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 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 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.