Lesson #8

Once again, this week I have felt "stuck" in my language learning. I have tried to find resources to learn Yaqui verbs, yet I have come up with nothing more than how to use the past and future tenses. The most unfortunate part is that I do not know any verbs to make up sentences. Again, limited resources have stalled my learning.

I have continued to learn new vocabulary words- in themed groups. So far I have numbers, colors, emotions, subject pronouns, a few time expressions, kinship terms, and some weather terms. Flashcards were an interesting option for me, and frankly a strategy that I have never used before in any language learning endeavor. I think that my lack of resources- especially a textbook- has made me resort to new strategies for learning. Being that flashcards are the only way to test myself, I have been limited to learning only new vocabulary. I hope to soon have a dictionary that will aid my acquisition of verbs so that I can start testing out sentences!

Lesson: Adapt learning to your resources. As I said before, my resources are quite scarce, yet I am still able to continue learning my adapting my learning strategies to best suit my situation. That is, I adopted new (to me, at least) ways to learn and quiz myself. Without changing my approach to learning Yaqui, I would have been left with few opportunities to practice, and possibly a lowered motivation to learn/practice. Understanding your own learning situation is necessary to assess the strategies you are (or are not) using and how they are contributing to or hindering your acquisition. For the first time, I believe flashcards are actually helping my acquisition of Yaqui.

Error Correction

Here I would like to address Truscott's (1996) article on the ineffectiveness of grammar correction in L2 writing. While I had heard of this article before, and even read the responses to it, I had never actually read it until now. I see that it has caused quite a controversy in SLA research, and the subfield of corrective feedback. I will outline my issues with Truscott's argument and hopefully provide some counter-arguments.

Truscott argues that grammar correction on L2 writing is ineffective ("proved" by evidence and non-evidence in the field) and harmful to students; therefore, he concludes, that it should not be carried out in the L2 writing course.

My first concern is that it seems Truscott himself did not conduct any research as to the effectiveness of grammar correction in this context. Rather, he summed up researchers' work that also summed up others' findings (these studies were quite dated as well). While reviewing the works of others, Truscott seems to leap to the conclusion that grammar correction was more than unhelpful, it was harmful (using Robb et al's (1986) study, which did not have a control "no correction" group to compare!).

Though Truscott does admit to the possible limitations to the reviewed studies, he dismisses all of them as inconsequential. I would disagree with most of these dismissals, the different types of instruction used and learner variables (or the combination of any of the variables he "dismissed"). For example, grammar correction would be ineffective in a writing course in which grades are based on content, then students would not care about grammar correction. However, if accuracy was a goal, then I assume grammar correction (the "correct" type) would be useful. Additionally, if the learner in question is a "good language learner," as in Griffith's (2006) study with Kay and Meg, then s/he is likely to notice corrections, learn from them, and use the correct form later.

Another concern was Truscott's emphasis on the acquisition order and how instructors' corrections do not fall in line with the developmental sequence that their students go through. However, in my experience, an L2 writing class comes later in the language course sequence as well (possibly third year). By this time, students should have reached (dependent on the language) a high proficiency and therefore have likely gone through much of the developmental sequence. Therefore, L2 writing students should be able to understand most corrections.

I do agree with Truscott's argument that some instructors are inconsistent in their correction (and unfortunately, some do not recognize errors and/or cannot explain why an error is incorrect). However, I do not think an L2 writing instructor must be required to catch every single error a student makes- that is their job in revising and editing- though, errors that seriously impede comprehension could be addressed by the instructor. Additionally, as later studies have shown, direct grammar correction (i.e. providing the correction) is not helpful to students as they likely do not internalize the correction. Rather, instructors should indicate errors (i.e. coding, circling, tally marks) and subsequently corrected by the student.

Though Truscott admitted to the literature indicating students expect and want grammar correction (see Shultz's 1999 study), he still claims it is unpleasant. I believe a good language learner will still find correction beneficial. Not to mention, if students need feedback to become accuracy and fluent L2 learners. "Experience," as Truscott believes, is not sufficient in my view; some form of feedback is necessary to hopefully avoid fossilization of incorrect forms. Truscott also states that going over corrections is basically a waste of students' time; personally, I believe developing accuracy is a perfectly productive use of student time.

