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Final Work.docx
Elliott Hammer
MLC 105
When I started my autonomous/self-directed language learning journey I was unorganized and was set in my old habits of language learning. Although some of my habits were beneficial, I needed to, and did adapt to learning a foreign language autonomously and not in the country in which it is spoken. This adaptation consisted of more studying and organized activities.
Through the topics discussed in the classroom and through the articles that we, the students, read in MLC 105, I feel that we developed our skills as observers of other cultures. For example, the activity about Collectivism v Individualism helped me to broaden my understanding of Israel as well as of Iran and Turkey. Our cultural discussions in class helped to augment my skills as an observer of culture.
I found the language learning partner to be the most helpful resource. Haya was always approachable and helpful when I had questions. I tried out the Rosetta Stone once but I don't think I gave it enough of a chance. Next semester I'm going to try and use it more. I think it will be good for practicing. To learn new words and phrases I recited and wrote them down (in transliteration) many times. I also had to use them in sentences and conversation with Haya to put them in my long term memory. To learn grammatical structures I would take a sentence I knew how to say and practice changing it from masculine to feminine and vis versa, from singular to plural and vis versa, and from "you" to "me" to "we" etc.
I was very comfortable with the "self-directed" study. I enjoyed being given the freedom to choose how I organize my studying and to cater to my own learning styles. I sometimes wish that my other classes incorporated some more independent learning. I feel that being "self-directed" made me feel in charge of my goals and priorities which made me more motivated to learn because I had a goal that was pertinent to my personal goals. The fact that my studies had immediate practical uses for me was also a great motivator. My reason for learning Hebrew comes from my desire to communicate with my family members in Israel, which was a goal towards which I could immediately see progress.
I discovered several things about myself as a language learner. I discovered that I have a knack for pronunciation. I also discovered that I have a hard time memorizing individual words, but remember phrases quite well. There were also a few things that I already knew about myself as a language learner that were apparent to me in this experience. I am naturally unorganized so there is a need to organize myself and set goals.
I will definitely continue to use the strategies, activities, and approaches I have learned this semester. I will continue to use my vocabulary list as a motivational tool. I will, of course, use my language partner as a resource next semester. I will try and find more YouTube videos to use in order to practice my listening skills. I think that next semester I will try to incorporate the tools in the global studio more often. I will start using the Rosetta Stone regularly.
I think that the most crucial factor in becoming a truly "self-directed" language learner is organization and motivation. Setting specific goals is important. All activities and studying should be tailored to achieve those goals. Learning techniques should be flexible as goals change and become more realistic. There is usually a tendency to set lofty goals at the beginning. Another factor is to engage the language in some way, however small, every day. Even if this means, on an off day, counting to x number in your head and reciting the alphabet or some simple sentences, or watching a short 5 minute video. I think it is important, especially when you are not in the country in which the language is spoken, to artificially surround yourself with the language as much as is realistically possible. Tracking progress in some sort of tangible way is also important. That is the reason that I used a vocabulary list. Also, it is important to understand that when learning a language there are times when parts of the learning process will plateau for a while and not to become discouraged.
My cultural project helped me to understand collectivist attitudes and perspectives in Israel. I was able to relate to my research of Kibbutzim because I have direct experience in a Kibbutz and relatives from a Kibbutz. The cultural projects of other students also helped me to relate to the products and practices of other cultures. The presentation on traditional clothing in the Middle East helped me to understand how what you wear can be political, and is political in the Middle Eastern cultures. The presentation on soccer in Turkey helped me to understand the significance of the sport in Turkey, as well as in the rest of the world. The presentations on Jewish women helped me to better comprehend gender roles in Judaism and in Israel.
When I began MLC 105, I really had no idea what strategies of language learning would work for me. Now I do. The most significant evolution in me as a self-directed learner is that I know what strategies to use, and I have much more confidence in seeking out the resources I need. Because I know where to go for help and resources, I am that much more capable of doing so.
