“Parlez-vous française?” she said as the class watched in wonder. “Non? Ne pas problème.” And my French teacher continued speaking in this new and foreign language to a group of first year French students, for half of a class period, on the first day of school, without a break. Lucky for me, now I can keep up with her when she starts speaking in French, but I didn’t get to this point without lots of studying and hard work.
For my ELI, I chose to study French grammar in literature in order to increase my reading and writing fluency. I will, however, be talking about the pros and cons of learning a language on your own and not in a structured manner.
Learning a new language is insanely hard, whether or not you have a knack for language studies. I have come to consider French a fairly easy language to learn – minus the conjugations (those will be the death of me). Spanish on the other hand, I cannot seem to learn no matter how hard I try, which is odd considering the major similarities between the French and Spanish languages.
When I first approached this topic, I assumed it would be easy, that I wouldn’t have to work as hard finding new information because I already understood it, but that is not so. Learning a fairly new language, without the guidance of a well educated teacher is more difficult than I had anticipated. To help me through this trying time, I have discovered several very helpful strategies for the individualised language learning experience. The first step I took was to lay out what I already knew; that way I wouldn’t repeat anything. My goal is to learn new information not reiterate what I already know. Second, I set myself realistic goals for my reading assignments. This is so that I can stay on top of my reading and not get behind. For myself at least, setting unrealistic goals becomes a major stressor and causes me to procrastinate or to create unnecessary anxiety. I laid out exactly what I wanted to learn about French and in French so that I can always go back and know exactly what I want to focus on. These goals include studying the grammar, improving my reading fluency, and becoming a proficient writer. My fourth and final step in preparing myself to learn French on my own is reminding myself why I wanted to learn French in the first place and that I made the choice to study it. It is not something being forced upon me. French is a beautiful language and is produced with such a grandeur that I cannot help but fall in love with it.
The major problem I have encountered this semester while working on my ELI is that I’m not always sure of how to teach myself new material and without that ability it hinders my understanding of the lessons I’m supposed to be learning. I am reading Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Expéry and Au Revoir, Les Enfants by Louis Malle. But I haven’t gotten as far as I need to be in Le Petit Prince because I don’t feel like I’m learning it accurately, so I keep rereading chapters in both French and English in hopes of grasping the true meaning.
Studying a language independently has many perks, the largest I’ve found is that by teaching myself I can cater to my every need. If I realize that I don’t understand a tense as well as I thought, I can go back and look it over until I fully understand. It allows me to focus on aspects of French that I wouldn’t necessarily learn in a classroom. Developing true fluency of a language in a classroom setting is next to impossible as much more time spent listening and speaking is required, something that five short classes a week doesn’t offer. In order to be successful in fluency, a rigorous schedule is necessary, an additional benefit of independent study. The largest downfall is that I’m studying the French alone, though it may seem contradictory. By studying alone, I have the ability to overlook things that a licensed teacher would not and miss out on the experiences that are provided by being taught in a classroom.
Maintenant, merci pour lisent mon blog et j’espère le que vous avez apprécié. À la prochaine.
~Felicity
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