Blown away

Really though. We almost Got blown away. We went all the way to the top on the elevator. Then we went to the second level and when we decided to go down we took the stairs. Well that was a bad idea. Going up in the elevator freaked me out because I am terrified of heights and going down the stairs was worse. When we gotto the first level, which mind you is still very high up, dad had to buy me a glass of wine before I would go the rest of the way down. Note to my momma: I drank merlot and liked it! Now you don't have to buy me sweet wine all the time! While we were sitting and drinking our wine a storm started coming in and it was sooooo windy. I really would have hated being at the top at that point. We went down and as we were leaving the lights turned on and then they started flashing like a light show! It was neat!

Ok so here's a quick run down of the trip so far.
Madrid was great and we went on a great tour and dad got to meet my Spanish family. Success! Until the ATM ate my debit card.

Then we got on the train to go to Paris which was just long and not comfortable. Didn't sleep well but were in Paris now!

We saw noted dame which was exquisite and both of our favorites. We went to Versailles but did not go in to see everything. Then today we went to the louvre and are leaving at 5 for bayeux. Tomorrow is our tour of the d day beaches and we are both stoked for that!

Here's a bit more...

This blog has really just turned into my journal. It's been good to reflect on things and write them and if you like to read them that's cool!

I'm really excitd that it's July tomorrow. I will be home before July is over so that is exciting! More importantly, I get to travel with my dad soon which I have obviously been looking forward to!

Today I got barfed on. I'm a little irritable and tired. But I'm trying this new thing where I see the positive instead of the negative, so here goes. I am thankful for this experience. It has taught me so much, like patience, Spanish, how to make paella, and that when you sing nursery rhymes all day you also lose your voice.

When you are in a new situation you adapt. I've adapted to doing life without really having my family or friends be a part of it. I'm having fun and it's a great experience but I don't like it overall. It is awesome to meet new people and experience other cultures and learn other languages and travel, but it's worth a lot more if you are sharing it with the people you are closest to. God has been a part of every day here and that is enough. But I also want the other people in my life to experience with me too. This just says a lot about what awesome family and friends I have :)

There was one day while I was here that I had a momentary lapse of reason, or rather one of faith. As I have had way too much time to think, one day while we were driving it suddenly occurred to me that I am scared of death. Not just me dying, but more so those I love. God made a good save though when he reminded me that this life isn't ours. Living these past six weeks away from everyone has taught me that I am capable of a lot when I trust God to handle it. It has made me realize that as awful as it sounds that I can live without the things and even people that I think I need. God is the only necessity. We all die at some point! I love dustin, but I could live without him because he is not my soul mate; Jesus is. And I know Dustin feels the same way. He doesn't need me, but he loves me anyway. I think that's how God loves us. He doesn't need us, and we are really awful most of the time; but he loves us anyway. God is just a lot better at loving unconditionally than we are.

I have learned a lot that I will use in teaching and eventually parenting. I have also learned that I need to make the most of every day I get to wake up to. I think life is mostly just about realizing how lucky we are and being thankful for what we've been blessed with even though sometimes that can be the hardest thing to do. So I'm going to try to be better at that.

Just a sneak peek...

Of what God has been teaching me. But I'm tired so I'll just throw out a few things and explain more later.

God can surprise you!

He is always faithful

I am capable of more than I think when I've got my priorities straight

Seeing the negative in life is a whole lot easier than seeing the positive in most situations

But God can give you perfect peace if you let him.

I like tomatoes and cucumbers!

I have a lot to work on next year, I need to keep developing my patience and work on showing love through all of my actions, not just when I feel like it

I need to sleep more.

Going with the flow

Well this was quite the weekend.Saturday Bethany came and we hung out in Madrid and ate mcdonalds and went to a museum with some strange exhibits. Then we hung out with my family and celebrated the four year Olds birthday! We woke up Sunday and found a message from a guy we knew that lives in fisher saying he wanted to meet up with us in Madrid. The problem was that he did not have constant internet connection and once we leave the flat neither do I. So long story short Bethany and I took quite a few hours to finally find him, then he didn't have a place tO stay so we stayed in a hostel. We got to finally show him around Madrid some but then the ATM ate bethany's debit card. What I'm getting at is that we just really don't have control over some things in life and it's best to just go with it otherwise well spend our entire lives stressed out about things we can't change. And that seems like a waste. This weekend was kind of flown by the seat of our Pants but it was an adventure. And I found a great tapas bar to take my dad to when he gets here in 6 DAYS! I'm so excited! Knowing this is my last week with the kids though means I will really try to enjoy and appreciate the last few days I have with them.

I must say, really reiterate, that it has been and continues to be such a blessing that ive been able to travel so much and see all of the things I have, but everytime I leave God teaches me to appreciate coming home more and more. I am blessed no matter where I'm at because God is everywhere I go.

P.s. We should take more time to eat and share food and enjoy it. Because it's delicious and fun! And it's a great time to spend with people that you like a lot :)

Oh my!

I've found that as much as I repeat certain things I would love for the kids to learn that they really just pick and choose. I've sung countless nursery rhymes in the past five weeks but what the twins say most is "oh my!" I do say this often, but it is not something I have directly nor intentionally taught them.

This can go both ways. I know it's super premature to be thinking about parenting, but I can't helP but observe and make mental notes while having the experience ofliving with another family. So what I kePt thnking today was how many hints parents teach their children unintentionally. This goes many ways: you can unintentionally teach a child how o be deceitful, but you can also unintentionally teach them what love looks like. Or how to say "oh my!"

I guess what I'm getting at is that I think that's a big part of life. The way I live will unintentionally affect many people around me and that means I want it to be in a good Way.

If you can't tell, I have a lot of time to mull over my thoughts. I'm getting restless and am ready to travel with my dad. But God gives us perfect peace if we let him so that's what I'm going to shoot for.

Casting call

I don't know if I've written about this before or not, but here goes: the kids go try out to be in commercials and ads. I didn't know that kids did this, but it makes sense when I think about all the kids there are in commercials in tv: of course they have to try out. So today we went to a casting call. Mostly these are crowded and take forever and are stressful bcause you have to keep the kids occupied while making sure they don't run out into the streets of Madrid. Today was no different. But at least we got out of the house!

Here are my thoughts on casting calls though. The applicants have to meet a certain criteria before they can even try out. Then only a select few are chosen for the commercial or job. Now stick with me here. And correct me if I'm wrong (yes, you can actually leave commments!) but isn't this concept of a casting call eerily similar to the way we look at "religion"? Every religion in the world thinks that they are right. And every religion has a set of criteria that one has to meet before entering into this "religious" state of mind. As Christians, we say you must realize you are a sinner. After this realization we are allowed to try out, to ask God to forgive us and to try to live our lives by Jesus' example and ultimately be picked for the part to spend eternity with God. It's a casting call.

