I didn’t find much in the reading that I disagreed with or found surprising. It seemed to mostly say that learners can be more successfulif they take an active role in the process, which requires more motivation andindependence. These days, there’s much more of an emphasis on self-directedlearning, especially through the internet. And this view doesn’t bother me atall because that’s how I prefer to learn. I’ve always liked finals week becausethere’s no classes and I can schedule everything myself in order to learn whatI think is important. Actually, in my fourth year at university, I’ve come tothe conclusion that college isn’t about teaching students things; it’s aboutteaching students how to teach themselves. Anyway, it’s what I naturallygravitate towards doing, if I have a block of free time and a laptop withinternet, so I’m pretty excited about the prospect of self-directed Turkishlearning. :D
There are so many resources available, whether online courses, or internet-streaming radio, or books in the InternationalCenter, that I really am not worried about being able to get enoughinformation. The one worry, especially in regards to things posted on theinternet, is reliability. Ease of access means that plenty of information onthe internet isn’t credible, so that’s where my language partner could help meout, by verifying whether a site’s content is actually helpful and accurate. Thataside, I’ve found some good sites so far, bookmarked on the Diigo, includinglinks to the alphabet with pronunciations, foreign-language TV and radio, music& talk radio, grammar layouts, dictionaries, news sites in Turkish, and onlinelessons. I also plan to have a Turkish dictionary, and I should have RosettaStone at my disposal as well, so my next order of business is to check outexactly what is available in the International Center’s book resources.
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