Although I learned Korean since I was younger, I was not aware of the structures that made up the language. It was eye opening to see the two different ways to learn a language through linguistics because before taking this course, I always assumed that there was one dominant way to teach and learn languages. The first approach was to start with the pronunciations and articulations which is the level of phonetics, move to organizing those sounds which is the level of phonology, go on to bringing those meaningful words into a sequence which is the level of grammar, then finally studying those patterns of meanings which is the level of semantics. The other approach is to essentially go backwards starting with the meaning, aka semantics, then going on to grammar, phonology, and finally phonetics. This is a general layout because you have to make assumptions about other levels to analyze a specific level of structure.
This made me think of the approaches I used when learning languages. Even though I am only comfortable using Korean and English, I have also had a chance to begin to learn both Spanish and French. I learned Korean and English in an environment where the language I was learning was the common language in the society while I was taught Spanish and French during school in a set classroom setting. I am not sure of the specific order of the structures I began with because I never needed to think about it. The way I learned Korean and English was through spoken words. I understood the meanings of the words they spoken and copied the way they spoke it. Yet when I was taught how to read and write, I first had to recognize the alphabet and know how to pronounce it correctly. I felt like I jumped around instead of following one disciplinary approach. For Spanish and French, I believe that we started with phonetics since they were unfamiliar languages that I needed to understand how things were pronounced.
Since most of what I learned in Korean was through hearing and listening to others, I believe that I do not have a proficient understanding of grammar and semantics. I am still able to write by using my knowledge of the phonetics of the Korean alphabet, but building complex, meaningful sentences that are structured correctly is still challenging. I do not have this problem with English because I attended school in the U.S. and was required to take an English class every year. I would like to strengthen my skills overall in each structure but focus a little more heavily on grammar.
I would not give a preference to one disciplinary approach over the others as long as the student completely analyzes each structure thoroughly. Now that I have been exposed to the language structures and methodologies, I am aware of the details that my target language is comprised of and that learning more in specific skills/structures will help me with the overall language of Korean.
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