MIA but better for it

Alright, so I know there may come a reckoning for letting my blog lie fallow, but I've been so busy in the realm of language lately that I hope that makes up for it and I think I have many more new insights and experience to draw from. I just finished a class of Japanese that happened every morning for two hours for all of spring term. The focus was on reading andculture, two aspects of language acquisition that I had been interested in lately. The pace was a bit relentless and I didn't think I could manage to learn 30 kanji a day. I assumed that such a cram method would not help me retain what I learned, but found myself having to re-cram so often and getting lots of review so that more stuck than I thought. I would wake at times after a long night of studying and my fingers would be twitching as they traced kanji in the air. I dreamed characters, ate and slept them. What will follow are my thoughts on language and what a classroom environment did for my independent learning. There may be some new principles come out of this. Plus, I almost have enough credits to be accredited to teach Japanese. It will be interesting to compare how teaching a foreign language to other speakers of my language differs from teaching speakers of English as a second language. I assume there will be many insights. I think i can also promise not to let my blog lie dormant again for so long.

All those extra minutes

Thanks, Micah for your comment about diligence. It's true that you have to be good at bullying yourself adn so often, with time and opportunites available, the question is "Why am I not doing this?" I think one way of being effective at language learning is to use your "extra" minutes--those moments while you wait in line, drive, eat, etc. Instead of spacing out, many 2nd language learners have found ways of learning language that can be as natural as when we were toddlers learning English. I'm not just talking about vocabulary taped to common appliances in the house. As a missionary I started writing characters on my hand at every light and now I do it on my dashboard. It was also fun to see how many characters I could spot on signs and billboards that I knew. Language became a game that I've forgotten how to play lately. Toddlers often are entertained by language or vocabulary-identification activities: alphabet books, counting, rhymes, etc., as parents try to keep them occupied during those extra minutes. Our discretionary time has changed, but do we use what we have as efficiently? While toddlers play, they are in fact working hard at learning.

Speaking of extra minutes I now have 4 hours of Japanese character study a day. It's incredible to try to get 18 credits of Japanese into 8 weeks and hard to block out a solid wall to study it in. I've found this idea of overlooked crevices of time is very helpful. It can be as simple as putting character cards in my purse before I run out the door, thinking of the times of waiting I have ahead, or writing my grocery list in Japanese. I wouldn't take me long to say prayers in my 2nd language and after I finish remembering to jot down a quick note of what I struggled to express. Micah's exactly right--why don't I do things that I should? Don't I want to be bilingual? Take a minute and think of where you might find extra minutes or activities that you do anyway. Make language a part of your routine and the discipline factor won't be a problem. I'm going to bully myself a little to do what I should and remind myself that language is fun and interesting. Why else would toddlers be so fascinated with acquiring it?

Elements of Effective Independent Language Learning

7. Discipline & Diligence

I'm taking myself to task for this very principle of independent learning, so I thought I ought to blog about it, though it's been long since I last blogged. My blog represents a lot of metacognating on language but so many of these principles apply to all kinds of things. I think this is partly due to what I believe about the purpose of being on this planet: we came to learn and language allows to learn about our learning to engage in metalingual thinking and understand the "other," or that which is outside ourselves.

Discipline is linked to motivation and desire, the first element discussed on this blog. Discipline is an optimistic pursuit of a goal that we feel is well worth the effort. But discipline goes farther than that. It is the deterermination to do what you set out to do because you said you would. Sometimes we may desire something but it is in our actions that we show whether we were sincere and intrinsicly motivated in that desire. When evaluating yourself, your success and your language pursuits, it may be wise to look at your diligence in all aspects of your life. What do you do every day that needs done and what are your patterns of procrastination? How did you make certain good habits that you have and how have you broken the ones that aren't good for you? It might be helpful to refresh the motivations you had.

Recently, as I've mentioned, I re-evaluated my language progress and realized I needed some more structure and help to accomplish my goals. I thought again of all the reasons why I want to have better Japanese, why this would be a worthwhile thing for me to invest in and the result helped me in making the decision to make that a promary goal for this summer.

