Language Learning Challenge Week 5 (Futur Proche)
Week 5 Summary
As has become tradition, I began the week with the Lingolia definition of the futur proche.
To finish the week I did some listening activities from the Nouveau Rond-Point 2 Cahier exercise book.
Week 5 Reflection
It's definitely getting more and more difficult to keep up with the SLAT2002 Language Learning Challenge as assessment for other courses is never-ending, however in saying that my learning goal has been maintained and I see a positive effect on not only my knowledge of French tenses, but my writing and speaking skills. I deliberately put the futur proche last because I felt that it was the easiest tense to wrap my head around, this prediction is reflected in my quiz scores, in which I scored 100% for both. In retrospect I think I should have done the futur simple before the imparfait as I still struggled a little bit this week with it, I will put an extra focus on the futur simple next week. I enjoyed all examples of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) this week, all were practical and easy to use for my purposes, I particularly enjoyed listening to the audio from the Cahier as it was just a change, diversity is undeniably an essential aspect of second language learning, when each week feels like a repeat, it is easy to get unmotivated, I will discuss diversity in content in more detail below. To conclude this was a successful week, I completed all tasks outlined in the learning goal, working on both French tenses and listening comprehension, and I enjoyed doing it which is always a positive.
Diversity in Content
I then completed the Lingolia quiz to test my comprehension of the definition.
Following the quiz I wrote 25 sentences, using all the tenses covered so far.
After the sentences I took a soft schools quiz to reinforce the information.
It's definitely getting more and more difficult to keep up with the SLAT2002 Language Learning Challenge as assessment for other courses is never-ending, however in saying that my learning goal has been maintained and I see a positive effect on not only my knowledge of French tenses, but my writing and speaking skills. I deliberately put the futur proche last because I felt that it was the easiest tense to wrap my head around, this prediction is reflected in my quiz scores, in which I scored 100% for both. In retrospect I think I should have done the futur simple before the imparfait as I still struggled a little bit this week with it, I will put an extra focus on the futur simple next week. I enjoyed all examples of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) this week, all were practical and easy to use for my purposes, I particularly enjoyed listening to the audio from the Cahier as it was just a change, diversity is undeniably an essential aspect of second language learning, when each week feels like a repeat, it is easy to get unmotivated, I will discuss diversity in content in more detail below. To conclude this was a successful week, I completed all tasks outlined in the learning goal, working on both French tenses and listening comprehension, and I enjoyed doing it which is always a positive.
Diversity in Content
During the Language Learning Challenge I have been presented with a multitude of options in regards to content, when I typed the words "French quizzes" I was offered pages upon pages of options, this makes it difficult to discern which option is most effective, it is essentially limited to trial and error. For me personally, diversity in content is a huge positive, all students learn differently, they have different learning strategies, different preferences, some may use technology as it was intended and some may use the technology in a way that helps them. Additionally, if you use the same technology and software every week it will get boring, leading to a lack of motivation and a loss of autonomy. In the future I will continue diversifying the technologies I use when learning a language.
Repetition in Language Learning
My Language Learning Challenge is built around repetition, therefore I will explain the thinking behind it. According to a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, verb repetition "led to an increase in the syntactic repetition enhancement effect in language related brain regions." I know the idea that if you study and repeat you will learn is hardly revolutionary but I thought it was just an interesting side note.
Auditory Language Learning
One component of my Language Learning Challenge is listening comprehension, most learners struggle with this as it is "a highly complex problem solving process in which listeners must discriminate among sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, identify stress and intonation, retain what they have gathered and interpret the language output within the relevant sociocultural context (Chen, Zhang & Liu 2013). For the purposes of evaluating and improving my listening I will look at listening strategies, particularly O'Malley and Chamot's Taxonomy, this involves three Categories:
. Cognitive Strategies- Most common form of strategy used by L2 learners, refers to the direct manipulation or transformation of listening materials e.g. repeating the listening task, using imagery or key words, translating, taking notes, summarization, etc.
. Metacognitive Strategies- Help learners regulate their learning process, including planning, monitoring and evaluating e.g. planning for a listening task, identifying the purpose of the listening task, linking content with material.
. Affective Strategies- Allow listeners to manage their emotions e.g. writing about your feelings (blog) and communicating with peers.
I definitely employ cognitive strategies, after listening to the audio from the cahier I repeated the listening task and took notes, direct examples from the definition.
See you next week for the last blog entry.
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