Reflection
For this interview, I reached out to a 7th grade
Mathematics teacher, Mrs. Tapia, who has English Language Learners in her
classroom. I started off by asking
questions that focused on the different types of motivation that is most common
among her students. According to Mrs. Tapia, most of her students are
extrinsically motivated to learn English and the content, which did not utterly
surprise me because as Mrs. Tapia mentioned, most students around that age will
do something if they get something out of it. In regards to this type of
motivation, “learners who are extrinsically motivated may say, for example,
that they are learning the L2… simply because it is expected of them” (Ortega,
2013, p. 176). For children around this age, Mrs. Tapia states that there are
some students who receive social support that expect them to view learning as a
positive thing. Furthermore, in the video, Stephen Krashen’s 5 Hypotheses of
Second Language Acquisition, he claims that learners with high motivation,
self-confidence and low level of anxiety are better equipped for success in SLA
(14:43). After watching this video, I wanted to include a question that addressed
this idea. In order to make success possible for her ELLs with low motivation,
low self-esteem, and have a high level of anxiety, Mrs. Tapia does her best to
create a safe environment in which students understand that it is acceptable to
make mistakes in the content or when they speak. She encourages her ELLs to
actively participate within the classroom, and creates opportunities for them
to use their voice in a way they will not feel embarrassed or frustrated when
speaking, thus boosting their motivation to learn not only math but English. Another
important point that I would like to touch upon is the idea of memory capacity.
According to Ortega (2013), “Memory capacity has also been related to
differential achievement in L2 listening ability and overall L2 proficiency”
(p. 155). Now while the text states that memory capacity is related to
achievement, when I asked Mrs. Tapia if she agrees, she quickly responded with
no. Mrs. Tapia states that people with higher memory capacities can retain more
information and can possibly memorize things better, but that does not mean
they truly understand what it is they are trying to learn. In regards to her
students learning math, while some can easily memorize formulas and functions,
they still might not be able to produce and show a complete understanding of
the material. Lastly, I felt that it was important to address the final
question. I asked Mrs. Tapia if she thinks her ELLs will be able to achieve
ultimate success in learning English. The reason I asked this question is
because as I was reading Chapter 7, I came across an interesting statement. Many
SLA researchers “posit that adolescents and adults will rarely if ever attain
complete success in learning an L2 because they try to learn the language via
analysis and analogy (that is, explicitly) and in doing so they are using the ‘wrong’
route, as it were” (Ortega, 2013, p. 158). However, as it was heard in the
video, Mrs. Tapia believes that even though it will take a long time, young
children in the 7th grade can in fact learn to speak perfect English
if they continue to be in an English environment. I found this noteworthy to
discuss because Mrs. Tapia did not say anything about learning English through “analysis
and analogy,” but rather through informal opportunities within an English
speaking environment.
