First Flush

I was thinking I ought to go ahead and gush about how wonderful and amazing and fun it is to have started my first class in the MATL, because I know someday I'll just be wanting it to be over and I'll think "ugh" homework, etc.

But for now! La-de-da! I'm in school! I'm reading and learning things!

Aside from the intermittent terror-with online classes, that old nightmare of forgetting completely about a class or test or assignment seems COMPLETELY possible. And what if my brain has atrophied completely after years of skimming chick-lit? There is a sort of happy ending when reading about second language acquisition theory, but it's not quite the same.

This first class is FL 664 Second Language Acquisition Theory and Practice. We're learning about the difference between learning and acquiring a second language, about the psychological history of SLA research, about methods and approaches to teaching language.

Before I went to college, Dad told me about how it was going to be-all people who were really interested, highly motivated, similar to me. He said I'd get to learn about things that were just exactly what I was interested in, instead of messing around with everything.We were both a little disappointed when I came home the first time and told him it was nothing like that.

But this! This feels like that. We're all language people, all language teachers, all dreaming of starting to learn another one, just for fun. We all get excited and care deeply about how to motivate kids to really acquire language.

And where else in the world, would my textbook contain the following quote:

"Language may not be merely a vital link in the social side of intellectual development, it may be the very foundation of intelligence itself" (Oller, 1981)
(yikes, I'm going to have to learn all over again about citing and stuff)

It made me giggle when I read it.

Homework!