Entry 3: Interview with Second Language Teacher
Hello, below is my interview and reflection. My interview video is here (16:54). Reflection The interviewee is Ms. Gilmer a second language teacher who started her education in Ecuador and finished her education at the University of Houston. She has had many years of experience teaching students of all grade levels, from k-12 and university. The majority of her teaching career has been with middle school students. She finds that the population of successful, autonomous learners are small. Most students will have problems with motivation in second language acquisition. In her experience with teaching a wide age range of students, she also found that younger students tend to do better with learning a second language. This reflects Ortega’s observation that “younger is better in the long run” (2009) in regards to second language acquisition. The younger students seem to be more attentive and participatory. Ms. Gilmer advises that 6th grade and younger is a really good time for secon...