Week eight diary

I've been bad about keeping up my blogging habit. LP posted an interesting article about keeping a diary that resonates with much of my thinking about student blogs, my own ethnographic writing, etc, so I am resolving (again!) to better about writing here. V thanked me today for formatting the class the way I have and requiring them to document their learning, because she's finding the weekly diary very useful for her larger dissertation project.

The learners have finally gotten into a groove. Everyone has a language partner they are meeting with either by skype or in person, most of them just once a week, I think. Our meetings have been going well, and we've had a lot to say about the readings so are not spending as much time on learning reports (which is fine since they also post their reports online and share about their learning during our discussion).

Today SS noted that this week has seemed mark a turning point for everyone, which is really interesting because this time last year was also a marker for learners. At the time they attributed it to particular readings we did on meta-cognition, but maybe it's just the timing.

We talked about motivation a lot today, both long-term and short-term. LM noted that posting in the Facebook group motivates her to do something every day, but that she's fallen out of the habit of posting and wants to get back into. SS noted that she is motivated by educating her family about Somali culture because they hold a lot of negative stereotypes. SF is motivated by shocking other Iranians who are surprised to learn that she is studying Arabic, and also changing their perceptions of Arabs and Arabic.

Today V led our discussion of Ch. 4 in the Leaver et al book, about feelings, motivation, and personality. She formatted the discussion in a different way than I've ever been a part of: She divided the class into two parts and had half of us each present our reactions to and thoughts about the reading, while the others had to just listen and take notes and wait to respond. After half of us had each presented, then the other half had a chance to respond to us. I liked this a lot because it required everyone to really listen carefully to others and to frame their contributions in relation to what had been said before. I will try it in my other class. V also noted how our individual reactions to the discussion format related to our personality types, tying it back to our reading and discussion of Myers-Briggs types.

I'm getting ready to go to the NASILP conference next week and am planning to treat it as chance to do some fieldwork, keeping fieldnotes on the conference to compare to my own notes from our class.

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.