Inside-out Project

I just finished a project on Japanese grammar and how it subordinates complex ideas. Backing up, let me explain better: In a language, the first thing you learn is the order of the sentence the patterns of very simple sentences, but to really communicate showing how one idea effects another, we use "if" and "when" and relative pronouns like "that," "which," "who" and many many more. It's the way two ideas like "Jacob ate a pie." and "The steak was made of mud" can become one sentence: "Jacob ate the pie that was made of mud."Now, from that first day of Japanese, I knew that this was a language opposite to mine in order, but not until I practiced the sentence patterns of subordinate clauses did I realize that speaking another language can also be inside out. I compared it to an orgiami figure--inwardly often very complex but with a little study and a gentle pulling apart analysis, the thing becomes understandable and best of all, reproducible. I'm still pondering how I can make these patterns my own. How does a language form like this become second nature? I find I do a lot of drilling and reading and writing and translating my more complex thought in written words rather than the spoken bursts and phrases which too often make up our speech, I've improved a great deal. I also find that it's been one of the first things to deteriorate as my own language pattern becomes the norm. For some reason, I retain the vocabulary so much better. I'd love to hear any thoughts that might come from others who have thought about this.

Teaching Philosophy

I've been working now on a few teaching/learning philosophies in the past years and I think I've come up with a version that is brief and reflects a lot of the elements discussed on this blog.

Philosophy of Teaching and Learning

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.
--Jacob Chanowski

I found this quote on a wall as an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University-Idaho, a school whose motto is “Rethinking Education” and it seemed to square well with what I thought about my own learning, long before I thought I would become a teacher. I do not intend to reflect an undesirable image on learners, but rather found that this is how I would describe myself as a learner. I was drawn to the focus on learning as an exchange, rather than a one-way experience and a disregard for appearances in the pursuit of more important things; this leaves students free to make necessary mistakes. As a teacher I am interested in what a student brings to the classroom, his choices and actions and making sure he or she feels accountable and informed when it comes to his or her performance.

What a Student Brings

The quote from Jacob Chanowski, assumes that students don’t come to the classroom as empty vessels to be filled. They come with “cultural capital” and though their language skills or backgrounds may rough and unsophisticated, they bring much to the classroom. I am convinced that a teaching approach should use the students’ first language to reinforce their second language acquisition and that a multicultural classroom can and should be the goal of every ESL class. A multicultural classroom embraces differences and invites students to use the common language of English to express and discuss their experience.
A student is not just a cultural being, but a cognitive presence. Students in my class will be invited to engage in metacognition about the way that they learn, to diagnose their strengths and weaknesses in content or with the multiple intelligences and work on overcoming them. Self knowledge can be very empowering as students discover that language is something that comes from inside of them and make choices suited to what they want and who they are. In this way language learning becomes a collaborative effort between student and teacher in negotiating authentic communication situations.

Agency

Ultimately the learning achievement of every individual lies with that individual. I must find ways of tapping into intrinsic motivation because every student is an agent who must be given freedom to choose and plan. These choices and the framework for such planning comes with guidance from a teacher. A teacher facilitates this best when fostering intrinsic motivation and focusing on meaningful learning rather than rote learning.
The ultimate goal of language education is independent learners. Language is not something that we are ever done learning, so the ability to continue into unchartered waters independently is a goal I have for my students. Together we will strive for self-correction, identifying logical errors etc., and my feedback will reflect that mistakes are progressive; my teaching style will focus on what gives us energy and rapport in the classroom.

Accountability

To understand our progress and continue or increase as learners, we all have to measure and quantify what we are doing well, how we measure up to a standard, etc. We must feel that there is some kind of accountability. While the dangers of over-anxiety in a language classroom are very real and reflect a balancing act for teachers to speakers of other languages, there must be expectations of venturing forth and participating for students. In a beginning classroom, the teacher may provide most of the material and even much of the second language communication, but learners should feel that they are not spectators and that they are expected to reach for greater facility. This also demonstrates meaningful learning in that students are not required to give the answers I give them or repeat my version of knowledge but rather to boldly and, at times, almost bare-footedly, to tread where they have not gone before. Learners should not feel that they make these ventures alone. However, they should feel greater autonomy and a sense of independence when they accomplish a language task.

