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My biggest worry for learning Korean is the pronunciation. After listening to some videos in Korean and trying to repeat some common phrases I’ve heard here and there, I realized it is not easy. But with the BYKI program I can learn the essential Korean vocabulary words, alongside repeatedly listen to them. Like mentioned in one of my previous journal entries, one of more useful skill in learning languages is that I am pretty good with listening. Another aspect that helps me learn language is visual aid. If I am watching an education video and hear the associated with vocabulary with it, I’m positive I will be more likely to remember it. This is why I posted the two videos from YouTube on the Diigo “Asian Language” forum. One of the videos slowly teaches the pronounces each of the letters. She slowly repeats herself after each letter, and then talks about the common misconceptions with one of them. Unfortunately, unlike Spanish you can simply read the Romanized letters of each letter directly. The other link that I posted was a link to a YouTube channel for “Korean Language 101”. What I really liked about this link was the fact it has videos both for the language and culture. I personally believe you can never fully grasp a language without learning about the respected culture as well. This is why learning Spanish and Japanese was somewhat not too brutal learning.
Out of all the resources that are present for Korean, my favorite is the TALK NOW! Learn Korean. One thing I know am confident about language learning is that I have a good ear for it. During the summer of my junior year, I decided to study abroad in Japan regardless of the fact I was not in a Japanese class for over a year. But due to the fact I picked up everything by listening to people’s speech, I am confident that this program will help me in a similar manner. Also, I believe the reason I have gained the skill to speak Japanese is because we had drill class frequently, therefore my speaking and listening were constantly being practiced. Fortunately, this program allows me to practice both for Korean as well. Alongside that it has various games I can play to practice and learn Korean vocabulary and the alphabet.
The other resource I believe I will use is the Integrated Korean book. This consist of both English and Korean questions, therefore I can practice my reading as well. It also has some questions I can answer. Answering these questions will force me to practice any future grammar I will learn. One of my weakest points in any language is grammar, so I hope this book will somehow help with Korean grammar. Having constant practice for writing will help my speaking in Korean to get better as well. With utilizing these resources on a weekly basis, I believe I will definitely have a better grasp in Korean than where I am right now.
I have always had a deep desire to learn various languages because every time I hear something that seems foreign to me, I get excited and try to find out the meaning of that sentence or phrase. Language is an extremely integral part of my life. I can communicate with and understand people around me through language. When I was a baby I had no knowledge of any English. I spent a lot of my time around my maid who took care of me. She only spoke Tamil, which is a local language in India. By just listening to her speak most of the time; I was able to pick up a few words of Tamil. Before I went to school the only language I could relate with, was Tamil. This was my first experience with language and I always think of this story and wonder where I am in life today with no memory of any Tamil words.
According to the Learning Style survey and the Multiple Intelligence Test, it was found that I am a kinesthetic learner. I couldn’t disagree with the results of these surveys because I know that when I am made to study something by going through books or notes it bothers me. I get restless and bored easily. If I am told to perform an activity that helps me learn the subject I can enjoy my learning experience. I thoroughly enjoy games like charades and Pictionary because I can perform what I learn. I can use my body to enact a word or sentence while playing charades and use my drawing skills while playing Pictionary.
The FIRE model helped me understand what kind of a learner I am. While reading the different aspects of a learner I found myself to be evaluative. I like learning where I can listen to others opinions and have a discussion on topics. I like group activities and projects because I think that the more I interact with people, the more I will learn. I dislike memorizing and lecture based classes. I love practical learning. During my time at school I would enjoy working in the Chemistry lab because I actually got to see, smell, ear and feel different reactions taking place. I could use all my senses while learning the concepts of Chemistry. When I learnt Chemistry theoretically, I was not a big fan of the subject. I disliked writing equations and memorizing them.
I have taken the Self Directed Language Program to learn Sindhi. Sindhi is my mother tongue but unfortunately I have very little knowledge of the language. My great grandparents moved from Sindh (Pakistan) to India during the partition of India in 1947. During this movement most Sindhi’s who did shift to India went and settled down all over the country and thus there is no single state in India where Sindhi’s are located. I grew up in South India around people who spoke local languages like Kannada and Tamil thus limiting my resources to learn Sindhi. I am at a stage in my life where I have a keen interest in learning the language of my origin.
Self-Directed learning can seem challenging but what I like about it is that I get to choose my methods and strategies for learning the language. I hope to learn Sindhi by a number of resources. I want to use visuals and audio so that I can retain what I learn instead of simply memorizing. I hope to speak basic Sindhi by practical learning rather than theoretical learning.
