This semester as a self-directed learner for Swedish has been a very challenging and rewarding semester. At the beginning of the semester I was very motivated to begin this course even though I was hesitant about my ability to remain motivated when there were only goals set by my self and my own responsibility in keeping up to date. These were legitimate concerns since I had never before participated in this type of course, but I was very soon convinced that the course would be a success when I began speaking Swedish and recognizing significant improvements in my fluidity and confidence. My goals at the beginning semester were to become more confident speaking in formal settings and expanding my vocabulary in order to speak about more complex topics beyond daily tasks and activities. My focus would be on developing my presentational speaking through readings taken from Swedish media and conversation with my language partner. At the beginning of the semester it was a little difficult to place my language level because I had never had any formal training in the Swedish language but could nonetheless communicate rather effectively in daily conversation. Determining my level was one of the interesting discoveries I made throughout my first conversations with my language partner. I realized that I was very uncertain about the conjugations of certain words and lacked confidence but many times I utilized complex sentence structures naturally. My language level was at a very interesting point at the start of the semester but I realized later through a particular reading that revealed more about my learning style and how that reflected my Swedish language development.
The reading was a short article taken from The New York Times that explained the results from a study that showed the brain activity of an individual taught to learn a language like a native speaker. The studies showed that by focusing on oral ability and communicating a context where the spoken ability and fluidity is more important, learners exhibited brain activity similar to that of a native speaker’s brain activity. I realized while reading this article that a majority of my language learning has stemmed from such learning and that although I may score highly in immediate responses that are culturally appropriate I do struggle with written language. This was confirmed during the European Swedish language exam I took during my final evaluation. In listening and speaking I scored C1 and B2 levels respectively and on the other hand was not too surprised that my lowest score was in the writing section. This semester I have learned more about how to assess my languages and marked significant improvement since the beginning.
Reflecting now on my experience, I believe the most fruitful part of my learning has been meeting with my language partner consistently twice a week. I have improved my speaking abilities tremendously and as I compare the amount of time I spoke to him to the amount of time I spoke in a French class, it has been much greater. I realize that had I been given the same opportunity to speak with a language partner for other language such as French my level may have been more advanced. Not only did I learn to communicate, but also I further developed my own cultural nuances through conversation of Swedish culture in comparison to the United States. If I could do one thing differently it may have been to focus more on writing, but saying this I am not sure this would have made my experience equally enjoyable and rewarding. I accomplished the majority of my goals that I made at the onset of the semester and of this I am very proud. A self-directed course took great organization and prioritization in order to remain up to date, but I know now I have the ability to direct a similar course for myself once again given the skills and I gained this semester.
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