Learning Plan

[Melale Hailu]

I created a PowerPoint presentation to organize my learning plan because I think that's the best way for me to stay on track and consolidate the information I wanted to be a part of my learning plan. I will try my best to transfer that information onto a blog post. Firstly, as any language learner first learns when they set out on their journey to learn a language on their own, especially, but also in the context of an externally-designed class is that setting a goal for yourself is extremely important. My main goal that I hope to work towards throughout this semester in regard to my self-directed Afaan Oromo journey is to 1) speak with a native at a conversational level and 2) understand/listen to the language at a higher level (so improve my comprehension skills). However, merely setting a goal is not enough. It's valuable to understand for yourself why the goal you set is important to you and your life, finding your "why" essentially. My "why" is to connect with my Oromo roots, foster stronger connections to my Afaan Oromo-speaking family, learn the mother tongue of my father, and become a better asset for my future career prospects (because as an International Affairs student that hopes to do a lot of work in Ethiopia knowing both the national language and the most widely spoken language of the country will increase my value and impact). In terms of technicalities, there are 12 weeks starting now in the semester~as required I will spend 2 hours/week speaking with my native partner and 3-4 hours/week engaging in other language learning activities/tasks. Additionally, outside of the two main goals I set initially, to better orient my studying, I will set bi-weekly goals that are narrower and will allow me to orient the activities/tasks I do in that week to fulfill these smaller goals. An example of these smaller goals is learning 30 new vocabulary words or being able to speak everyday pleasantries without hesitations. Thirdly onto my task-based plan. There are four language learning fields-speaking, listening, writing, and reading. For my personal learning, I have prioritized each field based on which I want to focus and improve the most by the end of the semester (1. Listening 2. Speaking 3. Reading 4. Writing). So what this essentially means is that I am not going to be overly concerned with my Afaan Oromo writing skills and thus will dedicate less time working on that skill and more time working on listening and speaking. This then allows me to delegate/identify which activities/tasks I will be doing for each respective area/field. For Listening, I have identified 4 tasks that will allow me to investigate Afaan Oromo through an 'input' lense: children's books (YouTube 'Oromo Fairytales' Channel), Oromo music (w/ lyrics), Edpuzzle, and simple movies on YouTube. For speaking, my native language partner will be my biggest source. As well as an Oromo textbook that I have purchased which will hone my grammar skills and expose me to different phrases and vocabulary for speaking. For reading, I have found a BBC News website in Afaan Oromo. This is great because I am already invested in Ethiopian politics and such, and so this will allow me to do something I am already interested in in my target language. And lastly, for writing, I can hone these skills through text messages to my family in Afaan Oromo and answering short simple writing prompts (and increasing how much I write and the complexity of the prompt as time goes on).