Guidebooks

I recently did an evaluation of a textwhich is part of a series of multilanguage workbooks called Practice Makes Perfect: English Grammar for ESL Learners by Ed Swick. I foudn it to be no more and no less than what it advertised: Not a comprehensive course but a practice book for grammar. It was very accessible but limitied in its ability to teach language in context, but that is what I would have expected from a workbork. Many other languages are included in this series. We've discussed pros and cons of drill-and-practice types of approaches. This kind of text seems to be what would make good supplementary material to a language situation whether in the classroom or to help get the forms solidified in the mind to prepare for speaking opportunities, but on its own, a pretty sorry guided practice. I don't know that I would invest much in it,but then again it doesn't cost much either.

We're all familiar with various texts for language classroom but I am on a quest to find the best of independent study resources whether in a book, finding some kind of human mentor or guide or one of many online learning forms. My emphasis is on grammar learning. I am very curious at the process by which people learn a second language's grammar, since to me it seems to involve more than rote memorization or perhaps a different kind of memorization that may be the fruits of drilling. I am inclined to believe that no text will ever be unstilted enough to approach the level of help i found while listening to grammar construct and communicate the ideas as they flowed spontaneously from a native speaker friend. I'm looking for an experience as close to that as I can find.

My TESOL instructor had a few titles that seem to hit on what I'm looking for. One is a text called ACTIVE, a series written by professors at Brigham Young University in Utah and the other is called Performed Culture, an approach to learning Chinese that nicely address teh form and function of language in context. See if you can find them!

Elements of Effective Independent Language Learning

6. Guides

Alright, so we might argue that I have been using "guides" all along in setting up this series. To illustrate what I mean, let me tell about an experience I had this past week. I was in a class on the theory of language and basic linguistic principles and most of the class speaks a different second language.

We all switched our various dictionaries and our instructor gave us a sentence to translate into the language we had been assigned. I and Anthony, a speaker of Bulgarian, searched through our spanish dictionary and found many of the word elements, but without any real idea of the structure of Spanish or a knowledge of conjugation patterns, we came up with a laughable rendition--almost incomprehensible. Everyone laughingly switched dictionaries back and speakers familiar with each language corrected teh translation. I was reather chagrined and impressed when I saw how one Italian speaker and a Hungarian speaker managed the Japanese--many mistakes that made it unnavigable but fairly impressive. I realized then how necessary and essential the twin tools of grammar and vocabulary are and how vocabulary study lends itself well to independent study. Anyone with a small knowledge of pronunciation can memorize lists of words in a given language. This knowledge can help them with listening comprehension but without grammar, distinguishing word functions and parts can be difficult.

Grammar study requires a guide or some kind of structured study method. I am going to spend the next week and a half researching independent grammar study and the texts that are available. I used the term "guide" instead of "text" because the best guide is living. Even a good grammar book speaks to us, in my case, in teh voice of a slight female Japanese doctor of language, or a missionary giving us tasks and methods to perform and gives us a structure and climate. Does this go against my claim of independent second language learning? I don't know, but I will keep posting my findings.

Choosing a Text

I've now entered into the strange world of choosing my own poison--i.e. the textbook that will be my guide as a Japanese language leraner and as a teacher of ESL. Looking through several, the other day, I found that such a search is not as intuitive as I had thought. What makes a good textbook? Does my purpose matter a great deal in this selection? Does it depend on classroom supplement or an exclusive independent program? I've already spoken about the dictionary of Japanese grammar and how the studying of nontextbook texts can be really effective, but I find that I need more structure. How good were the days of having my teachers assign the text I learned from to me! As far as English as a second language goes the problem as been compounded with the reality that I haven't learned English as a foreign or second language and I'm jsut beginning to teach it so I haven't really got the least idea how to gauge the difficulty and appropriateness of each text.

This is turning into a really whiny entry so I will talk some about the progressive things I learned. I found a really excellent book by a professor at Brigham Young University Language Center called ACTIVE, an acronym for something clever. It had a great balance of reading writing, listening and speaking and I liked the way it set up the reader to learn and interacted with the learner. I've also been asked to do some work with an ELL at an elementary school adn I don't know how to even go about teaching on a children's level but I can see how a text woudl really help you pinpoint the right developmental level.

