Senior blog reflection

(1) Positive Statement
I'm most proud of my overall content of my presentation because I feel like I had very solid information about linguistics n and answers to my EQ.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)
AE    

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)
AE    

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
I think taking a class at Cal-Poly for my independent component 1 really worked because it gave me a great foundation for my senior project.

(4) (What didn't work)
I wish I would have been able to do mentorship with both my mentors through your my entire senior year instead on switching of mentorships. However doing two mentorships gave me two aspects for my answers to my EQ.

(5) Finding Value
Senior project has helped my solidify my majors in college as linguists and computer science. It also has given me an excilent linguistic foundation to build off of. When I went to Calday at Berekeley I was able to talk to the linguists and understand their lingo.

Blog 21 Mentorship

Contact: Jennifer Tsia Mt. Sac Community College (626) 321-1888

·   Interpretive
     What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

The most important thing I gained from this experience was to be able to see all the theories and studies I read about at work in a classroom environment. This was important because first semester I learned about second language acquisition theories, but reading about them and understanding them are two different animals. By completing my mentorship in a second language classroom enviroment I was able to see how these different factors of language acquisition were affecting students studying a second language. For example I learned about how an affective filter can prevent learners from acquiring a second language because it hinders there ability to fully grasp concepts. In the German II class during mentorship there is a very shy boy that doesn't ask questions and therefore he isn't getting input. He has a very high affective filter that is affecting his acquisition process.

   Applied
     How has what you've done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.

My mentorship has helped me answer my EQ because it first gave me the foundation to be able to come up with my EQ then it gave me real world examples of my answers to my EQ. My mentorship also helped me determine my best answer. It did this by giving me real life examples of textbook theories. For example motivation and age are all factors that can be seen in the classroom. Especially with the foreign students I can hear their accents in both English and German, but I can also tell that they have high levels of intrinsic motivation. This helped me get my best answer because although their motivation was high they already have passed the critical period and therefore will be unable to produce certain characteristics that someone that started learning German at a younger age may be able to produce.

Blog 20: Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

      What is the most important factor in second language acquisition for a non-native speaker? 

1. Answer 1: Age affects a non-native speakers ability to acquire a language in many ways making it one of the most important factors in second language acquisition.
2. Answer 2:  The motivational reason for a non-native speaker to learn the target language is one of the most important factors in second language acquisition
3. Answer 3: Proximity of a persons native tongue to the family group of his or her target language is the most important factor in language acquisition for a non-native speaker.

Best Answer: Age in which that non-native speaker is exposed to and starts to acquire his/her target language. I chose this answer as my best answer because through all my research the age in which someone starts to acquire his/her second language can have great benefits in the development of fluency in the target language. The age in which one starts their SLA process can affect their fluency of pronunciation, the time it takes to grasp grammatical and lexical concepts, and the motivation one has to learn a language.  This answer is better than the other two of my answers because in some ways age of SLA encompasses the other two answers.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

      I first went to my original mentor Dr. Russikoff and asked her my essential question. She told me that it would be almost impossible to argue that one factor is the most important factor in SLA. So together we compiled a list of possible answers to this question. From this list we decided which ones are more important than the others. In the end we ended up with about 5 possible answers, but from there we could not narrow the answer down any further. Those five answers were all arguably of equal importance. From there I researched the five answers and picked the answers I could find the most research on. When it came to picking my best answer I went with my personal belief rather than statistical and scientific evidence. I did this because all three of my answers had enough evidence to allow them to be the most important factor.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

      My original mentor was only able to help me for the first semester of school. After that she got to busy with classes and her new book release that occurred in Taiwan. I solved this problem by finding a new mentor. With my first mentor I got mostly the scientific and factual aspects of linguistics. With my second mentor I really wanted to see how the concepts I learned out of books and articles were applied into a classroom. So I started to do mentor ship being a teachers assistant  at Mt. Sac in a German II class. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

     My two most important sources were the book "How Languages are Learned" by Lightbown and Spada and Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition taught to me by me Dr. Russikoff during my independent component.  The book "How languages are learned" was most important to answer my essential question because it provided me with my first and second answers. The book explains how first languages are learned then links those concepts to second languages. It showed me the progress of a persons cognitive development as related to language acquisition. For example in first language acquisition syntax acquisition occurs in a certain order, that order is the same for second language acquisition. The Krashens theories of second language acquisition were important to answering my essential question because I used his theories about the aspects of a second language to check off if a factor helped or not. Krashen's theories are affective filter, natural order, input, monitor, and acquisition. All three of my answers help in some way or another will all of his theories for successful second language acquisition.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b)The most helpful source I had for this component was this published experiment called "Why Are You Learning a Second Language? Motivational Orientations and Self-Determination Theory" this source helped me create and analyze my questionnaires.
(c)--------------------->
(d) For my independent component I explored the answer two my EQ more in two ways by observing foreign language classes and by analyzing the data collected from the questionnaires filled out by students in a second language class.  Observing classes helped me answer my question because I got to see how SL teachers try to motivate students.

