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.