Week fourteen diary

On Tuesday we met to assess our "multi-language seminar" after re-reading Marshall's article on a program very similar to ours and another piece that describes the NASILP program.  I was pleased to hear that for the most part students have found value in the format of the seminar, and surprised that at least a couple of them found it more work than a typical language class (which I take to be a good thing). One student had some concrete suggestions on how to improve the course in the future, specifically focusing more on helping students to become self-directed early on rather than assuming that they are already self-directed. She suggested moving some of the readings on motivation and learner strategies earlier in the course. She also mentioned that she would find it helpful to learn more about advanced-level strategies that might differ from those she learned earlier in her language study. I don't know if there is any literature on that, so now I have a small literature review project to work on! I asked her what strategies she thinks she's used that are specific to her level but she couldn't think of any at that moment. I suggested that she use the final paper as an opportunity to review her learner diaries to see if she could figure out which strategies she had used and how effective they were, and she seemed interested in that idea. I'm excited to see what she comes up with!

Week thirteen diary

This week we read about how teaching the language one is learning can help one to learn it better. Each learner prepared a sample lesson for us.

ED taught us a Zulu conversation – Hello, how are you, I’m fine and you?

Lindsay taught us formal and informal greetings for morning and evening in Luganda.

EH taught us some basic Swahili greetings.

N taught us some basic Yoruba greetings and how to ask about others. 

The class was a lot of fun. L took this silly picture of us playing a game she created where we had to guess our own identities based on how others greeted us.

I don't know if the students really learned anything from this, in part because they all had to teach beginning-level lessons when all but one of them are at higher levels. L said it was useful for her, though. 

We didn't have time to discuss progress reports. My own progress on French has been nil. I've been meaning to try DuoLingo. My partner pointed out that the stakes are low for me, so I don't have a lot of motivation. Only my pride is at stake!

Week twelve diary

I found out this week that I will be going to Senegal for a week in January for work. Most of the people I will be meeting with will speak English, but I'd like to be able to understand what is going on around me so I've decided to try to teach myself some French before I go (and maybe Wolof greetings). My goal is to learn survival French by January.

Thursday
I ordered a book online called Easy French Step by Step. It hasn't arrived yet but they gave me Kindle access to a couple of chapters so I spent 30 minutes diving in. I read the preface, which includes a pronunciation guide and a list of common greetings. I then found flashcards of the greetings on Quizlet and went through them once. It includes audio and I was able to turn on the audio for French and off for English. Pronunciation is a bit of a challenge, but I find if I close my eyes I can focus on the sounds. If I read the words I get confused by the disconnect between the spelling and the pronunciation. My partner speaks French (though it's been a long time, I think, since he learned it and/or used it) so I'm hoping he'll be willing to practice with me.

Thursday night
My partner and I wrote a simple dialog of greetings and practiced it a few times. It was pretty easy. He finds the pronunciation difficult so I'm not sure he'll be much help to me, although his vocabulary is good.

Friday
I started reading about nominal gender using the Kindle sample of the book I ordered and made a set of flashcards of some common words in each gender, but didn't have time to practice them. I spent about 30 minutes on language-learning.

Saturday
I practiced with my flashcards using Quizlet for about 45 minutes and feel like I mastered them. Got a nice high score, as you can see here:

My book arrived today, but I haven't had a chance to use it yet.

Sunday
I started working through the book and made a new set of flashcards to practice the definite articles. I'm frustrated by the lack of pronunciation tips for new vocabulary in the book. Quilt is useful, though, because it has audio files for the French words.

Monday
I didn't make time to practice my French.

Tuesday
In class today we discussed self-assessment. Students seemed to understand the importance of regular self-assessment but were a bit reliant on their language partners to provide it.  Several of them mentioned talking with a language partner as a form of assessment: can you do what you’ve been working on? Some who had less access to a language partner were making up their own role-plays and using them to identify gaps in their knowledge or vocabulary. L talked about using self-assessment to see progress and increase motivation rather than noticing what one doesn't know yet. She also mentioned that her language partner was not available last week. Focusing on self-assessment this week made her realize that she’s been overly reliant on him, and she found ways to do more things on her own.

We talked briefly about the benefits and challenges of self-assessment. Learners saw a benefit in meeting your own goals rather than those set by someone else. They didn't mention any challenges when we talked in general terms, but when we talked about the specific self-assessment plans they had designed, we began to see that it is a challenge to move away from an external assessment.

In our time for updates, ED told us that he has made a daily plan for what he wants to do and plans to use his language partner for practice rather than instruction. N is noticing links to her art history class, learning about Yoruba deities. She tried to watch a Yoruba movie but had trouble understanding and realized that she needs more listening practice. 

