Reflections

I think I've learned something about language teaching. I'd like to continue my studies. I'm considering buying the book my university uses to teach Arabic.  My only concern is that I get an audiovisual component.

I realized that my own students in 7 weeks are finally able to express themselves. They can tell me what they like and don't like using basic language and what they did/are going to do. That's huge progress. That's also when language is fun.

For me, I'd like to be able to express myself more in Arabic. Finally, I've got demonstrative pronouns and some adjectives and nouns, and I can put them together. That is VERY SATISFYING. It is very frustrating to have nothing but words. I wish we'd spent more time with some more practical terms or using the nouns in phrases.

Lessons Learned: Any time I give students vocab, I need to give them a phrase or a dialogue they can use it with. Even "This is a dog." "I want a banana." It is way more interesting than just drilling nouns.

Learning a language is frustrating until you can do something with it.

I try to focus on really practical vocab.

I just learned at a conference that words shouldn't be taught in groups, eg. body parts, all together. I need to see that research so I know whether or not to believe it. They say it makes it confusing for the reader to distinguish between the words on a list.

Sixth Class

Not much to say about it.

We watched a video about the letters, and I realize that I still have a lot of work to do before I can really read easily. It's hard to focus on the words and sound them out. I need to spend more time learning the positions of the letters. I'd like some more digital flashcards, so I could get used to seeing letters in different positions, plus audio.

I really want to be able to read without the phonetic equivalent next to the word.

Fifth Class

I am posting this several weeks after the class.

It was a good class. I was the ONLY student. I was nervous after the previous week's experience, but I actually enjoyed it. I didn't feel so judged for my lack of mastery of vocabulary, and she realized I'd studied some of it.  I got a lot of praise, and she noted that I have good understanding of language based on my questions and my understanding of the lesson on vowels. It isn't that I'm good at ARabic, I'm not, I just like languages.

So I left class feeling good about things. 

Fourth Class

I am posting this several weeks after the class. 

I think I stopped posting because I was so embarrassed after this class. I'd had a busy week and hadn't studied much. My teacher spent half of the class reviewing old vocab and quizzing us. There were only 2 of us, and it was embarrassing.  I didn't remember a lot, and I hadn't studied all of the old words. I felt like the teacher was wasting time going over this old stuff, but she felt like we had to master the old before we could learn new. She kept saying things like, I remember I taught you this. Just because you've taught things, doesn't mean anyone remembered. 

The class improved once we starting learning something new. We could shine by applying that new knowledge, not by recalling vocab. We learned "this" and combined it with adjectives and nouns. This new dress, etc.

Lessons learned: It takes students multiple exposures to learn things.  Presenting the vocab in a new way rather than drilling it may be more effective. USING vocab helps build connections.  Drilling feels like a waste of time to students.

Language is arbitrary. I left thinking that although basic vocab seems SO Easy for a native speaker of the language, it is just gobbledygook for the learner until it is learned. It is meaningless sounds and symbols until it acquires meaning. We know the importance of helping students connect personally with a story, but they must also connect with the vocabulary. 

Third Class

I felt a lot better in this class. I knew what to expect from the teacher, and I didn't feel too embarrassed when I didn't know an answer. I had studied a lot and knew the jobs list. This class was mostly review. We also talked about the position of letters in words, which affects how the letters are formed. I was pretty proud of my performance.  My classmate and I each expressed relief that we could recognize the alphabet and sound out words. It no longer seemed impossible or overwhelming.

What I learned: The student feels better once the ice is broken and the class gets to know each other. Class identity/unity.

Students benefit from review. It is affirming and helps them gauge what they have learned. It isn't a waste of time.

I like learning, and I like the affirmation it provides. That makes it fun, and in turn leads to more learning. I also enjoy the code breaking involved in learning an L2. Figuring a language out becomes fun, like a game. I remember speaking Spanish in Spain and thinking I was speaking some kind of code language. I would forget that everyone around me spoke Spanish too. It seemed like my private code that I could use with my friends. I feel the same way about Arabic. I'm finally starting to understand this fascinating code that seemed impossible just four weeks ago. 

Second Class

I had thought I'd done a pretty good job of studying. It had been 2 weeks since class 1, so my fervor for study wasn't quite as intense close to the class time. I studied as I ate right before class. I had also studied the colors.  I hadn't studied the greetings and food words, though. It just seemed like an impossible list of meaningless words.  That made me realize the importance of context for teaching vocabulary. Yet, my Arabic vocabulary is really too limited to do much with these words.

I had an aha! moment the first 30 minutes of class when I wasn't making eye contact with the teacher and was embarrassed that I hadn't studied more. I hadn't even looked at my notes, but had focused on the handouts, particularly the alphabet. Beginning to read words was more interesting to me that trying to memorize greetings, etc. The teacher kept saying, "I told you about this. I taught you this." I was pretty ashamed.

