Tag: language

Language Learning Tip #18

 

Problem

“I am trying to change some of my language learning habits, and  I have ideas, but somehow I don’t put them into action.”

Idea:  Address problems with strategies not with wishes.


Five steps for creating suitable strategies:

1) Identify areas you want to improve in.  Do this periodically as your needs and abilities change.  Write down things you want to be able to do at this point in your life and skills you want to practice.  Then prioritize them by giving them numbers.  Choose 2 or 3 of them and develop creative strategies to improve in these areas.


2) Identify your strengths and weaknesses as a learner.  What are you good at?  What is difficult for you?  Then focus on ways to strengthen your weak skills by using your strengths. 

For example, if you don’t spell well, identify the reasons.  Maybe two Arabic sounds seem the same to you so you get mixed up with words which have those sounds in them.  This would be a weakness in an aural (listening) skill.  But if you can see the word in your mind or you write the word a number of times, you can use your strength as a visual learner or as a kinesthetic learner to work on your spelling problem.  Or if your weakness is listening comprehension, you cannot improve in that area by making a grammar chart.  However, listening to recorded Arabic at slower speeds could be helpful. 

Look for a connection between the skill you need and the activity you want to spend time on.  If you can not explain the connection between the two, then maybe the connection is not really there.

 

3) Identify things in your personality that make it hard for you to do what other successful learners do.  Then find a way to compensate.  For example, if you are a shy person who finds it difficult to knock on your neighbor’s door, go visiting with someone else.  Or, if you never know what to talk about with people, before you visit, write a list of topics and questions that you can ask people.

 

4) Reevaluate your strategies from time to time.  If your strategies are all the same now as they were 3 months ago, you probably are not giving enough attention to this area.  Use your creativity and feed off of the creativity of your classmates and other learners.

 

5)  Find someone to be accountable to.  You might talk with that person about what you are writing in your language learning journal.  You should discuss what your current strategies are, why you have chosen them, and how you might improve them.  Sometimes another person might just have an idea that will turn a good strategy into a great strategy. 

Language Learning Tip #16

Problem 

“I am trying to change some of my language learning habits, and  I have ideas, but somehow I don’t put them into action.”

 Idea 

Have a weekly planning time.  I recommend that you follow these 3 principles:

  • Keep it very simple.  Don’t try to do too much at first.
  • Keep it regular. It should be at the same time each week.
  • Keep it together.  Have a special notebook for this purpose.

Think of a day each week when you have 30 minutes that you can sit without distractions.  In fact, sometimes you may only need 20 minutes to do these 4 steps.

Step 1)  Write 1-3 goals for the week. There is nothing wrong with only writing one explicit goal.

Step 2)  Make a basic written schedule outlining when you will work on those goals.  Break down the task into manageable steps. Be as specific as you can. Here are some examples of goals for the purpose of activating words you’ve learned before.

  • Review chapters 7-9 and write down 10 words I want to put in my active vocabulary
  • Speak out loud by myself using each word in two sentences (20 sentences total).
  • Use at least five of these words this week in conversation with others.

Here are some other types of goals you can set.

  • I will talk to three people for 5 minutes about __my home town   .
  • I will write down a list of 10 words that are related to __my home town   .
  •  I will practice  speaking with a tape recorder on __my home town    for 15 minutes.
  • I will try to visit (name) on (day) for (20-30 minutes) and will talk about __my home town   .

Step 3)  Evaluate your past week. Did you meet your goals?  Were your goals too big or unrealistic?  If you did this again, what would you change?  Etc.

Step 4)  Write something in your language journal.

A language journal is an activity that can be unrelated to the goal-setting outlined above, or it can be part of the whole process.  That is, whether you set goals or not, a language learning journal can be very valuable.  In fact, I would guess that journaling would be the most important part of your weekly planning and reflection.  You may even want to write in your journal more often than once a week.

Your journal should include your personal feelings about your language learning.  Write about what you liked and disliked about your language adventures this week.  When did you feel frustrated?  Did you have any breakthroughs?  What are you learning about yourself?  Your learning preferences?  Your language learning strategies?  Is there anything new you might want to try some day?

For example, “I met only half of my goals. Maybe I need to spend less time on Youtube. Am I being lazy or do I just love Youtube too much? Maybe I can try to take my iPad on my next visit and show Ahmad my favorite Youtube videos. That puppy on the skateboard just cracks me up!”

 

 


 

 

 


Language Learning Tip #08

Problem

“I get lost in class, and I find it hard to pay attention.”

Idea

This problem can have many causes — some of which I will list. But the good news is that the solution could be very simple for you.

First, let’s list some of the possible causes.

