Week 2 Class Reflection

The class session for Week 2 (actually week 1 for me but lets not get into technicalities) was a good session because I think I overcame my fear of online classes and I learned a lot about Krashen's theories and hypotheses.

My group had the "Natural Order Hypothesis" and I am happy about that because to me it seemed to be the most interesting. Krashen claims in this hypothesis that there is a natural order when learning a language. This is especially important when thinking of second or foreign language acquisition.

With respects to L1 learning it is clear that this hypothesis can be proven time and time again when an English speaking baby says "mama" over "sister". Although, most parents like to think that the baby says their name first because they love them the most there is only a kernel of truth within that belief. The consonant of "m" is far easier to say for a young child than for example, "s".

I am disappointed to a certain degree as this is very interesting reading there are not implications for teaching. In an ideal world there would be a handbook of what aspect of the English language to teach first and then second and so on and so forth.

It seems that this is not the last I will see of Krashen and his beliefs but so far so good. I think he contains some valid points within his research and scholarly suggestions.

It seems that we have a very smart class and I like that everyone has different backgrounds with respect to education, language, culture, etc. I view this as an advantage because for most of my life I have been living under a rock that I like to call, Minnesota and I find the experiences of others in my class something that a text book could never teach.