I have learned a lot from the assigned readings. I have always been interested in Psychology and the way brain works, so the "How the brain handles language" article was very interesting for me. We do not usually think too much about how complex our brains are, and how even the simplest task involves the performance of many areas of the brain.
I have learned that it is most likely that I use the left hemisphere for language as I am a right-handed person. According to the article, the left hemisphere is dominant for language in most right-handed people (estimates are usually over 95%).
Another part of this article that I found interesting was the idea of slip of the tongue. Slip of the tongue is a mistake in speaking, for example saying "Nice to beat you" instead of "Nice to meet you." This is a common error in speaking because the average pace of speech is 150 words a minute, so a slip is likely to occur as we talk. I believe that I will make many slips of the tongue in the process of learning the language, especially pronouncing the words that contain letters that I encountered for the first time.
Another article talked about the naturalist view (Plato) and the conventionalist view (Aristotelian). The naturalist view believes that there is a connection between the sound of a word and the thing it refers to, while the conventionalist view believes that there is no connection, and thus the relationship is arbitrary. I agree to both views to a certain degree. From my learning experience, I can say that there are some words that I could just guess their meanings because they just seem and sound as the things they refer to. For example, when I heard the word "kedi" I immediately associated it with animal cat, and I was right. However, this is a case in maybe less than 0.5 %. All others words need translation, and explanation. For example, I would never guess or associate the word "balta" with "axe." Thus, even though I do agree with the naturalist view to a certain extent, I still believe that in majority the conventionalist view is more correct.
Many languages have only one word that are used for several purposes. There is a good example in the article that says that in English "cousins" can be male or female. Unlike Turkish language that has separate words for a male and female cousin, English does not have different words to distinguish male cousin from female cousin. For example, female cousin in Turkish is "kuzin", while male cousin is "kuzen." As we can see, Turkish clearly distinguishes between male and female cousins. This is also a case with the word "uncle". "Uncle" refers to the brother of one's mother or father, while in Turkish language we have different words for the brother of one's mother (dayi) and the brother of one's father (amca). I think that separation of such words is very useful because it gives a better picture of who you are referring to and you avoid the possibility of misunderstanding.
Also, from reading this article I learned the importance of relationship between words. Words by themselves do not make much sense. Vocabulary is important but knowing only vocabulary will not help you much to express yourself in right terms. Words are ambiguous and one word can have several meanings (such as word "table.") Therefore, when learning vocabulary it is of a great importance that you not only memorize the word but also understand deeper meaning behind the words and idioms.
Synonyms are also important in becoming proficient in a target language. However, I believe that at this stage it is still too early to start worrying about synonyms as I have to learn basic vocabulary first.
To be a successful self-directed learner, you need to be able to reflect upon your own learning. In SDLC 105 you are assigned to reflect upon readings about language, language learning, and culture in a blog. This blog is your learning journal, and the assigned topics are designed to help you become a reflective learner. In SDLC 110 - 113, you are asked to reflect regularly on your language learning activities. These reflections should be informed by the work you are doing / have done in 105 but should be much more specific about how you are learning your target language.
Each post should include:
- the task(s) you are working on;
- a statement of what you hoped to accomplish;
- the strategies (activities and resources) you used to work on your task(s);
- an evaluation of the effectiveness of your strategies;
- how you will build on what you have learned about the language;
- how you will build on what you have learned about your strategies.
Other aspects of language learning to reflect upon when it's appropriate:
- your emotions about language learning (pride, frustration, enthusiasm, etc.);
- connections between the language you are learning and the culture of where it is spoken;
- experimenting with new learning strategies for listening, speaking, reading, and writing;
- a successful experience in your learning;
- a not-so-successful experience;
- revisions in your task lists and/or short-term and long-term goals.
I am very exciting about learning Hebrew. This is the first time I will learn a language on my own! I think it will be challenging but fun at the same time.
There are several Hebrew resources in the global studio including books, CDs, and alphabet blocks. As a visual learner, I will use the blocks in the beginning to learn the alphabet by quizzing myself. The “Talk Now” program seems like a great resource. It includes games and quizzes that will help me in memorization. Once I improve, I will move on to the “Talk More” program which helps in learning words and phrases in Hebrew. I will rely on electronic resources more than books this semester because of the interactive and fun experiences they provide.
