1. How did you evolve as an autonomous/self-directed language learner?
As a self-directed learner I was able to figure out what worked and what did not in terms of understanding material that I am teaching myself. Learning Turkish was a catalyst for discovering how I learn best when autonomous. Using this as a springboard has helped me with my CFA studying along with other topics that I want to learn.
I understood the importance of setting a schedule and the ease in which that schedule can fall apart if not maintained or followed closely. Overall, I became disappointed in my path to learning Turkish because I was not able to follow my plan as well as I could have. Ultimately, I realized that it is vital to set realistic goals that I could accomplish in a timely fashion.
In addition to creating a schedule, I also found it very helpful to be interested in what you are learning. As a self-directed learner you take on the responsibility of learning independently which must mean that one is interested in the topic they are learning. Who would have thought that being interested in a topic would make it much easier to learn. Again Turkish has been the realization for this, which in turn has helped me with my CFA preparation. Knowing that I took on the task to study this material has been very influential in understanding it. Mainly because I want to understand!
2. Have you accomplished your learning goals?
For Turkish I unfortunately have not accomplished all my learning goals. I understand some vocabulary and am able to roughly conjugate the verbs that I know but I do not genuinely have the basics down. However, this class has taught me more than just Turkish, it has taught me how to be a better autonomous learner. This has been the main function of this class for me. I’ve been able to learn come cultural aspects and some words but have taken more out of being independent. So I accomplished a goal that I did not even know I had which was to become better self-directed learner. And I did!!
3. What did you learn about yourself as a self-directed language learner?
As I mentioned above, I learned how important it is to make yourself interested in what you are learning prior to the start of your learning plan. It is vital to either be truly interested or make yourself believe that you are interested in the topic. This has helped me with my CFA studying because there are some topics I am genuinely interested but others that I really do not find all that thrilling. Secondly, or quite possibly what you should do first, is create a learning plan that you can stick with and be reasonably sure that you can follow. A learning plan that is too difficult will only add stress that inhibits learning. I unfortunately made the mistake of creating too difficult of a plan for both Turkish and my CFA review and it just ended up creating a stressful environment that I could not keep up with.
4. What did you learn about languages and language acquisition in general?
Overall I learned that repetition and knowing the vocabulary makes it much easier to understand and be able to somewhat converse in the language. Whenever I spoke with Semih I would be able to use vocabulary and he could fill in the gaps. Even if the vocabulary wasn’t there, I would be able to use the vocabulary and he could fill in the rest.
5. Did you develop your skills as an observer of other cultures?
I think I was able to understand more how language and cultures were intermingled. For example, there were many times were I noticed that words were used to describe certain situations or foods. When discussing family members there re separate words for my mother’s sister and my father’s sister. I simply do not use the word aunt for both of them. However, that being said in America it is only one word so it shows a cultural difference through the use of words.
6. Which language learning activities helped you most?
My self-studying definitely helped me the most. When I was interested in what I was learning I was able to better apply myself and focus on the material at hand. Additionally, I retained the information more since I was so keen on learning it. For example I was able to understand most of the colors and numbers pretty quickly. Finally being able to repeat what I learned back to a native speaker and having them correct with either pronunciation or spelling was very helpful. I feel that being a practitioner is the best way to actually understand something. It is important to effectively mix learning with practicing to garnish the optimal results.
Overall this semester was important to me since it helped me understand how to better learn on my own. It seems to be a fitting conclusion to my time at Richmond since I am left with a better way in how to teach myself in the future.
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