It’s all Khmer to me???

One of the things I love about independent language learning is that on ‘home days’ (learning at home rather than in the classroom) I get to wear what I want, what’s comfortable. At school, I wore more culturally appropriate clothing; long sleeves and long pants. This stage of learning reminds me of when I was studying for my Masters in Theology in Australia, though that time was winter and I was wearing my jumper and uggies (read sweater and ugg boots). Still wearing comfortable, but in a different way.

My last post hopefully gave you a general sense of the changes in my language learning. This posts delves into some of that detail of my independent language learning to give you a better sense of the changes.

Planning:

So what will this next phase look like? Well, it won’t be full time classroom (3hrs a day, 5 days a week). Instead, the first step is to set up some goals. These goals will then help direct how I set up my time. The more concrete these goals are the better. This is because the more specific these goals are, the easier it will be to plan steps needed to reach the goal. This in turn will mean that each step has clarity, helping me to execute each step and get feedback on how I’m tracking. On an aside, in chatting with a mentor of mine back in Australia, success in this sort of plan will include the plan’s flexibility. Because I’m diving into new waters, a good plan won’t be one where I know if the goal is achievable from the outset. A good plan at the moment is one that adapts to new situations, even if those changes occur weekly.

Aiming at different skills:

The way I’ll work out the goals is basing them on developing and strengthening skills that I’ll need in order to be able to teach in Khmer. So these goals will cover all modalities: listening, reading, writing and speaking. In terms of speaking there are two basic types of speaking (and tied very closely to that, listening) that I want to work on: presentational and conversational. In one you have more control, the other being more dynamic, and so each requiring different skills. So on the first I’ll need to work on clarity and precision and on the latter adaptability and reactivity. In terms of reading and writing, I’ll be aiming at building my vocabulary surrounding biblical terminology and themes. While I’m aiming for my reading to enhance my vocab and so also my speaking and listening ability, I’m conscious that I need to work on Khmer conversations in order to not end up sounding just like a book. In order to execute this plan I aim to be around the Bible school (in an informal way) more over the coming months in order to use this context as the location of building these skills and reaching my language goals.

Targeted and random language learning:

Flowing out of the independent language learning seminar was a strong emphasis on what I’ll call targeted language learning. The key in this sort of learning is what’s called comprehensible input. That is, you aim to learn one or two new things from a piece of text or conversation where you already know a significant amount of the material. That way you’re not being flooded with all this new stuff that you are unable to use. Instead, you aim to learn one or two new things. Then take those one or two new things and use them in other ways, to build understanding through using them, to remember them and make them more familiar. What this requires is a good amount of preparation. Tutoring sessions, in this manner, will require a good amount of preparation. Which means that if I want to do 3-5 hours of tutoring a week, I’m easily spending that amount of time in preparation or follow up. What this means is that if I was doing 15 hours at language school, I can’t expect to do the same amount given that I’ve got the prep to do as well. The exciting thing is that I get to direct how this goes. I’m looking forward to some more self-direction. I valued it when I did my masters and so I’m looking forward to it now in this different context.

The other sort of language learning is what I’ll call random. In this model, I’m aiming not only to practice and become more fluent in what I know. But I’m also aiming to glean new things as I come across them in different situations, where I haven’t prepared. I see this occurring around lunches, during sport, in casual conversations. I’ll learn just by being there, rather than by being prepared. So as well as planning and setting goals, part of my language learning time will be planning just to be there, immersing in a different way.