Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Senior Project Reflection

Title: Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection
Label: Presentation
Directions: Please answer the following questions, and submit them to the blog.
Due Date: The day after your block presentation by 8:00 A.M.


(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?
  • I am most proud of the execution of my block presentation because I was able to hit the 30 minute time speaking time for my essential question answers. I did not have to drag on my presentation in order to meet that time criteria, which is something I'm proud of because I was afraid I will talk to fast or forget to say certain pieces of information that would leave me with a large amount of speaking time to fulfill. I am also proud of how I was able to execue my presentation so well without stuttering or crying (lol). Before my presentation, I was very nervous and anxious. However, the moment I began my hook activity, all that anxiety went away. I'm guessing it's because I prepared well enough.


(2) Questions to Consider

a. What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation (self-assessment)?

AE P AP CR NC

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

AE P AP CR NC

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
  • My independent component 2 really helped me a lot in my senior project. I feel like it fit into finding the answers to my essential question perfectly since my EQ has to do with teaching a child a second language, and that is exactly what I did. My research went fairly well also. Since my mentor is an expert wth all these things, she was able to give me a lot of resources to look into for my senior project.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?
  • I feel my senior project was executed fairly well. I had an excellent mentor, had an abundances of sources for me to look into, had very relevant and reasonable independent components, and executed my lessons well (with the exception of my second one lmao). I am not sure if I would do anything differently.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors? Be specific and use examples.

  • My senior project has opened a window to a possible career choice. I entered my senior topic knowing little about it, but just wanting to explore because of my love for languages. I never expected to enjoy this branch of linguistics so much. Now, I'm actually majoring in Linguistics, and attempting to double major in linguistics and computer science in hopes of programming new and accurate translators.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Mentorship



Title: Blog 22: Mentorship
Label: Mentorship
Due Date: Thursday, May 14 by 8AM

Content:

LIA Response to blog:

Literal
  • Done. 
  • Mentor: Dr. Karen Russikoff - Cal Poly Pomona
Interpretive
What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
  • I think all the foundation knowledge is the most important thing. My mentor has really given me a lot of information about my topic, from her class to our one-on-one sessions with each other. She was basically my Aladdin and showed me "a whole new world", the world being linguistics. I was able to learn about all the different branches of language acquisition, and that really helped me decide on what I wanted my whole senior project to revolve around on. If it weren't for my mentor and her interesting experiences with her TESOL summer classes in China, I would have missed out on something that I enjoy doing.

Applied
How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ? Please explain.
  • My essential question is "What is the most important factor of child second language acquisition?"Since my mentor teaches Chinese kids a second language every summer, she has given me a lot of advice on how to give them a fun, but effective learning experience. I used the advice she has given me when I was teaching my sister's best friend's brother, Lawrence, English. Dr. Russikoff's advice helped me get Lawrence to open up to me and lower that affective filter, which allowed him to absorb more input. 

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Exit Interview

Title: Exit Interview
Label: Exit Interview
Due Date: Thursday, May 7th by 8AM

Please be advised. The senior team will not conduct any exit interview in which the student has not turned in a passing research count and completing this blog. In addition, you are expected to dress as you would for a job interview.

Content:

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers? What is your best answer and why?
  • "What is the most important factor of child second language acquisition?"
    • Lowered Affective-Filter
    • Comprehensible Input
    • Patience
  • Best answer: Lowered Affective Filter because when the affective-filter is up, no input will be acquired.
(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

  • When I took my English 323 class, my mentor explained the Affective Filter in great detail when she was teaching about Krashen's Monitor Model. She believes the Affective Filter is the most important hypothesis, and I agreed with her because I had some first hand experiences.

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

  • After my ENG 323 class ended, it was more difficult for me to come up with resources to look at to find my third answer. I couldn't talk to my mentor either since she was always busy with other students. To resolve this, I began talking to some ESL teachers from my elementary school, and they were able to give me some helpful stuff to look into.

