The person I interviewed for this entry was Shelby Wolken. She has been teaching for nine years with an ESL certification. I felt that Shelby's input on Second Language Acquisition was beneficial since she has had experience with ESL students the entire time she has been teaching. I felt that most of her answers seemed to be in agreement with Ortega's findings in her text Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Chapter 7's title "Foreign Language Aptitude" delves into one of the constructs that is thoroughly researched. This construct is mostly cognitive, or how information is processed and learned, which is sometimes difficult to test among such diverse individuals. Most research in this area is done through well educated adults. This skews some of the information.
I think that Shelby's knowledge may be more beneficial since it stems from children living in low SES, including Title I schools. These are students that may not have a chance in a formal education of the L2, but rather are immersed in the learning while learning other content areas. I agree with Shelby that this is probably the easiest way for students to learn, since their understanding of the vocabulary is directly tied to what they are learning. The pathways in their brains will have an easier time. But with that being said, some students have proven to be more apt to learning an L2. Ortega states, "When employing any of the various language aptitude tests available and correlating the resulting scores with proficiency levels, final course grades, or teacher ratings, researchers typically find correlations that fall in the range between r = 0.40 and r = 0.60" (Ortega, 2013, p. 145). This shows a strong correlation between an aptitude toward learning languages between varying individuals. Some seem to have "a knack" for learning a second language. Her students showed this to be correct. Does this mean that others can't learn a new language because of it? Absolutely not. It is important to take the second construct from chapter 8 from the text into mind: Motivation. This idea is probably the most important idea to keep in mind when looking at how a child acquires a new language.
Shelby states that motivation is crucial for how well a student will do in her classroom, especially if they are an ELL. They have to WANT to learn in order for them to be able to take what they are taught and process the information. Ortega put it best when she said, "Since humans are conscious and volitional creatures, in explaining perception, behaviour and learning we also need to account for human intentions, goals, plans and commitments" (Ortega, 2013, p. 168).
can do what we can as educators to try to motivate a student with rewards and such, but it is completely necessary for them to have intrinsic motivation in order to fully acquire the language.
