Language

In this section of my e-portfolio, I will demonstrate how I developed the ability to analyze various domains of language (e.g., phonological, lexical, grammatical, and pragmatic) in relation to adult learner language development and apply these understandings to adult English language teaching.

You might be interested in my presentation Are Some Languages Harder than Others?, which I completed while enrolled in APLNG 802 (Focus on English). In this presentation, I argued in favor of the premise that some langages are in fact harder to learn than others (mainly due to differential phonological and morphological complexity) and that this understanding is relevant to the practice of teaching English as a second or foreign language. While many of my classmates held contrary views, the course instructor (Dr. Deborah Crusan) found my arguments surprising yet compelling (you can click on the link in the presentation page to hear her comments).

In the same course, I also analyzed the phonological, grammatical and lexical features of President Barack Obama's speech on race of March 18, 2008. In this short essay, I noted a few interesting linguistic features of the president's speech, including what seemed to be deliberate incorporation of one and sporadic incorporation of another of the less stigmatized phonological traits of African-American English (AAE).

Another major project I completed in APLNG 802 was the Applied Teaching Assignment, in which I analyzed the principle of collocation (a syntactic and semantic phenomenon exhibited by all languages) in relation to second language acquisition and reviewed effective strategies for teaching collocations to English language learners.

During my four semesters in the Penn State Graduate Certificate in TESOL program, I also composed a number of reflective blog entries related to the analysis of various domains of language, which have been provided below.