Reflect on your previous experiences as a language learner. What did you enjoy? What did you dislike? Think about the FIRE model and the surveys you have just completed. What kind of learner are you? What kinds of language learning activities suit your learning style? How do you think you should expand your learning activities?
I really enjoyed being able to converse with people in another language, or in some cases, someone’s mother tongue and for me, a foreign language, as was the case when I was learning French. Being able to talk and listen and understand and pick up nuances were intriguing and the fact that I could understand and use another language was amazing to me! I didn’t like the system of assessment and how the pace was same for everyone and how we were graded in our comprehension and skills. It felt incomplete of the true language learning experience and I wish we had learned more cognates and focused on truly getting comfortable using the language, more so than the formal setting of learning and focusing on the graded portion. Not only the assessment portion of learning was the issue, but rather the way assessment was done. Repetition of doing something until you got better and having infinite times to try would be a better way, because that’s how it is to actually learn. I wish we were allowed to continue to work on a problem or assessment until we perfected it and then moved on and were allowed to have a syllabus of work that is the same for everyone, but allowed for different pacing for people. I’m more of an auditory and visual learner and I also am pretty factual and insightful in my learning. I think I would prefer drill-oriented activities and more traditional homework styles and also projects that allow for creativity such as plays and stories and poetry writing or skits. I would also like to try acting as if I am sending professional documents and try out real life scenarios such as sending an email to a boss or a colleague or supervisor in the other language. I strongly appreciate clear criteria and tasks and also making my own learning plan that is broad, big picture and also specific goals throughout the week and also daily tasks that should be accomplished. I like writing and getting feedback and trying to get better in processes like editing and re-writing. I also like making a list of vocabulary words that I should know each week and drilling them in and making connections with their meaning. I would like to expand my learning activities to also include new technology, such as watching videos with and without subtitles and also hearing songs and audiobooks in the other language. Also, for the videos, I could do a reflection paper on it and write down my thoughts about it in Korean and also try texting people that know Korean and they can correct my spelling and usage of the vocabulary.
Replies
Ariana I completely I agree with your concerns regarding the assessment types and the learning pace. I have never taken a formal language class before, but I have found those to be the most popular areas where people feel unsatisfied. I think that is specifically why I chose to take this self-directed learning class. I love that we are able to set our own pace and priorities here. Different people learn better with different resources and allowing people that freedom to choose is essential.
I totally relate to the feeling of being able to understand and communicate with someone who speaks the language you've been learning, it's such an incredible accomplishment! My Spanish skills have definitely faded over the years, but I still get excited when I can understand Spanish words every now and then. I definitely agree about not liking how everyone has to learn at the same pace in traditional language learning settings at school, because it's definitely much more challenging to learn the language correctly if you don't fully grasp the foundations of your target language, such as the alphabet, grammar structure, conjugations, etc., which was what I often struggled with in my Spanish classes. And if you don't speak it constantly, you're prone to forget it each year as you increase in class level.