Truscott's article sparked much debate, and I can see why now. It appears to me that his argument is based on old research, leaps to conclusions, and has many gaps in logic. However, this is just my opinion, and I am sure there are those who would disagree with me.

Lesson #7

Unfortunately this past week my language learning has fallen by the wayside. I have been able to keep up with my vocabulary practices (I did make some additional flashcards), but I have not been able to learn much new information. I tried to look up some verb lists online, but no luck.

Lesson #7: Persistence and Making Time.

It is essential to "keep up" with the language learning process and not let it slide down your list of priorities. This can be difficult for anyone, considering the amount of tasks we take on. Regardless, setting aside some time everyday (even as little as 30 minutes) is vital to successful learning, in my opinion.

Metacognitive Knowledge and Tasks

Taking a metacognitive look back at a previous entry (http://learningyaqui.blogspot.com/2010/05/lesson-5.html ), I will analyze and evaluate the strategies I used, the tasks I engaged in, and my own learning. As researchers note, good language learners are reflective about their learning and are able to think about, analyze, and evaluate the learning processes as well as the actual language learning.

Evaluate Strategies

In Lesson #5, I took the "hypothesis testing" approach to learning, or rather, figuring out, a language. I believe this strategy worked has advantages and disadvantages; the former being a positive way to learn about and test my knowledge of Yaqui, and being able to look at entire sentences, albeit complex ones, in the target language. However, the main disadvantage is that my low proficiency limits my hypothesis testing to simply "identifying" new words and parts of speech- in contrast to creating my own sentences and testing their grammaticality.


Task Analysis

The task was to determine new words using (i.e. reading) a Yaqui text and its Spanish or English equivalent. Wenden's three parts to task analysis are as follows:

Purpose
The purpose of the task was to expand my vocabulary, learn words that were not offered in vocabulary lists, and to possibly learn more about parts of speech/word order.

Classification
Reading skills: understanding word order, looking for reoccurring words/phrases

Genre: Suggestions for leaving feedback- lists

Language: informal (website commentary), language in general is complex (case system, morphological inflection)

Vocabulary: words and phrases related to websites, feedback, topics

Background knowledge: I know about the process of leaving comments on websites, I know about which topics the website covers. Other language knowledge (Spanish).

Feelings about task: In the Yaqui language, the task isn't really relevant, but nonetheless interesting for the purposes of the website and seeing if native speakers respond in Yaqui.

Demand

Which strategies and/or actions do I use:

Hypothesis testing for reoccurring word meaning

Guessing at unknown words/word order

Use of Spanish/English knowledge to determine transferred words- esp. related to technology ("website" "webblog")

Consider word order (verb final) to recognize verbs


Assess Learning

Though some of my hypotheses about the language were wrong, I believe that still contributes to my learning. While I did not learn a long list of vocabulary words in this task, I did learn more about the language (subject pronouns, informal greetings, more influences form Spanish/English) than I had previously. I goal was not to make all correct hypotheses but rather to make hypotheses that seemed logical and then test them for accuracy. Fortunately, I was able to test mine and pinpointed the ones that were inconsistent with the target language. So, though I did not learn a lot, what I did learn was valuable (especially the lesson of hypothesis TESTING and not just assuming my interpretations are correct)!

Lesson #6

Just catching up on vocabulary lists I have written out. I actually made flash cards for my vocabulary, which I do not usually do as study or learning technique. However, I felt I needed more varied practice and a way to "quiz" myself on the new words I am acquiring. No verbs yet. No dictionary.

Reading this language is quite difficult, even considering my beginning/novice proficiency. Thinking back to the early stages of my Spanish and French learning, I still could look at a simple sentence a determine/identify which words were what (e.g. which was the subject, verb, object, adverb, adjective, etc). Of course, my Spanish background probably influenced my French learning. But Yaqui, it seems nearly impossible.

