Speaking Connections

The recent class discussions on L2 speaking and instruction have led me to see the strong connections between older children learning to speak in an L2 and the young students I work with everyday learning how to speak in their L1. I work at the MSU CDL on Grand River in the 24-33 month classroom. Some of my students are very advanced in their language skills (two of which have both an L1 and and L2) but some of them are not advancing with the rest of the class. In listening to the lectures and discussions last week about speaking, I have notices that these students who are proving to be slower to acquire language skills resemble the students we are talking about in this class - those learning an L2. Both the example students presented in class and the students I work with everyday are encountering the same problems. I notice my students struggling to pronounce words and sometimes getting upset and frustrated when myself and the other teachers cannot fully understand them. In my experience, it has always proven true that the way in which we (as role models) are pronouncing words is critical. These students (as well as ESL students) are looking to us for proper pronunciation and will begin to mimic - thus it is important for us as teachers to be sure to correctly pronounce vocabulary and enunciation when speaking. Once again, this class has proven to correlate with my teaching context.