I honestly don't really have anything else to say about that other than to question; have we boxed up God to such an extent that our faith has become like a casting call?

I have a feeling that God is much bigger than that.

Just a sidenote: I passed by an apartment today on the way to the casting call that Picasso lived in for a couple of years. It was rad!

Stepping on toes...

Literally though. Manuel has been deliberately stepping on my feet multiple times a day lately. And hitting is a problem as well. But today he got in trouble because I talked to his mom about it when she saw him step on my foot today. So why did I not do more about it earlier? Considering this is my fifth week here and all. Well what I've found is that it's awkward and hard to know what to do in situations such as mine when you are living with a family. And being paid to teach their children.

Today I was so fed up with his behavior ( becaus he does not listen to what I say) that I just started ignoring him. It's his birthday Friday and I didn't want him to get in trouble and get his party taken away or anything. But then his mom saw him and he got n trouble. Hopefully this will mean things will be better, and that my toes will be spared.

I have been learning so much patience and many positive reinforcement tactics! I thought that coming here, Gid would mostly us this experience to help prepare me to sPeak Spanish better, but I'm finding that He's actually aimed it more towards classroom management and parenting! These will be just as applicable as s

Estoy lista!

I am ready. I just booked the last hotel for my dad and i's trip! Just thought I'd write a comical tidbit I forgot to mention yesterday. Friday night before I went to pick up Bethany I showered. Ah, my alone time during the day. And there is a window in the shower so I can see outside even though I don't get to go out all that much. Anyway I was showering and all of the sudden Ivor a little colder. Well it wasn he open window or the water: manuel had come into the bathroom and was standing there staring at me. Welp, good hin at least part of the glass shower doors are frosted over, right? Anyway I told him to get ou and he proceeded to laugh and stand there so I grabbed my towel got out and chased him out. See, there is no lock on the bathroom I shower in. Needless to say, my alone time was cut short by a giggling three year old. Hope the experience doesn't scare him. I'm not too worried though, he'll learn more about anatomy when he gets to jr high health class.

Holy Toledo!

Bethany came this weekend! On Friday I ooh the metro to go gt her from the bus station in madrid. We then went and explored Madrid more and llani's cousin Jose Antonio showed us around to the plaza mayor and the palacio real and a famous cathedral. Then Saturday we went to toledo. How cool is it that we can go see a town and walk on some of the same sones that people did hundreds of years ago! I got to see el greco's house and a lot of his work. The one sad thing was that the cathedral wAs closed! I was really lookin forward to seeing it but there is a religious festival this comin weekend so I was closed for repairs. Such is life, there are things we cannot control! But the outside of it was beautiful anyway :)

Happy fathers day! I am sad i can't actually see or hang out with my dad today but we will make up for it when he gets here in 13 days! I am so thankful for my dad. For all of the things he has taught me, for his support and encouragement and live and making me feel like I can do anything if I work hard at it. It's a blessing to be able to respect my dad as much as I do! So daddy, happy fathers day! I love you so much!

My voice is getting raspier as the weeks go on. The constant talking and singing are taking their toll. The kids are learning a lot so it is worth it! The history in Toledo was awesome to see and experience. I have some pictures of Madrid on Facebook and Toledo soon to come!


So happy fathers day! Can't wait to see you daddy :)

He loves me, he loves me not..

Nope, I'm not talking about Dustin. He loves me everyday and likes me most days too! Manuel, the three year old, on the other hand is not so consistent. He likes me about every other day but I am learning how to avoid his bad attitude with positive reinforcement. it's a learning experience to say the least and now that I'm getting the hang of it I'll be gone in two weeks! It's good experience though and I'm glad it has been trying some days because it has taught me a lot and I have learned more patience than I have Spanish. Bethany will be here in less than four hours! I'm so excited to see her, it is so nice to be able to see someone from home and for it to be one of my best friends. We are going to Toledo tomorrow! It was the original capital of Spain and has history galore. I'm a nerd to some extent, so needless to say I'm excited to go explore and see all there is to the city. They are famous for making swords there and I would buy one, but I have a feeling that I wouldn't make it through customs and I really do want to come home...eventually :) its been really hot here but there's no humidity so it is great! Everyone is taking a siesta right now but I like to sleep well at night so i have yet to experience a Spanish siesta. Today I think I'll opt for watching Cinderella in Spanish to improve my sweet Spanish speaking skills!

He likes me he really likes me!

Today was a lovely day. Manuel liked me for most of the day! Which is a great improvement. He is about to turn four and acts like a four year old. Enough said. We went to Madrid tonight for a casting call for the twins then stayed and played at a park. The kids love being outside! They were so much fun to play with I love the faces they make when they laugh hysterically. And the fact that me pretending tO be the wolf in little red rising hood causes initiates this reaction.

It was nice to get outside! Today was great because I just finished booking the last of the reservations for trains now I just have to book one more hotel and were set to go! I'm almost down to two weeks left here and I know I'll be sad to leave them. I'm stoked to go travel with my dad but will be sad to leave the family. It's a good thing I have skype to be able to keep in touch.

Today llani's mom told me I looked like I was losing weight ( which I don't think I am ) so at lunch she proceeded to dish seconds of everything onto my plate. I ate it but I haven't been that full in a long time! I don't know why she thinks I dont eat enough, because I've been eating plenty! Just not the rabbit haha! God is good. I am so excited about all the opportunities and blessings I've been given and the people I get to share it with. It is so easy to dwell on the negative in life, but much more fulfilling to focus on the positive. Another thing I've been learning is that I need to not be so quick to find the negative in people but to instinctively see the positive and love them the way God does.

Goodnight!

Today I forgot.

I forgot to be less selfish today. I was too busy self-loathing and being homesick this afternoon. For my family, friends and grass to walk barefoot in. But then I decided to try to revel in God more and when I walked to school to Pick up Manuel I appreciated the beautiful weather and sky etc. I perked up thinking about all of God's sweet creations. Afternoons in the house are the hardest because the kids are cranky and only want their parents. As I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to go outside, God reminded me that children are his creation. Duh. His most treasured, to be precise. How silly I am for not seeing that sooner. I think what God meant for me right now when he told me to revel in him is to revel in his creation, in the children I am with right now. Simple yet easily bypassed. Kids can be annoying, but all they really want is to be loved and taken care of. As adults, yeah I think I'm an adult now, it's easy to see this as weak and avoid letting others do this; love and take care of us. But I need to let God do that more!

