Week Fifteen: Language Websites and Linguistic Highlights

This week, my Kinyarwanda language study hasn’t so much found me studying new material as it has reviewing “old” material. Of course, part of the reason why is due to the fact that my final self-assessment is approaching, but I have also discovered a new-found love of posting lessons on my language website (https://sites.google.com/a/wisc.edu/learning-kinyarwanda/home-1).

Initially, I viewed my language website exclusively in terms of assignments, which, technically, it still is, but now that I am posting lessons in Kinyarwanda on it, I find that it is much more thrilling. It encourages me to reflect on how best I learn, so I can transmit the information I have better to others. In addition, I find myself thinking about what lesson I would like to post next, and what supplementary information “my students” would require in order to understand it. In turn, it makes me think even more about what to post, how much to post, and in what format, a recurring and productive cycle. Needless to say, it’s all very exciting to me, and I am glad to have had this change of heart, even so late in the semester, as I can continue to prepare for next semester over winter break.

My current attitude is not unlike those of the students described in Katrina Daly Thompson’s article, “Active Learning Through Materials Development: A Project for the Advanced L2 Classroom,” who were each responsible for a content-based website in their target language. One student claimed, “I learned a lot about teaching the language by creating exercises on [the] computer for students of lower levels,” and another commented “I hope our websites will be useful to future…students” (qtd. in Thompson 106). To this I say, so have I, and so do I.

For now, however, I might have to put my website to the side, in order to focus on my self-assessment, but in all honesty, I probably won’t, and that is not an entirely bad thing for my study.

:-)

Week Fourteen: Isolation and Recommitments

During the preceding weeks, my language study has been pretty lackluster, and I can blame continued illness, holidays, and end-of-semester demands all I would like, but ultimately the error lies in me. Indeed, if I was truly committed to my independent language-learning, sure, these things would be obstacles, but they wouldn’t stop me from learning. Accordingly, I am frustrated with myself, but presently, I wish to view it as an opportunity- an opportunity to review extensively and learn further before the final assessment. More importantly, I wish to re-commit myself to a schedule that will allow for independent learning, particularly as I approach winter break which, with the absence of formal classes, will leave me completely by myself to structure my language lessons.

Pertinently, it was brought to my attention recently that I wasn’t necessarily reflecting on my language-learning, so much as external factors pertinent to it. I have to apologize for this, because I believe I was consciously deflecting and allowing myself to ramble about these topics, because I felt my language-learning wasn’t going as well as it should be. In the process, however, I isolated myself further from those around me (those interested or otherwise invested in my progress) by refusing to talk about it. Again, I am sorry, and I need to train myself to be better at recognizing negative feelings and managing them in a productive way, even if that means expressing emotion when I don’t want to.

Speaking of those relevant to my language-study, I have been unable to meet with my language partner for the past month. The first week, he had to host parent-teacher conferences, and the next three weeks I was/will be out of town (the first two weeks at home and the third in New York City for a conference). Perhaps this contributed to feelings of isolation, as well. Due to this, however, I am afraid to ask him to help me with my final self-assessment, because we have been out-of-touch. Although I recognize that he has invested in my progress by spending time with me, sometimes I find it difficult to rationalize asking him to help me further. This experience has made me understand fully the literature that encourages students to pay their language partners, and perhaps I would feel less burdensome if we had arranged that, but in the meantime, I am still nervous without much recourse. 

On to studying once again...