Ila Hyams

Hello Guys! This is my mother, Amy, who has years of experience in teaching 4th grade math and science. Ortega and Gass both have many points to say concerning immersion teaching, and the importance of motivation for students to succeed in learning second-languages (2013). Personally, there are few things better than motivation when it comes to academic success. I have always thought that motivation - either internal or external - where key to accomplishing academic goals. As a future educator, I have found several interesting ways to incorporate motivations into other aspects of my teaching besides simple grade-incentives. By integrating second-language acquisition into my daily teaching styles, I can better motivate my students. My mother mentioned how vital motivation was for her students to feel confident and succeed in her classes. I find that, when students feel motivated and confident, they tend to become high performing students rather than low performing ones. Add...

Interview This interview between myself and one of my  friends, Nathan, contains a discussion of Nate's experiences with being recessive bilingual. He moved down from Canada in elementary, and gained a fl uency in English at the cost of his fluency in Canadian-French. From Nathan’s interview, we know he learned Canadian-French naturally, as that is is native language - despite not having a large proficiency in it any longer. Ortega discusses naturalistic learning as a learning style based on immersion that does not depend on instruction (2011). Comparatively, from Nathan’s accounts, he gained his English-speaking skills from school - an instruction learning style - that Ortega mentions as a common method of second-language acquisition (2011). This makes sense, as it was the language he learned predominantly in school, not at home. Nathan moving here in his 2nd grade of school meant that he had far more opportunities to have a guided instruction than those who may have le...

Hi guys! After reviewing comments from others and making my own, I have developed a few more ideas concerning teaching second-languages in our current environment. Firstly, I briefly mentioned that I have no other languages in my repertoire, however my family is rather large. I have friends that might as well be family and family members themselves who speak Spanish fluently. I know phrases and have a basic understanding - enough to know when I am being scolded - however that is where my understanding stops. I was never pushed or encouraged to learn languages outside of English, nor was there ever a great desire to. This mindset is both ignorant and lazy. These are bad habits that I think we should curb before they get out of control in our students. Especially the lack of motivation. An increase in motivation has tremendous benefits, and not just for the concept of second-language acquisition, but overall academic performance as well. Secondly, there must be a dramatic...

Hello everyone! On vacation to Flat Iron Mountain, Boulder, Colorado My name is Ila Hyams, and I am a senior at UH, a member of the Honors College, and currently working on my senior thesis in Classroom Diversity. One of the focuses of my paper is in language diversity among students, especially in middle school. Coming from a monolingual household, Ortega makes valid and accurate points on the type of environment this is and the consequences it has on children (2013). Specifically, I felt a pull to the idea that student motivation directly ties to their ability to speak a second-language (Ortega, 2013). As a future educator, this idea both excites and worries me. I hope to become the type of teacher that can influence my students positively, rather than create an environment that is detrimental to their development of such skills. Growing up, I was acutely aware of the type of discourse surrounding second-language speakers. Either they were discouraged from speaking t...