I also found a very useful video that teaches Hebrew. It is recommended that I should view the video at least twice a day. This Youtube video is a great resource for beginners. It provides pronunciation and teaches how to write down. It also leads to several other videos from the same channel that teach Hebrew.
BYKI is another good resource for Hebrew because it tracks my progress and it provides quizzes based on listening and reading by using electronic flash cards.
All these resources are great for pronunciation and quizzes, but they lack a comprehensive dictionary and that’s why I will use Milingua. This website includes several useful lessons in Hebrew. The free version includes a lot of good lessons for beginners. In addition, it has a nice dictionary for those who just started learning Hebrew.
Rafy Luqa
Being Multilingual
I always think of myself as an overachiever. That is probably the reason I think being a trilingual is not enough and I need to learn more languages. I can speak and write English and Arabic fluently and I can speak Assyrian fluently. I learned to read and write Assyrian twice but I fail to remember it because of lack of everyday experience. I believe that reading and speaking a language is the most effective way of learning. English was relatively easy for me to learn because I learned the grammar and speech simultaneously. French, on the other hand, was hard for me to learn because we did not speak it in class. I was good in French grammar, but I could not put together a long sentence even after four years of learning in school.
While attending the United World College in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I was subjected to several languages drastically different from each other. The two languages I was interested in learning were Russian and German. I picked up these languages quickly and I was able to make simple sentences short after. I learned the alphabet and pronunciation from my friends and I was able to practice every day. I also spent one Christmas and one summer break in Germany which allowed me to practice German. By the end of my summer break I could ask for directions in German and understand what people said in response. I like speaking to a native speaker of the language I am learning. I find it to be the easiest way to learn the modern pronunciation and the everyday language. I disliked not learning grammar because I believe it is just as important as speech. Unfortunately, I was unable to study either one of those languages in college because of my focus on science and mathematics courses.
I learn best by understanding the big picture and then apply the little details into it. I cannot simply learn small things if I do not understand how they fit into the puzzle. I am good at memorizing facts, which helps me with learning random words or grammar. I can memorize things by listening or visualizing them. While I enjoy talking a lot to the people close to me, I like to be concise and direct academically. As a rational thinker, I tie several causes and effects and I believe that everything occurs for a reason. I do not learn well in study groups, perhaps because I like to be the center of attention. My preferred way of learning a language is memorizing things that I hear or read and repeating them to myself or to another person. I also like making lists of words with their pronunciations and meanings. I cannot learn by using flashcards for some reason.
I am now interested in learning a new language and Hebrew seems like a good choice because it is closely related to Arabic and Assyrian. As of now, I do not have a language partner for Hebrew. Therefore, I will approach the language on my own using internet sources and Rosetta Stone to learn the alphabet and basic sentence structure. The new approach I will take to learning Hebrew is recording myself and listening to the recordings at least once a day. I will record words and their meanings and sentences that I learn along the way. I found several other resources in the Global Studio that I can use such as alphabet blocks, quizzes, word recognition and speech recognition that will make learning fun. As a big music lover, I might start listening to Hebrew songs and try to recognize words in them towards the end of the semester.
In order to accomplish my goals, I will be using different resources that are available to me. Global studio has numerous resources that we can utilize in order to learn the language. There are many CD's and books available. I am a kinestetic learner, so I believe that I can acquire a new language most easily and effectively through games and then quizzing myself.
I downloaded BYKI and I believe that this is a great resource to help improve my Turkish. Apart from BYKI and global studio, I found two more resources that could help me in the learning process.
I found this one really good you tube resource for learning Turkish, it is called Learn Turkish online, and one guy is teaching Turkish. I have watched several of his videos and I believe that his online classes can be very helpful. He goes into details and provides great examples to demonstrate the material efficiently for us, beginners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlGMpBTAzXU
Another website I found very interesting, which is mainly used for building the vocabulary, is called "Digital Dialects" and this website provides materials for learning Turkish vocabulary, then it also provides games which will help me make sure I memorized the vocabulary. Also, there is recorded pronunciation for every word which can be very helpful if I find any difficulties pronouncing it. As a kinestethic learner, I think this website will be helpful because I acquire new information the best through games and repetition, and this website provides exactly what I need. http://www.digitaldialects.com/Turkish.htm
I will also be watching my favorite Turkish soap opera "Dudaktan kalbe" and listen to Turkish songs. This can help me in pronunciation and can improve my Turkish listening skills.
