Monolingual language learning
It has been a while since I wrote about my study, and seeing that this is week three of semester two I thought you might like to know what I've been up to! So today I want to share a bit about my language learning.
One of the things I've been looking forward to in this course has been the chance to learn another language with an approach which might best be described as monolingual language learning. The idea is to find one (or more) people who are willing to spend scheduled time with you to help you learn their language. You as the learner plan the lessons, decide what you want to learn, set the pace for how many new things are introduced, while the language resource person (LRP) is the expert in the language, correcting mispronunciation (very important!), and hopefully the process is interesting for all concerned. The language I am learning is Turkish - and so far it has been pretty fun!
Initially, of course, the lessons involve a lot of questions and even conversations in a language other than the one under study (English in my case at the moment, but if we were in another country it would be either the national language or some other language that we had in common). This facilitates the initial acquisition of some words and phrases, helps with developing a positive relationship between the learner(s) and the LRP. The idea is that as you gain more in the language you are learning, you use that instead of the bridge language, using the new language and gestures as much as possible to gain words and phrases which are more natural to the speakers than if asking for (and getting) a direct translation from one language to the other.
You might wonder, if you have not had much experience with other languages, why this would make a difference. Partly it comes down to the differences between ranges of meanings for words and phrases between the two languages, but it also comes down to cultural differences. For example, if you were to ask, 'How do you say "good morning"?' you might get a direct translation, even though people might never say this phrase when they see someone in the morning. What if people instead use a phrase which means something like, 'Are you awake?' or 'Have you eaten?' when they first see someone for the day? A question which may be polite in your language may be considered rude in another language! (Or even just in another country which speaks the same language!)
You may also be wondering why I won't be using a textbook. The key reason is that I hope to use this method to learn a language which may never have been written down before. When trying to learn such a language, there IS no textbook, so this is a practice run. In addition, I'll be trying to understand some of the things which happen in Turkish, the grammar, how words change in different contexts, and a whole host of other things! I am looking forward to that almost as much as actually learning to speak Turkish!
Initially we won't be writing anything down, but even when we do we won't be learning to write in Turkish, instead writing down what we hear using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). But I think I'd better leave any explanation of what that is and why we'll be using it for another post! This has become much longer than I anticipated!
I am working with one of my fellow students in this, and we are meeting with our LRP twice a week for about an hour and a half each time, over about fifteen weeks (about four months), so we won't become fluent in Turkish in that time. But hopefully we will be using Turkish for most if not all of the ninety minutes by the end of that time! In fact, it would be great if we were using mostly Turkish well before that, but we'll see how we go! I first learned and used this method in January/February last year, spending six weeks learning Indonesian. At the end of that time we had a short session with our LRP (about ten minutes, I think) for our final assessment, which was to be only in Indonesian. And I managed it! So I hope we will get to that point with Turkish!
One of the things I've been looking forward to in this course has been the chance to learn another language with an approach which might best be described as monolingual language learning. The idea is to find one (or more) people who are willing to spend scheduled time with you to help you learn their language. You as the learner plan the lessons, decide what you want to learn, set the pace for how many new things are introduced, while the language resource person (LRP) is the expert in the language, correcting mispronunciation (very important!), and hopefully the process is interesting for all concerned. The language I am learning is Turkish - and so far it has been pretty fun!
Initially, of course, the lessons involve a lot of questions and even conversations in a language other than the one under study (English in my case at the moment, but if we were in another country it would be either the national language or some other language that we had in common). This facilitates the initial acquisition of some words and phrases, helps with developing a positive relationship between the learner(s) and the LRP. The idea is that as you gain more in the language you are learning, you use that instead of the bridge language, using the new language and gestures as much as possible to gain words and phrases which are more natural to the speakers than if asking for (and getting) a direct translation from one language to the other.
You might wonder, if you have not had much experience with other languages, why this would make a difference. Partly it comes down to the differences between ranges of meanings for words and phrases between the two languages, but it also comes down to cultural differences. For example, if you were to ask, 'How do you say "good morning"?' you might get a direct translation, even though people might never say this phrase when they see someone in the morning. What if people instead use a phrase which means something like, 'Are you awake?' or 'Have you eaten?' when they first see someone for the day? A question which may be polite in your language may be considered rude in another language! (Or even just in another country which speaks the same language!)
You may also be wondering why I won't be using a textbook. The key reason is that I hope to use this method to learn a language which may never have been written down before. When trying to learn such a language, there IS no textbook, so this is a practice run. In addition, I'll be trying to understand some of the things which happen in Turkish, the grammar, how words change in different contexts, and a whole host of other things! I am looking forward to that almost as much as actually learning to speak Turkish!
Initially we won't be writing anything down, but even when we do we won't be learning to write in Turkish, instead writing down what we hear using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). But I think I'd better leave any explanation of what that is and why we'll be using it for another post! This has become much longer than I anticipated!
I am working with one of my fellow students in this, and we are meeting with our LRP twice a week for about an hour and a half each time, over about fifteen weeks (about four months), so we won't become fluent in Turkish in that time. But hopefully we will be using Turkish for most if not all of the ninety minutes by the end of that time! In fact, it would be great if we were using mostly Turkish well before that, but we'll see how we go! I first learned and used this method in January/February last year, spending six weeks learning Indonesian. At the end of that time we had a short session with our LRP (about ten minutes, I think) for our final assessment, which was to be only in Indonesian. And I managed it! So I hope we will get to that point with Turkish!
Comments
Post a Comment