This is likely due to the lack of simple sentences available to me, and I have VERY limited verb knowledge (I just found out the past tense marker "k" has more form than just "k" and is very irregular- no wonder I couldn't find the verb in these sentences I've been looking at!). Regardless, I continue to look at sentences in both Yaqui and English/Spanish to determine which parts of speech each Yaqui word might be, that is, I continue my hypothesis testing!

Lesson #6: Motivation and Encouragement- from YOURSELF!
Having little knowledge of a new language can be frustrating, but it is essential to realize that this is the starting point. In a way, learning Yaqui has become a personal challenge to me, due precisely to its difficulty. It seems from my Myers Brigg survey, I am ill-equipped for successful/proficient language learning (ESTJ). Still, I believe I can encourage myself to become a better learner, even if I am not preconditioned to be one. Rather than relying on an instructor to foster other "personality types" that might be more conducive to language learning, I will have to find ways to either use my personality type to my benefit or hone new types to improve my language learning.

Strategy Inventory for Language Learning

As a starting point, I decided to take the SILL with my French language learning experience in mind (most recent before this course). I was honestly a bit afraid to start with Yaqui because I fear my lack of resources and a structured classroom might have limited my strategies.

French:


High Strategies: Using mental processes; compensating for missing knowledge; learning with others; overall

I was surprised to see that "learning with others" was a high strategy for me, given my learning style questionnaire revealed that I was an individualistic learner (I was even considering the same context!). This could imply that my preferred learning style does not reflect my learning strategy (or visa versa?).

Medium Strategies: Remembering more effectively; organizing and evaluating learning

I thought these two strategies would have been "high" for me since I do a lot to remember new knowledge (i.e. writing down (repeatedly) new words, creating groups, using them in sentence, making connections, etc). I figure the "evaluation" part of the latter strategy is what brought me down to medium here because I do tend to be quite organized in my language learning.

Low Strategies: Managing emotions

Again, this does not surprise me, given I am a Thinker, not a Feeler. The way I have seen it, emotions do not play a large affective role in my language learning experience. That is, I have not had an extremely traumatizing experience related to language that would cause me to be anxious or nervous when practicing it.

On the other hand, when I consider my Yaqui learning experience, the results are as follows:


Yaqui:

High Strategies: Organizing and Evaluating learning

Due to the context in which I am learning Yaqui, I have had to organize my lessons myself in addition to constant evaluation of my abilities in the language to guide future learning. This strategy was in Medium with French because it was in a standard classroom environment where I did not have to organize lessons and evaluation was done primarily by an instructor.

Medium Strategies: Remembering more effectively; using mental processes; managing emotions; overall

Remembering more effectively was pretty much the same score for both Yaqui and French- I think this speaks to my consistency in learning strategies/styles no matter the language (this of course could be problematic if a particular language does not lend itself well to my personal preferences). Unlike with French, Managing Emotions was higher up in my Yaqui strategies. Again, this is likely caused by the learning environment I am in where I keep this blog and discuss the language learning experience with my peers.

Low Strategies: Compensating for missing knowledge; learning with others

I believe these two strategies are on the Low side simply due to lack of resources, native speaker input, and opportunities to use the language in general. I had to put "1" down for many of these because they involve interactions with a native, or even "other," speaker.


Interestingly, my "Overall score" was High in French, yet Medium in Yaqui. Either I do not have the resources to promote/encourage the use of more strategies (to get to the High level), or I am not comfortable changing what I normally do to incorporate new strategies into my language learning experience. Griffiths conducted a study to see which strategies were frequently (and infrequently) used by high and low level proficiency language learners. She found that high level learners used strategies to manage their own learning, expand their vocabulary, improve grammar knowledge, involve the use of resources, and to use all language skills. These learners did not frequently use games, write diaries, or use a self-study center. Low level proficiency learners, on the other hand, rely on the dictionary as their resource (not other native speakers, tv, newspapers, etc).

