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 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.