LANGUAGE ACQUISITION REFLECTION 2

I learned lots of things during the lesson. What I learned was that:

Learning a language is a long-term effort; however, no matter how this

period is long, it doeesn’t quarantee that you’ll learn that language efficiently
because if there’s no or little exposure to the language which is being learned
and if there’s no practice outside the classroom, it’s inevitable that learners fails
to learn a language efficiently.Consequently, it’s not enough only the classroom
experience to learn a language. It may not be lots of opportunities outside to
expose the language, but computers and laptops are everywhere. Especially
internet is a useful tool to develope language learning.

Furthermore, I learned the principles of language learning and teaching.

That is, it’s important for teachers to know what the learner’s intellectual levels,
what their native languages are etc. and, for learners, to know what the teacher’s
philosophy of education is, what sort of personalities he/she has etc. because if
the students and the teacher know about themselves, it fosters language-
learning process positively.

It’s also necessary that the teacher should know how to use the language
for a range of different purposes and functions ; that is, he/she should know when
and how to say what to whom. In addition, it’s important that the teacher should
know the differences between the first and the second language of the learner in
order to be able to explain the system of that language and to make connection
between them.

I also learned some definitions of learning and teaching. While defining

them, we realized the differences between two definitions: For instance, learning
is a behavioral tendency according to Kimble& Gormezy; that is, learning deals
with observable performances. However, teaching is to show or help someone to
learn how to do something , especially TO GUIDE in the study of something,
which differs the teachers from the computers. So, I learned that our own
definitions of learning and teaching will determine our philosophy of education. If
I view second language learning as a fun, I’ll teach my children in a funny way.

I learned the difference between “learning” and “acquisition.” Learning

becomes consciously;in contrast, acquisition becomes unconsciously. We’re
learning English but we have acquired Turkish, for example.

I also learned such schools of thoughts as Behaviorism , Cognitivism,

Constructivism and differences between each other. For instance, Behaviorism
deals with observable performances while Cognitivism deals with deeper
structures of human behaviour. If it comes to Constructivism, it deals with the
individuals engaged in social practices.

I remembered during the lesson that Saussure claimed that there was a
difference between “parole” and “langue” Langue is societal language wheras
parole is individual lang. According to Skinner’s observation, Chomsky called
parole as performance. Competence is all information in one’s brain, it is
unobservable language ability, while performance is to be able to use that
information.

I had difficulty in figuring out nothing . At first, It seemed to me that I

would have difficulty in the school of thoughts ; however, you insisted that we
should make connection between the school of thoughts and the methods. (e.g.
Behaviourism and ALM) Thanks to your guiding, I understood that it was a piece
of cake.

I suppose I need to focus more on the schools of thought and their typical
themes. I should revise them as much as possible not to forget.

As a teacher, I’ll try to know my students’ intellectual level,

socioechonomical capacities, their interest, their culture, their needs etc. I’ll
determine my philosophy of education according to this information and teach
my students according to this philosophy. Furthermore, I’ll use technology in my
class and give my students a lot of chance to use it in language learning, as well.
I’ll increase the amount of time spent in the activities in the classroom. I’ll also
introduce my students the culture, everyday speech of language they’re learning
because I know “The more exposition to the language, the more success, fluency
and accuracy…”