The most prominent opinion that came out of this is that textbooks should be supplementary. When the text becomes some kind of fail-proof, miracle-working fix, then I start raising my eyebrows, kind of like all those miracle fad diets. language was meant for communication with people and then secondarily communication with a text. The text should help us say what we want to say and organize subjects and grammar in a way that will facilitate our day-to-day, pragmatic use of the language.

Independent Study

So now I'm looking at independent study programs. I've decided that I need some more guidance to keep me progressing and give me some deadlines for my learning. I intend to apply the principles I've been discussing for the past 2 months on this blog so we'll see how they hold up. I was thinking about different kinds of online learning and how many many language learning softwares and programs there are and how one should go about choosing among them. The independent study program I am looking at is very traditional with submissions online but a regular textbook. An ideal situation would be to have classmates to communicate with but I think I can use my own advice about finding someone to speak with in the post on human resources. Any advice on what works well? It'll be good for me to discipline myself and my study time and have a reason to guard my language study time from other intrusions

I also finished a podcast project about my experience as a tutor for an ELL. I don't know if the program I am using supports Adobe Captivate, but it was fun to speak, write and think about my experience. I'll post it but please don't judge--it's in ist rough draft stages still. I also find another volunteering opportunity at a local elementary school. As a second language speaker there are so many opportunites to be useful. Here's my challenge--let's all find some way we can be of service to someone with our second language even if you're fairly new at it.

Grammar vs. Vocabulary

Okay, so I'm having a little debate with myself over which is more important for me to focus on now: grammar or vocabulary. Not that anyone can do without both, but isn't vocabulary the bigger battle? the most worthwhile? Maybe the discussion goes back to knowing our weaknesses and strengths and knowing when to focus on problem areas or tap into our abilities for maximum effect. I was thinking I need a season of grammar study, but how to study it, I can't seem to work out.

On the other hand, there are lots of instances where I feel that if I only knew more words how much better I would express myself. Vocabulary is fairly easy: as I find places where I struggle to find the right words or in a certain content area, domestic, academic, etc, where I wish I could communicate, I can easily make up lists and lists of wods I want to know. Grammar is a little trickier. However, one method might prove effective--translation. When I am trying to translate English into Japanese is where I realize the grammatical possibilities there are and teh ares where I am lacking. I have some excellent grammar dictionaries, as I've mentioned before, but the trick is to get it into a part of my functional speech. I guess there is the same challenge with vocabulary. In our native language we know so much more than we use everyday; however, we don't seem to lose words that we don't use often, do we? What effective ways of studying grammar are out there? Which should get the bulk of my attention and what kinds of things can I do to improve my fluency? I'll send that out into the blogoshpere for study.

Elements of Effective Independent Language Learning

5. Self Knowledge

Lately, I've been part of several conversations on strengthening language weaknesses. Most especially, I've been thinking about the role that self knowledge plays in developing as a second language learner. We all have bad little habits, and it's almost as if we want to cuddle them close. We like our weaknesses the way they are; we've grown accustomed to them and they no longer distress us. We fall into patterns that nurse our weaknesses and accentuate our strengths. Vocabulary memorization is a strength of mine, but grammar and fluency are much weaker, so instead of bolstering those very essential parts of language, I keep focus on how many words I can remember and how I wonder what each word means when I'm reading, still deciphering meaning from familiar words rather than a sentence and paragraph level understanding. My speaking skills also steadily deteriorate.

In my TESOL class, we talked about how a knowledge of our learning strengths and weaknesses can be found out through various diagnostic quizzes, maybe even some that show us whether we are right or left-brained, how confident and assertive we are, or how we respond to others. I always thought that it was okay to have these varying strengths and just know that you add yours to a group while someone else brings what they have. This is a sound way of thinking, however, as independent language learners we must constantly strive to do activities in our weak areas and self correct and self diagnose. It does sting a bit, but we will be better for our cross-training experiences. Has anyone ever had the experience where they were forced into a high stakes situation and found their weakness being made a strength? What helped and how did it happen?

