Journal Entry #2: Learner Autonomy & How Language Works pg 171 - 209

[Alexis Witt]

I thought that both readings were very interesting. Regarding the Learner Autonomy article, I think I have always been somewhat of an autonomous learner. From elementary school, I have always been one to do research and learn about various topics on my own. I would get bored in school, and pick up another topic on the side. This is how I know so much about Ancient Egypt and the Gnostic Gospels. It was never taught to me, I read and learned on my own. I haven't been as much of an autonomous learner with languages, but I still have attempted to "take charge" of my learning. Last year, my Latin class moved at a very slow pace because kids just weren't understanding the higher level Latin rules. I understood fairly easily, so I would look ahead or I would translate works that weren't required of us. Anytime I sing something in Latin, I try to translate it, even if English is given. Most of the time the English is close to the the Latin, and implies the same overall meaning, but because we have to make it fit to the music, sometimes it isn't a truly accurate translation. So in that way, I have been autonomous with languages, but not to the same extent as other subjects. Reading the article, I noticed the various learning strategies. I seem to use most of the cognitive strategies, but I rely heavily on repetition, translation, and note taking. I think that stems from the fact that I have mainly studied Latin, and we didn't focus on the spoken aspects of the language. Instead, we worked on vocab, grammar, and translation. I don't use as many of the metacognitive strategies, but I do evaluate myself, and I attempt to monitor myself as I speak another language. I really like the idea of keeping a diary with my progress and problems, but I have attempted to keep regular diaries in the past, and it only lasted a few posts before I would forget about it or just get too lazy to do it. I also think that it is good to have written goals, but I am not sure what is practical for semester goals, especially since Swahili is so different from any other language that I have studied.

I also thought that the reading from the textbook was interesting. I never really studied how language works and how our brains deal with it. It has always been such a natural thing to me, that I never thought twice about it. When I studied Spanish in high school, it came so easily to me, even though it obviously isn't my first language, so I enjoyed learning a little bit more on how it all works. I didn't realize that language was such a complex thing neurologically. And I didn't know that different parts of the brain played different roles in speaking and understanding language.