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 One Diary

A new school year is upon us! Today was the first meeting of African 670 and 697. I have seven students enrolled, six here and one at another university who is participating via Skype.

They are learning:

K: Kinyarwanda
LP: Beginning Luganda
SF: Arabic
SS: Somali
LE: Advanced Luganda
H: Amharic
V: Basaa

Both H and V are heritage learners. H is an undergraduate but the rest are graduate students. LE is a returning student, having already taken 670 with me but continuing to self-instruct though 697.

All are women! This seems to be a pattern for this class.

I was a little flustered by dealing with Skype and Powerpoint at the same time, and remembering to fully include V, the distance student, but otherwise our first meeting went well. They seem highly motivated and open to discussion.

We talked briefly about the article I asked them to read for today (Marshall 1987). H mentioned that she was very interested in the concepts of metacognition and in-situ learning and that both are aspects of learning she values but have not been central in her other classes here. LP mentioned that many of the ideas in the article apply to (or should apply to) all learning, not just language learning. And we talked a little about the importance of thinking about a conversation partner who speaks the desired language* as just that, or as a mentor, rather than as a tutor. H and SS both talked about the importance (and challenges) of approaching the communities in which the desired languages are spoken with respect and cultural sensitivity.

* I'm experimenting with using the term desired language in place of target language. What do you think?

Works Cited

 

Marshall, Terry L. 1987. “The Multi-Language Seminar: An Approach to Offering More of the ‘Less Commonly Taught’ Languages.” Foreign Language Annals 20 (2): 155–63.

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.