Assignment 1 (TESOL) PDF

**Section A** **Describe your own experience of learning a language or language.** Language is the softest non-living thing in the world which defines meaningful life of human beings. Humans' daily lives become fulfilled because of language. "Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts r...

**Section A** **Describe your own experience of learning a language or language.** Language is the softest non-living thing in the world which defines meaningful life of human beings. Humans' daily lives become fulfilled because of language. "Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which grow". (Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-1894) It's said that language has got the ability to deliver actions from thoughts. Similarly, I'm one of the human beings who I learned language in a situation. **Arakanese language** It appears that my first language is Arakanese language which is like Burmese in Myanmar. Arakanese state is a region in the southwest of Burma/Myanmar formerly known as Arakan, by about 2 million people. But half of Arakanese people are native speakers, and another half of ethnicities are Kamei, Kwe Myi, Daingnet, Maramagyi, Mru and Thet. On one hand, It is said that Arakanese people use upper tongue which pronouns hardly. For example, if another ethnicity says, 'I have finished my dinner', most Arakanese people say that 'Sar pre yar' with hard stress and it looks like annoying sound. However, that's normal for them. On the other hand, the different regions can make the changeable accents in Arakanese Language. It means that the Arakanese language is a language it has dialectal phrases and different accents in Rakhine state. There are some Arakanese speakers in Palawa Township in Chin state. It is considered by some to be dialect of Burmese, though differs significantly from Standard Burmese in its vocabs, including loan words from Bengali, English and Hindi. Image from: (Wikimedia Commons, 2009) **1** **My own experience of Learning a language** Vygotsky suggests that language and thought begin as separate abilities that begin to intertwine at about age two. Vygotsky believes that language is part of the environment that a child is born into, and it is even part of the environment before birth. First language acquisition refers to how a child develops its ability to speak and use the language of its environment: its native language begins at or before birth. In fact, I learned the language in society. When people talk and act, I talk. I passed six stages of acquisition. 1. Prelinguistic Stage 2. Babbling Stage 3. First Words 4. Two-word stage 5. Telegraphic Stage 6. Beyond Telegraphic Stage **1.Prelinguistic stage** Prelinguistic stage is from birth to 6 months. In this stage, a baby cannot make not only internal sound but also external sound. Crying, noises and sneezing can be made by babies. However, it is said that they are involuntary responses to stimuli. The responses are not considered as language. According to scientists, language is a kind of creation. Hence, this stage might appropriately be called the **Pre-Production stage**. **2. Babbling Stage** In this stage, the children use the same sounds when they babble, no matter what the language around them is. The infants use their mouths by opening and closing. It is realized to make sounds by opening, closing and stopping. In Babbling stage, the infants make sound bilabial in both lips (For example, in Arakanese, Ba Ba (father), Ma Ma (mother), Poe Poe (Grandfather) **2** and so on). Then, alveolar can be also made with tips of the tongue (For example, in Arakanese, na (it hurts), sat (Spicy). In this stage, the children can show repetitive babbling of the low central vowel with stop consonants. The Babbling stage is about 6 months of age. The children begin ignoring and lose the ability to distinguish between the sounds of parents' language and other sounds. They respond the most with friendly people. In this stage, the early disappearance of awareness of phonetic distinctions has great implications for second language acquisition and pronunciation and lends support to the critical period hypothesis for first language acquisition. **3. The first Words Stage** The first Words Stage starts from 1 year of age to approximately 2 years of age. In this stage, the children say one word sentence. It means that one word is equal to one sentence. During the babbling stage, the infants say one word in consonant and vowel (for example, Mar). However, the first words stage is structured with syntax. Some examples of words are mum, No, Yes, dad,). The children produce the utterances on their owns and the thoughts can be changed into language in short forms in this stage. The stage is also called the **Holophrastic Stage**. **4. The Two Word Stage** The two Word Stage starts around 1 and a half or 2 years and continues about 2 and a half years. In this stage, the children can make a simple sentence with two words. They combine verb and noun (like apple) and adjective and noun (red apple). Expressing more complex ideas and relationships, especially possessions and describing, can be led in this stage **5. The Telegraphic Stage** It is said that the telegraphic stage is from 2 and a half to 3 years of age. In this stage, the children combine more than two words. The children show the sentence in short form that is a kind of sending in telegram. For example, instead of saying 'I went to the park yesterday', the children say, 'go to park'. For that reason, this stage is called **telegraphic stage**. **3** **6.Beyond Telegraphic Stage** The beyond Telegraphic stage begins around the stage of 3 years and continues into fully developed language skills. The children make more complex sentences by using grammar, punctuations, prepositions leading to fluent and coherent speech. Vocabulary development continues including the overextension strategy. The stage shows a growing understanding of syntax and the rules of language. According to history, there are three dialects in Arakanese: Sittwe- Marma, Ramree and Thandwe. It tends to learn Sittwe- Marma dialect of the Arakanese language. In addition, Arakanese language is my native language I learned from my social interaction. Regarding the six stages, I learned steps on steps. I use examples in the Arakanese language. In detail, communication is