Learning Blog #2
Objectives: To employ a socio-cultural element to my learning.
Methods: Write a script written entirely in French. Record my script and send to my nephew who speaks French fluently (he lived in Tahiti for 2 years). He will listen and let me know via email if my pronunciations are correct and if there is a simpler way to communicate the same message or if I'm missing anything.
Bonjour mes amis! It is Monday and I'm ready to start a simple conversation with a fluent French speaker (my nephew, Mckay). I'm not ready to just "jump in" because I have not reached any measure of automaticity of vocabulary/phrase regurgitation yet. What I think will motivate me and keep my internal locus of control in the "controllable" state, is if I can first write down a script, send it to him and then listen to his feedback.
So basically I've employing 3 CIP mechanisms to get new information processing in my brain: ACCRETION, TUNING AND INFERENCE. The tuning comes from google translate and from any corrections my nephew will add to the tuning. Inference is extending what I already know (some French) to hypothesize new phrases. We'll see if I inferred correctly :)
Here is the proposed design of the script for my nephew:
Methods: Write a script written entirely in French. Record my script and send to my nephew who speaks French fluently (he lived in Tahiti for 2 years). He will listen and let me know via email if my pronunciations are correct and if there is a simpler way to communicate the same message or if I'm missing anything.
Bonjour mes amis! It is Monday and I'm ready to start a simple conversation with a fluent French speaker (my nephew, Mckay). I'm not ready to just "jump in" because I have not reached any measure of automaticity of vocabulary/phrase regurgitation yet. What I think will motivate me and keep my internal locus of control in the "controllable" state, is if I can first write down a script, send it to him and then listen to his feedback.
So basically I've employing 3 CIP mechanisms to get new information processing in my brain: ACCRETION, TUNING AND INFERENCE. The tuning comes from google translate and from any corrections my nephew will add to the tuning. Inference is extending what I already know (some French) to hypothesize new phrases. We'll see if I inferred correctly :)
Here is the proposed design of the script for my nephew:
- Greeting
- Acknowledge his recent wedding
- Ask how school is going for him
- Tell him why I'm studying French
- Share with him the phrases I have been working on this past week
- Tell him that I will be visiting Germany this week and if he has any tips for starting up a fun and simple conversation en Francais (assuming that I can find someone who speaks French!).
- Thank him for listening
- Goodbye
Here is the script en Francais. I'm also highlighting which words I needed to look up on google translate:
- Bonjour Mckay, comment ca vas?
- Hello Mckay, how are you?
- Comment est la vie conjugale?
- How is the life of marriage?
- Comment est l'universite de l'Arizona?
- How is the university of Arizona?
- J'etudiez la theorie de l'apprentissage a l'universite.
- I am studying the theory of learning at college.
- J'etudiez en huit semaines du francais pour un projet.
- I'm studying French for 8 weeks for a project.
- J'apprends ces phrases:
- I've learned these phrases
- Allez au lit (go to bed)
- Allons-y (let's go)
- Bon nuit, mon amour (good night my love)
- je manges petit dejeuner, dejeuner et dinet (I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner)
- mangeons! (let's eat)
- j'ecris (I write)
- Je voyage a l'Allemangne bientot
- I travel to Germany soon
- Quelles sont les bonnes phrases a apprende?
- What are some simple phrases to learn?
- Merci pour votre temps
- Thank you for your time
- Au Revoir!
- Goodbye!
And.....below is his response (email, no audio at this point). I found it so interesting how excited I was to be extrinsically motivated by his short email - it was so validating for him to tell me I already speak French well. I love having a little French buddy!
Bonjour
Bien fait. Tu parle bien déjà. You did good. I could understand everything. There were a few pronunciation errors, there may have been a couple conjugation errors but I'm not sure. If you send me the phrases I could help correct pronunciation and conjugation. There were a couple words and little phrases that I haven't heard before because they are really French, I learned ghetto French. But you did good. Bon travail.
McKay
Bien fait. Tu parle bien déjà. You did good. I could understand everything. There were a few pronunciation errors, there may have been a couple conjugation errors but I'm not sure. If you send me the phrases I could help correct pronunciation and conjugation. There were a couple words and little phrases that I haven't heard before because they are really French, I learned ghetto French. But you did good. Bon travail.
McKay