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

  • My mentor: She has taught me everything I needed to know in order to kickstart my project. If it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't have been as successful with my senior project as I am.
  • Stephen Krashen: His books are the life of linguistics.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Starting of the End

This month has been pretty crazy. It started off pretty mellow with spring break, but once that was over, we hit the ground running. The crazy pace of how fast everything is being thrown at us kind of made me realize that I'm going to be graduating in just a month and a half. When we received our final presentation rubrics, my jaw dropped. Final presentations seemed like such a ways away, but there it was, the rubric staring at me right in the face! I honestly have no idea how I'm going to cope with all the things that will be going down in May since I barely survived this month. On the bright side, I finished my independent component! woo! I was finally able to meet up with Lawrence, and I spent a good chunk with the boy on the days I saw him. I really don't feel like going into details right now, but here are some pictures. (I used them on my independent component 2 post. lmao)
Lawrence and I playing with his cousins in the ocean. I would ask him "How does the water feel?" or "What do you want to do in the water?" Since this was in the beginning of my independent component, he didn't respond much to my questions since he was still shy and not use to my presence.


Lawrence playing some sick Minecraft. 


Sunday, April 26, 2015

Independent Component 2


Title: Independent Component 2
Label: Independent Component
Due Date: Monday, 4/27 by 8AM

Content:

LITERAL
  • (a) “I, Alyanna Landayan, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 32 hours of work.”
  • (b) The works of Krashen and the book, Beyond Methods, really assisted me in teaching Lawrence in an efficient way.
  • (c) My independent component hours can be found here.
  • (d) I had my sister's best friend's little brother, Lawrence, act as my student for English as a Second Language learning. I used all the information I have learned on child second language acquisition to teach Lawrence English in the most effective way possible.
INTERPRETIVE

  • Because my senior project revolves around how young children acquire a second language, what better way to explore than actually teach a child myself? Teaching Lawrence how to speak English allowed me to utilize all the information I have collected these past few months to create a little lesson plan for an English learner. I was able to take the countless amount of methods I've read about and decide which ones would create the most effective and enjoyable way for Lawrence to learn English. I tried to make learning fun for him by reading these interesting books and playing video games with him. How did those activities help him acquire English? Ask me to find out. My independent component also enabled me to see which one of my answers is the best one. I began my independent component with my three best EQ answers in mind, but I still had trouble figuring out which one of these answers is the best answer. I was one of those students that wrote "Oh, ALL my answers are just so great. :]" Apparently, that wasn't acceptable, so I have to actually discover which answer is the most essential for child second language acquisition all on my own. By the end of this independent component, I'm proud to say that I have decided which one of my answers is the best answer. Not only that, I have also made a new friend. :] Here are some photos I have taken throughout my independent component. Some of these pictures are of my materials and some of them are of Lawrence. 
Here's a photo of Lawrence playing some Minecraft on one of the first days I started teaching him. He didn't really talk to me much in the beginning. All he did was play his video games, but even when he was playing his video games, I was still able to get some output out of him by asking him to verbalize what he's doing in the game.

One of the books I read to Lawrence. It's about a crayon having an identity crisis. It's quite a cute book.
Here's a book that Lawrence really liked. It's called Press Here. The books purpose is to teach children colors and actions.

At the family gathering. Lawrence was walking around with a stick of barbecue. I asked him to name all of the food that he wanted to eat in English, and he kept on saying "chicken barbecue." 

When I went to the Santa Fe Dam for the picnic. That's me in the blue shorts playing with Lawrence in the blue shirt. The kid in the red shirt is a family friend, Christian.
When we had a family gathering at the beach. Lawrence is the one in the blue shorts. I'm the one in the black bikini top and blue bikini bottom. I was talking to Lawrence in English, asking him to tell me everything he saw at the beach. Jessica, the one in the light blue bikini top, thought I was being weird.


APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? 
  • As I have stated before, my whole senior topic revolves around child second language acquisition and what the most important factors of second language acquisition are. Since I actually taught a child, I was able to see which one of my answers (affective filter, comprehensible input, and patience) is the best answer for my EQ. Just as Dr. Russikoff has said and I have predicted, the affective filter is the best answer for my essential question. Lawrence is a shy child and he didn't really open up to me in the beginning. He didn't talk to me much when I would ask him questions, and when he did talk to me, it was minimal and uninterested answers. However, after about a week of seeing me, he started to feel comfortable with me and it was so hard to shut the boy up. Lawrence was talking in English, though! And his English did improve a lot once I broke through that hard shell.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A Work in Progress...

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you are probably aware that my second independent component is teaching my sister's best friend's little brother, Lawrence, English. Unfortunately, I was not able to visit him much through-out this month of March due to a three-week long discrepancy between my sister and her friend and my busy schedule. However, I do plan on meeting with Lawrence tomorrow and at least record his knowledge on the English language. I'm kind of excited to see him since I haven't visited the Paje family in a whole month.

I've started reading this book called Beyond Methods my first interviewee, Aaron Salinger, Spanish teacher at Mt. Sac, lend to me. It's just this book that elaborates on ways to making learning a second language fun for any age, whether the student is 5 or 50 (probably not 50 though because whoa. that is too old to be learning.). I'll try to use the methods referenced in this book to teach Lawrence how to speak English.
My sister and I smelling the genius coming from Beyond Methods.
I also found some tagalog-english children stories I can read to him, which will help connect Tagalog words to English words since the translation is already on the page. I'm kind of excited to (finally) start my independent component. :]


Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Fourth Interview Questions

Title: Fourth Interview Questions
Label: Interviews
Due Date: Thursday, March 12, 2015

Content: Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. The focus of your questions should be on your answer to your EQ.
  1. How many languages are you fluent in and what age did you learn these languages?
  2. What helped you acquire these languages?
  3. What do you feel are the most important factors of child second language acquisition?
  4. Do you feel like there is a difference between learning and acquiring a language?
  5. What strategies do you use when teaching the children English?
  6. What makes being an ESL teacher enjoyable?
  7. Why did you want to become an ESL teacher?
  8. What are some special conditions to consider when analyzing a child's language competence level?
  9. Do you feel like patience is an important factor to child second language acquisition, or are there more important things other than that?
  10. Have you ever taught ESL for middle school students?
  11. How can I elaborate on my three EQ answers?
  12. Do you support the use of the child's first language within the classroom or do you prefer the students to stick to English only?
  13. Which type of education do you feel is better for children learning a second language: bilingual education or ESL pull-out programs?
  14. What do you do when a child goes through their Silent Period and refuses to talk?
  15. How do you make your students more comfortable in the learning environment?
  16. What is the most difficult obstacle you had to face when teaching children English as a second language?
  17. How can you ensure understanding between the child and the teacher?
  18. What are your opinions on writing drills?
  19. Do you teach based on Krashen's Monitor Model?
  20. What is some advice you can give me when it comes to teaching a child English as a second language?

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Blog 17: Answer 3

Title: Blog 17: Third Answer
Label: Research
Due Date: Thursday, March 5th by 8AM

Content:

Just like you did for answer 1 and 2 post your:

1. EQ
  • What is the most important factor of child second language acquisition?
2. Answer #3 (Write in a complete sentence like a thesis statement)*
  • If a teacher is patient with a child who is learning their second language acquisition, the child is more likely to feel more comfortable with the language later.
3. 3 details to support the answer (a detail is a fact and an example)
  • Everyone learns at a different pace
    • It's kind of like school; some people are better at certain subjects than others because the information will just click for them. Children may not understand the grammar and structure of the language at times, but that does not mean that they won't ever be able to understand the input. Sometimes, things just need to settle in the brain for a while before information starts to come together. Other times, the teacher just needs to keep clarifying and find other ways to explain.
  • Silent Period
    • Children learning a second language are most likely going to go through a silent period, which is a phenomenon where someone is silent and gives little output because they do not feel like they are ready to speak in a new language/they are simply uncomfortable. Forcing a child to speak during this period can make the child feel even more uncomfortable with the language.
  • Patience lowers the affective filter
    • If a teacher is patient with their student along with encouraging, the student would feel more comfortable, which lowers their affective filter and allows language to be acquired more easily.
4. The research source (s) to support your details and answer
  • Hasan, Ali S. "Making Input Comprehensible for Foreign Language Acquisition." Damascus University Journal. Damascus University, 2008. Web. 19 Feb 2015.
  • Krashen, Stephen D. "Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition." University of Southern California. n.p., n,d, Web. 8 Jan 2015.

