Week 5 Reading Response

Marshall, Chapter 6

The lesson plans provided by Marshall in Chapter 5 are a nice starting-off point for learning a language, especially one that an entire community speaks, and maybe reads and writes. However, what about even less well known (or even less commonly taught languages)? This is where I believe his advice for interaction, techniques, and topics presented in Chapter 6 become quite useful. Since my LCTL, Yaqui, does not have a native-speaker community nearby, nor does the target language community function ONLY in Yaqui (as mentioned before, it is a trilingual group in the US and at the very least, bilingual in Mexico), Marshall's suggestions on varying lessons (to keep up my own interest, if nothing else) and the topics to learn (which are categorized and provide a great overview of useful aspects to any language) provide a basis from which to structure and organize my language learning endeavor.

Going sequentially, Marshall presents ideas for increasing interaction opportunities. While I do not feel this does not apply to my own situation, at least at this stage in my learning, I think Marshall proposes realistic opportunities to practice the language in question. I did not notice this word in Marshall's chapter, but what I believe it comes down to is MOTIVATION. That is, if you are motivated to learn the language, you will make opportunities to use it. No matter the situation, employed or stay-at-home spouse, a motivated learner will incorporate language learning into their daily routine, chores, job, errands, down-time, etc.

As for techniques for activities, I found Marshall's suggestions to be very reminiscent of Total Physical Response (TPR). For example, there are multiple suggestions regarding realia, drawing, visual aids, and role-playing. My experience with TPR has been primarily with children; however, I think immersing yourself in a language requires you, no matter your age, to use all the senses to interact with and learn the language. A skill Marshall mentions is Mnemonic devices; this is something I like to use when I teach Spanish and it always comes as a total revelation to students (Oh! you mean I use that weird subjunctive conjugation when it is for Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal Expressions, Recommendations, Doubt, Ojala = WEIRDO). Other skills listed include using gestures, asking for repetitions or slower speech, paraphrasing, using what you know but being attentive as to what native speakers do and say (and how they say it). Thinking about the good language learner, I think these are skills that one would possess or try to pick up on.

Finally, Marshall's topics for lesson plans are varied, including topics for beginning to advanced learners. The ones I felt most related to my study include: informal socializing, interactions with "family," greeting/departing, personal information, questions/requests, polite phrases, +/- statements, action words, kinship terms, time expressions, descriptors, non-verbal cues, taboos, and pronunciation (personal interest). I believe most of these topics are at a beginning level and some can even be incorporated into more advanced levels.

I appreciated Marshall's note on practicality- not only for practicality in actually learning the language (i.e. time spent, using L1 versus TL) but for knowing what to expect of yourself in the language learning process. For example, I am constantly reevaluating my goals as I understand more about my own learning process and what I will be able to achieve in a given time frame. I had previous hoped to reach almost intermediate proficiency, though now I believe I will be lucky to achieve mid-novice.