Journal Post #2: Becoming an Autonomous Learner

[Nicolas Dacey]

The book posed many interesting facts towards learning a language that I found fascinating First, it discussed language structure, the kind similar to the symbolic logic class that I am also taking this semester. Language structure is extremely important, and in logic class, we learn to break down sentences and put a logical framework over each word and phrase in order to map out how the sentence works. I feel that this knowledge could be helpful to learning a new language. When beginning Hebrew, I should be sure to confidently place each word in a sentence, and understand how its meaning and placement can effect the meaning of the sentence as a whole. I mean this in relation to "where's the station?" ass opposed to "station where's the?", "where is the station?", and where's the station!" The whole concept behind lexemes was also very interesting. WALK is a very simple word, but run, limp, and march are all words with a similar meaning, but a more exact version of walk. These distinctions are important for beginning to learn a language because in this first semester, I plan to only learn the basic words. Afterwards, when I come across "run", I will need to understand how it is qualitatively different from "walk".

The article is much different from our reading in the book. It's discussion on learner autonomy related to what it is, and how all the ways in which I need to think and approach Hebrew in order to succeed. The most interesting part of the article to me was the part about teachers. Teachers apparently have a tough time weening themselves off of forcing the language on the student and helping them out too much. The purpose of the teacher for me will have to be some sort of language assistant. There is no reason that the fostering of my learning autonomy will be hindered by questions I actively bring to somebody who understands Hebrew. I simply need to pull my self away from the language assistant and now allow them to become a crutch in my language learning. My favorite part of the article is when the author mapped out what type of atmosphere learning autonomy works best. This included "collaboration rather than competition." I would love nothing more that to take my motivation (I am purely learning Hebrew on an interest basis, not because of traveling to Israel or needing it for a job, etc) and use it in a friendly and harboring atmosphere. I believe this kind of approach will be more effective for my motivation.