Technology

I feel that for an independent language learner there is no better tool than technology, mainly computers and digital media. Technology also represents a global language and skill necessary for success and communication. I hope to connect my students to me, to each other and to the world through technology. In my classroom I will find ways to use various forms of technology for these reasons. Technological advances have made me wonder at times at what use technology will make of teachers rather than how teachers will use technology. Once again, my mind returns to Chanowski’s questioning, adaptable, human learner. Teachers also must be a questioning, independent source of dialogue, collaborative learning, and the adaptability that is so necessary for language learning centered on independent individuals who are members of the larger world.

Inside-out

This week I did a little presentation on the complexities of Japanese grammar, specifically subordination. Subordination for those wondering is when we combine two ideas, two sentences with one being what is going on and the other giving some kind of reference like, "The kid who is hugging the dog is my neighbor." The independent part is "The kid is my neighbor" and the supordinate part is "who is hugging the dog." I've discovered that this is the inside-outness that I felt was a part of going from English to Japanese. This represents the main difficulties in translation for me, as well and when my sentences even if correct in vocabulary, seem to be funny and non-native like, this is a major part of the problem. I've been putting together a plan to remedy this. I will work on a study plan for grammar and see if I can't discover some things about independent study in my native country and grammar forms. I intend to do a lot more writing and reading of Japanese and see if I don't have a heightened sense of how the grammar is put together. I'm excited to begin. I wrote a little about grammar translation methods and how they seem not to facillitate communication in the target language very well, but there might be some merit to studying grammar through reading a little more indirectly. That's all for tonight.

In Tribute and Thanks

I thought I'd spend a moment in tribute for the guides who I've had as a second language learner and what it was that made them great.

The first were my teachers at the Missionary Training Center, Shinji Fujioka and Amber Kamoe, both from Hawaii originally. I think their modeling was the most important factor. They returned from their time in Hokkaido and Fukuoka and continued to learn and behave like missionaries. Part of this is loving those you teach and their patience and concern extended to us. They were constantly innovating and finding ways of teaching us in fun and authentic ways. Neither of them felt they were finished or fluent and they corrected us often in a way that showed their interest in our progress, but spoke to us like we were one of them. Their separate personalities influenced their teaching style.

The next would have to be my training missionary, Sister Matsumoto from Kurume. When it came to studying during our months at the training center, I was known as the battle-ax for focusing on studying. I met my match. SIster Matsumoto was very strict and kept me from making excuses and told me that "the time after the mistake is important time." She held herself to the same standard, though she was in Japan and didn't need another language to communicate as much as I did. She constantly wrote down English words she heard from missionaries and diligently practiced speaking, listening and reading at every opportunity. Befroe her time as a missionary she didn't speak English and the progress she made was astronomical. She helped me develope a study schedule and to use my extra minutes while waiting or eating or walking to improve my language. When I would practice long presentations of material she busily wrote pages of all the mistakes I made and then gave it to me to study with a note on the top that said: "Sister Powell, don't get discouraged." She helped me enormously, though I didn't always appreciate it. The other missionaries she trained had to pay her 100 yen every time they spoke English. I smile to think of her no nonsense approach and yet her ability to laugh often and make me laugh.

The next guide who I still think of often was Sister Kawano from Miyazaki, another native Japanese speaker. She was optimism itself and I found it so contagious. Much of my growth during my time with her was due to just wanting to talk to her so much and her tireless patience and interest in me and what I thought. She was always careful to make sure I understood and helped me laugh at myself. She filmed me once, trying to write Kanji becuase she said it was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen. Then she showed me many tips for making it look right.

The list goes on and on with people like Sister Eguchi, who forced me to speak to her in polite Japanese when I was beginning to fall into the habit of always speaking in plain form. This helped in emergency situations when I needed to polite word to come out without thinking about it too much. Many missionaries gave me tips about just believing that I could and trusting it would happen, about finding opportunities and finding out what I wanted to say in English and then making the transfer instead of being frustrated when I couldn't express myself but didn't know what I wanted to come out. There were many American companions too who helped me udnerstand what the patterns were that I was hearing and dear Sister Mortensen, who, though sick as a dog, helped me understnad the first pages of teh Book of Mormon. Thanks to the many who helped me learn how to read the Book of Mormon in Japanese and how this opened up my world and upped my interest in never losing the ability to speak Japanese.

