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?
I think that one focus that has shifted since starting my language journey with this class was centering my studies around my goals. For example, I have been focusing more on daily life and conversation, specifically Parisian dialect and day in the life videos to angle my learning towards future practical use of French. Previously in my personal language learning journey, I think that I often got caught up in understanding perfect grammar, which made me apprehensive about speaking. But I am not trying to study in French, I want to pursue life in France. Another thing that has helped me is a better understanding of phonetics.
I have never studied linguistics, and I think that this has made it difficult to understand some of the French sounds. Gaining a brief, but helpful understanding of phonetics has made sounding out the harder French words with guttural r's or vowel sounds that we don't have in English has helped in making me more comfortable with speaking as well. I think that this class has made me more intentional with my language learning and has really helped me slow down and focus on my personal goals with the language in a way that traditional language learning classes have not. Focusing on videos, podcasts and music has really helped in my understanding of French culture and media which will be helpful not only for language acquisition, but also in my cultural competence of France. My masters program that starts in the fall is all about Global Media and Communication and while my initial goals did not revolve around gaining cultural competence, I can see how this will help me in my future!
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