REFLECTION PAPER 1:SDLC 105
Some people may think that learning a language is something of the past and that nowadays it is nonsense. However, I do not think so and there are lots of reasons to support the learning of a new language. For me, the most important one is all the knowledge that you acquire when learning to communicate in a different language.
As a language learner, I can only think of benefits when learning a new language. For me as a Spanish native speaker, learning English as the second language and French as the third, has provided me with certain tools and abilities that I could not have obtained with any other thing. It is true that in the first moment it can seem frustrating since there is a period of time during the language learning curve in which you do not see any progress in yourself. And, that is probably the part that I dislike the most of learning a language, however, when that point is overcome, everything is positive since each time you are able to communicate more information and to develop yourself in more and more circumstances.
As a visual learner, (as the survey showed me) I need to see what I am studying to internalize it, if not I will get distracted. Therefore, for me it is essential to have some written material to understand a new knowledge, so for my self language plan I would need to acquire some books or notes to work on them. Hearing is not enough for me, that is why oral practice will help me but not sufficiently to learn a language in proper conditions.
Regarding the strengths I have (also according to the survey), with the ones I agree, it could be said that I am a `self ́ individual since I like to spend time with myself and to do things alone, what I consider is really important for a Self Directed Language program, since understanding yourself and knowing to work without the presence of others is essential to develop a program like this. As a second important intelligence I have is the social one, which of course is key to learning a language, which is basically based on communication, and to communicate you need a receptor of your message. Therefore, I consider really important the existence of an assistant that on occasions can help you at your learning process to practice what you have learned on your own and to feel something more similar to the real life, where you will find with many people with the ones you will have to speak and establish a conversation.
Furthermore, according to the FIRE model, I would say that my way of thinking is rational integrative thinking since it goes from the greatest concept to the particular cases, and that is how I think I learn better. In my case, I need to receive the general grammar concept first and then apply it to the different examples.
To end up, I believe that I need to expand my learning activities in some way and that is what I will try to do with the learning of Portuguese since I am going to try to develop a plan that can perfectly fit my needs. As a Spanish king said: “El hombre es tantas veces hombre cuanto es el número de lenguas que ha aprendido.”
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