Now I realize how overwhelming these vocab lists can be.  One thing I think I am doing right as a teacher is giving pictures of the words.  That reduces the need for direct translation from L1 to L2. The funny thing is that my students' vocab list for this week is jobs, and my list in Arabic is jobs.

Once I got over my embarrassment, I was pretty happy with the learning process. I had the opportunity to show off what I'd learned--the colors and letters--and to begin to put words together.

In order to remember some of the grammar we learned, I really need to make some charts of words that are related. I want/Give me, etc. She told us about them, but I had trouble remembering which was which. 

What did I learn? In the language classroom, it's all about small accomplishments. Studying is important. Studying what the teacher wants you to study, not just what you want to study, will make a difference in your class performance. Maybe there is a reason the teacher wants you to study X. Being able to connect words is almost as important as learning the words because it creates a more satisfying, meaningful learning experience.

Also, I couldn't sleep last night because I started to think about my classes, teaching vocabulary, and teaching reading. Reading--I need to give the students sentences from the story and have them put them in order. My students who are struggling like to look for the answers, but they don't like to read. Sentence strips will force them to read. Key words so they can try summarizing--like a colleague of mine taught us at in-service. They must do more with the stories. Vocabulary-- Is there some way I can get students to do more with these words during class without spending too much class time on them? I base the vocab lessons off of my co-teacher's book topics, but I  don't know if they have the opportunities to use them enough.

My First Class

I got to the first class early, but I wasn't nervous. As the other students came in the room, I was eager to learn why they wanted to learn Arabic. We all had an L1 in common, which made things easier. Even the teacher spoke English fluently.  She seemed a bit nervous and didn't smile a lot; she looked at her notes a lot. As a language teacher, that was something interesting to note.  I smile a ton, especially on the first day of class, but I'm as nervous as my students, I think. I also probably look at my notes a lot, but that display of nervousness undermines a person's authority.

Anyway, we reviewed some basic vocabulary, and then we were told to "use it" and "practice." It is really difficult to practice words in isolation. I would have appreciated a dialogue. Note to self...it is hard to teach words out of context...but that is something that I sometimes do in my own classroom.  Dialogues are reassuring and give a cultural framework to work with.

We also learned half of the alphabet and the color words. I was despairing a bit about how I was going to remember everything--pages and pages of vocabulary. 

The next week I tried to find time to study. I found a website with flashcards for practicing the color words, and I liked how the websites showed the colors. I found it more helpful to associate the color with the word in Arabic rather than with the word in English. My co-teacher is always discouraging me from suggesting that students write the translation of English words in their L1. She says that that encourages direct translation rather than thinking in the L2. She has a point. I've always thought of it as a time saver, especially since you can't draw a picture of every word in the English language. Maybe time to change my thoughts.

I had some cool moments on those websites when I realized I was starting to be able to decode in Arabic. I could attempt to read some words. That was really exciting and gratifying. What a wonderful little victory! I'm so glad the teacher included Arabic key words to go with the letters of the alphabet we learned.  It was really neat to practice decoding.

Another special moment was last week when I handed my students some reading about a bear cub. The drawing on the handout wasn't very clear on the photocopy. I asked the students if there were bears in their countries. Most of my students are from Saudi Arabia.  I heard them say "dub," bear in Arabic. That was my key words for the Arabic "d." I was so proud to say, "Yes. Dub. I just learned that in my Arabic class." 

So now my students know that I am on the same journey that they are on. I even told some of them how hard it was to learn something as basic as the colors. They quizzed me at the bookstore as we waited for our turn to buy books. I felt like such a dummy. I took going home and spending some time focused on studying, developing mnemonic devices to commit the colors to memory.

I can't wait for my second class to see what I learn, how I learn it, and how I feel about it.

My Decision

I teach English as a Second Language to adults, and I recently decided that I wanted to learn another language. I've studied second language acquisition and learned a second language, but I wanted to experience it again as an adult so that I could better understand how my students feel in class and the challenges they face.

My L2 is a romance language, so I've decided to learn Arabic. Many of my students speak Arabic, and I wanted to learn a language that wasn't a romance language. I didn't want to be able to build on my L2. I wanted a whole new experience. I wanted to have to learn a whole new writing system or alphabet.  That's what many of my students have to do.

As teachers, my colleagues and I recognize our students' challenges, but often we aren't overly sympathetic and struggle to address their needs in terms of learning to read and write. 

I've told my students about my decision to learn Arabic, and I hope they respect my journey the way I respect theirs.  We are all learning that it isn't easy to learn an L2,  although the rewards are often worth the struggles.