Reflecting on my language learning experiences, I believe I (at least) attempt to use the same strategies that high level proficiency students use, particularly when I was learning Spanish and French. For Yaqui, however, I am at quite a low proficiency, and therefore my strategies are rather limited, similar to what Griffiths had found (i.e. high level proficiency learners use more varied strategies than lower level learners).

So, the question is, how do we as instructors promote a varied, and wider, use of these strategies across the spectrum of language learner proficiencies. As Griffiths mentions, some strategies may need to be reserved for high level learners due to their difficult nature (i.e. speaking with a native speaker, reading a newspaper). I do think that instructors at low levels can at least start to build up these strategies. For example, instead of having their students read a newspaper, have them read a classified ad or children's story. As their proficiency increases, instructors can expand upon these strategies and encourage students to use them without instruction from the teacher.

Personality and Language Learning

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a widely-used test of "personality." Personality has been identified as a factor for the "good" language learner, language learning in general, as well as "selection" of learning strategies by a learner. After taking the Jung Typology Test (similar to the MBTI), I was not surprised by the outcome, especially having taken other "strengths" tests in the past. My personality is Extrovert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging (ESTJ), in which Extrovert is a high strength (89%) and the remainder are all moderate.

Ehrman's chapter in Lessons form Good Language Learners presents a study that identifies the personality type that is most advantageous for achieving a Level 4 in the FSI categorization (which is quite high proficiency). The results indicate that Introvert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging (INTJ) was the most conducive to high proficiency achievement in language learning. Additionally, Ehrman points out that Extrovert, and more specifically Extrovert Sensing, is not a feature that is characteristic of high proficiency learners. Additionally, while Thinking is common in these learners, it is its combination with Introversion and Intuition that makes these learners well-equipped for language learning.

Comparing Ehrman's data to my own "personality," I am quite disappointed. I always thought myself to be a decent, if not good, language learner. Though, it would seem according to Ehrman, that I am not equipped for achieving high levels of proficiency (again, I would beg to differ). The one language that I would claim high proficiency (besides my L1), would be my L2, Spanish. However, unlike the participants of Ehrman's study, I started learning my L2 before adulthood. The Critical Period effect may well play a role here, or perhaps I am an exception. I do not think that my outcome on the Jung Typology Tests are wrong, as a matter of fact, I would have expected those results had I known the exact categories beforehand.

Ehrman suggests some ways teachers can encourage (ESTJ learners like myself) to become more introverted and intuitive when it comes to language learning. While I think these may be helpful in some situation, to some learners, all learners learn differently. As evidenced by the strategies we employ, learners vary and it could be harmful to impose different ways of learning or thinking about language if it is not compatible with a student's preferred strategy/style.

Lesson #5

Recently I have been experiencing some frustration with my Yaqui language learning. I do not have many resources nor a native or heritage speaker to practice with. Having limited resources- that is, nothing resembling a textbook or guide for language learners- has left me with an even more limited proficiency level.

However, I have not given up! The website "Vachiam Eecha" (http://hemi.nyu.edu/cuaderno/yoeme/content.html) has been an incredible resource not just for culture, video clips, and history, but it has provided me an opportunity to test my hypotheses about Yaqui. A few pages have the same description/text in Yaqui (or Yoeme) and English and/or Spanish. I decided to take a look at both texts and attempt to find common words and identify them in Yaqui.

Using these texts, I thought I had found the words for "commentary" and a few other phrases, like "welcome." To determine this, I looked a frequent words in the Yaqui text and tried to identify them with frequent words in either the Spanish or English text. Unfortunately, I found out I was wrong in many of my hypotheses. The word "enchim," which I thought was the plural for "commentary," turned out to be the plural for "you."

The link above also has more information on the language basics, like tense markers, subject and object pronouns, and vocabulary lists. I have been studying those lists (including vocabulary for numbers, emotions, question words) but I still lack knowledge of verbs. I do know that Yaqui is a verbal final language, however, it has been difficult to figure out either the meaning of the verb and if it is really the final element of the phrase (that is, it is final in the S-O-V phrase, but what about adverbs, adjectives, etc?). Once I receive my dictionary, my first task is to compile a list of necessary verbs (want, be, have, etc) and attempt to create sentences using the vocabulary I already have and the new verbs.

