Reflective Journal Early Language Learning

Chapter 4 touched on an infinite amount of theoretical concepts regarding early language

learning. However, the concepts that resonated with me the most included; the role of age in
language acquisition, thematic planning, content-based/content-related planning, and interpretive
listening. Although the chapter focused on Elementary School Curriculum, I saw a lot of
opportunity in applying the concepts it expanded on to Middle School and High School
Curriculum. Additionally, Chapter 4 made me reflect on my early schooling experiences and it
made me think of all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into teaching a language.
During k-12th grade, I attended International American Schools in Mexico and Cancun.
This means that, throughout my schooling, I was surrounded by people from all over the world.
My peers and my teachers were from all across the globe, including: Mexico, Latin America,
Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and more. Because I was surrounded by such a diverse
group of individuals, factors such as religion, nationality, ethnicity, and/or color were never
something that stood out to me. I viewed all of my peers and teachers equally.
Moreover, my peers and I grew up learning English and Spanish simultaneously. This
means that from an early age, culture was embedded in our learning and as a result, we became
truly aware and respectful of the variety of cultures that exist. We grew up accepting and
respecting different cultures than our own. However, when I moved to the U.S. for college, I no
longer formed part of a diverse group of individuals who were as aware and respectful of
cultures different than their own.
While in the U.S., I have experienced multiple comments of racism and an infinite
amount of ignorant questions about my nationality, as well as my country. Shrum & Glisan
(2010), explain that children tend to be more open to people who are different from them than

are teenagers. Based on my personal experience, I would take Shrum & Glisans statement a step
further and say that, just like teenagers, adults are also less open to those who are different than
themselves. Perhaps, such lack of openness to those individuals who are different than them can
be due to the fact that they didnt grow up in a multicultural environment. Nonetheless, this made
me think of how important it is for me, as a future teacher, to embed culture in my classroom.
Shrum et. al, (2010) point out that culture is very important in an elementary school language
program but I think that it is as important for middle and high school language programs. In
order to create multicultural students, you have to integrate culture in the lessons and activities
that you design. You also have to embed multicultural sensitivity in the classroom culture that
you provide to your students. You can embed culture through cultural products and practices,
including: traditional stories, famous artists and musicians, the economy and currency, greetings,
gestures, typical life/attitudes of the target culture, and more.
Another factor that resonated with me was thematic planning. Shrum et. al, (2010), point
out that the focus of planning for elementary foreign language teaching tends to be the thematic
unit. However, I think this too can be taken a step further and be applied to middle and high
school foreign language learning. Building a thematic unit, regardless of the age level that you
are teaching, allows for lesson planning to be easier and more accessible, for the purpose and the
content of instruction to be more goal oriented, for standards-based instruction to be met, for
there to be more organization and well planned activities that engage and challenge students in
language learning. Most importantly, thematic planning allows for drill-like exercises to be
avoided but rather connect content language and culture to a big idea (Shrum et. al, 2010).
In addition to thematic planning, content-based instruction is another factor that
resonated with me. This is because of the amazing benefits it provides to second language

learners and the growth challenges it provides for teachers. The material that content-based
instruction consists of cognitively engages and challenges students, and it goes beyond the
language and culture that is being studied. I find this fascinating because it means that teachers
need to think outside the box and design extra challenging lessons. The activities that they plan
need to truly extend learning. However, it is important that they offer contextual-support,
context-embedded language, and context-reduced language. My favorite is context-reduced
language because it means that students must rely on the language itself for meaning, such as
telephone conversations, explanations without diagrams or examples, and others (Shrum &
Glisan, 2010).
When I learned French, my teacher constantly incorporated context-reduced language
activities. I think that such incorporation is what made my peers and I acquire the language. It
truly helped us because we had no option but to focus on the language and depend on it to
acquire meaning. It was cognitively demanding but it allowed us to become effective problemsolvers.
As a future foreign language teacher, I would take advantage of context-based instruction
and implement it in my classroom. I think its something that students can greatly benefit from,
as it cognitively engages and challenges them. Additionally, when students are exposed to the
target language outside of the classroom, they will be able to more effectively derive meaning
from the language and understand what is being said.
Lastly, interpretive listening is another factor that resonated with me. What I like about
interpretive listening is that it challenges students to associate input with meaning. Additionally,
it allows for them to build the necessary self-confidence for producing language (Shrum et. al,
2010). One can help students make associations through meaningful activities and contexts.

These include and are not limited to: stories that are familiar to their native language, repetition,
dramatization, and visuals that provide meaning (Shrum et. al, 2010). After interpreting meaning
through listening, students will be able to write, while visualizing all of the input that was
provided to them. Gradually, students will produce more than a word; they will proceed to
writing sentences and then paragraphs. As a future teacher, I would consider incorporating
interpretive listening in my classroom. I really like how interpretive listening allows for gradual
achievement of the language. Through the exposal of different stages (i.e. listening, writing, and
reading), students gain content knowledge and acquire a second language.
Overall, I think it is crucial for teachers to challenge themselves to become the best
teachers they can be in order to successfully teach language learners. It is highly important that
we believe in our students potential and maximize it. If we dont take the time to effectively plan
our lessons, and incorporate theoretical concepts, we are negatively impacting students learning.
We need to integrate culture-based instruction, thematic planning, content-based/content-related
planning, interpretive listening, and other theoretical concepts to help students obtain linguistic
goals. Doing so will also help students learn the content and make progress in language
development. Lets use these concepts to guide student learning and help them make significant
gains in content knowledge and second language learning development.