Blog 2

Improving my French 

My challenge: I've decided that I'm going to make a few changes and get more specific in deciding what my challenge is. During the French workshops this week I've discovered that I struggle with French tenses and listening comprehension when listening to authentic French speakers. Compared to last week I am a lot more confident in the basics, and while I still need to practice to retain the skills I'm going to be more ambitious in my challenge.

                   

My Learning goal: Last week my learning goals for the language learning challenge were,  to improve my grammar and listening comprehension skills to a point where I feel comfortable talking in French to members of my French university course. I'm going to refine this by setting a specific learning goal, which is to write out 4 sentences using a different tense per week and listen to one French podcast to improve the listening comprehension skills.

My learning styles and strategies: As mentioned last week, I am a visual learner as well as a kinaesthetic learner and find that I acquire information more effectively when I can see it in front of me and do it myself. Therefore the learning strategies which I am intending on using/using have not changed,  study regularly but in short bursts as this ties directly to effective strategy for the kinaesthetic learner. Also this week during the SLAT2002 workshop we did a Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and I found that I need to work on managing my emotions and being more reflective, as well as this I need to pay more attention to remembering more effectively.

                      

The technologies I am going to test:  Utilizing platforms such as streaming services (Netflix, YouTube , podcasts etc.) is still on the agenda as I have still never had the chance to use them properly for language learning, I still feel that this technology will be the most useful in developing listening skills. I did get a chance to use Duolingo this week and while it was useful in reinforcing the basics, I don't see myself using it for learning tenses, I think the best option would be to use online dictionaries as I'm comfortable with them and think they work.

My plan: My learning plan still consists of learning as much as I can about the chosen technologies in order to be able to use them as effectively as possible. As mentioned before, I plan on  writing 5 sentences 3 times a week, this is because my schedule is quite busy during the week. I will also listen to one podcast a week and try to take notes about what is said.

My evaluation approach: The digital language learning tools that I've chosen to use are difficult to evaluate, the only tangible way to assess my progress will be with how comfortable I am during French class and the marks I end up getting for the French university course assessment.