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 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.