Anyway, then I read colossians tonight and realized that God loves all of us not because we are perfect, that's not feasible, he loves us because he created us. Each of us are a different work of art ( or piece of work )...get it? Haha but really though I'm a work of art! Not because I deserve to be or because of anything I've ever done, but because I was created by an artist that payed careful attention to every detail. I am loved because I am a part of the creation that we are to revel in. So I need to work on seeing other people the same way God does; as works of art, each different and beautiful and loved because the big man upstairs enjoys getting creative. Whew, two blogs in one day! Hope I don't have too many typos :)

I don't really like it all that much.

Living in a city, I mean. The family lives in a flat on the third floor in a large building. The only open area near them for the kids to play in is dry dirt filled with big rocks. There are a couple of parks but no grass: the kids play in very rough sand. The mom had netting out up outside all of the windows just in case one of the kids would ever try to climb out. What I'm getting at is that I love mahomet! How awesome is I that I grew up with a huge yard filled with grass and an enormous play set my dad built. Sometimes here I feel like a caged hamster because rarely do I go out of the apartment more than once a day: nor do the kids. The thing is though, even the houses here aren't that much better. They are very close together, more comparable to condos. And still no grass to be seen. I miss grass. Ive found I'm not a fan of Places that I can't walk around barefoot in. People in Spain don't even walk barefoot in their houses. Just because im not a fan of the living arrangements doesn't mean I am not enjoying it though! The kids are starting to respond to me in English which is awesome! And my Spanish is improving a little.

I am stoked for this weekend because Bethany is coming on Friday and Saturday we are going to Toledo and Sunday we are seeing more of Madrid. It will go by so fast! I hope to have all the reservations done for my dad and i's trip by then and am well on my way! Today Mercedes is teaching me how to make a russian salad. It's bunny-less so I think I'll like it :)

The rabbit massacre

Friday I walked into the kitchen to find the kids' grandma holding a skinned rabbit. She proceeded to lay it on a cutting board and hacked it up with a large knife and a vengeance I've never seen before. Bones and all. Then she cooked it and all I could think of as the aroma of hacked up, cooking rabbit filled the air was the numerous pet bunnies I have had. At lunch time I kindly declined trying the rabbit and told them I couldn't stop thinking about m pets I had. They understood and even more so when he grandma told Llani I had seen her showing it to the kids and then hacking it up. Poor bunny! Anyway, we haven't done much this weekend, we didn't leave the house until ten pm last night but that's ok. Today I have been working on making train reservations for my dad and I while periodically helping Manuel figure out how to play games online. The reservations are proving to be more tedious than I expected. I am learning though! I get homesick more when we don't do much so yesterday was trying towards late afternoon but last night I read in Philippians that I need to delight in God and not just delight but to revel in him for he is good. That's a good word. He painted a beautiful sunset last night too and I used it to teach Manuel about sunsets and that god is a painter. Tomorrow begins another week but a busy one because I will be working on reservations! I only have 3 weeks left with he family so I want to enjoy them as much as I can and try to learn more spanish as well. Language is hard! But it is a gift to be able to communicate with each other. It's funny how many of the same expressions I use that they use here. Like "throwing in the towel" who knew they used that in Spain and that it's literally the same " tiro la toalla" humanity is universal. No one on the other side of the world is really that different than me. And we are the other side of the world for many people and are not so different from them either. Alright back to reservations. Just wanted to write before the Internet goes out again!

Oh la laa

The twins keep saying oh la laa because bethany taught them that last weekend. It's pretty adorable and they are also stRting to say more words in English which is encouraging! I've come to the conclusion that the three year old is in an awful stage right now. He can be really tough to deal with and eveuthing that goes wrong is my fault and he cries. But he's a kid and let's be real: sometimes kids are annoying! But they have this redeeming qualities that make it better. I've been trying to be less selfish lately and I honestly haven't been very good at it. For the past three mornings I've asked God to help me be less selfish so that I can focus more On the family I am living with and teaching the kids instead of th king about what I would like to do or who I miss. Anyway it wasn't until 8pm tonight That I even rememberEd praying hat. Needless to say, tOday I was easily frustrated and self absorbed in the fact that I miss my people! Pray for me please that I can start to live this out more. It's so much more rewarding to live putting others first but because it's more rewarding it's selfish to want tO live that way for that reason. Ay! My mind is lke scrambled eggs trying tO sPeak Spanish teach English and be all intellectual. Incould really go for some of my dads breakfast right now. And some pepsi. And potato salad. Please pray that I have more patience with the three year old too. Hes a bit of a booger but he's smart and adorable. I am disfrutaring Spain and my Spanglish is getting great. I apologize for the typos; I'm not use to this iPod thing yet.

I don't generally make lists...

But yesterday I made one of all the things I should remember to not forget. That sentence sounds funny when you say it out loud but its valid. There reLly are a lot of things I Ned to remember to not forget. One thing from my list is to take time to become a part of someone's reality. last summer I learned that you never fully know someone else's reLity. Therefore we have no right to judge anyone because rarely do we realize what someones reality truly is. This summer I am learning that I think Over anything else God wants me tO invest my time in people and in order to do that well I need to be more selfless and take the time to know and bE a part of the realities of those around me. Right now I need to continue to be a part of this family's reality and get to know them better. This helps me better be able to love them too.

Alrighty enough intellectual jib jab. We didn't have Internet for four days and it just so happened that I was terribly emotional during that time. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. It is one thing to bE separated from all that you know by miles of ocean but another entirely to not have SKYPE! exaggerated? Absolutely! But I really did feel so far away and I wantEd to go home. But the Internet is alive and kickin again and my emo phase has passed...for now. Everyday is a new experience. Last weekend Bethany came and my family took us to Madrid. It was a great time and I got to see some mportant places. I am learning more about the Spanish culture... For exame, you can buy canned octopus. Yep. And when they say you'll leave to go to the city this afternoon they mean 6 pm. I am having a little frustration as far as speaking Spanish goes. Learning a different language is hard and Spain Spanish is different than what I have been exposed to for the duration of my learning but it is making me more well rounded, or at least I hope! Now I will write more frequently as long as the Internet continues to work. It is nice to be able to write at night as a sort of alone time. I am finding hat as much as I live being around people all of the time, I do need a few minutes a day :) I will end with this poem that Dustin sent me that I love... Don't worry he did not write it :)


Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future in strength, courage, hope and love

Que sueño!

