One interesting thing about me is I own two small businesses. My first business is called Katie's Klaws where I hand paint press-on nails and sell them. My second business is through Etsy, called ArtisanCraftsbyKatie, where I hand make and sell jewelry, resin art, and candles. I have a passion for crafting! I am currently enjoying prepping for Fall! I cannot believe how many businesses are releasing Halloween collections so soon. IT’S ONLY AUGUST! I really need to get a move on with my own collections. I love this time of year; halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I am dressing up as Sylvie from the Loki TV Series this year, and my boyfriend is going as President Loki. Speaking of which, I will also just toss this in: I'm quite the Marvel Fanatic! :) 

During this semester, I hope to learn a lot about different kinds of people. I am taking classes that will open my eyes to the reality of teaching a wide variety of people from different backgrounds, races, genders, classes, etc;. I feel it is so important to have a widespread knowledge on topics such as what I previously mentioned, and learning disabilities. I want to be able to teach any student who enters my classroom. I look forward to learning how to be more helpful for my students and towards people in general. :)

Syntax - The structure of language.

Semantics - The meaning of Language.

Morphology - The structure of words.

Morpheme - A unit of meaning.

Phonetics - Sounds and properties.

Lexicon - the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge.

Pragmatics - How words are used in a sentence.

Non-Verbal Communication - All the forms of communication.

Phonology - Describes the way sounds function within a given language and operates at the level of sound systems and abstract sound units.

Discourse - Written or spoken communication or debate.

As I watched our latest lecture and read through the assigned reading, I tried coming up with my own examples for some of the key concepts. Non-Verbal communication is honestly my favorite out of all of these because it is not something you learn but something you do naturally. People communicate non-verbally every single day! You can communicate non-verbally through your eyes, through your facial expressions, with your hands when you make gestures, and even by your posture. I think that is so fascinating. 

Syntax is also a really cool key concept because it is not universal! I mean, Syntax is but the syntax we use is not the same for everyone. Here are a few examples: for Americans the syntax is “Subject + Verb + Object”, while in Japan, the syntax is “Subject + Object +Verb”. 

Another key concept that I enjoyed was Pragmatics! I enjoyed this one because pragmatics are so important to learn at a young age. The way I see pragmatics is the use of context clues, whether they are correct or wrong. The reading gives a great example using children who just ate pizza. When the child tells their mom they are hungry, the mother is confused because they just ate, meaning she thinks they are not actually hungry. Context clues can determine a sentence's outcome whether they are correct or not. 

These Key concepts are very important for teachers to know because not only will they possibly need to teach them, but they can use them every day in their classroom. Teachers can have visual aids on the walls that separate out morphemes, phonetics, and even syntax. It is important that teachers use these concepts so that students can learn how to form words/sentences better, understand the value and meaning of words, and be able to recognize keywords like these! Also, I think it would be fun to teach/show how students are constantly communicating without words, being non-verbal communication! It was my favorite lesson from my Speech Class at Delta College. 

I have also created an Acrostic Poem for one of the Key Concepts:

People discovered three ways of language 

Home to confusion these words may seem but

Orthography is key to learning and

Never doubt the way words may seem in text

Even if they sound the same but are not

The same spelling, we have phonetics to

Incorporate into our fun language

Chill, Jill, pill, kill: different yet they all

Sound the same, ah welcome to Phonetics!

Each theorist has their own beliefs on Learning Theories, which is essentially the many ways that researchers believe babies/children begin to communicate and form language. Theorists began to create theories on Language Acquisition, which is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. One of the theorists, named Noam Chomsky, is known to be the father of modern linguistics. He theorized that people are born with the ability to learn language but that language itself is too complex for children to learn on their own. His belief is that children learn through visually seeing the people and environment around them and are able to separate language from environmental sounds. I find this fascinating because I don’t think twice if I hear a bird chirp; I don’t think the sound was a dog's bark. I assume Chomsky meant that children are capable of recognizing sounds and putting words and meaning to them. This particular theorist also believed that children begin to communicate through Universal Grammar, which is essentially a way of communicating that every child does no matter what worded-language they will learn to speak. Chomsky describes the first way of communication as baby babble. He believes that babies/children learn at the same pace, make mistakes universally, and learn grammar universally as well. He also believes that all of this ties into a Language Acquisition Device, which is something in every human's head that produces the desire to form communication. It is not a real physical thing in our brains, but Chomsky believes that we have it nonetheless. It is described through two different levels of structure. The first structure being Deep Structure, which is a level of syntactic representation with a number of properties that do not necessarily go together. The second structure is called Surface Structure, which is a representation of the final syntactic form of a sentence.

Two particular theorists had similar belief systems when it came to the development of language: B.F Skinner and John Watson. They both believed in Behaviorism, which is the belief that people learn to speak because of positive reinforcement, not born with the ability to speak. This is the polar opposite to what Chomsky believes because they do not think people learn universally at all. For example, their belief coincides with the demonstration of how a parent or loved one claps or cheers when a baby communicates. This positive reinforcement tells the babies brain they communicated something successfully, therefore they will start to learn to do that thing again. This is how Skinner and Watson believe language begins to form in babies/children. The Production in children shows that there is a process by which words and understanding mix, dealing with syntax encoding and lexiles. 

Another theorist who came up with their own language theory is named Lev Vygotsky. He believes that people want to communicate, and because of that desire we make an effort to interact with people around us. He also believes communication is a tangible way of expressing the things and thoughts in our heads. He theorizes that thought and language becomes independent through maturing/age. Just as Chomsky also describes, Vygotsky believed children learn language through viewing other people/things around them. A great example of this is when toddlers begin to repeat things they heard someone else say and repeat the actions of something they saw. Vygotsky believes in the Zone of Proximal Development, which means children can only learn based on what they know and develop Comprehension through help. Comprehension is essentially the process of understanding material. When processing language, it is believed that you go through a process called Hypothesis Testing. That is when children will try out language and modify it as they hear and learn. 

One of the more newer theories that has been developed is Connectivism. This theory says that children should mix thoughts, theories, and general information together in a useful way. It also identifies that technology has an effect on communication and language now even for the newly developing minds. I find this very interesting because I know that technology has an effect on everyone and has changed the way people communicate. I also know that children LOVE technology and constantly want to be enchanted by a screen. I feel that this does impact the previously mentioned theories because they have all been talking about human and environmental impacts, but could not have predicted the impact that technology would have on children and their theories. I wonder what they would theorize about the impacts of technology. On the contrary, another newer theory called, Constructivism, focuses on how learners construct new ideas and knowledge and integrates that with what they previously knew. I feel that the modern-day education system has implemented this theory into the curriculum by creating a common core. I remember doing my school work and it always reflected on previous learnings so that my brain would interact old knowledge with new knowledge. This definitely influenced my Cognitive learning because I was able to process new knowledge, reflect on how it impacts my previous knowledge, and comprehend them together. 

I think that it is important for teachers to understand these theories, especially the teachers who teach younger classrooms, such as preschool and kindergarten. These brains are still developing communication skills, so it is important to set a way of learning that helps the students visually and hands-on. Seeing since no theorist has ever been proven 100% correct, we have multiple theories to go off of in our classrooms. This is why it's important to incorporate visual aids, but also hands-on activities for learning.