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Reflections on Language Learning and Translation

As I finish my time as a tutor for an English as a Second Language Learner, I've been invited to think about what I would recommend for Riki's future progress. I tried to tell Riki when the time came for mentors to tell their students what goal or advice would benefit their writing. I advised that he find out what it is he wants to say in Japanese and use tools to find out how to express it in English. Many of my frustrations as a missionary over language weren't about what I thought they were about. Instead of the main problem being a command of the grammar or fluency or an extensive vocabulary, what I realized was that I didn't even know what I wanted to say in English. Once I sat down and wrote about what I felt in English and chose a few choice sentences to translate, answers to common questions, or explanations, I found that the work of translation had helped me internalize the language and still sound like myself. For example, I found that I needed to say 'instead of' and looked it up in Japanese so that my thought could be reborn in Japanese. I recommend a grammar dictionary to anyone who thinks this might be a good method. Vocabulary dictionaries might anticipate the words you want to say, but the relations of the words with each other also can be organized for searching.

Often, even in English we talk without knowing what it is we want to communicate. Also, hasn't everyone had impromptu moments in front of a crowd we want to impress or with a subject we think is above us and we find ourselves having difficulty conjugating verbs, even though it is our native language? If we think too much about verbs, forms, pronunciation, we are not focusing on what language was invented to do—to communicate. Translating for others can be a great facilitator of language development. We are focused on how to express one language in another and we come once again to the reason for language. What better environment for natural language use and acquisition?

Also, I wanted to send out a call for funny translating stories. A little language humor might enlighten and enliven us and how to best learn another language.

 

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Adapted Readings

I just finished a great book, in my first language, called Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz. I was pleased to see the chapters written in Kanji characters and have many words in Japanese romanized and many baseball terms Japanesed, for example, besuboru and homu ran. It is the story of turn of the century Japan and how they quickly, willingly adopted so many modern technologies and advances like telephones, trains adn modern dress while still keeping their codes of behavior.

The author began the idea of the novel when he ran across a photograph from 1915 of a man in traditional robe and sandals throwing the beginning pitch for a high school baseball game. THis was not a Yankee soldier import during occupation after World War II but rather an instance of something that Japan does very well and the rest of us who try to take on another culture's language would do well to adopt: the ability to keep what is important with you or adapt your culture to another culture.

The students of other languages who take on culture as well as words, succeed best. Sometimes, I feel so limited in my second language that I wonder if I can be myself the way I can in the native language that seems to be the language of my thoughts. I need to remember to take the two parts of me and like the main character of Alan Gratz's book, figuratively play baseball with bushido. My advice: Take what you do well or what has been a gift to you from you circumstances and parentage and learn a language through it. I'm sure that if you take the subjects that interest you, you'll find a wealth of authentic language learning opportunities.

Elements of Effective Independent Language Learning

4 1/2. Reading

I believe firmly that reading writing are two sides of the same coin so I surprised myself by separating the two. However, I found some marked differences between the two when put into practice. For example, when reading, as when listening, we can "get the gist" of things or kind of slide our way through, picking out the words we know, approximating and guessing at the meaning of words or grammatical forms and then respond to what we read without as much accountability as writing. Anyone who has attended school in a second language can attest that so many weaknesses and ignorances can be hidden or glossed over until we are required to write.

So reading provides a place for us to grow, a way to make discoveries. If we read often, our ability to use the language will grow as we make hypotheses about meaning and how our second language is working. We will also understand what kind of words are used where--an understanding of the nuances of the language. Consider this mistake in a student paper: A junior English student was writing about My Antonia and described a landscape with "undulating prairie dogs," meaning, of course, that the animals were constantly ducking in and out of their holes but someone who has read and understands the nuances of undulating and the context of prairie dogs would avoid that usage.

I learned something important for my own second language reading this past week. In my classes on teaching and in several textbooks, the consensus was that silent reading is preferable to reading out-loud and that reading is a primarily silent activity. This brought me up short becuase I assumed that somehow I was improving my pronunciation or fluency in reading by rading out loud. I just that it came first wehn reading. I tried the experiment of reading silently and found that it was true; I was making meaning more efficiently and completely by staying silent, though it took effort not to be a "word-caller" which in literacy circles is what we call someone, often a second language learner, who clips along merely making the sounds without retaining and comprehending as well as could be wished.