I wonder if it took as many people to help me speak my native language. The answer is of course it did. Independent language learning--the kind without a classroom, ironically enough, takes a village. Language facility comes when we bounce it against as many others and their language as possible. What a great collaborative creative effort!

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.

Elements of Effective Independent Language Learning

4. Writing

This presents a special problem in a second language. Language was meant to be oral and writing was meant to record what people do when they speak and enlarge the memory as writers record what has been spoken. There is a Chinese proverb that says that the faintest ink is greater than the sharpest memory, and anyone who has taken notes that they needed weeks later can agree. Writing also enables us to write across space and time, which makes language so much more useful and the ability to write in a second language essential.

For some reason, even those who we would consider very fluent when speaking find this hard to do. Second language speakers who are just barely identifiable when speaking, show themselves as a nonnative the moment they write. Perhaps writing doesn't mimic spoken language as closely as we'd like to think it does. However, I promise that you will find that if you write in the language you speak that your speaking gets better. Not only that but it is closely related to reading, as anyone knows, and if you can read the language, you will retain it.

Here are some thoughts from my experience with Japanese writing. When I was a very new missionary, I was told on all sides not to bother with the language but to focus on speaking and teaching. I kept with it, though. The characters looked like beautiful little bugs and everyday I tried to memorize one of them. I didn't keep to my goal very well, but I often practiced while waiting, or traced the characters on my hand while on my bicycle at stoplights.

The Japanese people seeing my writing often commented, some with kind praise for my efforts, but the more honest part admitted it looked awfully wobbly. One friend asked if she could take a picture of one of the characters I wrote because it was so funny. But often these criticisms were followed by advice and corrections in my stroke order or the offer to teach on the corner of a newspaper. I began to improve until at one point I needed to write someone a letter who I could not contact by phone or at her home. I wrote Emiko a letter that though laboriously written, communicated for the most part what I wanted to say. I asked a native to look it over and I was thrilled that she only had 1 correction for me. The goal of language is not to say everything perfectly through the memorization of key phrases and vocabulary, but more importantly it is meant to communicate what you want it to and writing allows for it a lot of development here.

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(Here's a great site for Kanji enthusiasts)
www.nihongoweb.com

Elements of Effective Independent Language Learning

3. Human Resources

These past couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to experience what many second language speakers discover when they return to their first language origins: Second language atrophy! I called a good friend in Japan and felt myself really floundering. Then, a good friend who was a missionary at the same time I was, called me to talk some Japanese (Thanks, John). I found myself floundering even worse, possibly because I knew that I could speak in English and that kept me thinking in English.

When I returned home, Japanese kept coming out of my mouth, especially in the mornings. Now, I really have to think about the old forms. I spent time talking to myself in Japanese or while thinking, wondering how I would put a thought into Japanese, but this wasn't enough to keep me from regressing and I had hoped to even continue to develope my language ability.

Enter the next item in my list of independent learning necessities: human resources. There simply is no substitue to talking to other people in an authentic conversation in a second language. So, how do we find these people and these authentic situations? Here are some ideas:

1. The Internet--probably your best bet for international socializing. Practice typing or emailing in your secong language, join groups that include international members (example: Online Scrabble club or other social addiction).
2. Use video calling, Skype, etc.-- but have some face-to-face listening practice. Reading and writing and speaking and listening, though closely related, just aren't the same thing.
3. International Students--If you are a student, this is a great option. Often, like all developing language students, we have a tendency to interact with others like us, but many international students would like to branch out and a friend interested in their language can be very appealing.
4. Other immigrants and visitors--often in Community Ed ESL or at food merchants, people from other countries may be more than happy, if a little anxious, to talk with others interested in their language and culture. You also might help them and their language goals, too. Living close to Yellowstone National Park, more asian people than I realized have passed through or stopped to talk to locals at parks and restaurants. Often tourist sites in your hometown will bring in more international visitors than locals.

