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Runnan Li
ED 684
Dr. Sayavedra
Language Learning Autobiography
I started to learn English when I was ten years old in China. To be honest, I have
three different levels in three different times to judge my language successful. When I
was in high school, I moved to South Africa where English was a second language for
one year; I could communicate with people very well before I went to school in South
Africa, so that I thought my English is very good. However, after I went to school in
South Africa, I totally change my mind, because I could not understand what teachers
said in class. So, my second level to judge language successful is understanding and
interacting in classroom very well; but I did get it in that year, then I got back to
China. The third level that I judge language successful is based on an examination in
China, which is the college entrance exam. So, after I back to China, I paid all my
attention to academic reading, writing, and listening. However, I got a new
perspective about language successful after I studied in the U.S.. I define my language
success as I can interact with people very well, even include some slangs; and I can
use language in the class or other social contexts appropriately, which more reflect the
social function of language; and I can identify spoken language and written language
very well. Those things are my judgments of my second language success. According
to ODE, I put my English proficiency between intermediate and advanced. I feel good
about my reading and writing skills due to the fact that I had a lot of reading and
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writing trills in China. However, speaking and listening are my weakness. I believe
that language environment is important for developing speaking and listening skills.
Now, I feel good about my reading, writing, and listening; speaking is still challenge
for me, because I have accent, and my pronunciation is not very accurate.
I learned English for 15 years, and most of my reading and writing skill were
developed in China. My parents did not send me to pre-school English training class,
and they never forced me to learn English. English is foreign language in China, so
that there is no real language context for practice. Also, I have different motivations in
different period. According to Diaz-Rico and Week (2010), “the impulse, emotion, or
desire that causes one to act in a certain way” (p. 12). I got motivation both from class
and my parents. Although my parents did not force me to learn English, moving to
South Africa was really one of the biggest motivation for me to learn English. When I
learned English, speaking is the most difficult part for me due to the fact that I rarely
have chance to speak. Sometimes, I can totally understand what people say, but I
cannot interact with them very well; it is hard for me to jump into other people’s
conversation. I am a visual learner, and I would love to learn with media, such as
watching movies and reading novels.
I had English speaking class when I was in high school, and our English teacher
came from England. I enjoyed her class every time, and she usually has different
activities and games to help us practice English. I clearly remember that she let us
make a small show by ourselves, and she gave us a list of words that we can choose to
use in our show. Then we could perform our show in the class. I though it was
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interesting at that time. She would join our conversation when we discussed how to
make it, so that we needed to switch between English and Chinese. She sometimes
learned Chinese words from our conversation. All my classmates showed interest in
the activities, and we did this many times with different group members. It is hard to
tell what methods she used, because I think she combines both audio-lingual method
and TPR in her class activities. She checked our vocabularies by pointing or acting
instead of writing on paper, which I only had in her class. According to Diaz-Rico and
Weed (2010), students have different anxiety levels when they speak, and they have
feelings of self-consciousness (p. 13). However, I did not feel anxious when I
performed in the class due to the fact that I prepared very well before; All my
audiences were my classmates and teacher. I did not know how my other classmates
felt, but the atmosphere of class is very happy and relax, and everyone enjoyed that.
There was one thing that happened in her class, which was very interesting. One
day, she asked us that “so, you haven’t finish your last editing? And you cannot
perform today?” Then, the whole class answer that “No~” And then she said “oh great,
so we have show today!” Then some of my classmates said “no, we haven’t finish
yet.” That situation happened a lot of times. According to Diaz-Rico and Weed (2010),
language has social functions, and people from different cultural backgrounds have
different speaking style and understanding. The situation that happened in my class
indicated the gap between England and China about how people answer negative
sentence. I would love to talk with my English speaking teacher, and I feel more relax
and comfortable. I feel confident when I talk with my English speaking teacher, while
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I feel stressful when I talk with my English teacher, because I was afraid of making
mistakes. I would love to take risk, and I usually read some novels that contain some
difficult words, slangs, and idioms. I think that collecting new words is interesting, so
that I learned a lot of new words by myself from reading.
I’d love to take English speaking class rather than English, and the big difference
is that we have native English teacher in speaking class and Chinese teacher in
English class. Many of my classmates including me prefer to talk with our native
English teacher, because it is more real, and we were not afraid of making mistakes.
Our native English teacher rarely corrected our mistakes, unless she could not
understand us. According to Freeman and Freeman (2004), “learned knowledge can
be tested” (p. 35), which I think our English class provides us testing skills, while our
English speaking class provides us real communication skills. The motivation for
those two classes are different, and teachers treat students’ errors are different.
English is a foreign language in China, and it has a high social status in China.
Recently, almost 75% of Chinese can speaking English in basic level, and everyone
treat English language as a global language, which mark high-educated. Although
there is no language environment in China, many people still value English as a very
important language for looking for a job or pursuing higher education.
Based on my English learning experiences, learners need to pay attention on three
points. Firstly, it is important to find motivation in different learning period.
