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?
Looking back at the presentation of my learning plan, it seems like I might have made my learning plan a little too difficult. Since I am not learning the language right now, it is hard to tell, but based on what I have been learning in SDLC 105, it seems like even learning the basics of a language takes a lot of time and effort. As a result, being able to start reading the Hebrew Bible in one semester seems like a tough plan to follow. Whenever I search up different ways to pronounce certain words in Hebrew, I think of the IPA and GAE systems that we learned in class. Knowing these systems has helped me identify the sounds and pronunciation without a lot of difficulties. Discussing and learning language structure and strategies helped me better understand Hebrew and its culture. I now know how the language developed and the value and meaning of Hebrew to a lot of people. The reason why Hebrew is such an important language is that Hebrew does not only act as a language, but it represents a lot of the biblical cultures, customs, and history. It has allowed me to be more motivated and given me a different perspective to look at the language. As mentioned above, I think the relationship between language and culture is so important because the words, pronunciation, and other elements of the language show how it has developed (where they borrowed the words from).The language families also show what other languages and regions were associated with that language as well. I think I would need to understand the culture and traditions of Hebrew better in order to improve my sociolinguistic competence. I think it will play a big role in my journey of learning Hebrew. In my learning plan, I think a lot of organizational competence, especially grammatical competence is emphasized. Knowing the structure and meaning of the phrases and sentences is the main focus of my plan because one small word can make a difference in interpreting Hebrew.
Replies
I definitely agree with you on the fact that learning the basics of a language can take a lot of time and effort. It’s easy to get discouraged when this happens because it’s supposed to be the easy part. I’ve learned that it’s good to have high aspirations and goals for yourself, but it’s also important to have goals that are smaller and more attainable, so you don’t burn yourself out.
Hebrew sounds like such a difficult language to learn! I agree that reading through the Hebrew bible after one semester may be too ambitious, but it might be a good place to work through after you've gained a basic understanding of the knowledge.. Especially if you are familiar with the bible already, that might help you learn words you don't know, if you already have a general idea for what the passage is trying to say. But I'm also sure that the bible is a particularly complex piece of writing so maybe you could find another familiar book in Hebrew to practice reading first?