TESL - 100 Unit 4 reflection


During this unit, we discussed the similarities and difference between learning first and second languages and how these difference and similarities can affect learners in different ways.  This concept was very interesting to me because I was raised in a family in which my mother only spoke to me and read with me in English and my father only spoke with me in French. This created a situation in which I learned both languages as my first language but they are also both second languages.  Now, I work in an all French school with colleagues who only speak with me in French but my husband only speaks English. Yet again, both languages are acting as my first and second languages. This made reviewing the concept of first and second languages hard for me because I don’t have any memory of learning my languages and I am fluent in both so I don’t have the same experiences of learning a new language.  I have tried learning languages like Spanish but again I have two languages that are similar to Spanish to go off of which creates a weird situation. It has forced me to think more deeply about what first and second language acquisition is really like.


Brown, D. & Lee H. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.

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