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~

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.

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.

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.