As a student, I always sought ways to improve my language learning. A part of me knew that I needed to be independent from the classroom. This knack for learning by myself allowed me to be a step ahead of the crowd, namely my classmates. How did I become an autonomous learner, you may ask. Let me explain how I did it.
Before I even started studying formally at the university, I was lucky enough to have a book (incomplete and all torn), but very valuable for my needs. This book had a series of sentences and every sentence had a picture to go along with. With this fact I came up with my first rule of thumb: Don´t translate. Make a mental picture. Don´t forget I was doing this without the help of an English teacher. I was just using my gut feeling.
The second rule came up with was when I realized I didn´t need to translate so I was doing a separate kind of learning, I mean, I didn´t let Spanish (my native language) interfere with my L2 learning. This rule had the biggest influence in English acquisition because it made learning faster. I brought this self learned knowledge when I enrolled in a formal Language learning environment.
My first year at the university though, I didn´t study Languages. My major was Electrical Engineering. However, I was really interested in mastering the English language. One of the classes I took was English 1(two whole semesters of language are required for Engineering). I happened to be the best in the class. I befriended my English teacher. He suggested me to switch careers since I wanted to learn English so badly.
After that, I continue with my formal education on Languages, which I may add, went smoothly thanks to my self- imposed rules. I learned quite a lot from my Language teachers. I couldn´t have done it without them but the fact that I was able to come up with rules for my own education paved the way for a successful career.
Yet, not everybody works the same way. Our students may rely more on their teachers. This may be so, because they haven´t been prepared to rely on their own learning. We are not to blame either the students or the teachers. What we can suggest, though, is to give the students tools to become more independent for their learning.
Teachers who encourage their students to be responsible for their own learning are people like me who took up Language learning on their own and succeeded.
Jerry, Honduras
Jerry, Honduras
Hi Jerry.
ReplyDeleteTwo days ago I was discussing the ways people learn with my housemate. It was fun as she learns by association of words while I learn from picture. My memory is very photographic. I can visualise entire pages sometimes but evrything in my mind seems to be associated with some kind of image, real or simply mental. I have a mental calendar where all my timetables come as an image.
This is to say, when we figure out how we learn we can learn more effectively, so it is important to guide our students into doing that. Once they know how they learn, they can set up their own rules and aims to learn autonomously, as it is very difficult to provide for all the difference types of intelligence in a single lesson.
So, Jerry you are the living proof that autonomy and establishing learning startegies for oneself works!
Thanks for the comment Sara. I did what I felt was good for acquiring English. It turned out it wan´t far from the right way. I least It worked for me, as it works for you and many more.
ReplyDeleteHi Jerry
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you have personal experience in the autonomy of the learner, I think that the autonomy of the learner comes from the desire of the student in the development of skills and development, just as you did in the English language, so the student is always trying to develop his skills, adding that this helps the student independence and increase Self-confidence, especially as a student in the autonomy of the learner knows what it needs and is always trying to fill the shortage in any skill needed.
Zainab
Bahrain