Amber Hernandez 2nd Language Acquisition 4303

Blog 3: Interview with Claudia Manuel For my second interview, I sat with Claudia Manuel. She is the partner teacher to my mentor teacher and teaches third grade social studies, reading and science in Spanish for the dual language program at our school.  From her experience, the critical or sensitive period will not stop someone from learning a new language. She says that anyone will be alright if they want to learn a new language as long as they are willing and work hard to practice. Ortega (2013), also states that there are many cases of exceptional learners who began learning their second language after puberty who have performed as well as native speakers. Ortega (2013) also states that L1 and L2 transfer can happen when learners feel that what works in one language will work in the other. When encountering L1 or L2 transfer she says the best thing to do is correct them in a way that does not bring them down or make them feel bad. She also uses a lot of visuals and pictu...

Hello! My name is Amber Hernandez. I am currently a senior here at the University of Houston. My major is Human Development and Family Studies with EC-6 Generalist certification. I was raised in Houston, TX and love our city. I want to teach elementary school 2nd or 3rd grade. I would like to teach math, reading and writing because I am currently teaching those subjects in a 3rd grade dual language classroom on the English speaking side.  My own experiences with language include mostly exposure with little acquisition other than my native language, English. My father is a native Spanish speaker and my mother is a native English speaker. As a child and toddler I could understand Spanish and utter a few things, however my parents separated and I lived with my mother for the majority of the time. I would only hear Spanish when I went to visit my dad and he only spoke the language with my other family members and not me because I was not taught. When I started taking Spanish cl...

Interview Video I interviewed my friend Cassandra Sarmiento. I met Cassandra circa 2001 and she has always spoken Spanish in my years of knowing her. During this interview I was able to ask her questions about her second language that I have never considered in the past.  Her family’s native language was Spanish, however once they moved to America they learned the language from being immersed in English and feeling almost forced to learn the language so as not to be stigmatized for being foreign. Cassandra lived with her grandparents in El Paso, Texas where she was spoken to only in Spanish until age 4. She lived with her mother in Houston where she was spoke English with her mother primarily and says she lost a lot of the language. Then once she got older near junior high, she would visit her grandparents over the summers and be immersed once again in Spanish where she was able to quickly pick the language back up and learn from her Family. Ortega concludes that “by a...