Let's talk about redeeming qualities. Today one of the kids said he was mad at me because I didn't let him have his way or something of that sort. Because today was a long day I wanted to tell him that he cries too much and does not listen. Today was a little hard because I missed home and all day was looking forward to skyping Jenna tonight ( which was great!) and today I learned why we take showers other than for hygiene... You actually get to be alone for 10 minutes! That sounds awful to say but I needed a break from the kids. After I showered I felt better and as I Played with the kids more, speaking all in English of course! Instead of being a little at wits end with them I started seeing their redeeming qualities. Kids cry a lot about dumb things, they don't listen and they can be aggrevating and hard to be patient with. But kids are also the first to give you a hug or kiss when hey see you are sad, they have laughs that are more contagious than swine flu and they don't care if your hair is messy or you have zits; they are more accepting and pure than adults and they show it.

With that said I had a second wind tonight. I am very thankful that I am stYing with this family and for everything hey are doing for me! Like teaching me Spanish and helping me find transportation for my dad and i's trip ( don't worry daddy, I've got it covered) and for feeding me food I actually like!

I got to help take the twins to the doctors this morning and that was an experience trying to kep them entertained. We were there for 2 hours but it was cool to see the hospital. Their heLthcare is a little different here as far as how you pY for it goes. I couldn't tell you the politics of it though because that's not my thing. Teaching English on the other hand is going very well! There is a lot of authentic interaction going on between the kids and I and they are already starting to produce small words and phrases. It has been really neat to put into practice everything I have learned in school thus far! Again thank you because if you are reading this then you have a part in making my life awesome, and for that I am grateful! And I hope I can reciprocate :)

Love, jacq

Valladolid with Bethany

Well I tried writing this last night but it got deleted so here goes! I wish I knew how to put pictures on here because I had my first tapas and sangria which are typical of Spain on Friday night! They were delicious and I appreciated them even more when Sunday, bless their hearts bethany's au pair family are great people but the traditional food they made for lunch smelled and tasted like cow manure in July. But they were so kind and hospitable! It was great to see Bethany and catch up. We walked around a lot which was awesome until I got blisters. I should listen to my mother when she says to wear better shoes! Today I wore the ones she bought me and am very thankful she did so because they're like a foot massage in a box. Thanks momma!

Last night I got to skype with some awesome people! ( you know who you are ) and I got to see my godbabe, via skype of course. Shes the best although I'm quite biased :)

On the way to see bethany on Friday god painted a beautiful sunset. He is quite artistic to have created the world so that he could paint the sky every night and morning. I bet there's never been two of the same sunsets or sunrises EVER. how cool is that! And peacocks? Yeah they were running free in a park in the middle of the city. How he thought of peacocks I haven't a clue but even though I'm scared of birds I got a few pictures with them! I wish I knew how to
put pictures on here but I'm technologically challenged so if you can see them on my Facebook please look! God is good, I am blessed and am learning new things everyday. I am starting to have trouble thinking of words in English which is a good sign that I am practicing a lot. I am in the midst of an incredible opportunity and am trying to take as much of it in as I can. Here's a line from a hymn I really like that a band revamped:
O God be my everything, be my delight
Be Jesus my glory, my soul satisfy

What if I really lived that?

Silly technology...

I wrote and the post did not go through! I'll write again tomorrow instead.

Valladolid

I got here on Friday a little after 10. On the fast train it was about an hour away. They are having a festival this weekend and I'm staying with Bethany and her family. It's so nice to have one of my best friends here. Always great to see a familiar face! Anywho this festival. Basically a bunch of performing groups come to do their shows. Some of them do comedy or crazy acrobatics. It was cool to watch but some of them dragged on too long and this was not due to my short attention span.

It's been so good to see Bethany and explore a little and go out. Because I am with the kids the majority of the time this is the first chance ice really had to do so. I had tapas for the first time last night and they were awesome! If I wasn't technologically challenged and knew how to put pictures on here I would show you the one I took of my first tapas and sangria!

Tomorrow we are going to try to find this English speaking church and go there, then shop and eat and then I go home. When i get to madrid I am taking the metro from Madrid to arganda so hopefully I don't get lost. I am very grateful that I got to come here. And that Bethany is coming to see and stay with me next weekend. We both have very hospitable families here! It's 3 in the a.m. here and I am falling asleep. It is encouraging to see how many lovely people there are in the world. Even though there is a lot of bad stuff, there will always be good people. After all, we are. Reared in God's image and what a splendid God he is.

P.S....

Don't mind the earlier blogs unless you would like to read about the theoretical foundations of second language acquisition :)I had this blog for a class last semester and figured I might as well use it.

España!

Well I'm in Spain which when you look at a map looks very far away from Illinois...and it is! But as always God is showing me and teaching me new things every day. I've been here for 4 days now and have 38 left until my daddy comes to Madrid. Yes, I did count the first night I was here. I'm not ashamed that I get homesick though because that just means I have an awesome family and friends that I love more than I can bare sometimes. The first thing God has taught me this summer is that I would be a wreck without him. God never leaves me though, therefore I am never actually away from home. He also showed me a great verse in philipians about love and how to do so sincerely. I'm also reading the book love wins by rob bell and am intrigued by it. I've quickly found out though that helping care for and teaching English to 2 year old twins and their 3 year old brother does not leave much time for me to read! What a great family I am staying with though. The kids are very energetic and Llani and Cesar are always talking to me and have been so welcoming. Llani's mom comes during they day while they Are working and Manuel is at school and she is just as kind and as talkative. Today she taught me how to make paella! Tonight I went to Madrid with with Llani and Cesar to see a movie but it was a documentary and didn't have dialogue. It was still good though! I have really enjoyed living here so far and am excited because Friday I am going to Valladolid to see Bethany for the weekend. It will be great to see a familiar face. It's almost 1 a.m. Here so I am going to sleep, I am so blessed and if you're reading this then you're one of the reasons why!

Lightbrown and Spada

I really enjoyed reading this chapter of the text. It helped to sort out many of the theories and methods we have learned about SLA. One quote that I identified with personally was “This ‘drip-feed’ approach often leads to frustration as learners feel that they have been studying ‘for years’ without making much progress”. This is what I’ve been saying about my own SLA for years. Every time I fill out a form asking how proficient I am in Spanish and how long I have studied it, I feel as though my proficiency should be increasing with the number of years I have studied. I still cannot bring myself to check the “fluent” box, even though I feel as though after 9 years of study, that I should be able to. I feel that I have largely missed out on the opportunity to have frequent and meaningful interactions with native speakers throughout most of my SLA experience.

