Chapter 1 and 2

While reading chapters 1 and 2, I was very interested in the focus on the social aspect of language acquisition. If an individual does not have a strong foundation in their L1, it will be much more difficult them to develop an L2. Two years ago I volunteered in a kindergarten classroom, and the teacher would have me work one-on-one with certain students to help them with reading. However, as she explained to me, a large part of this individual attention was the conversation I would have with those students. Students who do not have conversational interactions at home risk falling behind and this can also serve as a road block should they attempt to acquire and L2. As a bilingual education major, I will need to take into consideration whether my students may need additional practice with certain aspects of their L1 before they can succeed in their L2.

Throughout elementary school I learned both English and Spanish at school in a dual language program and while I picked up Spanish fairly quickly because of my young age, I did not pick it up nearly as quickly as my peers whose L1 was Spanish acquired English. I received a lot of exposure to Spanish in the classroom, but still spoke English at home and experienced much more exposure to it than Spanish. My peers who acquired English as their L2 were exposed to English much more than I was exposed to Spanish and therefore acquired it much more quickly. However, because I already had an L2 and began learning at such an early age, when I was older and took classes in German, I was able to acquire that language more easily than my peers who were learning an L2 for the first time.

I have experienced language classes that approach language acquisition from the position of skill and drill vocabulary and grammar lessons, and while vocabulary and grammar is certainly important, the social aspects of language acquisition play an important role in developing proficiency.