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Reflections on Classroom Learning

I was reflecting on a great opportunity I have had to tutor an exchange student from Japan. Riki is a Junior in High School who has been in the United States for 5 months. He is teaching me so much about ESL and my own language ability. The other day was so rewarding as he and I sat at a computer together translating our way through the ISAT, the Idaho Standard Achievement Test which Riki must pass in order to graduate from high school under the No Child Left Behind Act. On his first attempt he scored below basic.

It is time and not sound critical thinking that mostly keeps Riki back. I tried to give him tools for identifying kinds of words and looking up the important words. Some words are less necessary and we together talked about what those were (repeated test instructions before questions, etc.). Riki on his own easily found every correct answer once a few vocabulary words were explained to him but in 30 minutes we only finished about 8 questions of a 24-question test.

Riki often compares himself to his peers as he sees them finishing quickly on either side of him. When I ask about what questions he has, he replies that everything, just everything is a question and he often puts his head on his desk and groans good naturedly. He confessed he feels like a bad student, holding people up and needing special attention. However, the other day, as we did these tests Riki and I rejoiced in his progress and joked often. Riki has become much more verbal and doesn't need as much coaxing. Much of this has come from his teachers and peers playing with language with him. Humor has set him at ease and he is able to play with language with the people in his life, too. Riki's social nature, more than his academic life and talk of how he needs to pass a test or understand a novel, has contributed to his intrinsic motivation.

I was reminded again of the main reason for language learning: communication with other people and a life filled with people.

Independent Learning

2. Formal Instruction

Now, perhaps one could argue that this aspect doesn't seem to fit in with the independent learning category. After all, children, the ultimate model of language acquisition don't seem to need classroom instruction; however children are exposed to correct language through the example of parents who help them make sense of what they hear and see as well as written materials that teach us correct patterns. We might not have learned our first language as independently as we suppose.

Some formal instruction is necessary for successful independent discovery, and I'd like to outline some of the pros and cons for several classroom approaches and methods used throughout language teaching history. This information largely came from H. Douglas Brown's Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, 3rd edition. Reading helped me to evaluate my past and present language learning and might help in finding the right method for a certain learning style.

Grammar Translation

This is the oldest form of language study involving memorization of long lists of vocabulary, conjugations and other grammar rules

Positives
Great for dead language and an appreciation of language construction. Today’s language instruction focuses on speaking but there is an undeniable pleasure in reading and writing a language. This is ideal for, and was, in fact, designed for, learning dead languages like Latin.

I took a biblical Hebrew class where we spent all our class time just translated passages from the Old Testament. I did not expect to speak with a native, or be able to order at a restaurant in Israel, but I was rewarded with deeper insights into, and a more complete understanding of, the meaning in a precious piece of literature.
This method, when used exclusively, shows little success when it comes to speaking, or developing correct pronunciation.

Drawbacks

• This method includes long elaborate explanation of the history and intricacies of the language’s grammar.
• No theory or statistics in learning support this method.
  

Series of Events Method

Positives

• This method mimicks the process that children follow as they form a knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.
• This method “makes sense” as the language used to teach naturally introduces vocabulary in a sequence of events, which are easy to understand, recall and relate to reality.

The Direct Method

Positives

• Lots of speaking and “spontaneous use of the language”
• Everyday vocabulary and sentence patterns are emphasized.
• Pronunciation and correct grammar are emphasized.

Negatives

• Native teachers make this method the most effective.
• Often these programs are expensive and don’t convert well into typical classrooms.
• Not solidly based on theory.

The Audiolingual Method

Positives

• Emphasis on conversation and forming habits through drills.
• Pronunciation and correct grammar are emphasized.
• Adopts most of the successful points of the Direct Approach.
• Based heavily on education psychology and theory of the time

Drawbacks

• There is more to teaching and learning than Behaviorism and its practices realize
• Not very successful with long-term communication ability

Cognitive Code Learning

Positives

• Based on the emerging theory that children unknowingly obtain a knowledge of the rules of a language.
• Learners can become conscious of these rules and use them for communication

Drawbacks

• A bit of a return to the exhaustive explanations of the grammar rules of language and exceptions to the rule
• Sometimes as boring as the old grammar translation method was for many students