A strategy that I have used a lot in my own acquisition is to read only to get basic meaning. Because of this, my vocabulary in Spanish is not very extensive. I was surprised by the fact that “in order to guess the meaning of new words in text the reader usually needs to know 90%or more of the words in that text.” That is a huge percentage. I still don’t know that large of a percent of the words in new Spanish texts I read. I have in the past couple of years been trying to readjust this strategy of mine, as it is not beneficial to me in the long run. Old habits die hard though! The last section that really interested me was about a speaker’s ability to produce the phrasing and stress patterns of a language being more important than being able to produce each individual sound. I took French for a two semesters in college and my teacher always said that even if you had perfect grammar, that a native speaker won’t understand you unless you speak in the “melody” of French. Thus in my class, it was more important to produce the phrasing and stress patterns. I wish that all my Spanish classes had been taught like this as well! There are so many factors, methods and theories that go into SLA, this field will continue to change and be an interesting resource that is necessary to keep up with in order to use it in our classrooms.

Methods

“They argue that allowing learners too much ‘freedom’ without correction and explicit instruction will lead to early fossilization of errors” (Lightbrown, Spada 140). This is part of the “Get it Right from the Beginning” approach. This approach is familiar to me because it is how I was taught to acquire my L2, especially in Jr. High and High school. This quote says that there should not be too much freedom, or in other words room for error. I was constantly corrected as an L2 student, and although I did learn some from that, I now am timid to speak in Spanish to other people. I also have errors that have fossilized in my L2. I do not think that by correction this completely avoids fossilization.
I think one of the methods that I agree with for in the classroom in the method that is commonly used in French-immersion schools in Canada. The “Two for One” method values both the acquisition of content and of the L2. This is the method that is closely related to the methods we have discussed in my bilingual classes. It is possible that a student can learn subject matter and a language all at once. That is the point of bilingual education; that neither one of these goals be lost or become less important. Learning language through content allows this to happen. Canada is a great example of the success of this approach, because as the text reiterates “ French immersion students develop fluency, high levels of listening comprehension and confidence in using their second language” (p 156). This type of acquisition is not evident in most of the schools in America, but if would implement this two-for-one system, I think that it could jumpstart education reform, including SLA and ESL and mainstream, all across America.

Firth and Wagner

1. “participation in conversation with NSs [native speakers] . . . is the necessary and sufficient condition for SLA”

2. “In SLA, as Mey (1981, p. 73) sardonically puts it, the NS’s status as “the uncrowned King of linguistics” is upheld.14 NS data are thus viewed as the warranted baseline from which NNS data can be compared, and the benchmark from which judgments of appropriateness, markedness, and so forth, can be made.”

3. “As a logical extension, NNSs are unproblematically viewed as the NSs’ subordinates, with regard to communicative competence”

4. “Given this state of affairs, newcomers to SLA may be surprised to discover that the study of FL use (involving both NS–NNS and NNS–NNS) in naturally occurring, everyday (noneducational) settings constitutes a small fraction of SLA research.”

These are all quotes from the Firth and Wagner article that caught my attention as I read. The first quote reminded me of the comparison between ZPD and i+1 theories we explained last week on the exam. Krashen’s theory is focused on input and believes that because of this, as long as there is input, communication with a native speaker is not necessary. I just thought this was an interesting point. Again, there are so many theories; it is difficult to decide which ones I personally connect with.

The second quote is one that I relate with personally. As an SLL of Spanish, I am constantly comparing my own speech and language capabilities to that of a native speaker’s. If we were to make standards for SLA, the benchmark would absolutely be a native speaker’s speech. What I wonder though, is which dialect, which country etc. would the benchmark come from? Would the standards for each language be different? This would be an interesting topic to discuss with SLA experts, just to see what their arguments and thoughts would be on how to make “standards” for SLA.

The third quote is also one I identified with personally. When I studied in Guatemala, and have been on trips to Honduras, I always feel like I am a subordinate to the native speakers that I am surrounded by. This belief causes me to be more hesitant to speak. I believe this may be skewed. I think that perhaps more so than the NS’s seeing the NNS’s as subordinates, I think the NNS’s give us that name. In my experiences, the NS’s I have been around do not see me as a subordinate, rather they have told me they admire that I am learning their language. Therefore I think that this is also an interesting point to address and I would like to see some different views on it.

Lastly, this quote must be 100% true. For my project I am compiling research focused on EFL in the home environment, so FL in a naturally occurring, everyday (noneducational) setting. It has been very difficult to find research focused solely on this. I hope that this will become a more observed part of the field of SLA because I think it would really contribute to what we know (and don’t know) about the interactions between NS’s and NNS’s and vice-versa.

Authenticity

I’ve enjoyed this textbook so far, but after reading this quote from Chapter 5, I want to high five Shelley Wong. “Because of our school system’s democratic façade, people think that every child has equal opportunity because the tests are supposed to be “objective.” In fact, there isn’t equal opportunity. These exams are both racially and class-biased. They are a more accurate measure of family income and parent education.” I couldn’t agree more with this. Throughout my entire education I still cannot understand why our government thinks the answer to our education system’s problems is standardized and IQ testing. No child can be measured and labeled by a number, especially not by an unauthentic one. This is important for all children regardless of their background or race, but for ELL’s it can have an even more negative effect. A culturally biased test leaves no chance for a child who has just been introduced to the mainstream culture to succeed. These are the children who answer a question “incorrectly” not because they don’t have the knowledge, but because they do not understand the cultural implications behind it. By using this type of standardized IQ testing, we are perhaps unintentionally segregating our students based on things other than their knowledge.
Another point that I am glad Wong made in this chapter is that the assimilation into American culture often fosters a rejection to a child’s native culture and language. In Branch5-2 this issue is evaluated on. As a bilingual major I identify with this sentiment. It is my job as a teacher to not only value home cultures and languages of my students, but to learn as much about them as I expect my students to learn in class. Bringing bilingual and bicultural methods into the classroom is a way to fight prejudice, jump-start critical thinking, and to create an environment where every child is accepted and valued. When children are exposed to different cultures and languages, a different type of learning occurs than does in a “mainstream” classroom. The students become the teachers, instruction is student- led and students have a lowered affective filter because they feel valued and safe. One way to ensure this is happening in your classroom is to make sure your methods are authentic. Literature, art, assessment, etc. all must be authentic in order to be effective.
If all of our classrooms looked like this, I do not believe we would need standardized or IQ testing. When we are authentically assessing our students, we as well as they will learn their strengths and weaknesses, but more so we as educators will realize that there is more to intelligence than we sometimes credit. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is a theory that can debate the authenticity of IQ testing. Our students education with be richer if they are a part of a culturally diverse environment. To do this, we have to go beyond “Heroes and Holidays”. I think the most important thing to remember is authenticity.