Week eleven diary

This week our topics were self-regulation and learner autonomy.  There has not been much research on these topics, so our class is comprised of guinea pigs. 

We started out talking about positive and negative feelings that arise in relation to language learning and how one regulates those feelings so that negative ones do not prevent one from learning. The three students who were there today all agreed that the structure and extrinsic motivation from classroom learning leads to more positive feelings than self-directed learning does. Only one student mentioned negative feelings and these were related to vocabulary learning. He has found ways to make vocal learning fun, which he saw as a way of regulating his feelings.

Another topic was setting achievable goals. EH said that she is more flexible and more aware of her options than she was at the beginning.

ED also sees himself as better at setting acheivable goals now that knows how long things take. He is also able to anticipate difficulties.

N said that she does a lot of language learning work when she is in a good mood. Writing down what she does after each session has really helped; listing what she does is gratifying. There was a noticeable difference in her motivation and attitude this week.

Most of us agreed that being able to talk to native speakers is gratifying, good-mood-inducing.

We talked about our class as a support network and how it might be similar to and different from a traditional classroom, a self-directed learning situation in which all students were learning the same language, and one in which one was truly learning alone, without other students and/or without a teacher who is offering some guidance.  Students agreed that struggling with similar difficulties helps to not feel isolated. ED said that because he is extroverted, he likes having other students to talk to even though they are working on different languages.  None of them thought that they could work completely on their own. (I hope that changes since eventually they will be on their own when they are no longer students.)

EN, who led our discussion, asked whether learners use technology, media, pop culture, etc, like the learners we read about did. Students mentioned using news, online courses, Youtube videos, podcasts, and streaming radio. L wasn't in class today but we hypothesized that her target language (Luganda) might have fewer resources than others.

Week ten diary

This week I took notes during class and this will make my diary entry so much easier! I'll have to remember to do this from now on, especially on the days when students are leading the discussion and I can concentrate on listening, asking questions, giving suggestions, etc.

Our topic was "planning" and we read several articles and chapters that covered this while also linking up to topics from previous weeks including learning styles and learner strategies.

ED led our discussion and we began by talking about each learner's initial goals and how they may have changed.  N said that her goals haven’t changed but her approach to them has. She wants to borrow some ideas from the Marshall chapter on lesson planning, e.g. the transportation lesson. She the funny titles for lessons in the Marshall chapter; so did I! She said she set her initial goals by thinking about how she wants to be able to function on a day to day basis, what she already knows, and where the gaps in her abilities are. ED said he'd taken a similar approach to goal-setting.

L said she was initially focused on goals she thought would be appropriate for an intermediate level language learner, rather than her own personal ones. She became very focused on particular grammar, e.g. learning a particular tense, but has now re-focused on what she needs to be able to read particular sources, since her main overarching goal is to be able to read historical sources in her target language.

EH's goal was, and remains, overall communicative competence; she is now emphasizing that even more because of enjoying conversations with her language partner.  She said she finds herself rewarded and motivated by talking about literature (her particular interest) with her language partner.

We then talked about the utility of making detailed daily lesson plans. ED said he found the readings on making a plan really helpful, esp. daily lesson planning (but wants to adapt it to weekly planning).

L said she is already doing the daily planning, but not in such a structured or conscious way.

EH said she has moved away from the structure over time, becoming more flexible. Having a more flexible plan allows her to stay more motivated.

N said she has end-goals but that how she will achieve them is open-ended.  All the skills come in but she doesn’t plan in advance how to cover all of them.

Both L and EH had more classroom-like plans at first (relying on a book, on covering all skills, etc.) but have become more flexible and self-directed, more focused on the skills that matter to them.

Finally, ED made a chart on the board where we all shared our strategies and rated them for frequency, enjoyment, usefulness, and efficiency. This was a really fun activity. Strategies that learners mentioned using a lot and mostly enjoying included learning routines, role-playing, memorizing/using proverbs and idioms, and mnemonic devices. Nobody really uses flashcards with pictures, but L was given a Luganda workbook that had pictures for each word and she said she's noticed that she knows those words really well. Other learners seemed interested in trying out that strategy as well as of creating their own thematically-organized "dictionaries." 

Here's ED's chart: 

It felt like this week was a turning point for many of the students.

Week nine diary

We had a good discussion in class today on the topic of learning styles and strategies. I might move up the readings on these topics earlier in the course next time.

