching
by Principles: an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Pearson Longman, 2015.
Hi Kaylie! It is very interesting how the increase of people’s brain activity correlates to being bilingual because of their bran being exercised between their languages. It is great to hear that after research, you have realized that your teacher should have added different teaching methods to enrich your learning experience.
ReplyDeleteI was so glad that I found this article because I learned so much about how beneficial knowing different languages is! Not only do most people get job or an increased salary for being able to speak multiple languages, but their brain is actually getting stronger and "smarter". I guess I have never thought about how it would affect the brain because when you think about it someone who has been out of school is asked an academic question it will take longer to respond or they might not know the answer compared to someone who is currently in school or working a brain exercising job. I'm assuming it works the same way with knowing different languages because your brain is switching back in forth interpreting into the different languages.
DeleteHi Kaylie! I'm glad that you learned from one of the articles. Sometimes doing research, especially on topics that we are so lacking in knowledge, can enlighten our views. I know that in my search for articles I was able to better grasp how lacking our schools are in utilizing SLA methods that are research based. I also appreciate your comment about our brains going stronger while speaking multiple languages. Having that cognitive link between bilingualism is so important to recognize and use when building our curriculum.
DeleteUsing scholarly articles are just a great tool to use because it does open your views to see how other people see. The people that write the articles get to spend so much time researching their theories and have had evidence to provide support. For students like us it helps us take what they have learned into consideration and we can use their studies to help further ours. I always knew that there was benefits to knowing multiple languages but I never knew that it actually helps our brains.
DeleteKaylie, I am sorry that you had a bad experience learning Spanish. I do not think your teacher should had only used one teaching strategy throughout the whole year. I am sure that now that you have been in the Education program at the University of Houston, you have learned that there are countless teaching strategies. I also wanted to add, I read the same article as you did, “The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual". I also thought it was fascinating how the brain is getting "smarter" when the person is bilingual. The authors describe the brain to be "active" in the language, or languages, not used while speaking a second language (Marian & Shook, 2011). I find it fascinating because I am bilingual and I had no idea that my brain was still "active" in Spanish even though I am typing in English right now. I guess I never asked myself what happened to the other language I speak while I am speaking a different language. It was not until that article and I realized how incredible our brain is.
ReplyDeleteI think we all have bad experiences throughout our education careers just because not all teachers are taught the same. The requirements and laws are constantly changing, and adaptation is hard for some people. A teacher that has been teaching for the past thirty years may have found methods that work best for them but as children are changing and different children with disabilities or languages are being allowed in the regular classrooms its's important that the teacher makes arrangement to fit the needs of every child. I think it is important that as children are changing that teachers are still being educated to make the changes need for every child. I really liked this article, I felt I learned so much about how being bilingual can make your brain "smarter". Like you had said you never really think about that happens to the languages you know to the language you are speaking.
DeleteHi Kaylie! I think that it is a very interesting idea that students should start learning a second language starting from elementary school to high school. I believe that if that was the case, many more students would be able learn and retain a second language. I agree in the sense that being bilingual can be quite beneficial in this state of Texas as well. My parents have learned some Spanish by working in a community that is surrounded by a Hispanic community and catching a couple of words here and there by just daily interactions. It sounds like your experience learning Spanish was mainly teacher-centered instruction as they must have been the authority figure of the classroom (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 45). As there was little partner or group work in your class, it also seems like your class consisted mostly the Grammar Translation Method as there was little variation to your learning (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 19). I agree that different learning methods is beneficial to how students learn as there are many learning styles that need to be considered when teaching students.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that if we start teaching student in elementary school a second language by the time they are leaving high school they will either know the language well or fluently. Texas public education only required that students take two years of a different language. I don’t know what only two years will do for a person, it doesn’t seem very beneficial to me. My teacher was most defiantly a authority figure in the classroom. I really hope that he has change up his teaching methods in the classroom today. Most of the elders in my family speak Spanish and English, I wish they would have pushed the language on my more as a child. I would really like to be able to speak both languages.
DeleteI think it is crazy how many people take second language classes, and few actually benefit or can use the language in the long run. Obviously there is some kind of disconnect, which leads to the point that there must be some kind of reform in how this is taught in order for it to be beneficial and conducive to a learning environment for students. We must use current research to address the disconnect within the classroom, and change our teaching approaches to raise the statistic of students who can actually use the second language upon exiting high school. I think it is crucial to use research in order to guide how we teach. A reason that research is imperative is Second Language Acquisition teaching is because as stated by Brown and Lee (2015) “new findings and new approaches demand reconceptualization” (pg. 67). We must remember that both teaching approached and learning styles constantly change. With that being said, we must change as educators as well in order to progress with our students.
ReplyDeleteI complete agree with you Briana, I don’t think a few years of a second language class is beneficial and something needs to be done about the requirements. Also, how teachers are teaching is extremely important and shouldn’t be overlooked. We as students are constantly changing how we learn most of us by now are finding out how we learn best, but to just now find out how we best learn is almost too late. I think for elementary teachers it is hard to find out how their students learn best especially having students with disabilities or ELL students in their classes as well. Something has to be done to help benefit our students.
ReplyDeleteHi Kaylie!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that its so hard to learn a whole new language in a two year span. I tried learning Spanish within three years and I still do not remember almost everything I was taught during those years. I especially do not remember because of the way I was taught too, which is similar to the way you were taught. Thank you for sharing!
Kaylie,
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you that the time period was the reason for not being able to learn/use the language today. I took 3 years of French in high school and I was taught using the Grammar Translation Method. Although I am unable to use the language today, I still have a basic foundation and vocabulary from the years I spent learning it. Even though I may not be as fluent as I had hoped, I do not think it is due to the period given. As you mentioned, a variety of techniques are important in learning a second language, so maybe that’s why we didn’t learn as well as we had hoped, but what about people who spend an academic semester or year in another country with a different language and culture? I think they are able to learn fairly quickly and use the language, while also retaining that knowledge so I don’t think that your statement about “time” is completely accurate.