Dialogic Approach

       After reading this chapter in the Wong text, I cannot help but to be reaffirmed a bit. Sometimes in my own personal endeavor to learn a second language, I am increasingly discouraged by the fact that I am not as fluent as I would like to be, even though I started taking Spanish classes when I was 12 years old. 10 years later, I feel I should be much more capable than I am at this point. While reading about Bakhtin's dialogic approach and Mao and Freire's learning by doing, I see so many differences between these theories and the way I was taught Spanish. Rote repetition is not the focus of these approaches, nor are grammar drills. Learning a language is not unlike learning in general. It has to be connected and practiced with a purpose. Looking back, I never really saw the connections as I was in my Spanish classes.
       One of the points in this chapter that stuck out to me the most is "Bakhtin's theory suggests that we have an active role to play in our use of language; our "doing" language is transformative not only of ourselves but also of the language itself". There is so much more to language acquisition  than I ever realized. It makes me wonder, had I been taught using a dialogic approach, would I be much more fluent now? What if what I was acquired had actually been through "doing" instead of memorization? Would I be able to speak and use my knowledge more proficiently because of it?
       I imagine the answers to these questions are yes. The other part that I connected with in this chapter was when it described the Chinese theologians  learning English through the focus of theology. They were learning for the purpose of their interest. There is so much more motivation behind that, I wish that I had been taught like that. I want this to stand true not only for the ELL's I will have in my classroom, but for all of my students. I want to use a dialogic approach in all subjects. These theories present an indisputable point; learning by "doing" is definitely the way to pave the road to acquisition. Learning by doing can teach you how to learn, which is a far more valuable tool than memorization.

March 15

            Branch 3-6 of this chapter intrigued me. It posed a question that I feel comes up recurrently in teaching. When looking at the difference between how the girl and boy answered the dilemma of morality, the girl received a much lower score for her moral development than the boy. It seems as though this girl just did not interpret the problem in the same way the boy did. Although the book was targeting this example to Kohlberg’s six-stage theory of moral development, for me it can be related to all of my future students.

            I think that all too often I forget that children in general look at and process things much different than each other and than me. As educators, children can be labeled wrongly because they are not thinking the same way the other students are or because it is different than what the teacher expects. This is especially important to remember when it comes to second language learners. Not only does every child learn differently and interpret things in their own way, their background greatly affects how they learn. If a child comes to the U.S. from a Spanish speaking country, even aside from the language barrier they are likely to interpret things differently because they grew up in a different culture. This is the problem with many standardized texts; the cultural context is often related to white, middle-class Americans.

            When the author went back and looked at what could have caused the girl to interpret the situation differently it made me reflect on how we can do the same thing as teachers. All too often we blame the students for being wrong, when in reality it might be the way we are teaching that is not cohesive to their learning strengths. Also the girl’s answer was not wrong, it was simply different. This will be one of the most important things to do and remember as a teacher, to not judge a student’s response because it is not what you expected or it is different. The way we teach our children needs to be meaningful, always looking at how we pose questions, how we assess and what we are doing to help them learn. If we can demonstrate and open mind, students will be more likely to develop the same acceptance and the learning environment of the classroom will become richer.

 Annotated Bibliography

1)

            Effective Early Literacy Skill Development for Young Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners: An Experimental Study of Two Methods studies the early literacy development of English language learners. The group of children were divided into a control group which receive regular high-scope curriculum, a group that received  high-scope along with small groups from the Literacy Express Preschool Curriculum and the third was the same as the second, but began in Spanish and transitioned to English instruction. Part of the research in this study was also based on what the children received at home, whether English or Spanish was spoken more often, or equally. This source will supplement my own research because it focuses on pre-school aged children and the efficacy of a method used in English language acquisition. The home aspect of the study will also correlate well as I am researching what works best in the home environment as well.

Farver, J, Lonigan, C, & Eppe, S. (2009). Effective early literacy skill development for young spanish-                                                   speaking english language learners: an experimental study of two methods. Child Development, 80(3), 703-719.

2)

         Learning For Life, A Structured and Motivational Process of Knowledge Construction in the Acquisition/Learning of English as a Foreign Language in Native Spanish Speakers explores the methods of a theory, Learning for Life. This theory focuses on student centered instruction with emphasis on human values as a part of instruction. Each student is seen as unique and the teacher is expected to know of and be involved in aspects of their life even outside of instruction. The article also touches on acquisition versus learning under this circumstance. This will aid in my research because it is specific to Spanish speakers learning English as a foreign language. 

Miño-Garcés, F. (2009). Learning for life, a structured and motivational process of knowledge         construction in the acquisition/learning of english as a foreign language in native spanish speakers. International Journal of English Studies, 8(1), 81-89.

3)

          Mother Brand English as an Effective Approach to Teach English for Young Children as a Foreign Language in Korea explains this method, developed by parents and used by mothers and father in Korea to help their own children acquire English in the home. This study shows the use of outside resources such as media and the internet to provide access to natural English input for the children.  The goal of this method is natural acquisition of the language by exposure to rich English surroundings and environment along with appropriate stimuli. The study iterates which steps and stages children go through as they are acquiring the language. This article will aid in my analysis of research as I am inquiring of methods to use in the home, this parallels my research question and will help to find useful strategies to use in the home.

Seung-Yoeun, Y, & SookHee, L. (2006). Mother brand english as an effective approach to teach english for young children as a foreign language in korea. Reading Improvement, 43(4), 185-193.

4)

           Language Immersion Programs for Young Children? Yes, but Proceed With Caution analyzes a dual-language immersion school in Hong Kong that equally exposes their students to English and Mandarin. They have found that there are cognitive advantages, but that young children do not “absorb second languages like a sponge”.  They have also found that these programs must be carefully created and monitored to be effective. This article will compliment my analysis of other research as it shows parts of the hardships of second language acquisition in young children. It will help me to answer my research questions knowing not only what works in teaching English as a foreign language, but also what does not work.

Soderman, A. (2010). Language immersion programs for young children? yes..but proceed with caution. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(8), 54-61.

Wrongful Assumptions

           In both the text reading and in the article, I was prompted to think about diversity beyond what I have before. In the article, in reference to Surjeet, the young Indian girl, and the troubles she had communicating with some of her peers. This researcher observed that although there were two girls she talked to most of the time, that one was a less-pressure situation, with Tiffany, where as the other girl tended to respond negatively to Surjeet’s attempts at conversation, Mary. In once instance, the researcher heard Mary say to Tiffany, “don’t go to Surjeet’s birthday, it would be Indian smell.” Tiffany agrees not to go, but Mary says to come to her own party because she is Irish. Tiffany again agrees. Sujeet heard the conversation and was obviously hurt by it. These are first graders. Did they devise these prejudices on their own? Did they learn them from their parents? I hope that they did not learn them from their class environment. It is vital that we as educators work to address and conquer these prejudices. One thing I know I want to teach in my classroom is to not make assumptions. So often, prejudices are based on learned assumptions, which are incorrect most of the time. What I had never considered before, was the content of the textbook.

