In my previous language-learning experiences, I have found that I remember vocabulary very well, but only when written down. I am very much a visual learner, which was confirmed by the Learning Styles quiz I completed today. When I hear something without it being written, it goes in one ear and right out the other. When put in a situation where I am trying to learn something by listening, I attempt to picture the word written in my brain or write it in the air. However, I am really poor at that, which is a challenge for me while conducting online language classes and conversations with Farida. If I didn’t write a word down during the lesson, it will be completely unfamiliar to me the next day. While I was in Italy I was able to practice my learning by listening because I was fully immersed in the language, but I still found myself regularly frustrated by the words that would slip out of my brain day after day.
Although writing and reading comes much easier to me, the most important aspects of my language use will be listening and speaking. This means that even if I learn the language visually, I have to more-regularly practice my listening and speaking skills. I practiced this with French by reading texts out loud. I also listened to YouTube recordings of Le Petit Prince with the French words displayed on the screen as they were read out loud by a native French speaker. I practiced saying each sentence myself, then listened to the recording and corrected myself, and translated any words I wasn’t familiar with. I found this to be a very effective study technique that I plan to continue with Indonesian. I also plan to use Anki flashcards to increase my Bahasa Indonesia vocabulary and practice saying the words to myself. To translate my visual learning to a listening and speaking vocabulary, I think the best method for me is to combine all three at the same time. I can also do this by using Duolingo, which has an Indonesian language course! I’ve found that Duolingo works best as a supplementary learning device, because it isn’t very good at explaining the grammar rules but offers a lot of opportunity to practice and learn new words. It also practices both reading, writing, and listening for Indonesian, and I’ve already found it useful to supplement Farida’s lessons.
I also discovered from these tests that I am a self-learner, meaning that I prefer to spend time by myself to think things over. This confirms my typical experiences with learning because I usually prefer to review the material by myself between each lessons. Already with learning Bahasa Indonesia, I find that if I do not review the lessons afterwards and rewrite the words I have learned they do not stick in my brain at all. It will be very important for me this semester to practice and review the material on my own, outside of my hours with Farida. I am going to have to practice self-discipline, an aspect of self-directed learning not mentioned in the articles but very important to Learner Autonomy, in my opinion. If I truly want to learn Bahasa Indonesia to an A2 proficiency by the end of this semester, I will have to make myself practice and review the lessons even when I am tired or don’t feel like it. I am unsure of my capacity of self-discipline, but I hope that it will be sufficient and that this course will expand it.
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