The only previous language that I have truly “learned” was Spanish. While at a semi-immersion program in Spain I enjoyed living in a foreign country and being independent. I was part of an incredible program and formed great friendships and relationships. While in the program, I enjoyed “conversation classes” with my professors because they did not correct anything, but simply talked to me. We would meet at a local coffee shop and talk for 2 hours. My favorite part about these classes were hearing about their families, friends, and places they had traveled before. I did not feel as self-conscious because it was not focused on grammar, but rather building the confidence to be able to speak the language. I disliked the classroom learning because it made me realize how little of the language I actually knew. I could barely conjugate verbs correctly in a way that made sense, and I often left feeling disappointed in my progress.
When taking the quiz about learning styles, my results showed that I was a visual learner, and while I think that is accurate, I know that I have to combine different learning styles to learn effectively. According to my answers, I was 40% visual, 35% auditory, and 25% tactile. This does not surprise me considering my learning disability (dyslexia) necessitates that I combine different senses to learn in an efficient manner. For example, when I read an assigned book, I read the book while listening to the audio book. This helps me understand the material better. If there is some way that I could practice signing while also hearing the word I think it could help. When looking at the FIRE model, I feel similarly about my multi-faceted learning style. I do not see my learning attitudes as stretchy factual, insightful, rational, or evaluative but rather a mix of all of them combined, and I know that I am not alone in that. For example, I like to think of “what if” questions, but also prefer objective tests. It has taken a long time for me to learn what learning process works best for me, but I am so proud of how far I have come in finding this answer. I hope the process of learning a new language will give me more insight on helpful techniques for learning.
Based on the results of my other surveys, it seems that social activities will help my learning process, and I am excited to implement them. This makes sense considering my enjoyment for conversational classes. Talking to others has always come very natural to me. I enjoy connecting with others in any way that I can. Conversations put me at ease, because unlike writing, I am able to describe and illustrate my emotions through hand movement, body language, and other visual forms. However, when I am in a classroom situation I feel more nervous and uptight. In the classroom with language practice there seems to be always a “right” or “wrong” answer, and the idea of being “wrong” has always caused a little fear.
I think a balance between social conversational interactions and more strict grammar lessons will have to be implemented in my curriculum. I have to get over the fear of “bad grammar” and “being wrong” to be successful in my ASL learning process. This comes back to the idea of scaffolding which we discussed in class. If I am able to start this process with less fear, I will be able to build a great foundation. With that being said, I think that I should research more into ASL Champs to find more social ways to learn the language. I also enjoy working with kids, and think a great way to expand my learning activities would be to somehow volunteer with deaf children. If not this semester, I think that should be a long-term goal of mine.
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