            It is so interesting to me that the gay priest was a visitor to the classroom, and that the students did not deduce that the priest was gay. They assumed that since he was a priest, a good man and nicely dressed that he was not gay. Again, these are all incorrect assumptions and very generalizing. At first glance I did not understand why the textbook was using this as an example of why visitors should come to the classroom. Making me think about it though, really pushed my limits. What I mean is that at first I was a bit defensive. I thought, “why would they be talking about this when the students are from a Christian organization?” I just thought I was contradictory. As I continued reading though, I understood how the teacher used it not only as a way to address and conquer diversity and preconceived assumptions, but also as a learning opportunity. The students had to prepare for the visitors to come, introduce them, have questions for them etc. For ELL’s this is a great way to practice the language and gain confidence in their own abilities. Pairing this with the opportunity to discuss the diversity that these students had never recognized before developed, in my opinion, a fruitful discussion. As I read of their unfamiliarity of homosexuality in their culture, that was so sheltered that they did not even think to deduce the priest as being gay, I was reminded of my own assumptions I make everyday. I made assumptions as I started reading the text. I make assumptions about different cultures all the time. I do not necessarily know where they all come from, but they are probably a compilation of what I have heard, been exposed to, and come to my own conclusions on.

            So what does this mean for me as a future educator? It has been brought to my attention that I will need to work hard and monitor myself closely in order to prevent any wrongful assumptions in my classroom. Despite the fact that my own assumptions are mostly sub-conscious, I absolutely do not want to portray or pass them on to my students. I need to address and conquer my own prejudices and assumptions, so that eventually I can set an example for my students to look to.

Political And Philosophical Roots of TESOL

      This chapter was a very interesting tie-in to what we have been learning in class. The first thing that interested me in this chapter was the history of TESOL methods. It was interesting to see in more of a chronological order, how the different approaches and methods came about and what time periods they were most prevalent in.
      A quote from this section in the chapter I really like was "learning English is a one-way door: Outsiders come in but insiders less often venture out." I believe this pinpoints the attitude and reality in America today. Many natural born American citizens believe that if you live in the U.S., you should speak English. They also expect that everywhere they go, people should be able to speak English with them, because it is becoming a world language. That is why I see this quote as summing it up; Many Americans expect everyone here, and even outside of the U.S. to know English, but they themselves do not know any language other than English.
       I wonder if this phenomena was self-inflicted. Did America condition itself to believe their language to be superior? Therefore, have we undermined the non-majority cultures in America as well as the other cultures of the world? So much of learning about and experiencing a different culture comes from knowing the language. Meaning can be lost in translation, and experience and learning is not as meaningful when it occurs in a different language oftentimes. As a bilingual major, I have strong opinions on this topic and it makes me wonder how some people can be so passive or support English-Only.
       Proponents of English-Only argue that English unites our country. It gives it's people identity. What about those who come from different cultures though? I do not understand how we even define ourselves as natural born Americans when most everyone can from somewhere else somewhere down the line in their family. Another part of this chapter that really interested me was the concept of accent reduction in the ESL world. In my own endeavors to learn Spanish, becoming a speaker with "native-like fluency" has been a goal of mine as well as a push from my teachers. Since taking this class though, I have realized more and more that everyone has an accent. English speakers in the south have a different accent than those in the north. It is a part of identity. This is why I really identified with the term "accent addition." Like the difference between subtractive and additive, perhaps if the motivation behind learning and perfecting language acquisition was additive and not subtractive, there would be a change in motivation. No one wants to lose their identity, thus instead of pushing to change an accent, push to add one.
     Lastly, the dialogic approach was something that caught my attention. It closely resembles student-led instruction, which I have learned about in many of my previous classes. The features that compose this pedagogy are so helpful in regards to learning how to effectively teach your students. "Teach tothe students and not to the text" is my favorite quote from this chapter. I know that this will become increasingly hard as the pressure for standardized testing increases, but as a bilingual teacher I hope to be able to teach my students and not to the test.

Perspective on Language Learners

       This article really caught my attention and made me think. We have been talking about the different qualities that "good" language learners possess, but appearance and social status are not ones that I have ever thought of as being important. The study on Eva and Julie were both very interesting. In order to learn English they both accessed social acceptance and ties in order to gain opportunities to speak. Although Eva was an adult and Julie was in kindergarten, they both essentially followed at least part of the time the same road to language acquisition. Their atmospheres and circumstances were very different, but both needed to learn English in order to communicate with those around them.
       I think that as humans we all have an innate desire to communicate with others. Perhaps that is part of the reason why Chomsky says every human has the innate capacity to do so. This desire leads to us being social beings. Humans also adapt to their environment. Julie and Eva did not know the language in their environment, so they found ways to adapt so that they could participate in communication as well as interactions.
       What truly got me thinking was in the last part of the article where it described both Julie and Eva as ''appealing to the westerner's eye". Julie probably looked a lot like most of the other children in her class. For this reason, her appearance did not make her undesirable. As with Eva, she was described as being attractive in respect to western standards. She was fairly easily accepted into the social circle at work, after establishing herself as more than the "ESL immigrant". The article said that another girl in Julie's class, who was South Asian did not have the same fortune when it came to fitting into the class socially with her peers. This makes me wonder, had Eva been unattractive according to western standards, would she have been accepted as quickly, or at all, into the social circle at work? Or would she have continued to be seen as undesirable, not only because of her ESL immigrant status, but because of her physical appearance? Overall, this complicates the issue of SLA even more, but this article has made me think even more in depth about it than before.

Social contexts of Second Language Acquisition

One section of the readings this week that really interested me was the macrosocial factors in SLA, in particular, the global and national status of L1 and L2. Last semester I did a research paper on English-Only proponents. For many people, language is a form of patriotism. Many Americans oppose having other languages in the U.S., but I see this view as close-minded. Why do some people think of other languages as unpatriotic? America is made up of immigrants. We all came from somewhere. Our culture would be that much richer to be able to incorporate others' traditions, identities and languages into what already exists. 

