NOTE: As the title suggests, I have combined the two assignments of the reflection paper #2 for SDLC 105 and the learning journal #7 for SDLC 110 because both assignments focused on reflecting on the progress of my learning, while the reflection paper addressed a couple more specific ideas, which I will note in this blog post.
SDLC 110: Learning Journal #7 and SDLC 105: Reflection Paper
For my learning plan, I have developed 8 goals that focused on all aspects of learning a new language, such as communication, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. I purposely shaped my goals to address each of these 5 different areas, at least once. So far, I have accomplished about half of my goals (3-4, out of 8), which is a good sign of progress because we are almost halfway done with the semester. For the first half, I have mainly worked on learning vocabulary about topics that interested me, such as majors, careers, and family relationships. I wanted to develop communication skills first, so that I can learn how to have better and more flowing conversations with my family and friends.
For the second half of the semester, I will be focusing on developing my reading, writing, and listening skills for Korean. Some of my goals include writing a personal letter, reading a Korean article, and listening and understanding 2 minutes of Korean news. These goals are slightly more challenging than my first half of the semester goals because they continue to develop what I learned earlier and focuses on different aspects, other than just communicating. Since I know that these goals will be harder to accomplish, I will work even harder on these tasks, so that I can accomplish these goals appropriately.
Communicative competence can account for my struggles in learning Korean because I learned Korean initially from my family members, who were born in South Korea. Growing up in a Korean household can lead to learning some Korean words that may be different from what is commonly taught in educational settings. This can be a problem because what I know about Korean language can be different from what I learn and what other people are taught for this language. However, since I am aware of this difference, I can apply it to my life and acknowledge these differences, which is a way that I can improve my communicative competence.
Other ways that I can improve my communicative competence is by following the 4 elements that comprise of communicative competence: grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, and strategic. Following and applying these four elements will allow me to become more familiar in my target language of Korean. For example, I must be aware of using discourse by knowing how to put things together, so that I can have a meaningful conversation with another native speaker. Also, it is important to understand sociolinguistic so that I know the context of the target language and the rules and norms of that language. This will lead to better communication and less chances of miscommunication with others who speak Korean.
Overall, I am proud of the progress I made so far with learning and developing my Korean skills. I have practiced what I learned in the first half of this semester through having conversations in Korean with my family and friends. My aunt in particular told me that she has really seen improvement in my Korean communication skills because I was able to have more flowing conversations in Korean. It was really encouraging to hear her mention that because that shows that I accomplished my goal for the first half of this semester, where I worked on my communication skills.
Comments