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?
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After watching the recording of my first presentation, I noticed a shift of focus from grammatical and conversational studies to historical studies of Italian as we discuss more about language origin and its family. Since I also had a project that is related to historical studies of Latin and Italian, I used a lot of the material as references as I was looking for more insights. It is very interesting to notice how I am equally improving by using a different method. The reason why is that the studies of history provides cultural context and explains the disconformity that confused me. Language and culture's relationship can be described as inseparable and auxiliary to each other since language reflects culture and culture embodies language. To better understand a culture, knowing the language is the prerequisite.
Examining the language competence flowchart by H.D. Brown's language, I focus greatly on sociolinguistic competence as I have already taken Italian and Latin classes that focus heavily on grammar. To me, learning grammar is equal to acquiring tools. And tools are meant to be utilized for discovering greater and more meaningful things. I had similar experience with English as when I started college, I realized language is just a tool for learning.
Looking back at my learning plan on the class PanOpto collection on Blackboard, my progress with learning Dutch was not as linear as I expected at the beginning go my journey. I probably should have accounted for more plateaus and such when creating my plan. I am glad that I included the consumption of Dutch media, including soccer and news articles. Even if I have trouble absorbing a lot of the information and words, I find these to be the most enjoyable methods of becoming more familiar with the language because I can choose the topics that I am interested in. Discussing language structures and learning strategies in class have helped me to identify patterns within my target language far more quickly than when I was trying to learn Spanish for the first time in middle school.
I want to emphasize sociolinguistic competence over grammatical competence. I want to be able to understand the nuances of Dutch culture and communication. So far, I have learned a bit about Dutch culture such as the impact of soccer and the laid back nature of Dutch citizens, but I look forward to learning more about how cultural aspects directly effect communication.
Compared to then, I have progressed a bit more in my language study and, of course, my understanding of linguistics. In modifying my plan for next semester, I want to focus more on speaking Moroccan Arabic and listening to it, rather than studying grammar for most of the semester as I had initially set aside. Now, having learned and continuing to learn the IPA, I can approach learning the Moroccan Arabic alphabet and its phonology through understanding the primary manner, secondary manner, and point of articulation of each phone.
Truthfully, some of our discussions have felt more theoretical (such as the “meaning of meaning”) and thus less easily applicable to self-directed language study. However, many of our discussion are helpful for further understanding our language. Using the idea of language families to situate Moroccan Arabic as an Arabic language, part of the Semitic family, helps me to understand that, despite its variations from MSA, Moroccan Arabic is still fundamentally a form of Arabic.
Language seems to be both a part of culture and a reflection of culture. Through language, parts of culture can be understood. For example, one of the most common ways to say “hi” in Arabic is “as-salam alaykum,” which is an Islamic greeting meaning “peace be upon you.” The fact that an Islamic greeting is popular in Arabic points to the relationship between Islam and the Arab people, from whom Muhammad emerged. Moroccan Arabic uses French, Spanish, Amazigh, and Arabic words, reflecting Morocco’s diversity and history of cultural exchange and conquest.
To improve my communicative competence, I need to speak with a native Moroccan Arabic speaker who understands the cultural and situational nuances of the language. Also, I should watch Moroccan films and videos on YouTube, paying attention to how they adapt the language to fit different contexts. Because Moroccan Arabic is a largely informal, ever-changing language, I want to focus most on sociolinguistic competence. I want to learn how Moroccans code switch and in what context. How do urban Arab Moroccans speak with rural Amazigh Moroccans? Learning about the social dynamics and their effect on the language will be my focus.
Hi Cutty,
I had the same plan as you when it came to learning Korean. I, too, wanted to focus more on speaking proficiently rather than honing in on grammar. Korean grammar is different than that of English or Cantonese/Mandarin, so I don't have something to build upon. Korean grammar follows the subject-object-verb structure, and at first, it was very strange to speak and write in that format. Now that I have completed 10 one hour iTalki sessions with my Korean teacher, this format is not as confusing anymore.
After rewatching my PanOpto recording, I have realized that I share a similar point of view despite the time passed. I still want to focus my learning on grammatical competence and communicative skills.
The acquaintance of the book provides me with the ability of practising one different grammatical and vocabulary topic each week, what gives me resources needed in my communicative competence. With the lessons learned in the book I can practice speaking with some native speakers.
So, the combination of these 2 competences continues being the main focus of my learning plan, and I still trust it. The class material is obviously useful for the learning of my target language. Despite the fact that the contents of the class are general, can perfectly be applied to our learning process. What I considered really useful has been the opportunity to understand the different phones and the phonetic inventory. Thanks to this I know some differences between the Portuguese, the GAE, and my native language, Spanish.
It is true that my planning is more future based than present, but I think that a way to improve my communicative competence would be to try to do more Portuguese listening, since I think that what is more difficult to me is to understand Portuguese speakers, more than talking with them.
So, as mentioned, based on HD Brown competences, I am emphasizing the grammatical and communicative competences, rather than the sociolinguistic one which I do not consider as important as a self learner.
Hi Pablo,
It is impressive that your focus in your target language is grammatical competence. Grammar is something I have a hard time understand in Korean, my target language. The simple structure such as subject-object-verb I understand, but when the sentence starts factoring in other parts of speech, then it gets tricky. Even with English, I often times confuse the present/past tenses in the same sentence or subject-verb agreement. Grammatical competence is probably one of the hardest skills to master in my opinion but I think you are on the right track!
I am concurrently enrolled in SDLAP 110, and this course helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses in self-learning Korean. Looking back at all the goals and tasks I set for myself, I have already accomplished an enormous amount compared to when I first started learning Korean back in early August. I learned how to introduce myself, learned honorifics/titles, and learned some conversational vocabulary. Currently, I am starting to put sentences together and recognize that the Korean sentence structure is vastly different than that of English or Mandarin. Therefore, I am struggling with stringing parts of a sentence together. Additionally, I am learning the Korean number system, and they have two systems and are used based on different situations. However, the Sino-Korean system is based off of Mandarin, so I have an easier time understanding and producing the sounds.
The services that I use to learn Korean are iTalki, Duolingo, and a beginner’s textbook. I would say that using iTalki tutoring accelerated my learning of Korean because I meet with my teacher the same time once and week. This consistency keeps me on track. Because SDLAP 110 is unlike any other class I have taken at UR, understanding the structure and the whole lot of flexibility that comes with the class took some time to digest. At first, I worried with this enormous amount of flexibility, I won’t be able to keep up with learning Korean because I would either prioritize another course work or simply be lazy. However, I am surprised at how consistent I have been with learning Korean. With complete honesty, some days were tough in terms of finding times to study Korean, but I set a goal for myself to practice Korean for at least five to ten minutes a day. As long as I interact with the language at least once a day, it is acceptable.
Based on H.D. Brown's language competence flowchart, I emphasize greatly on grammatical competence rather than sociolinguistic competence. Sociolinguistic competence is where the emphasis is placed on learning the culture and how the language is culturally spoken rather than grammatical competence where it is textbook definitions. However, I believe as a new language learner in order to achieve sociolinguistic competence, some degree of grammatical competence must be achieved. Because I am learning Korean from a foreigner's perspective and not residing in South Korea, sociolinguistic competence is somewhat harder to achieve.