begun around 6 months by babbling the bilabial sounds (for example, ba ba-father, mar -- mother) and alveolar (for example, na na -- hurt, lar lar -go). Around 1 year or one year and a half, I use one word sentence (for example, kryite tal -- like). From 1 year, it is spoken by short sentences (for example, Pan thee koe kryite tal -- like apple). Around 3 years old, it is used in short sentences (for example, kyou ko lar ray -- I go to school). After that, social interaction gives a lot of vocabulary and ways of making complex sentences. My basic learning destination on the first language acquisition took 5 years. At that age, I could communicate well. However, the Arakanese language is a kind of complicated language that has three dialects. As Sittwe dialects, we don't understand well Ramree's accent and Thandwe's accents. The way they speak is fast. There are different pronunciations in the same vocab between different dialects. In addition, the way we speak in the Arakanese language can't be understood. As native speakers, they sometimes use idioms or old-fashioned words, and their way of speaking is quick. As second language learners, they've got obstacles and challenges to communicate with native speakers. There is no doubt that everything has bias not only in language skills but also in the world. "When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity" (Brents, B. G. (1999)). Human beings are kind of prejudiced in life. In language, there are some biases of listening in teaching. In fact, if the children listen to some conversations or dialogues or speeches, the thing **4** focusing on is the only key point of their favorite parts. In this way, the listeners can lead into misunderstandings and worse communication. Disagreeing and neglecting students' ideas will be the biases of speaking. In communication with friends in the classroom, teachers need to give freer and comfortable situations for every student. Scolding and making negative punishments for writing mistakes lead to bias in teaching. In every writing, there are a lot of right answers together with some mistakes. Not only mistakes, but it should also be considered to reinforce correct answers in writing. As a teacher, it is needed to do relevant reading exercises for every student in the different levels after reading. If not, it will be the bias of reading in teaching. Even though teachers were kind and good at classroom management in teaching, my teachers used traditional ways. For teaching materials, the things in the classroom were a board, marker, books, papers, highlighters and pens. A lot of teaching and talking time in dominant roles and traditional teachings without BLOOM's Taxonomy were delivered in the classroom. Teachers used a teacher-centered approach by writing a theory and explaining for 30 minutes and giving homework for the lesson's exercises. In every writing, there are no mistakes. All the sentences are exact and perfect. It means that teachers gave a paragraph, and we read it by heart. For that point, the good points that I got from the approaches were about learning by rote, nice handwriting, good note taking skill and enough knowledge and theories. Before the class ended, we took notes quickly after the teacher's writing on the board. Theories and notes were systematic, and the handwriting was perfect. According to my quote, "Everything has pros and cons'. When I am grown-up, I've got skills of note taking, being punctual and management. For language skills, the things I master in the class were writing and grammar theories because teachers give clear notes and can practice writing after every lesson. However, there are still gaps in learning, especially speaking, listening and reading and critical thinking. We only learned by rote and writing theories and grammar. There is no applying stage and no thinking steps. Consequently, there are no ideas to think in communications. On the one hand, I couldn't understand the context it mentions without translating one by one. If audio has some traps, I couldn't answer because I have a bias in listening to focus only on the main point. Those are the gaps in knowledge and ability. It tends to change in my teaching ways for second language acquisition or SLA which has two meanings. Generally, it is a term to describe learning a second language. It means that it's the name of the theory of the process by which the children acquire a second language. It can be compared with second language learning education that helps us learn language through more **5** conscious processes. In implications of the classroom, teachers create the contexts for communications which facilitate acquisition, that there is a natural order of acquisition of language. In the classroom, the self-commitment that I usually is to give self-understanding upon the lessons after teacher's role. For that point, Dr. Stephan D. Krashen said that 'We acquire language when we understand messages, when we understand what people tell us and when we understand what we read' (Dr. Stephan D. Krashen,2003). In my class, the way I do in the classroom is about reducing teachers talking time. According to Krashen, to get their understanding, I use TBLT (task-based language teaching) methods the most and sometimes I use Inductive ways based on students' need. Making tasks in need can increase students' confidence and skill. There are some steps that are about listening and reading for gist, specific information, skimming and inferable attitude stage in my class. Therefore, for productive skills, a more optimistic community is made in the classroom. Giving motivation is essential in language acquisition. In addition, critical thinking skills are trained in writing and speaking. From thinking, students can go to self-understanding stage. These are the ways that I practice in the classroom. **6** To summarize, the first language acquisition can be delivered by parents, family members and social interactions to be native speakers. However, second language acquisition can be acquired from teachers and communicating with friends in class or other target language associated places. As a teacher in the classroom, Understanding the psychology and methodology of students is a must. In addition, assessing, analyzing and evaluating in the classroom is necessary not to have the gaps of students' ability and knowledge. **7** 7