Hello people!
Well, here comes another “e-tivity” which does not involve technologies…;-)
This time we are supposed to reflect on what we do to learn foreign languages and what tools we use to improve our skills…Apparently rather easy, right? That was exactly what I thought as I read Sarah’s post, but then I soon realized the task was not simple at all.
Although brain storming, mindmaps and keywords were not new to me, I had never been asked to explain how I organize my personal learning. That is actually quite difficult since it is not just a matter of education; I think that basically you can learn in thousand different ways, so summing up this complicated process can be really challenging…
As you can see, there is a first division between what I do at university and what I do outside it; this is quite important as I think our personal “everyday” learning is essential if we really want to improve…No need to say that three hours per week are not enough to get a thorough knowledge of a foreign language…Well, probably a whole life is not enough :-)
Another thing I wanted to stress on my mindmap is that learning a language involves four abilities which all have the same weight. Our educational system tends to focus more on grammar and writing; especially when I was at the high school I often had the impression that “writing coherent texts without mistakes” was what “learning a foreign language” was all about. I am not saying writing is not important, I am saying it is NOT the only thing we should be able to do if we want to master a language. If we cannot understand when other people talk (most of all native speakers) or if it takes us five minutes to get a sentence out of our mouth, we will never be able to communicate effectively.
The problem is that listening and speaking are difficult to practice if we do not live abroad; we can write or read on our own, but for listening and speaking we do need other people. Actually, now we have much more exposure to foreign languages thanks to DVDs, satellite dishes and podcasts…So we have plenty of chances to listen to some English (or German, Spanish, French…), but unfortunately for speaking we still need an interlocutor :-)
That is why I think listening and speaking are my “weak points”; lately I have been trying to concentrate as much as possible on them, especially when I learn on my own. To stress the importance of these two abilities, on my mindmap I put a yellow icon next to them.
Traveling and communicating with foreign friends are the best ways for me to practice languages; the tools I use for this aim are basically Skype (it enables me to make free calls all around the world!) and MSN (the most famous chat program).
That is why I think listening and speaking are my “weak points”; lately I have been trying to concentrate as much as possible on them, especially when I learn on my own. To stress the importance of these two abilities, on my mindmap I put a yellow icon next to them.
Traveling and communicating with foreign friends are the best ways for me to practice languages; the tools I use for this aim are basically Skype (it enables me to make free calls all around the world!) and MSN (the most famous chat program).
I would like to spend a few words about those technologies which help me organize the material I need for my learning. I must say I got to know them (Bloglines and Del.icio.us) during the course and their biggest advantage is that thanks to them you can access your favorite blogs and websites from any computer. They just make your life easier, don’t they? ;-)
In my PLE mindmap I also made a list of the tools I use to check my work when I write something in a foreign language. Some of them (like grammar books and dictionaries) are more “traditional”, whereas others are based on computer technology (advanced searches and spell checkers).
Advanced searches enable us to narrow the number of pages we usually come up with on the Web; if we apply the criteria Sarah told us we can make sure we get material written by educated native speakers. That is quite useful when we have doubts about concordances (verb-preposition, noun-verb, adjective-noun and so on).
Spell checkers are also very helpful when we type something…I always write my posts and comments in “Word” and then I copy and paste them on my blog…It is the best way to avoid silly spelling mistakes ;-)
Ok, I hope this was clear enough…Anyway, you will have the chance to ask me whatever you want tomorrow in class :-)
Have a nice Sunday!
BYE