5. Concluding Sentence
  • As the old saying goes, "Patience is key."

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Mission: English Acquisition

To be honest, besides interview 3, I haven't been doing much revolving around my senior topic. I know, the senior teachers are reading this with disappointment if they even read these. I temporarily put a pause into my Japanese learning due to other matters coming up and new hobbies surfacing. However, when I went into a Japanese ramen restaurant earlier in the month, I was able to read a little bit of the menu. Even though I wasn't able to understand, I could still read! Wooo~ I was also able to ask for chopsticks from this one waitress who only spoke Japanese. It was pretty cool since this was my first face-to-face conversation in Japanese. Although short lived, I talked in Japanese! Started from the bottom now I'm here. ha. i hate myself.

The menu. Yum yum yum.


If you have been keeping up with my blog, you probably would have noticed what I am planning to do for my second independent component, which is teaching English to my sister's friend's eight year old brother, Lawrence. If you didn't know that, well, you know that now. Ha. Even though he has lived in California for a couple of years now, his English still isn't that great because he doesn't interact much with his fellow classmates at school and his parents communicate with him in Tagalog. Of course, English is pretty much a necessity here in the United States, especially when you're older and trying to get a job. Therefore, I have decided to make it my mission to teach him English because I'm such a kind soul.

Unfortunately, Lawrence's family has been sick recently, so I haven't been able to visit. Plus, I'm not sure if he'll be comfortable enough with me to teach him. Lawrence is a pretty shy and anti-social kid; he'd rather stay inside and play his video games than go out and play with his friends. That would make his affective-filter high straight off the bat, so it would be hard for him to actually gain input that I teach him. For my interview 3 (which I did with my mentor because my mentor is awesome), I asked Dr. Russikoff on ways to teach Lawrence and make him comfortable with me. She told me that since he enjoys playing video games, I could play video games with him. That way, he'd see me as a friend, and the learning experience would be more enjoyable. However, when I do so, I should communicate as we play so he'll be able to absorb the input while his affectve-filter is low from the fun he's having. For example, when we're selecting characters to play, I'll say "Who do you want to play as, Lawrence? Do you want to play as Mario or Princess Peach?" or if I lose, I'll say "Wow. GG WP."  She also advises to stay away from writing sentences and drawing because he probably does enough of that at school, and simulating a school-environment or teaching style would just make him uninterested.

Lawrence likes playing Mario Kart, so I'll play that with him. I'm pretty bad at it though, but as the wise philosopher Drake had once said, YOLO. 
Hopefully I'll be able to start teaching him soon. For now, I'll just continue rotting powering through senior year.

I'll see you next month for the monthly blog post. BYE~

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Answer 2

Title: Answer 2
Label: Presentation
Due Date: Thursday, 2/19 by 8AM


1. What is your EQ?
  • What is the most important factor in child second language acquisition?
2. What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
  • My first answer is, "If a child learns in a low-affective filter environment, then they will be able to absorb more input and acquire language easier."
3. What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)
  • My second answer is, "If a child is given comprehensible input (i+1) to learn from, then they will be able to move beyond their current level of competence for the language."
4. List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.
  • Understandable:
    • Comprehensible input is i+1, with i being the current level of competence. You just give the child input that is just one level above their current language competence. This way, not only will the input be easy enough for the child to understand, but the child will be able to acquire new rules, vocabulary, etc. as well.
  • Easy advancement:
    • As stated previously, input given should follow the i+1 rule (one level above current skill in the language). This will allow the child to smoothly advance from their current language competence.
  • Encourages child to go above and beyond:
    • A child will most likely feel inclined to stick to input that they can understand completely. This will cause them to stay in the same language level.  However, with i+1, they are able to progressively move onto the next tier.
5. What printed source best supports your answer?
  • "Principles and Practice in Second Language Learning" by Stephen Krashen
6. What other source supports your answer?
  • My ENG 323 class
  • Personal experience
  • More books by Stephen Krashen
  • The man Stephen Krashen himself
7. Tie this together with a concluding thought.
  • Happy Chinese New Year! Here's to a good remainder of senior year. When's final presentation? I think I'm somewhat ready.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Independent Component 2 Approval