Motivation can be changed in terms of situation. Second language teachers need to
pay attention on students’ self-motivation, and provided in-class motivation for them
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in the meanwhile. Secondly, acquiring language is a natural way, and reading, writing,
listening, as well as speaking are the same important for learners. Teachers need to
remember that language learning is not only for test, but also for communication, and
the later one is more important due to the fact that language has social function as a
communicative tool. Thirdly, all students have anxiety when they speak. Teachers do
need to correct students’ errors all the time. Errors are marks for students’
development. It is important to encourage students to do self-correction instead of
correct them every time.
References
Díaz-Rico, L. T. & Weed, K. Z. (2010). The Cross-Cultural, Language, and Academic
Development Handbook, Fourth Edition.
Freeman, D. E. & Freeman, Y. S. (2004). Essential Linguistics. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
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LLA: Analysis of Psychological and Sociocultural Factors Scoring Guide
Possible
points
Content
Clearly describes language learning experiences. Thoughtfully reflects on own
successes and failures as a language learner. Defines & discusses criteria for
judging success.
Thoughtfully examines own performance in the four language skills: listening,
speaking, reading and writing. (If the language learned is ASL, then examines
production and comprehension of signs).
Clearly describes particular language class(es) and activities, and particular
language teacher(s). Examines the nature and approach of classroom activities
and the teachers’ style and their impact on own learning. Gives specific
examples and cites the research.
Thoughtfully examines psychological factors (e.g., learner strategies, affective
factors, learning style variables) that affect own language acquisition process.
Includes rich descriptions of classroom behavior/feelings /attitudes. Makes
relevant connections to our course readings.
Thoughtfully examines sociocultural factors (e.g., language status, and values
systems) that affect own language acquisition process. Includes rich
descriptions of classroom behavior/feelings/ attitudes. Makes relevant
connections to our course readings.
Draws meaningful conclusions from the autobiography. Discusses implications
for effective language teaching, and lessons learned for own classroom. Gives
specific examples and cites the research when discussing own classroom.
Editing, Presentation and Timeliness (written analysis)
Uses correct grammar and punctuation. Uses desired length (3-6 pages). Cites
references in text. Includes reference page. Emails assignment by due date.
Includes completed scoring guide at end of paper..
Includes a self-rated score & reflection comments (see below). Reflects
thoughtfully on what was learned by doing this assignment, how it might affect
future teaching of LLs, where problems were encountered, etc.
Total
Self
Instructor
2
2
2
2
3
2
2
2
1.5
2
2
1.5
2
1.5
1
1
1
1
1
15
15
12.5
2
2
3
2
1
Self-rated
By doing LLA, I got a chance to evaluate my learning process, and re-think some
issues that appeared in my learning process. Those issues can help me become more
careful in my future teaching, and I got more experiences by rethinking my learning
process. However, some of parts I cannot remember very well, so that I do not
provide many specific examples. I found some important conditions for learning a
second language, such as social influences and students’ individuality.
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Instructor’s Comments
Runnan,
You have a very interesting language learning autobiography. You’ve had so many
different types of experiences and environments in which you’ve both learned and
acquired the language. I’ve really enjoyed reading your paper.
I would like you to add a couple specific examples of some learning activities you
did in any of your classes that would aid you in classifying whether they were ALM or
communicative or grammar translation or whatever. If you did only listen and repeat,
pattern practice, memorizing and filling in blanks on worksheets, then it was
probably based on ALM. If you did activities that had information gaps, choice,
sharing and feedback, with a few ALM techniques used once in awhile, it was
probably more of a communicative approach. If you were allowed to remain silent
and got lots of comprehensible input, it was an acquisition, natural approach, etc.
Maybe you had a mixture of these. Think of some specific activities to help you see
which approach was used. In your experience, it was probably different with different
teachers.
I’d also like to see you bring in and cite more from the readings. You’ve described
your psychological profile and socio-cultural factors very clearly, but now support
how these can affect a learner by citing the research.
I think you have some very clear ideas on how you want to be as a teacher. Again
cite the research. Pretend that some mean old administrator in your school is telling
you to be a tougher teacher and to correct errors and do only work that will help
students pass the test. What research can you cite in your own defense?
If you need help in bringing in support from the readings, you might consider
talking to one of your classmates. Olivia did this very effectively in her paper and she
might be able to give you some ideas.
Finally, I’d like to see a good concluding sentence that sums up your main idea
about teaching a language and why it’s important.
This is a good paper. Now I would love to see you to make it stronger. If you want
to revise your paper, I allow one revision per paper for students who would like to
improve their scores. That doesn’t mean rewriting the entire paper. It just means
addressing the parts that need some strengthening.
Revised papers must be turned in by Friday, May 2, by midnight. Make sure the
old scoring guide on this document with my scores are attached to the revised paper.
If you choose to do that, you should make changes to your paper using boldface
or another color.
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Overall, I think you have a delightful paper. It deserves to be strengthened by
adding a bit more support from the research.
Melinda