ESL Teacher Reflection #2

As a second language learner of Spanish, I'm in the 300-level Spanish courses here at Michigan State. This semester I'm also enrolled in the LLT course Second Language Acquisition as well as LLT 307. As a result, I have been thinking a lot about language learning and how it can best be taught. I've been trying to analyze the methods my Spanish professor uses in class as well as my own strategies for learning a language. 

The Spanish class I'm in is Phonetics and Pronunciation; most class sessions follow this pattern: a powerpoint lecture, practicing out of the textbook, and then repeating words, sentences, or phrases after the professor multiple times to make sure we have the correct pronunciation. I thought possibly this is the Audiolingualism approach because there is so much mimicry involved in the classroom and of course, at this level, only the target language is allowed to be spoken in the classroom. However, my professor encourages everyone to participate regardless of errors that may be made because you learn from the errors you make. In the Audiolingualism approach, errors are seen as very bad. Also, I have observed that the examples used in class are not focused on real life situations, so that it must not be the Communicative or Oral-Situational approach that she is using. I think that it is Audiolingualism as the basis for her approach, but that other factors are definitely mixed in. It's interesting both being a language learner and learning about the teaching methods of it at the same time, because it gives me an opportunity to see it in practice. 

I have also been relating the LLT course Second Language Acquisition both to LLT 307 and my Spanish class. This class helps me learn how to understand the struggles and differences that language learners go through from a teacher's point of view but also gives me a set of strategies and theories I can apply to my own second language acquisition. I see a lot of overlap between these three classes, and it makes it easy to make connections. One benefit of this class is that it helps me see that I am using very little strategies in my own language learning. It also helps me see that I could potentially, as a language teacher, make some strategies more available or apparent to my students who are in the process of learning. I really enjoy the overlap that I am seeing between these three classes, because I get both the teacher's perspective and the learner's perspective, and both are very important to becoming a successful ESL teacher.