Title: Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval
Label: Independent Component
Due Date: Thursday, 2/12 by 8AM


1. Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
  • English competence is needed in order to survive here in America. Since my EQ explores what factors would positively affect a child's second language acquisition, I am planning on teaching a child English for my independent component. My sister's best friend has a little brother, Lawrence, that doesn't know much English, and he needs it to communicate easier with his fellow classmates and his teacher. I can teach him traditional American games to give him comprehensible input and read children stories with him. However, if I'm unable to use Lawrence as my test subject  student, then I can find another relative/family friend to teach instead.
2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
  • Posting pictures of children online wouldn't be the smartest idea to do, so I will document the student's progress of the language throughout the 30 hours I'm with him. I can have him write sentences about his day and post pictures of how his grammar, spelling, and vocabulary progresses over time.
3. Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.
  • Teaching a child a second language will really show me what is important when a child is learning their second language because I'm actually experiencing the process/factors in person rather than reading articles on the Input Hypothesis or some other Krashen book. I would be able to see what works and what doesn't.
4. Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.
  • Done. lol.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Independent Component 1

Title: Independent Component 1
Label: Independent Component
Due Date: Friday 2/6 at 8AM
Content: 

  • LITERAL
    • (a) Write: “I, Alyanna Landayan, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 38 hours of work."
    • (b) My mentor, DR. Karen Russikoff helped me complete the independent component (she IS the one who taught the class.)
    • (c) My independent component hours can be found in the blue section all the way down at the bottom, beneath my mentorship hours here.
    • (d) I took ENG 323, a Language Acquisition class taught by me mentor, Dr. Karen Russikoff. I would spend from 4:00-6:00 in that classroom every M/W for three months, learning about how language is acquired. Despite the strenuous workload from two back-to-back college classes and all the gray hairs earned from the stress that quarter, I enjoyed taking this class. Dr. Russikoff's easy-going personality and fun stories kept it interesting.

  • INTERPRETIVE
    • I entered senior year with little to no knowledge of language and all the factors that go behind acquiring a language. All I knew was that I wanted to have my senior project revolve around it I have always loved learning languages, and since my childhood was just one confusing linguistic case (from bilingual to a Tagalog only speaker to English only speaker), I wanted to know how I can easily learn a language I have once been fluent in and why did my language identity fluctuate the way it did. In this class, not only did I get an explanation, but I was also able to learn so much more about language and how people are able to connect meaning to the random noises and sounds that make up a language. From the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) to Baby Language Milestones to Krashen's Monitor Model, I learned a lot about language. Every time I stepped into that classroom, I would always be learning something new and I actually looked forward to going to class every Monday and Wednesday. ENG 323 was definitely not the easiest class to take with all the information that had to be remembered and the crazy (yet reasonable) amount of articles to read, but it was fun and engaging with Dr. Russikoff's interesting stories and humor. Also, just sitting in a 300 class just made me feel so smart and superior. "Yes, I am a high school student. Yes, I am taking a class with you college juniors. Suck it." It would've been awkward if I just whipped out my phone during class to snap some photos, so I don't have any documentation of me sitting inside the classroom, but I do have photos of the ENG 323 booklet, my grade for the class, and an e-mail between me and my group members for our Non-Native Speaker project.
My first assignment on a NNS article that the class had to read. I got an A- for the thoughtfulness of my short essay. What dinged me was my incorrect answers for some of the questions.

When the NNS project started, my group members e-mailed each other to make sure who is doing what role.

IPA chart in my ENG 323 booklet. Pretty fun stuff.

