Welcome to my blog, below I have shared my first video. I hope you all enjoy my video and I cannot wait to watch the videos, you all have created it.
Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. My name is Karla Martinez, I am currently majoring in Teaching and Learning with a certification in 4th grade through 8th-grade Mathematics.
As I mentioned in my video, I was born in Mexico City, and according to Ortega "most kids grow up speaking only one language." (Ortega 2013 p.4), which that was my case until I was about eight years old and we migrated to the United States. Once I was in the United States I was introduced to my Language 2 (L2), English. Ever since I was able to speak my L2 fluently, I considered myself to be bilingual, but after reading the difference between Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition (SLA), I now find myself being part of the SLA group. Ortega states that those who are bilingual are those who learned more than one language at a very young age specifically before the age of four. I learned to speak English at the age of 8, for that, I am part of the third study SLA. (Ortega 2013 P.4). Learning English was not the easiest task, but it was accomplished. Ortega states that there are two different ways to learn second languages. One way it is the naturalistic way were it is learned by the interactions you have with others without “receiving any organized instructions.” Then, there is instructed learning, meaning that you take formal or private courses/classes to learn the language. (Ortega 2013 P.6) Although these are the two ways to learn another language, according to Ortega most people fall in a mixture of both. I agree with him because that is the way I learned English. My aunt tutored me privately, and there was a lot of learning through the interaction I had with my peers in school, and while the process of learning English it was not easy it was accomplished.
After completing Module 1, I have been introduced to different information about my L2. I enjoyed reading this chapter, and it is information I can share with my friends and help them discover whether they are in the Bilingualism or SLA group.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
