Go back and watch the recording of your presentation of your learning plan on the class PanOpto collection on Blackboard. Comment briefly on how things are going. What has changed? How have you incorporated materials and insights from class into your efforts? Have discussions regarding language structures and learning strategies helped you to understand the target language and culture? If so, how? Reflect on your language learning so far. How would you describe the relationship between language and culture? What do you need to do to improve your communicative competence? Based on the readings by H.D. Brown, what kinds of competence are emphasized in your plan?
When I was making my learning plan for ASL, my goal for this semester was to be able to exchange farewell/greetings, introduce myself and my role, and explain basic registration procedures in a healthcare intake setting. As I regularly come across patients who do not speak English at my volunteering site, my learning plan was focused around breaking that language barrier when it comes to medical accessibility. Over the course of the semester, my overarching ASL learning goals have shifted slightly. The readings and discussions in our class have made me realize the closely knitted relationship of language and culture- I cannot fully learn a language without understanding the culture. I think I was viewing ASL as a subsidiary of the American culture, but what I have come to realize is that the Deaf culture is a completely different culture in itself. So, I have added this lens of cultural competence in my learning plan now. Without a phonetic inventory and a rigid grammatical structure, a lot of things that we have discussed in class did not apply to my ASL learning plans. However, I have learned to look for parallels in ASL. For example: ASL is incomplete without facial grammar and body shifts. So, I have been focusing on developing learning strategies to help refine those skills. Till date, practicing in front of the mirror alone has been the most helpful strategy. More importantly, I have realized the need to improve my listening/ viewing skills to improve my communicative competence. As a hearing person, we are so used to multitasking when talking to someone. Especially in college classrooms, it is so important to take notes while listening to the professor talk. Unfortunately, this multitasking habit has become a huge barrier in my ASL learning journey. Half the message in ASL comes from a person’s facial expressions. So, being distracted or only focusing on hand signs is a very inefficient method of learning and I am making a conscious effort to improve that. Overall, sociolinguistic competence and listening competence are highly emphasized in my current ASL learning agenda. I am so proud of all the ASL vocabulary and interpersonal skills that I have learnt this semester and I believe that such intentional emphasis on communicative competencies will further help me refine my ASL skills.
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