My grade for my language acquisition class. I blocked out my other grades to prevent nosy people from looking. Besides, they're irrelevant. This post is about my Language Acquisition class, not Religions of the World. But aye, your girl got a B.

A day's worth of notes ft. my eye drawing.

Behold, the ENG 323 booklet and it's entirety.

  • APPLIED
    • As I stated before, I had a limited knowledge of my senior topic. Taking this class has really helped me grasp a better understanding of language acquisition as well as build a greater passion and interest for it. This class was the kick-starter to my senior project. I learned more than half of my knowledge on language acquisition inside that classroom, which acted as a guide on what I should look into and what I should be researching in order to get more information. If I never decided to take this class, I wouldn't know the IPA, Krashen and Cummin's theories on second language acquisition, or how crucial ESL program qualities are for children learning English as a second language. ENG 323 is the foundation for my project. 


Saturday, January 31, 2015

Glass Cannon

Glass Canon (n.) - Game Term. Refers to a person, weapon, or vehicle which has a high output, but a low defense, life, durability, etc.

At the beginning of presentations, I start off strong and I do have a lot of things to say throughout my presentations. However, with every word I stumble on and every mistake that's made, the more that strength deteriorates and the more nervous I get. I guess you could say I'm a glass cannon when it comes to presentations.

Lesson 2 did not go as smoothly as I had wanted it to go. I spent hours preparing only to continuously stumble on my words, create awkward pauses, and repeat things that have already been said during the actual presentation. It was kind of embarrassing on my part. :[ 悲しい(sad). Perhaps stopping to take a deep breath during my final presentation would prevent my nerves from overwhelming me. Despite numerous amounts of people telling me that I did much better than I think I did, my presentation could have gone much better. But, that's all gone now. As Elsa would say, "The past is in the past. LET IT GOOOOOO~" 

ありのままの姿見せるのよ。
I guess Lesson 2 is more of a lesson for me rather than the people in my advisory house. It taught me to calm the heck down and just breathe. I'll be more prepared once the final lesson comes around. No longer a glass cannon, but a steel cannon. Hehehehehehehehehehe.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Lesson 2 Reflection


Content:

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
  • I was surprised that people enjoyed my activity because teaching the Japanese children hand clapping game to high school students can be executed poorly or very well. Fortunately, my execution was satisfactory and people told me they had fun.

2. a. What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

 P+

b. Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
  • I met all the P requirements and went into depth with my essential question answer. However,the nerves got the best of me for this presentation, which caused me to stumble over my words often, which got me very overwhelmed.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
  • The Japanese Hand Clapping game is something people seemed to enjoy. It really demonstrated the importance of my first answer to the essential question.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
  • I let my nerves overwhelm me. I should relax more when I am up there. I guess it was the fact that I spent a lot of time preparing for my presentation only to forget my words half way through caused my affective-filter to go up, resulting in my anxiety and nervousness to increase (ayeeeee). 

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

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Blog 12: Mentorship 10 Hours Check

Title: Blog 12: Mentorship 10 hours check
Label: Mentorship
Due Date: Friday January 9, 2014 by 8AM.

1. Where are you doing your mentorship?
  • Cal Poly Pomona
2. Who is your contact?
  • Karen A. Russikoff, ENG 323 Professor
3. How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?
  • 48 Hours
4. Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.
  • I helped Dr. Russikoff during her office hours and she taught me some extra things on language acquisition that are not taught in her class.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Blog 11: Holiday Research Update


1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?
  • I used the tips and tricks of language-learning my mentor has taught me in order to acquire Japanese. I have also implied methods learned from my ENG 323 class to teach my baby cousin how to speak.

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why? What was the source of what you learned?
  • Enjoyable input is something that really effects language learning because if you're learning a language, you need to surround yourself with it. Books, magazines, and songs are ways you can surround yourself with the target language, but it's more beneficial if you are looking at something you enjoy. I saw the effects of enjoyable input within myself.
3. If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers for your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

  • My mentor, obviously, because she is the one who has taught me different aspects about child language acquisition in the first place.