INTERPRETIVE 
Usually during mentor ship I am up walking around actively helping the class with its language learning process. For two weeks (4 classes) I instead sat in the back of the class and observed the students behavior in class. I then created and administered questionnaires to both the college students and students that take Spanish at I-Poly. I had to explain the questionnaires and answer any question any particular person had. I then analyzed the questionnaires based on what I knew about the course that they are currently enrolled in and all of my SLA knowledge. I collected 94 questionnaires and each questionnaire took me about ten minutes to analyze and record. (If needed I can produce the questionnaires, but I felt as if it would be a waste of time to scan and upload them) I then used this data to create the wonderful graphs and findings that are pictured bellow. 

This is the questionnaire that I created using information from my main source "Why Are You Learning a Second Language? Motivational Orientations and Self-Determination Theory". The purpose of this questionnaire was to access whether a students motivation was intrinsic or extrinsic and to also see what they believe has been most important int heir opinion to their L2 acquisition process.

This graph shows the motivational reason students had to learn a second language. Their motivation either intrinsic or extrinsic was determined using the answers to the questionnaires. 17% of students  had intrinsic motivation and 83 % had extrinsic motivation. Of the students that were intrinsically motivated 11 of them were college students and 5 of them were high school students. Of the students that were extrinsically motivated 69 of them were high school students and 9 of them were college students.

This table shows the various answers that were given in response to the second to last question on the survey. The most popular answer was family which is an extrinsic motivation.

This graph shows all the languages that the students that were surveyed put down on the questionnaire.

APPLIED
When I first started this component I already had all three of my answers to my EQ. I used this component to solidify my answer and discover which of my answers should be my best answer. Most of the research I have done and found so far has all been from a linguists or teachers perspective. For this component I went on the other side of the language acquisition process to the learners of a second language. by giving out questionnaires i was able to determine that my best answer to me EQ should be age. A lot of this component had to do with determining motivation, but when it comes down too it the age in which a person started their acquisition process determined their fluency. The younger the students were when they started their acquisition process the better they were at the language. 

April Post

    I was fortunate enough to be able to visit UC Berkeley for Cal-Day which is an open house for admitted students for the university. During Cal-Day the linguistics department had an "Ask a Linguist" information session. Throughout this session you could go to the phonetics lab and talk to current undergraduate, graduate, and professors in the linguistic department. You could also get your voice recorded in the phonetic lab booth. (pictured above) I got my voice recorded saying my name. The recording is then transferred and can be viewed using the frequency scale. Higher pitch is higher frequency lower pitch is lower frequency. The linguist Dr. Lin that recorded my voice told me that just by looking at my recorded voice she can tell I am from California. The reason she could tell that I was a Californian was because I had an up tone. An up tone is when the end of a sentence, phrase, or word ends in a higher pitch. When I said my name my last syllable ended in an up tone. This up tone can be found in almost all Californians speech. I found this interesting because this can be applied to analyzing different languages and how their melody influences cognition.

Third Answer

EQ: What is the most important factor in language acquisition for a non-native speaker.

• Proximity of a persons native tongue to the family group of his or her target language is the most important factor in language acquisition for a non-native speaker.
• When languages are in the same family group they share lexicon making lexical acquisition faster. For example German and English are in the same language family (Germanic) and they share words like: Wanderlust, Blitz, Kindergarten
• When languages are in the same family group they share similar syntax. For example Spanish and French are both part of the same language family and therefore have similar syntax like: Subject Verb Object to emphasize the object
• Language family groups can cause positive or negative transfers between the native language and the target language. For example if a Chinese man were trying to speak a Germanic language using Chinese syntax the transfer would be negative. If the same man used his Chinese syntax to speak Cantonese the syntax transfer would be negative.
• The closer a target language is to a persons native tongue the faster they will be able to acquire the target language.

