My previous experiences as a language learner have been quite limited. Growing up my family spoke only English so I had not been exposed to any foreign languages as a child. However, once I got into middle school I began studying Spanish. Throughout
Read more…Overall, I have very little experience learning new languages. The only language anyone in my family speaks is English, and there was never any encouragement to learn another. I took my required Spanish courses and disliked most of them, because my h
Read more…Imagine that you have received a research grant to conduct a linguistic study of your target language and culture. How would you get started, and what would you investigate? How would different structural components presented in class appear in your
Read more…How have you started writing in the target language? Do you prefer to type or write free hand? Have you started to see patterns emerge in the structures between words, clauses, and sentences? What is the relationship between simple and complex senten
Read more…How do languages go extinct? Respond to the readings, and reflect on what happens when a language dies? How can linguists help preserve a language? Can a ‘dead’ language ever be brought back to life? What efforts are currently underway to document li
Read more…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
Read more…Reflect on the history of your target language. To what language family does it belong? What sounds, words, and structures exemplify periods of contact with other cultures? How do these considerations enhance your understanding of the target language
Read more…Do some preliminary research on what interests you about the target culture and describe how this topic relates to language. Do you need any special vocabulary or linguistic knowledge to engage this topic? If so, have you included objectives in your
Read more…What is the difference between sound and spelling? Why is this distinction significant for your language-learning efforts? Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don’t exist in American English
Read more…Refer to the diagram on page 9 in Aitchison’s linguistics. How do you combine different disciplinary perspectives to formulate a more holistic understanding of your target language? Do you give preference to one disciplinary approach over the others?
Read more…Having looked back on my presentation, I am sure that I am still on the right track. Most of plans I made were implemented as they should be. Since I did not take SDLC 110, there is nobody checking if my pronunciation is correct or not. Moreover, the
Read more…This week, I had my first meeting with my learning partner, Vivian. This semester I will be having one on one lessons with her. We were able to meet and discuss around eleven to twelve learning topics and initial ideas we had to put together a genera
Read more…Summarize some of the main ideas behind Figuring Foreigners Out and the Hofstede Dimensions of Culture. Do you predominantly agree with these assessments? Are there any statements, generalizations, and opinions expressed in the reading that you find
Read more…Basically, the graph in page 9 is a wheel-like structure of languages. The core matter of it is phonetics, and other elements like phonology, syntax, semantics, or pragmatics are radiated to the outside. The way I see it is that the graph is more lik
Read more…It is important to understand that what we mean by language is not merely what coming out of one’s mouth or what we hear. Language helps communicate, but is speaking the only way to convey messages? Same as what the reading noted, language is a huge
Read more…It is interesting that I only knew that our brain is consisted of two hemispheres, the left one and the right one, but I had never paid attention to the fact that nerves were crossed between two hemispheres. Thus, there is no question that problems w
Read more…For this week, I wanted to start diving deeper into topics that I did not know so that I could have more questions to ask my tutor about during our next couple of meetings. One suggestion that a student that I received from one of my friends is to le
Read more…
