Before I embarked on my adventure to learn Farsi, I took six years of French in middle and high school, culminating in a 4 on the AP French Language and Culture exam my senior year. French class was always one of my favorite and strongest classes in school. I loved learning about the culture of francophone countries and learning to speak a whole new language, and seeing the connections between French, English, and the rudimentary Farsi I knew.
One of my favorite methods of learning in French class was telling stories. My AP French class had only six students and we were all good friends, and every day we would practice speaking and listening by telling stories about what had happened to us that day. It was a very good way to practice our vocabulary and sentence structure skills, and really helped me on the speaking and listening portions of the AP exam. I also liked practicing reading comprehension by reading French newspaper articles and then discussing them with my class.
I did not like the previous years of French class as much as my senior year, however. The previous classes were composed of students who were not serious about learning the language, and the class reflected that, in having to spend much time reinforcing the basics over and over. As a self-directed learner of Farsi, I am excited to be able to work at my own pace and on my own curriculum.
As a self-directed language student, I will be able to adapt my curriculum to my own personal styles of learning. For example, in the FIRE model of integrative thinking, I identified very strongly with the Factual method. I learn best in a goal-oriented way, with set expectations and tasks that I need to accomplish. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and the Factual method describes me very well.
According to the learning styles test, I am a mix between an Aural and a Reading/Writing learner. As an Aural learner, it definitely helps me to be able to say things out loud and explain them to another person. Since I am also a Reading/Writing learner, it is imperative that I not only learn how to speak and listen to the language that I am learning, but also learn how to read and write the language and integrate the two styles of learning.
According to the Multiple Intelligences test, I rated equally in Verbal/Linguistic and Logical/Mathematical Intelligence. Being strong in verbal intelligence means that I enjoy using words and taking notes, two characteristics that I will need to utilize to become an autonomous language learner. As a logical learner, I like to organize things by categories, which will help me in planning my syllabus for learning Farsi this semester.
By using my previous language learning experiences and the new insight I have gained into my learning methods, I hope to be able to learn Farsi efficiently throughout this semester and academic year, with a self-directed learning method tailored to my own abilities and needs.
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