  • Boredom or lack of interest
  • Anxiety or racing thoughts
  • Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
  • Chemical imbalances or dependencies (caffeine for example)
  • Lack of sleep
  • Empty stomach
  • Full stomach
  • Alienation from the group
  • Pessimistic attitude or discouragement
  • Restlessness
  • Self-consciousness

Whew! How could one idea possibly be the solution for all of those problems? Well, maybe it can’t, BUT maybe I can make you aware of something. Each of those possible causes are internal. And, each of them becomes less significant internally IF something more significant is on your mental radar. In other words, finding something that attracts your thoughts automatically gets rid of distractions. So, mental static can be overcome if you are tuned in to mental music. That’s why physical hunger is not a problem as long as other stimuli are active. And lots of ADD kids can play video games for hours without once losing concentration. There is no room for anything else in the mind because they are fully engaged in something. As the frog said, “Time’s fun when you’re having flies.”

On the other hand, people who are self-conscious in class are not being language-conscious. People who have other things they would rather be doing, will be thinking of those things instead of Arabic. People who are frustrated with their lack of progress are not fully engaged in the learning process of the moment. Students who are comparing themselves to others are just looking in the mirror. And those who are fretting about the degree of difficulty are missing the point altogether. All these things can be mental static that make it hard to hear the music.

As a high school basketball player, I sat on the bench and watched a lot of games from courtside. I greatly preferred practice to the games, because in practice I got to play. But those games seemed to take forever. I would mentally coach, I would cheer, I would grumble, I would protest, I would do everything except play. I always noticed how uncomfortable the bench was. I thought about what I would eat later after the game. But when I did get a chance to play, it seemed to last only seconds. I couldn’t understand how some players could be on court and lose concentration by hearing something in the crowd. When I was in the game, I never even noticed there was a crowd. The coach would sometimes yell at a player, “Hey, John! Get your head in the game! Where are you?” I couldn’t understand any of that. How could any player lose their focus for even a second. I loved the game of basketball, but it was obvious to me that some of the taller and more talented players didn’t share my passion. Oh, they loved to be on the team. They liked to win. They liked the cheers of the crowd and the cheerleaders. None of that meant anything to me. I just loved the game.

What about your Arabic? Do you love the game? If you don’t, you will not reach your potential. No matter if you have strong motivations to learn and be good, if you don’t love the game itself, you will struggle with your wandering attention. Basketball was not love at first sight for me. But I hung out with people who loved it. By practice, my skills improved. I began to find beauty in it. I felt the magic of the human body performing the skills. The patterns of movement began to make sense to me. I loved the sound of the ball bouncing or swishing through the net, the squeak of shoes on the court.

Think about an activity you love to do. Why do you love it? How did your love develop? Hang out with people who love the game. Don’t be a spectator in class. Don’t just get your head in the game; get your heart in it. Find joy in the game of Arabic and many of your concentration problems will disappear.

How Much Can I Learn?

We are often asked by prospective students how much Arabic they can learn with us or how good their Arabic will be after two years.

Measuring ability in a language can be a bit subjective but the ILR and ACTFL scales are helpful and are shown below.

But before we go any further, a word of warning.  There are  Arabic language programs which claim that a student can be ‘fluent’ in Arabic after 3 months study and even quoting students who have done this.  The results of research from the U.S. Government’s Foreign Service Institute (FSI) as shown in the chart below show clearly that this is not a realistic claim.

The data here are cited by Judith E. Liskin-Gasparro in “ETS Oral Proficiency Testing Manual,” Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, 1982.  The data were obtained from LinguaLinks Language Learning Bookshelf.

The FSI has classified languages according to the difficulty factors for native English speakers. Group 4, the most difficult are shown in the chart above.

If you compare the graph above with the table below you will see that the FSI considers it would take an average language learner between 100 and 150 weeks at 30 hours per week to attain superior status (3 to 3+) which is the lowest level most of us would call fluent.   This is a bit more than the 3 months quoted by some programs! However, if by “fluent” you mean level 1, it may be possible.  Beware of programs who play with words to get your money, the only way to get a good standard of Arabic is time and effort and a good program.

So where would you be on the scale below after studying with us?  Well, assuming you have average aptitude for learning language and you study for the full two-year course and, of course, you will fulfil the course requirements by completing all homework assignments and mixing with local people on a regular basis, then you will attain the same level that our two year students normally do.  That is, you would be about a 2 on the scale below – Able to satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements.  Our full-time two year program is around 75 weeks in total, if you compare the length of our program with the graph above then you will see that even this is a bold claim but we see average students on our course attaining this regularly.

Those with a gifting for language may be able to reach about a 3 – Able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations.

ILR Scale ACTFL Scale Definition
5 Native Able to speak like an educated native speaker
4+
4		 Distinguished Able to speak with a great deal of fluency, grammatical accuracy, precision of vocabulary and idiomaticity
3+
3		 Superior Able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations
2+ Advanced Plus Able to satisfy most work requirements and show some ability to communicate on concrete topics
2 Advanced Able to satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements
1+ Intermediate – High Able to satisfy most survival needs and limited social demands
1 Intermediate – Mid
Intermediate – Low		 Able to satisfy some survival needs and some limited social demands
Able to satisfy basic survival needs and minimum courtesy requirements
0+ Novice – High Able to satisfy immediate needs with learned utterances
0 Novice-Mid
Novice – Low
0		 Able to operate in only a very limited capacityUnable to function in the spoken language
No ability whatsoever in the language