In observing cultures, I have more insight now into what to look at when viewing other cultures. My previous experience was in personally being immersed in another culture (when I moved to the States) and in classroom settings. Being immersed means I could directly interact with the culture, and use my own culture as a reference point to gain understanding of this new one. However, there is no such direct connection while I was learning Farsi. In a classroom, I had no control over what I was learning, or how I approached the culture. Textbooks often give a very simplified and/or biased impression of foreign cultures. In MLC 105, I got to choose what I researched. I could dig deeper into what interested me. I think that was really important in my learning process. I stayed interested and alert while learning because I was always investigating something of my choosing. Also, just the practice of making cultural connections and analyzing without direction developed my observation skills.
As for learning the language itself, certain activities and strategies emerged as the most useful while I studied. Repetition was essential. Writing and saying the vocabulary over and over, though sometimes tedious, really made it stick in my brain. However, once I learned enough to form phrases, it was forming vocabulary into phrases that made memorization easier. I could then make connections. I could actually talk aloud to someone. Talking aloud, even when it was just to Holden, my one-year old friend who didn't understand me (but didn't care that I repeated the same six phrases over and over), gave me confidence and made muscle memories for speech. Constant exposure was helpful too. I wrote the alphabet and numbers on the dry-erase board in my office, so I could look up every once in a while and run through them again. That made it a kind of habit. It wasn't a big time commitment, I could speed-study.
I am definitely a "doer" learner. Watching and listening to media wasn't very helpful. It was essential to have face-to-face watching and listening, but when it came to movies and recordings, I didn't get much from it. It was good when I just began to hear the flow of speech, and interesting culturally (investigating music, for instance), but not that great for practicing conversational Farsi. I definitely don't recommend trying to learn a language without having someone experienced in it to touch base with.
Over all, I'm not very comfortable with self-directed language study. I thought I would be, because I love self-directed study in other topics. I love following a thread of interesting research, discovering what interests me. But I relied a lot on my learning partner when it came to language study. The nature of language is social. It's impossible to get the right sounds for me without seeing a person in front of me, and having them listen to me and correct me. When I heard "so-pekhaikh," Sofia was able to communicate to me (after much back-and-forth) that it was actually "sob-pekhair." Without a tutor, I'd have gone to Iran and greeted someone completely incorrectly.
I discovered that I get very intimidated by new language experiences. It is so fundamental to understanding that it seems impossible to learn. Foreign languages aren't instinctive to me, I have to work hard to get them. But every time I succeeded in learning/understanding something (like when I found I could pick out nouns, pronouns, and various other words in a sentence), it was extremely exciting. Learning a new language, because it's such a challenge, is exhilarating.
I plan on studying abroad in Senegal next spring, and will work on developing my French while I'm there. I'll implement everything I learned in this class, most importantly to put what I learn into practice soon and often. I can only rely on my own study for so long before it's essential to try it in conversation.
The most crucial factor in becoming a self-directed language learner is to know you need help. If I'd continued with BYKI, for instance, it would have been disastrous. You can only go so far before you need to interact with a speaker. Self-direction comes in afer that, and in between that. Even just touching base with someone about what you're learning could mean the difference between making up a new language (Tania-Farsi, where we greet everyone with "so-pekhaikh"!) and learning a language.
The cultural project was a great way to focus all the cultural observation skills I'd developed over the semester. I had to commit to something specific to look at critically, in my case traditional persian women's clothing. The clothing revealed how Iran is separated into distinct cultural regions, where whether and beliefs shape what was worn before globalization. It was a window of insight into the problems of minority representation in Iran. Iran is fragmented culturally in a completely different way than the US's "melting pot" or "salad bowl," so Iranian perspectives on diversity and culture are different as well.
Here is a youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSakToFMQsw
Hora is an Israeli Folklore dance, typically originated in the Balkan countries, and then became part of the Jewish life in Israel. It is acircle-type of dance, where everyone holds hands and dance with harmony.The Israeli Hora dance became the symbol of the reconstruction of thecountry by the
socialistic-agricultural Zionist movement, when Israel was formed. Inthe past, hora has been very famous in kibbutzim. In Bar Mitzvahs andweddings, it is very traditional to dance hora.
