Complete Reflection Paper #2 (500 words)
Reflect on your language learning so far and the relationship between understanding the target culture and the target language. What do you need to improve your communicative competence?
So far, I have been jumping around on my learning plan, because in the 110 course, we some of the topics overlap with other dates (weeks) on my plan, so I have had to adjust some things around. However, I do think that I doing great progress and am relatively pacing myself with the learning plan. The learning plan is very effective and makes sure I am staying on track, which is usually difficult because this is a self-directed course.
All the activities I have arranged in the learning plan have been extremely helpful. The Mango languages lesson help me learn new vocabulary, and review the older ones. The videos were fun and supplemented my lessons for the week. They were also good for a study break. This is my second attempt at a self-directed language, and I feel that I am taking on a lot more than I can handle, so the videos are a fun and good de-stressor.
I think some of the topics on my plan will have to be pushed back to next semester. As I make progress in the language, the vocabulary gets more difficult as well as the grammar. There is also a lot to cover in a topic, and I don’t think that a week is enough to cover all of it. As of right now, I won’t change it, because I think I can manage it, but if it gets too difficult in the coming up weeks, I might have to modify my plan.
So far, the relationship between understanding the target culture and the target language has been quite easy. I haven’t encountered too many problems. My learning plan has, thus far, been on track with the cultural learning part, so when I am studying or learning a lesson, I find topics that overlap with the cultural aspect. But there are some culture topics that I would like to explore, but don’t correlate with my learning plan. I will most likely just research and study it on my own. I am finding myself getting more interested in the cultural aspect of my target language, rather than the actual language itself.
Communicative competence is the ability to understand and use language effectively to communicate in authentic social and school environments. To improve my communicative competence, I will need to learn more vocabulary. I currently vocabulary bank is very small, so, to be able to communicate more effectively I will need to increase my vocabulary.
Understanding more about Korean culture will also improve my communicative competence. Learning more culture will help me have more awareness in nonverbal behaviors, social rules, and cultural references.
To also better improve my communicative competence, I will need to work individually in sections of: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. After working and improving on the process of each section separately, then I can say that my communicative competence has improved.
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