March Post

          I am continuing my mentor ship with Frau Tsia at Mt. Sac helping out and observing the German II class. Frau Tsia is also the German teacher at Claremont High School. She asked me if I would be able to help her create the program for her up and coming Gartenfest German poetry recitation. I accepted the assignment because it would be a good way to look at work of high school students. Up until this point I have really only seen L2 acquisition class work of college students. For the program I helped proof read and format the program. The program contained all the poems that were to be recited in both German and English. My main job besides formatting was to make sure that the German matched the  English. I was able to relate my work doing the proof reading to my possible third answer to my essential question which is language family proximity to ones native tongue. There were a lot of positive and negative lexical transfers within the translations. A lot of the negative transfers had to do with false cognates between German and English. A false cognate is a word that sounds like another word, but has a different meaning. The most frequent false cognate in the translations was the German word "will" (Which means to want to so something) to the English word "will" (Which means that one is going to do something). The Gartenfest occurred on March 13th and my mentor was kind enough to put my name on the program (Pictured Above).

Fourth Interview

Blog 17: Fourth Interview

1. What were your intrinsic motivation to learn your L2?

2. What were your extrinsic motivations to learn your L2?

3. Which motivation intrinsic or extrinsic was most motivational to you?          Why?

4. Did you have any motivation due because you wanted to assimilate into       your target languages society?

5. With the languages you have learned were there any that shared a             language family? If yes/no how did this help or hinder your L2                   acquisition?

6. In what ways did age of acquisition affect the learning of your L2?

7. What were the differences for you between learning a language before     puberty than after puberty?

8. Why do you believe some grammatical concepts were harder to learn        than others?

9. Why do you believe it is harder to learn a language after puberty?

10. How does proximity to the target language speaking group aid to              language acquisition?

11. How did language affect transition from one culture to another?

12. What helps you code switch between languages?

13. What language do you think in and how does that affect your oral              communication?

14. As an immigrant how did assimilation come into play when you were          learning your new countries language?

15. Is one's grammatical judgement better in languages that they learned        at an earlier age?

16. Approximately how long does it take to develop grammatically                    judgement? 

17. How beneficial are lexical transfers between languages that are in the      same language family? 

18. How beneficial are syntactical transfers between languages that are in      the same language family? 

19. What benefits does drill memorization methods have in SLA?

20. What language acquisition method benefited you the most? Why?

February Post

This Tuesday I started my new mentorship at a German II course taught at Mt. Sac. I really enjoyed being there the first day and speaking with the students. In the German II class the students will be learning how to speak in the past tense which is a major and complicated part of second language acquisition especially in the German language. The first day was mainly review and introduction. The students reviewed how to create statements and questions. I sat on the side and took notes about how the students spoke. I noticed a lot of directly translated syntax from English to German. Students would use English syntax to form German sentences. This helps support my third answer to my EQ is language family proximity. This transfer of syntax would be helpful if German syntax was similar to English syntax, but since it's not the syntax gets in the way of language learning. If they were similar it would be greatly beneficial to the leaner and would speed up the acquisition process.

Advisory Meeting #2

What is the most important factor in second language acquisition for a non-native speaker?

The most important factor in second language acquisition for a non-native speaker is motivation because if someone is not motivated they will never successfully master a language.

• Without motivation one will not put time into acquiring a second language. If someone doesn't have a reason to  learn Finnish they will most likely not be able to master the language.

• The most motivational things are love and money. If someone is told that if they learn Finnish they will be paid 1 million dollars they will most likely start learning Finnish.

• If someone enjoys learning a language that is motivation in itself. If one finds the Finnish language beautiful then they will also want to speak it on their own accord.

Sources: 5,10

Motivation plays a key factor in whether or not a second language is successfully mastered. 

Independent Component 2 Approval

1. For my independent component two I think I will interview bilinguals and ask them about their language learning experience. Then I will create a report on those interviews and see how my answer compares to theirs. The interview questions will contain my essential question and background questions for the interviewee

2.  I will have recorded evidence of the interviews, transcripts of each interview, and a in depth report to post on my blog. I will also post the interviews on my blog as they occur.

3.  It will help me explore how different second language hypotheses compare to bilinguals actual second language acquisition experience. I can also help me either back up or discredit other answers to essential question.

Independent Component 1

L)I, Lara McConnaughey, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

The books and articles that were assigned to me in the ENG 323 Language Acquisition class helped me complete the component. These include: How Languages are Learned, The Power of Reading, Cardenas, Krashen

I took ENG 323 Language Acquisition, a class taught at Cal-Poly by my mentor Karen Russikoff. Th course included class on MW from 4:00PM-5:50PM. The class had an independent essay, a group assigned report,  many hours of independent reading and several tests.

