blog 10/15

       After reading about listening and speaking last week, it was interesting to read about teaching reading and writing this week because they are very different. They are all very different skills that a second language learner has to develop and there are so many ways to go about it. Something I could relate to was that when you read for pleasure it is much different than reading for a school assignment or reason. When reading for pleasure, you do not have to look up words you do not know and they found that highly correlated with overall language proficiency. But, how do you incorporate appropriate readings into the classroom? When I took Spanish, I was in a much more relaxed state when reading on my own then when I had to read something for class. When I was required to read an excerpt or book for Spanish, I would be stressed out from looking up all the words I did not understand because I needed to do an assignment with the reading. It helped me to read on my own because I would pick up the language without having to be stressed out with understanding the reading material word for word.

         Another point I could relate to is how readers are able to read at their own pace, so they may not learn how to read at a faster pace. It could be helpful to teach learners how to read at a quicker pace because you do a lot of reading throughout your school career. However, learner’s reading skills are not affected by whether or not they can read at a fast pace. I found myself reading at a slower pace when I was reading in another language because I needed time to comprehend what I was reading and to translate into English.

         As for writing, I think there are many techniques to help second language learners on how to become a better writer. One I strongly agreed with is self-writing; taking notes & journal writing. When writing journals or diaries, learners are able to write what they want and it is usually something about themselves. When writing something about yourself, it is usually easier to come up with what you want to say and can become a little easier in a second language. When I was a second language learner in Spanish, I found it much easier to write about myself than it was to write about a passage I read or a topic I did not understand as well in the second language.

         Writing can also become difficult in another language because there can be different symbols or letters necessary for that specific language. One of my biggest errors I would find throughout my career of taking a second language was missing accents or letters in necessary places. Although there are many difficult aspects to writing, reading, listening, and speaking, they are all very rewarding once a second language learner becomes fluent in them. How can a teacher incorporate all of these necessary skills into their lessons?