Even though I am provided with numerous resources, I still believe that the most valuable resource is my language partner who I can ask directly about any concerns and troubles that I may encounter during my learning process. Also, my language partner can help me in pronunciation, and emphasize where I make major mistakes.
Begin your blog--your learning journal--with a reflection on your experiences as a language learner. What did you enjoy? What did you dislike? Think about the FIRE model that was distributed in class. What kind of learner are you? What kinds of language learning activities suit your learning style? How do you think you should expand your learning activities?
Maybe this model will help me divide my time into activities.
Under the FIRE model I also like situations in which I am told how to do a certain task. I would much rather not find a new way. I ignore recognition for helping and good team work. Being able to learn on my own time and how I want to will be much better when I am certain of what to do.
Looking at the fire model, I am mostly factual (the first one). I prefer reading than talking because I am visual. I guess it helps to review material in a different way each time so I am not bored into muscle memory and continue to grow.
Lejla Muhamedagic
SDLC 105
Reflection Paper 1
In order to fully involve myself in the language learning experience I need to be highly motivated as well as very careful about choosing efficient learning strategies. My quiz result says that I am a kinesthetic learner. I agree with this result because I learn most easily and efficiently when I get hands-on experience. I like to incorporate action into my learning experience in order to acquire and retain new information. I would always choose to participate in physical activities such as games, projects or experiments rather than simply sit still in classroom and listen to a lecture.
I retain new information most easily through games. For example, if I need to memorize vocabulary I would make flash cards to turn learning into a game. On one side I would write a word I want to memorize and on the other side I would write the translation of the word. I can also memorize vocabulary easily if I act out vocabulary words rather than simply try to remember the definition. A part of my learning process is to pronounce learned words several times out loud. I like to play crossword puzzle, charades and other word games that challenge me and help me discover new words and meanings. When I write study notes, I need to demonstrate each main point with examples. It is much easier for me to understand the material presented if I associate it with real world examples. If I simply memorize facts, I will not be able to retain such information for a long period of time. Also, if I have to do something that I have not done before, I would prefer someone to demonstrate what needs to be done rather than read it from a manual or listen the task explanation. I acquire new information best by watching others and then trying it myself. I always take notes and I think that it is a great way for me to participate in what I am learning. I use different strategies to help me stay focused on the material, for example I try to make creative notes, use highlighters, sticky notes, draw diagrams etc. Staying focused can be sometimes challenging for me: that is why I need to be provided with various methods of learning: group works, projects, experiments, games etc.
I think that environmental conditions are a very important part of the successful learning process. I perform best if I find my environment comfortable and work with people and students who I get along very well. During a learning process, I usually have a lot of questions and very often I go deep into details. I prefer to be practical and get logical answers to my questions. When it comes to expanding my learning activities I think I should keep a list of the new words I learn so that I can go back and revise them as well as add new vocabulary. This approach actually motivates me to learn more words and build my own dictionary. According to FIRE model, I associate myself best with evaluative model because I expect material to be related to people’s lives, experiences and stories. Also, I dislike learning that is purely theoretical and involves one extended time period of working alone silently. I like to take a break frequently and prefer not to study in one extended time period. I also prefer working in small groups where group members share their thoughts and opinions.
It is very important for me to be physically active in the learning process. I enjoy and learn well from first-hand experience. For me, motivation is one of the core aspects of a successful learning process as well as the choice of effective learning strategies that keep me entertained and focused on the material.
My interest in Turkish Language
I have always been interested in languages. When I was a child, I met one lady who was fluent in four languages, and I promised myself that one day I would be like her. I visited Turkey three years ago, just prior to coming to the United States. I spent about 10-15 days in Istanbul and Bursa. I was fascinated by the beauties of this wonderful country. My country, Bosnia and Herzegovina was under the Turkish Ottoman Empire for about 400 years so there is no wonder why Turkey reminds me so much of my country. We share many common characteristics, but one: same language. Although, we have some common words such as "pencer, kamyon and buyrun," most of them actually differ. Most of the words that are same are actually written differently but pronounced the same way. I got interested into Turkish ever since my first day in Turkey. I had a wonderful time and I am definitely planning to spend more holidays in Turkey in the near future. What I noticed during my time in Turkey is that not so many people speak English and it was very surprising to me, so I believe that knowing basic/intermediate Turkish could be very useful. I was also planning to study abroad next semester in Turkey, but since I changed my major and I am an accounting major now, I cannot take any accounting classes anywhere but at the University of Richmond. However, during summer I am planning to visit Turkey again.