"Designer" Methods

Created in the seventies, these methods proved rather unsuccessful, but some of the ideas might prove helpful.
Here they are, very briefly:

Community Language Learning
Learners sit in a circle facing each other, get to know each other while the instructor stands behind them and translates what they want to say to the group.·

Positives

• Language learners are able to choose what they want to say.
• Creates a learning community and lessens error anxiety

Negatives

• Fairly ineffective, restrictive
• Depends heavily on instructor’s ability to translate
• No direction, initial ignorance lasts

Suggestopedia

Based on the theory that given the right conditions, the human brain can process large quantities of information. (Like listening to a foreign langauge tape while sleeping). The instructor creates a climate while playing soft baroque music, where students can relax and absorb the presentation of language.


This method has been highly criticized and is rarely practiced today, but children and most other people do show signs of learning while in a relaxed state.


Here are other noteworthy innovations from the 1970s:

The Silent Way

In this method the teacher does not correct the students on the rules of language but offers a problem-solving approach. This method claims that a learner progresses better if discovering or creating. This way is often characterized by the use of physical objects, pointing sticks, etc.

Positives

• Based on the idea that learners do better when discovering or creating
• Might produce more independence and responsibility—Teachers “get out of the way”

Drawbacks

• Teacher may be too distant from the learning process
• Use of materials, pointing sticks, charts, etc., can be a little wearing

Total Physical Response

While learning a language, children often begin moving, using hand gestures and is often silently listening to comprehend the vocabulary and patterns. This was studied and applied in the oft touted TPR method.

Positives

• Simple
• Based on the theory that learning is improved if combined with motion
• A fresh way to look at habit-forming in a language
• Lessens anxiety in the classroom—“fun”
• Good for beginner levels

Drawbacks

• Neglects the spontaneous and unrehearsed nature of language
• Not as effective with more advanced speakers

The Natural Approach

Developed on theories of comprehension, this method focuses on allowing spontaneous language to emerge naturally.

Positives

• Relaxed; communication and acquiring language rules without analysis.
• New content is understandable
• Emphasizes promoting fluency
• Less anxiety as a learner

Drawbacks

• Because fluency is emphasized, error correction is minimized
• Waiting for language to naturally emerge might miss out on prompting learners to feel that urgent need to communicate.

Source:

Brown, H.D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: an interactive approach, 3rd edition. New York: Longman

Independent Learning

The methods and reasons for learning a language are as diverse as the languages of the world. Some of us who are second language learners are students whose study is structured by our classes and texts chosen to help us understand grammar and culture. Others live in a foreign country and have little instruction. Others have neither and listen to the latest foreign language CD as they commute to work, label all the furniture in a foreign language and buy a phrase book for some anticipated encounter with speakers of a different language. Whatever your current level or method learning, learning on one's own is an important part of developing bilingualism. I've decided that a fitting way to begin this blog, dedicated to discussing the resources, strategies and experience of learning a second language would be to collect some insights into effective independent language learning.

1. Motivation and Goals for Learning

One of the most important aspects of my learning Japanese was that I had something important to say and a great desire to say it and really no other way to come across without some language ability. Most undertakings' success can be traced to how much need there was and barring need, how much was a vertain outcome desired. Though motivations may vary, having a good reason or need, even if you need to fabricate it a little, will accelerate learning. For this reason, many foreign language programs create a false environment. For example, "this room of the house or this classroom is Little Italy, let's all act accordingly," or so on. Nothing, however, really fosters language like an authentic need to communicate. So in fabricating necessity, the more real, the more effective.

Keeping your motivation in mind before study sessions or perhaps having a clear goal for a week, not only helps us hang in there, but allows us to measure our progress. An example might be, "At the end of this week, I will be able to write the whole alphabet," etc. Don't be vague or half-hearted. This is the difference between those who make progress in a language and those who settle for just being understood, or say, "I'm learning Spanish" but can't find a time or place to use it. Often teachers or an upcoming situation may outline our goals for us or create that sense of need, but in between, it's important to be personally and deeply motivated to learn and able to give it shape through specific, measurable goals. What motivates you?