Most of the students seem to be good at style shifting already, and many of them characterized themselves (as did I) as "a little bit of both" of each set of opposed styles. This make sense since all of us are "good language learners" and people who have learned more than one language already.

We brainstormed ways to motivate a learner who is struggling with the lack of feedback: having her give reports on specific things she has done, using checklists to monitor the completion of tasks and goals, giving feedback on each other's blogs, etc. And the students planned a social time when they will each work on their learning at the same time/place and then reward themselves afterwards with a drink or something. Whatever works!

We talked about a new research study that claims that learning new words causes the same pleasure in the brain as sex or chocolate and the students are all going to try to learn a certain number of new words in the next week and report back on this.

Week eight diary

Today we discussed motivation, anxiety, and Myers-Brigg-type personality tests. The students seemed particularly interested in how their personalities play into their language learning. Their motivations vary considerably from one another and seem to be having a clear effect on their abilities to set goals and advance in their language learning, e.g. self-directed learning is difficult when you're used to being motivated by doing well on tests. The two students who have been working most regularly with language partners seem to be using this to keep their motivation levels high.

Week seven diary

This week a fourth student (Er) joined our class. We had a great conversation about cognition and metacognition on Tuesday. I don't know if it was having an additional voice in the conversation or simply the topic, but it seemed like we all had more to say than we usually do and we were able to discuss the readings for almost the full two hours rather than ending early as we have in previous weeks.

The students seem to finally be grasping the degree of self-monitoring that is necessary to achieve success in self-directed learning.  A few of them seem to be struggling with actually putting this self-monitoring into practice, perhaps because it clashes with their preferred learning styles or aptitudes.

Week six diary

Today we were supposed to discuss working without a native speaker but ended up talking mostly about working with a native speaker. This was partly because the book chapters we read (6 and 7 in the Marshall book) are supposed to be about when you've exhausted the possibilities with your language partner but don't really get into that.  (Although ch. 7 does talk about how to work outside of your target country.) N led our discussion and it was fruitful.

All three students have spent time in their target cultures and were able to reflect on what worked well for them in that context and what they might do differently in the future. Some good ideas were exchanged about how to integrate what they are doing on their own with what they are doing with their language partners.

E is considering creating a Swahili book discussion group, which I think would be great. Maybe I'll go too!

None of them seem frustrated with their language learning, so I take that as a good sign.  N said she is practicing what she knows more than learning new things, but she seems okay with that.

I wonder if we need a slightly more structured way of reporting on their weekly progress. It feels a little like when I ask my 12-year-old how school was and he just says, "Good" and shrugs.

N and E reported back on the books I loaned them. It sounds like Lingo may not be helpful but the DIY guide might be. L borrowed the latter so I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but based on E's feedback I might incorporate it into the course next time I teach it.

Week five diary

Yesterday L was sick so we had a small class.

Our topic was how to work with a language mentor. We read two chapters from the Peace Corps language guide and two from Marshall's book The Whole World Guide to Language Learning. Both are filled with concrete examples of how to design your own lessons and use them with a conversation partner, and also some suggestions on how to select one. I found them very useful but N and E didn't seem to get much out of them. Some of the focus on repetition seemed more applicable to the beginning level than to their needs (advanced plus). I wonder how they might be adapted to more advanced learners?

We talked about their progress this past week. N has found it hard to make a plan and stick to it and instead feels good just touching her Yoruba in some way each day; so far she has been working with videos made by a former students, Titilayo. She asked if I thought it would be better to have a more structured plan each day and I said yes.  I suggested even having a small goal would be helpful—like learn five new words—because it would provide a way to test that you are actually learning something.

E is struggling to read a book that may be beyond her level and/or is just unrelated to her needs/interests. She has decided to talk about it with one of her contacts in East Africa as a way to motivate herself. I'd probably just switch to another book, but she is persistant!

I got two new books, Lingo!: How to Learn a Language and DIY Techniques for Language Learners. I haven't had a chance to read them yet, but I brought them to class for students to borrow. E and N each took one and will report back next week on whether they are useful or not.

Week four diary

This week L led our discussion about two readings. The first was really old article about the so-called "linguist-informant" method for learning LCTLs whereby a small group of students would meet with both a linguist and a native speaker informant. The second was the materials that the NASILP program gives you access to if you pay to join their organization, materials designed for self-instructing learners who are working with tapes and a native speaker. L did a good job noting the similarities between the two methods in their focus on working with a native speaker but not treating them as a teacher.

I was pleased to learn that L had gained something from these readings that she is putting into immediate practice with the tutor in Uganda she is working with over skype, shifting from having him in a teacher role to more of a conversation partner. She initially planned to also have him "drill" her on pronunciation but she seemed receptive to my suggestions about other ways of using their time together to practice rather than drill.