Here is a description of the class:

I) This class is an upper division course which means that one needs at least 70 units of college credit to take the course. 70 units is basically Junior standing in college. This class is taken by mostly English majors and is required in order to obtain an English major or minor. The youngest person in the class (besides me) was 10 years old. The class included a group report which I have attached on the left side of my blog. This report took over 30 hours of work to complete. I also learned the full IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet) for English and can write and read the IPA.

I got a B+ in the class which I am pretty proud of because as I said before it is an upper division class and I didn't take the prerequisite. 

A) My independent component gave me all of my foundation for this project. The entire class was based on what my topic is all about. When I first started doing research on this topic I was geared mostly toward the computational side of linguistics and how utilizing computers can help us better understand languages and learn languages. When I was taking this class it made me realize before I can study language acquisition using computers I must understand how languages are acquired in general. This class introduced me to second language acquisition theories, methods, and terminology. For example I learned about the critical period hypothesis and how it pertains to second language acquisition and pronunciation. Learning this actually gave me the foundation for my first answer. I believe without this class I wouldn't have been able to come up with a good essential question or first answer.

Lesson 2 Reflection

Content:

1. Positive Statement

 I am really proud of my use of technology in my presentation and my activity. I feel like my activity was fun for everyone allowing them to use their sense of language to judge other speakers.

2. Questions to Consider
       P  
       I checked all the boxes for P consideration on the component contract. I really believe my answer one was well researched and well explained

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

       I think my activity really worked and helped my fellow classmates understand my answer one fully. I also think that my answer one had a lot of information to support it and my examples were understandable.

4.   If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
      I think I would have talked about my answer longer. When I timed myself before the presentation I hit 15 minutes of talking. I tried again cutting things out and got 12. Not wanting to run out of time I rushed through two slides of my presentation that supported my answer. I would go back and tell myself to not worry about the time but instead talk more about those two pieces of evidence.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be? 

     I think my answer to will be something that involves language families meaning that having a language that is related to yours and that has similar syntax and lexicon can help your acquisition in that language.

January blog

As we start second semester I have found that my mentor will not be on campus as often as she was last semester so I have decided to also try mentor ship with my old German teacher. She currently teaches for the German department at Claremont High School and also at my Saturday German School. I will be looking at lesson plans and helping her with grading and other such things in class. This membership will allow me to observe teens trying to learn a second language after their critical period. It will also allow me to observe English speakers learning a language that has the same Germanic roots as their native tongue.

Third Interview Questions

1. What is the most important factor in second language acquisition?
2. Why is it that the optimal age to start learning a language is round 7?
3. What are two other factors that re important to L2 acquisition?
4. How are all these factors related to each other?
5. How can your L1 help your L2 acquisition?
6. How would you define successful L2 acquisition?
7. Which if any computer language program is the best for L2 acquisition?
8. How can motivation come into play and help one acquire a L2?
9. How do you think polyglots are able to maintain their language abilities?
10. Do you believe intelligence is a key factor in L2 acquisition?

Mentorship 10 hours check

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?
I am doing my mentorship up on Cal-Poly's campus.
2.   Who is your contact?
My contact is Dr. Russikoff a professor of English up at Cal-Poly.
3.   How many total hours have you done 
I have done roughly ten hours of mentorship during the first semester of this year.  
4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.
In these ten hours I have basically help grade papers of ESL students that my mentor was teaching at the time. I have also done various projects in her class and come to her office hours if I have had any questions or just to discuss the topics that I learned in class.

Blog 10: Senior Project: The Holiday

Grandparents house Tian-Liao Taiwan

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you over the break with your senior project?
Over break I was unable to do mentor ship because I traveled to Japan and Taiwan;however, I continued to work on my senior project on the airplane and whenever I had time. I mostly "had time" on the airplane because the flight over to japan was ten hours. I brought the book I have been using for my RC called Discovering Speech, Words, and Mind. I read three chapters in this book while I was on the airplane. I will go back and do cornell notes and reread the chapters when we have RCs. 

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did an why?  What was the source of what you learned?
I think that the most important thing I learned from my readings was something called the Pimsleur approach to learning a second language. The text briefly mentioned the method, but I was intrigued so I went online and researched what/who Pimsleur was. I think that this method is important because it may become one of my first answers for my EQ. Like I said before the source of this knowledge was first the book which sparked my interest and then the internet for further research.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?
I think I would either talk to my mentor again or another Professor in the English department up at Cal-Poly that has majored in linguistics. I would interview one of them because I would like to conduct my next interview about the Pimsleur method of second language acquisition and they would be the most qualified to answer my questions.