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by sendaiben
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Self-control (don’t eat the marshmallow YET)
This is a great presentation. Not sure if I have posted it before, but it’s probably worth a few minutes of your time (love the videos of kids at the end).
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by sendaiben
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Listening and taking notes: harder than just listening?
I’ve been meaning to write something about this for a couple of weeks months now.
I started doing listening exercises this year in my university reading classes. Students listen to graded reader CDs as a class while taking notes, then talk in groups checking their understanding, and finally write a short summary of what they heard.
So far we’ve been doing short (two three minute) sections of level two reader CDs. These are texts that my students would be able to read easily, but they have trouble following it as audio. I presume this is because most high school students rarely if at all practice listening for more than a single sentence or short dialogue.
The feedback so far has been pretty good, with most students finding the practice interesting, challenging, and useful. They also appreciate the chance to practice listening, speaking, and writing in a short time.
However, there was one thing that came up that really surprised me. Many of the students have mentioned in feedback that they find it much harder to listen and take notes at the same time. I had assumed that taking notes would help them focus, but it seems that for a substantial minority this is not the case.
After receiving this feedback I allowed the students to take notes or not in the following class, and that seems to have solved the problem.
Does anyone have any similar experiences or articles/theories that address this? It was fairly counterintuitive to me, although I guess it makes sense that the increased mental load of having to filter the content to take notes would make it harder to actually process the language…
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by sendaiben
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Thai (lack of) progress
Okay, so we are now two months into 2012, and my Thai study is going nowhere very slowly.
This has been a very interesting exercise for me, both from a learning point of view, and as a way to test out my theories regarding how best to study a language. Now, it has been very clear to me from observing my students that learning preferences and habits are extremely personal and vary widely among individuals. Some of my students take to internet drills, some like reading, some spend hours writing journals, and some, despite my best efforts, do nothing.
I am definitely not a self-directed learner. I like the idea of input, but at the end of the day I need the structure and encouragement provided by a teacher, a class, or by actually living in a foreign language environment.
Come to think of it, I have done all my language learning under one or more of those conditions. This is the first time for me to try to learn a language on my own, outside of a place where it is spoken. It is not going well.
There are many examples of successful language learners who have succeeded under similar conditions. Khatsumoto for Japanese, or Steve Kaufmann for all sorts of languages. They rely on masses of input, supplemented with judicious use of SRS (spaced repetition system online flashcard applications). I completely agree with the approach, and see great results from those of my students that follow my advice. So what’s my problem?
I have been listening to the Learn Thai Podcast materials, which are pretty good, but in all fairness are nowhere near adequate to take me to Thai language mastery. I need a foundation of basic phrases to provide a base, then a huge amount of input supplemented by the ‘teaching’ in the podcasts, as well as conversation practice/tutoring once I get a bit better.
I have three fairly serious issues I need to overcome first:
1. I can’t read Thai yet. This is a huge hurdle because it is preventing me from getting input through reading (probably the best way to get lots of input fast)
2. I haven’t found good sources for input (radio, videos, music)
3. I haven’t found anyone to help me with Thai or hold me accountable for (not) studying
It’s fairly clear what I need to do. I need to learn Thai phonics and the alphabet. I need to find videos, TV, and music that I like and make sure I spend a chunk of time each day with it. And I am going to need a teacher or class to keep me focused. That last point is particular to me. I tend to get distracted and lose interest in things, so I need an external motivator to help me.
Okay, round two. I’ll keep you posted.
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by sendaiben
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Are we stealing dreams?
Seth Godin, who is an internet/new media/publishing/idea guru, just published a manifesto aimed at starting (or continuing) a conversation about the future of education. Very much in the same vein as Ken Robinson’s famous TED talk on the same subject, Stop Stealing Dreams (what is school for?) is a 30,000 word ebook that is currently available for free. Based on his previous work, it’s probably worth your time.
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by sendaiben
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2011 and all that
Happy New Year! I for one am sincerely hoping that 2012 will bring good things.
Last year was one of the toughest I have faced, even more than some very hard teenage years. While the emotional suffering wasn’t up there, I can definitely say that physically and mentally 2011 was the hardest year of my life. I am very happy to see the back of it. I have always subscribed to the ‘whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger’ philosophy, but after the latter nine months of last year I think there is an alternative interpretation, ie ‘whatever doesn’t kill me makes me very tired and unwilling to do anything’. You may have noticed the distinct lack of blog posts towards the end of the year.
Partly in an effort to put all that behind me, I have a few New Year goals (I hesitate to call them resolutions as that seems to jinx things). One of them is to learn Thai this year, studying by myself using online resources. I’ll report back on my progress throughout the year and hopefully it will give me a new perspective on language learning (I have been lucky enough to learn most of my languages in context, by living there, so this is new). I foresee issues with motivation and consistency, but this is something I have always wanted to do so we’ll see how far I can get in a year.
I’ll be using material from Learn Thai Podcast, in case anyone is interested. They seem pretty good so far (full review later).