Welcome to the STJ in the DR blog! Our blog goals are to keep in touch with family and friends at home and to maintain an online journal of our experience in the Dominican Republic. There are 17 of us who will be traveling and studying with our Project Director, Dr. Shondel Nero, Associate Professor at St. John's University in Queens, NY. We are all present or future teachers who are interested in understanding the process of acquiring a second language so that we can support our ESL students.
In addition to learning about the theories of second language acquisition in a graduate course taught by Dr. Nero, we will engage in intensive learning of Spanish (four days a week, six hours a day) at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) for the entire duration of our stay. The process of learning Spanish will give us the opportunity to see theory in practice and to experience first-hand the phases and challenges of learning a foreign language. As we engage in language studies daily through the immersion model, we will be better able to empathize with the struggles of English Language Learners in the U.S.
We will also gain experiential knowledge of Dominican life and culture by living with host families and participating in structured educational and cultural tours in Santiago, Santo Domingo and other parts of the DR. Our tours will cover a wide range of institutions and experiences including schools, museums, historical sites, orphanages, neighborhoods, and so forth. We will document and reflect on their experiences through daily journal writing with a view to enhancing understanding of Dominican culture.