I am very ambitious but I know that learning a new language takes a lot of time and work. Therefore, I know I cannot set out a goal to be fluent in Turkish in only one semester, but I know that I want to be able to lead a basic conversation with Turkish people, order food, ask/tell the time, talk about my family etc. I also want to be able to pronounce Turkish sentences without problems. This might be difficult in the beginning since there are some letters in Turkish alphabet that my mother tongue alphabet does not contain. I want to acquire new vocabulary and learn basic grammar such as present simple/continuous. I have many Turkish friends at the University of Richmond, and I think I will practice my Turkish with them, as they are all willing to help me. Also, my roommate from high school was Turkish and she is also willing to help me learn the language.
I am a big fan of watching Turkish soap operas, and I have been watching "Dudaktan kalbe" with subtitles in my language. I really want to be able to understand basic conversation between the actors without having to read subtitles. I know that this is extremely hard for beginners, but I believe that strong determination and persistence will keep me motivated to work hard and achieve my goals.
This semester has certainly been a journey in learning the Persian language, but also in self-discovery. Unlike many of the people enrolled in the self-directed language program at the University of Richmond, I had a background in Persian, built up over years of hearing my family members speak to each other. Throughout the semester, from what I learned in both the 105 and 110 classes, I slowly began to understand my family’s culture, language, and how those affected their viewpoints on life that I couldn’t previously understand.
Probably the biggest message that has been imparted to me this semester is how closely entwined language and culture are with each other. One simply does not exist without the other. Growing up, though I could not understand my parent’s language, I tried hard to understand the culture, but it never truly clicked with me. Now I understand that it was because I did not know the language. I couldn’t really appreciate the meaning of cultural traditions like our Norooz, or New Year, ceremony without knowing the meaning of the words that accompanied it. Many of the mannerisms and behaviors of my extended family, who mostly do not speak English, confused me, and I now realize it is because I was not familiar with their language, and therefore culture, and they were not familiar with mine. I am looking forward to being reunited with my extended family in the future, and being able to more sensitively appreciate their culture, along with being able to better communicate with them in their native language.
This semester, I also learned to appreciate why my parents never taught me Persian. Most of my friends who have foreign parents grew up bilingual, and I was envious that I didn’t have that opportunity. But through learning about the experiences of “culture shock” and the New York Times article about bilingualism and the negative views of it in the twentieth century, I can better understand my parents’ rationale. They thought that by knowing only English fluently, I could better integrate into English-speaking society and not have to go through the disorientation of culture shock like they had. Also, neuroscientists previously thought that multilingualism would diminish children’s cognitive capacity, and my parents may have subscribed to that theory. Knowing all of these things from our class readings has taken away my resentment towards my parents about not knowing the language of my ancestors, and has made me more determined to keep studying at it to be able to understand my family better.
Finally being able to understand my family’s culture was hastened by being in the MLC 105 class. Every week, we would talk about the cultures of our target languages, which was our assigned topic. But as many of us also came from other diverse cultures, those would creep their way into the conversations. So even though we were studying Korean, Bosnian, Urdu, Hindi, Persian, and Gujarati, we also learned about Turkish and Mongolian, and our classmates’ personal experiences with things like “cultural competence” and “culture shock” – things that we were learning about in class, but for some of us, had actually lived through. Just being able to talk with this group of people weekly for an hour was really enriching, and opened my eyes to the diversity of cultures just in our small class on the small Richmond campus. By learning about such different cultures, I was able to better understand and analyze my own.
I am excited to continue learning Persian in the future. It has given me another way to connect with my parents, even though I am living apart from them for the first time in my life. The better I can understand the Persian language, the better I will be able to understand the Iranian culture and my family, along being more sensitive to the cultures of others.
For this assignment, I taught my roommate Amanda how to conjugate verbs into the past tense. Unlike conjugating in the present tense, the past tense is completely regular in Persian. Amanda is from Puerto Rico and thus speaks English and Spanish fluently, and is also proficient in Italian, so I didn't foresee her having any trouble with this activity.
I first taught her the pronouns in Persian. Man (I), toh (you), oo (he, she, and it), ma (we), shoma (formal singular you or plural you), and anha (they). After about ten minutes she had them memorized. I then taught her the suffixes for each conjugation:
-am for man
-i for toh
no ending for oo
-im for ma
-id for shoma
-and for anha
I also told her how to change the infinitive to the conjugated form -- take off the "-an" infinitive ending and add the suffix to the stem. After practicing for a few minutes, she was able to say very simple sentences in Farsi, such as "I went" (man raftam), "he went" (oo raft), "they spoke" (anha sohbat kardand), or "we spoke" (ma sohbat kardim). By giving her the infinitive (in these cases, raftan and sohbat kardan), she was able to convert them to a sentence in the past.
