Unknown Language Journal Entry
Unknown Language Journal
Journal Entry 1
Before the lesson From this, my first lesson of Korean, I expect to gain, most of all, first hand insight into the experience a second language learner has during the first lesson of a language he or her has never before encountered. As I believe the class will be one of immersion, where the teacher will only speak Korean, I expect to be confused and to struggle to grasp the relation between sounds and their referents as well as understanding grammatical constructions. I do feel somewhat anxious, as one does when trying out new things. At the same time, I must admit I am a little scared of not being able to learn as fast as the rest of the class. I understand this is a possibility and I believe many of my classmates might share the same fear. I hope the teacher will be kind and patient, and create a non-threatening environment in which most of our learning styles and speeds are considered. I hope the teacher will be non-judgmental, since I believe that if one feels judged when starting something new one would be more likely to feel self-conscious, which will in turn make one nervous and worried about one’s performance instead of focusing on learning the language. I think that in this type of context the students should forget about previous learning experiences –specially those in which he or she was punished for his or her mistakes– and try to move closer to understanding and producing the language without feeling threatened. In this respect, I believe that second language learning must resemble first language acquisition. In regard to the teaching method, I expect the teacher will follow a communicative approach to langauge teaching. Therefore, I believe we will first learn functional language chunks such as “Good morning”, “What is your name?”, “My name is…”. From these phrases I hope to be able do derive some syntactic structure, although I know the patterns will be limited. I also hope to be able
Journal Entry 1
Before the lesson From this, my first lesson of Korean, I expect to gain, most of all, first hand insight into the experience a second language learner has during the first lesson of a language he or her has never before encountered. As I believe the class will be one of immersion, where the teacher will only speak Korean, I expect to be confused and to struggle to grasp the relation between sounds and their referents as well as understanding grammatical constructions. I do feel somewhat anxious, as one does when trying out new things. At the same time, I must admit I am a little scared of not being able to learn as fast as the rest of the class. I understand this is a possibility and I believe many of my classmates might share the same fear. I hope the teacher will be kind and patient, and create a non-threatening environment in which most of our learning styles and speeds are considered. I hope the teacher will be non-judgmental, since I believe that if one feels judged when starting something new one would be more likely to feel self-conscious, which will in turn make one nervous and worried about one’s performance instead of focusing on learning the language. I think that in this type of context the students should forget about previous learning experiences –specially those in which he or she was punished for his or her mistakes– and try to move closer to understanding and producing the language without feeling threatened. In this respect, I believe that second language learning must resemble first language acquisition. In regard to the teaching method, I expect the teacher will follow a communicative approach to langauge teaching. Therefore, I believe we will first learn functional language chunks such as “Good morning”, “What is your name?”, “My name is…”. From these phrases I hope to be able do derive some syntactic structure, although I know the patterns will be limited. I also hope to be able