Lesson #5: Hypotheses Testing: while it is a great way to experiment and explore the language, be sure to have a way to test or check your hypotheses! Otherwise, you just might go around saying something incorrect, impolite, and possibly stigmatizing.

Learning Style

A few posts back I mentioned the importance of knowing your own preferred learning style. I was speaking in generalities, but I now have access to a tool that allows me to pin-point my own major, minor, and negligible learning styles: Reid's Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire. After completing and scoring the self-guided questionnaire, I found that of the six styles identified by Reid (i.e. visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, group, and individual), I have 3 major learning style preferences: visual, kinesthetic, and individual. The other three are minor learning style preferences and I have no "negligible" style preferences (this means I could probably learn well with any of the styles categorized).

I believe this measurement of my learning style preference is quite accurate. Though, while completing the questionnaire, I debated how accurate it would be since I believe my learning style preferences vary according to the task-at-hand and the learning environment. I prefer to study and do rote tasks on my own (since I feel I perform faster than others) yet I would prefer group work in a classroom that required a lot of role-playing. I think this is where is where the concept of "major" and "minor" learning preferences is really justifiable. My first instinct is to work as an individual unless a situations calls, or is more appropriate, for group work.

Without having put a label on it before, I knew that I had to write down information in order to remember. According to Reid's questionnaire, this is a characteristic of a Visual learner. Interestingly, a Visual learner can often learn alone with just a book, since not much auditory input is required for learning. Taking this into perspective for learning my LCTL, Yaqui, it would seem self-guided learning might be an appropriate venue to put into practice my visual learning style. However, I have found almost the opposite: while I still learn best by writing out information, I feel that auditory input may well aid my acquisition more so than just visual learning. Additionally, through my self-guided study, my kinesthetic learning preference is not being met (particularly without a mentor) since I do not have much, if any at all, opportunity to learn the language through role-playing or group activities as in a classroom. When I have the resources available, I do believe I prefer to learn alone; yet due to the scarcity of Yaqui language resources, a group learning setting could possibly provide more ways to learn the language.

Nel (2008) provides a summary of the research on student learning styles and addresses the issue of whether there is a good language learner style. While no one style has been shown to be more advantageous than another, good language learners are more field-independent. That is, they are able to separate relevant material from its context and break down problems into components (i.e. not looking at the "big picture" but rather the parts/variables that make it up). Moreover, good language learners are capable of adapting their learning styles depending on the learning environment. It would appear that my questionnaire results indicate that I could use a variety of learning styles and therefore may well be a good language learner. I had previously thought that I was a "good" language learner, though this experience with Yaqui has challenged my beliefs. However, I do believe a good language learner may not have any negligible learning style preferences and could therefore adapt to the learning environment by using one of his/her other styles. On the other hand, a good language learner might by able to "build up" a negligible style as well.

As Nel points out, most students, myself included, do not fall into one polar side of learning style dichotomies. Rather, they are on a continuum and often have more than one style (or parts from more than one style). Looking at my own results, I can see that certain characteristics from different learning styles actually make up my own preferred style- and it is highly dependent on the learning context.

Nel also outlines the areas language instructors should consider in order to maximize the success of individual learning styles. Offering different stimuli and making the learning/teaching environment more attuned to different learning styles are two suggestions that I believe are imperative to foster successful learning across individual learning styles. I was once an assistant for a Spanish conversation course for high school students. The instructor of the course noticed that a few students who were quite silent in the classroom had a talent for drawing. She adjusted future group activities to accommodate these students' learning style and found that they were more expressive in oral communication when they had created a storyboard to coincide with their verbal output. As a foreign language instructor, I believe it is essential to play into the various learning styles by varying activities, assessments, and even the environment of learning.

Nonetheless, it would be interesting if a reliable model for learning styles could be developed to determine if a particular style was most conducive to language learning (which may vary from language to language as well).