Getting into the Heart of Second Language Acquisition - The Second Language Acquisition Class of Prof. Mary Oveta Villareal, UP Visayas, 2nd Trimester, Academic Year 2010-2011

Being in the graduate school is a dream come true for me. Moreso if it's in UP. The second trimester of the Master in Education (English as a Second Language) program was especially memorable because of so many reasons. First, I liked my Language Education subject entitled 'Second Language Acquisition: Theories, Practices, and Researches'.It was a compre subject, so I really had to take it seriously. There, Rod Ellis became my 'friend'. A distinguished professor of the Department of Applied Language Studies and Linguistics, University of Auckland, New Zealand, Ellis holds a Ph.D. from the University of London. His book 'Understanding Second Language Acquisition' published by the Oxford University Press has been my bedside companion since 2010.

Prof. Mary Oveta Villareal, the course professor, was equally amazing. A soft-spoken lady, she holds two master's degrees - Master in Education ( English as a Second Language ) from the University of the Philippines Visayas and Master of Arts in Literary Linguistics from the University of Nottingham in England. Interestingly, Prof. Villareal has nieces studying in Assumption Iloilo, the school where I teach ( Hello, Malou and Nicole Salazar! )

We held classes at the Humanities Building of UP Visayas, Iloilo City Campus. It was a morning session ( 8 AM to 12 PM ) every Saturday. People close to me know that I'm not a morning person. For me, mornings are rough and coffee doesn't smell sweet. Hence, this class was a struggle for me. This was aggravated by my hectic schedule on weekdays being a subject teacher having five different preparations, a class adviser of an all-girls section, and a moderator of our school publication. There were times that I went to class super late ( read: 10 AM )but I never heard any complaint from my professor. Well, this is UP.

The whole course was a breeze. My undergraduate degree in Secondary Education ( major in English ) was a big help. Mind you, I had classmates who came from totally unrelated fields such as Biology, Social Work, Business, and even Engineering. They, too, passed the course with flying colors. Indeed, graduate school was an intense and challenging experience but eventually it came to be very rewarding.

Post Script:

The following photos were taken at Prof. Villareal's "Second Language Acquisition' class.

Our professor didn't know we were having fun!With M.Ed.-ESL classmates Albe Ocang, Marie Cris Ponsaran, and Vanessa Gempeson

Explaining 'linguistic input' to my classmates. I don't like reporting as a teaching strategy but this one is a course requirement, so I yielded.