Language is a part of each person’s identity. Acculturation is not just the learning of language, but also of culture. Before this summer, I had never realized how much weight culture holds in learning a language. When I studied in Guatemala and was immersed in the culture, I learned so much more about the language, the people and what made their identities than I ever could have in a classroom. Motivation plays a large part in SLA. I would not have learned as much Spanish in the classroom had I not been motivated to learn it. Like the examples in the book of dominant language speakers working or having ample contact with speakers of a non-dominant language, like in Paraguay Spanish speakers and Guarani speakers, the Spanish speakers generally do not learn to speak Guarani. This shows that there is a degree of separation between the dominance of language groups. This separation affects the social aspects in which a second language is acquired. In Guatemala one of my teachers was Mayan. She taught me a lot about the discrimination that raged between the indigenous and dominant cultures of Guatemala. She herself was Mayan, but did not know her mother’s native language because of the prejudice and violence that Mayans endured. It is so sad that because of the social factors, some languages are endangered. I think that for the benefit of monolinguals and multilinguals, societies should move towards greater appreciation of all languages despite social implications. 

Wild Child

     This movie was very interesting in many different aspects. One of the most interesting things was the way the villagers treated Victor. He was the object of teasing and sometimes physical abuse. At the institution for the deaf and mute it was as though they were running a circus. People paid to see him. He was obviously a very rare case, but people thought that he was "an idiot" and that he must have been even before he was abandoned.
      The doctor saw potential though. Victor was completely void of any concept of society. After the doctor took him and started teaching him though, he was nurtured in his education, but also by the house maid. Victor's absence of a childhood and communication with humans deprived him of learning a language in his early years of life, but also deprived him of socialization and nurture. These are all things that humans respond to and need in their first years. Victor definitely disproved the Critical Theory Hypothesis. He did learn his first language, most likely his first contact with it, at the age of 10-12 years old. Although he never produced it, it was obvious he understood and in a very short time span at that.
    One of my favorite things about the movie was when he punished him for the right answer. It was so cruel but it showed that Victor could discern between right and wrong. It showed that all humans have the innate capacity to have emotions, and to know justice. It is a whole new way to look at language, the ties between morals, society, and language acquisition. It is not just about learning a language, but a culture, norms, morals etc. Victor had a great task presented to him to assimilate into a society whom's structure he had never been exposed to before. He was taught a lot, but through the research the doctor also learned a lot about language acquisition and what works and what doesn't. Victor responded very well to visuals. He was also organizationally oriented. The doctor used these strengths to help him improve, and Victor did find ways to communicate. This shows that communication is a part of every humans innate capacity, even if it is not oral. Victor knew how to ask for something, and used his own sign language most of the time. Overall, this movie brought up many important factors of language acquisition, and shows that acquisition is personal to each different situation the learner is in and comes from.

Week 2 SLA

            As a child after I learned how to read I started noticing that on some products there was writing I didn’t understand. My mom had a daycare, and on one of the kid’s car seats, there was a part written in Spanish. I inquired what it was, and my mom told me it was Spanish. After that, I spent time trying to “learn” Spanish by simply matching up each word to what I thought was its English equivalent right above it. It did not take me long though to realize that the number of words didn’t match up in most sentences, the English in comparison to the Spanish. After that, I realized there were words that looked the same (cognates, but at the time I did not know what they were). It was confusing to me though; because I figured that the words that looked similar would be at the same position in the Spanish sentence as it was in the English. At that age I was confused by it all, and it wasn’t until I started taking Spanish in school that I realized why they didn’t match up and that languages cannot be learned simply by translation.

            In this chapter I enjoyed looking at the different examples of how L2 learners of English start producing the language. I saw many similarities in the example of the author’s Korean friend. I had a Korean conversation partner last semester and when she had papers to write, I would look over them for her. The grammatical mistakes she made were not often detrimental to the semantics of the sentence, but it made me realize that I sound that way when I speak or write in Spanish. There are so many things that go into SLA, and these factors affect the success of the L2 learner. What I connected from the reading and from the example above of my own earlier attempts at learning Spanish, is that there can be a lot of negative transfer if the appropriate instruction is not provided. We all have the innate ability to learn language, but after we learn our first, we have a set grammar and way that we believe a language system works. Depending on the L2, these transfers and knowledge from the L1 will successfully or unsuccessfully transfer into the L2.

            There are a lot of theories that we are learning about, and each one has different aspects that make sense, and some that don’t as much, but one that I find interesting is the ZPD. Interaction is the way in which one learns language. Without interaction, for example in the case of Genie, no language is acquired. It depends on the environment a person is in, how they develop language. This makes so much sense. I am still blown away by what we talked about last week, how each person is born with the ability to produce all sounds that exist in any human language, but we only develop those that are a part of our environment. The capacity of our brain is unfathomable. In response to Elise’s post, I am also looking forward to learning and clarifying more of the theories. There are so many which seem similar, and tie into each other. What is exciting is the fact that we don’t know everything yet, and there are still things to be learned and theories to be made.  

Second Language Acquisition

SLA is such an interesting thing to look at. I am a Bilingual Education major so I have heard of a lot of the terms and concepts used throughout the readings we had this week. It was good to have solid definitions of them though. Multilingualism is something I feel that most of the population in the U.S. lacks. The reading mentioned Canada and their success in being a multilingual nation with the way they have set up their education system to foster it. It really is surprising how many people in the U.S. are monolingual. A couple semesters ago I did a research paper on English Only and how many people oppose the fact that there are so many different languages that are actively used in our country. It is disheartening that so many people do not see the benefits of multilingualism.
         It is so interesting What, Why and How we acquire language. These readings made some great points, for example about if a child is adequately exposed to more than one language throughout their first three years of life, that they will have two native languages, or simultaneous multilingualism. This ability changes though if we do not start learning a language until later in life. My personal experience is that I did not start learning my second language, Spanish, until I was 12 years old. At that point in time, I did not intend it to ever be my second language. As I progressed though, I realized I wanted to learn more and became more motivated. As the readings stated, motivation is a factor in SLA, especially when the language is not acquired until later in life. Once I was motivated to learn the language I started working harder and immersing myself more in the language. I feel like a big difference between a two year old learning a second language and a 12 year old is that the two year old already has the environment they need. If a two year old is acquiring a second (or two native languages) it is because of the people and environment around them. For a twelve year old, in most cases there must be motivation for them to learn because in the U.S. we are mostly focused on foreign language acquisition.
       Another point I found intriguing was the part about our innate ability as humans to learn language. I never knew that at six months old we are all capable of making sounds in every language, but after reading that it makes complete sense. We don't learn language based on our DNA or our heritage, we learn it based on our environment. So it makes sense that we all must start with the ability to learn any language we are surrounded by; in another sense we can adapt to learn any language. This of course is as a baby, but it is motivating even as an adult to know that we as humans are capable of acquiring so much knowledge and that we are so capable of learning not just two, but multiple languages.
These readings were great review for me, but also presented things in a new and interesting light. What I love about this field is that there is always new research and ideas that can change and alter the way we look at it and what we know. It will never get boring!