This learning activity was very effective. It mirrored the way my language partner Mirwais taught me to conjugate verbs in the past. Occasionally Amanda would forget one of the pronouns or the suffixes, and we would go back to review. It reminded me that constant practice, repetition, and review is key to mastering a language task such as this one. Since conjugating verbs in the past is so easy and formulaic, this did not take very long, but a more complicated grammatical structure would definitely need more time.
Attached is my culture presentation about health and healthcare in Iran. I talked about how healthcare works in Iran, its history, and how it connects to culture. For example, Iran is famous for its ancient medicine, and that history may be part of the reason why medicine is such an esteemed and prestigious career in Iranian culture. A high rate of obesity in Iran can be connected to its cuisine, which is mostly composed of rice and red meat.
Sources:
Last summer, I’d conducted independent summer research project for my honors history thesis. While I had completed an independent research project the previous summer, this was the first time where the stakes seemed higher. The creative and gritty hard work that I would put in that summer would determine whether or not I should seriously consider a career in academia—so my professors had politely communicated to me. I liked the pressure to perform just as I imagined a strong PhD student would in the archives swimming in the unknown on one’s own. There was no structure. No one was going to tell me to do this or do that. I enjoyed myself. I planned trips to historic sites around the country, requested rare materials from libraries from all over, and spent hours immersed in conversations and miscellaneous material related to my area of study. I felt great. I became so confident in my ability to independently learn, that I decided my senior year would include as many independent learning courses as possible. When I decided to take SDLAP 110, I believed my unstructured approach to summer research would be the same as that of learning a language.
I forgot to take one main thing into account in approaching language study as I did my research over the summer. While my thesis research felt completely free of requirements, it was not. I had a thesis in mind at all times. I had at least some sense of what I was looking for. I was able to sift through what was important and what was not in the mountains of stacks of information. My summer was indeed uninhibited and free of restraints and boundaries. I read anything and everything that I wanted—whether experts in the field would consider the literature relevant or not. Yet, I knew after a certain time exactly what I was looking for. Everything kind of funneled into this thesis. It served as a sort of compass for my reading and learning. Language-learning I discovered, can and probably should be approached similarly. The world of language and culture is vast. There is no formal thesis or argument at the end of the learning experience. It is very easy to get lost or overwhelmed by what you perceive to be your own stagnating “slow progress.”
I think this is where well-thought out, challenging goals and subgoals come into play. They can serve as measurements that you can look back on and proudly proclaim finished. They also serve as a tangible roadmap to your desired destination. They allow you to make your knowledge, your learning, useful to you. It encourages applicable mastery—the ability to demonstrate control over your material in a variety of contexts or situations. I became conscious of the positive benefits of independent goal-setting in the days leading up to the final exam. I was nervous and was unsure if I had really learned enough despite the hours I put in throughout the semester. All of this anxiety was unnecessary.
This semester of SDLAP helped me to understand the usefulness of goal-setting in two ways. First, it is a very logical, practical way to get from point A to point B in manageable steps. Second, well-though out provides for oneself as a sort of tangible and creative way to show yourself and others just how far you’ve come from the beginning. In times of doubt or overconfidence, one can look at the “roadmap” and get a more realistic, concrete sense of where one really is in the language learning process. As I plan for SDLAP 111, I plan to take far more careful consideration in the formulation of my goals and subgoals.
I think this ability to set quality learning goals is actually one of the most beneficial skills I hope to leave with by the end of senior year. This is, I think, an invaluable skill to have whether one is learning to do anything really. Of course, this means more than saying “I want to read a novella” for instance. It requires one to think backwards in a way. What would I need to read a novella? How many different vocabulary words does a novella typically have? Do you know your cases? What might you need to do to learn cases? What is the particular novella about? Am I reasonably equipped with the vocabulary necessary? Here, Dr. Grove’s suggestion to “quantify” one’s learning resonates well here. This is one method I plan to employ more strictly next semester. Taking more care to assign “learning tasks” I have found most effective to certain goals might also be useful. For instance, if I found flashcards for vocabulary, be sure to drill at least 20 a week with that method. If I find pictionary or charades at the end of the week to be a useful exercise to test vocabulary fluency, than I’d do that each week.