The other students shared some minor successes and pitfalls.  E shared the difficulty of reading and having to look up lots of words that end up not being useful.  This is probably because she chose the text herself, at random, rather than having one assigned by a teacher who would chose one at an appropriate level of difficulty and/or of choosing one on a topic she might have more vocabulary about already.  N shared the challenge of knowing what grammar to focus on when she's only been in communicatively-focused classrooms in the past and never learned the grammatical terms for what she is learning.  None of the learners seemed too phased by these struggles -- they all seem determined and working hard.

Week three diary

Last Tuesday we met in Memorial library. I showed the three students how to use the library catalog not to look for a particular book but instead to get a sense of the general call numbers where most of the books in/about their languages are housed. They spent about 10 minutes looking through the catalog and then we headed up to the stacks. I've been using the book delivery service all year and I think this might have been the first time I've been in the stacks since I came back to Madison last year. It brought back memories of grad school.

We spent most of our time in the PL section on the fourth floor, and each student got about 3 or 4 books. I recommended that each get at least one textbook, one grammar, one dictionary, and one narrative book (short stories or a novel). Some had already acquired some of these.

We went to look at one other section that was coming up a lot in the catalog and it turned out to be proverbs.  We talked about how hard it would be to use such a book because you can't tell from a list of proverbs which ones are most commonly used. I suggested they instead get native speakers to write lists of common proverbs for them to learn.

Finally we sat in a study carrel for a few minutes and they gave updates on their progress over the past week. All of them are finding using the website challenging — I'll have to figure out a way to streamline that in the future.

Week two diary

Yesterday we had our second meeting. I gave some updates on what I've added to the course website and told the students about the research I hope to do about the course. I was happy to see that they seemed interested.

We talked about the three readings for this week—a couple of chapters from the Peace Corps book, a couple from Marshall's Whole World Guide to Language Learning, and one from Leaver et al's Achieving success in second language acquisition.  The campus bookstore only had two copies of the Marshall book, so one student (L) didn't have it yet, but the others seemed to find it useful.  I think it will be most useful for those who have a language conversation partner.  I found this other book that would have been good to assign, Individualized Study Plans for Very Advanced Students of Foreign Languages (also by Leaver), but I'm hesitant to assign a lot of reading for the course. E borrowed it, so I will ask her next week if she thinks it would be good to assign next time. If not, maybe I'll just have it put on reserve for those who want to use it.

Mostly we were getting to know each other still, sharing past experiences with language learning.  We had a really good discussion of their draft ISPs. I was surprised to see how different they were from each other in terms of both format and content.  I wonder if it would be better to dictate a specific format or if that individuality is actually positive. It's certainly fitting with the self-directed nature of their language learning. They had lots of good suggestions for one another and were very encouraging.

Next week we'll meet in the library to talk about finding resources!

Week one diary

African 670 and 697 met for the first time last Tuesday. Right before class I realized that the department administrator had never changed the room assignment in the timetable and I had no easy way to contact students because he'd also delayed in enrolling them. One was officially enrolled (N) and I knew of one other who had planned to (L). There was a third I'd heard was planning to enroll (C). I emailed the three of them and left a voice mail for N letting them know the new room.  Only L got the message in time, so she and I waited for a while until N showed up, along with E who I'd known was enrolling but inexplicably forgotten.  C decided not to take it because she didn't get a FLAS. I was hoping for more students in order to demonstrate the need for this course, but having three will make it an easy load for me. While L and I waited for the others, we chatted and I asked her if she thought she'd have taken the course without a FLAS, and she said yes because she really needs the language for her research. This is exactly why this course is needed.

I'd just started going over my introductory notes for L when E and N showed up, so I started over. N was the only student I didn't know yet, though I'd seen her in Yoruba classes and at our festival last spring.

E wants to do 4th year Swahili, N wants to do 4th year Yoruba, and L wants to do second year Luganda. We talked about the ACTFL standards and I showed them some sample progress indicators for Swahili, which they will use to help them set goals for their ISPs. I framed the class as an experiment that I'd like them to also help me assess as we go along, the same way they are assessing their own progress in language learning.

All the students are women. I wonder if it's still true that women tend to study foreign languages more than men do? It will be interesting to see if that is true as I teach this course over time. The first time I taught it at UCLA, there were four female students and no males. The second time, I think there were three female students and two males.

After class I set up the gradebook for 670 and the course website for 697.

I forgot to talk to the students about my own research on the course. I'll try to do that next week.