Week 2

Week 2 has been a little stressful due to starting a new job and having a large assignment due, but I managed to find the time to reach my goals and even start next week’s DuoLingo!

After this week’s tutorial I realised that I may not have made clear which pedagogical approaches are embedded in my technologies. As I’m focussing on developing my grammar and vocabulary, the principle underlying pedagogy is the modular approach (Levy, 2009). For this reason I am only reflecting on my development of these two language competencies. Furthermore, using Facebook and my iPad in French has resulted in an additional underlying pedagogy – incidental learning. In this approach, I am incidentally learning new vocabulary through completing familiar and unfamiliar tasks without focussing on intentionally acquiring the vocabulary (Groot, 2000; Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001; Waring & Nation, 2004).

One of the readings I engaged with this week provoked some thoughts on using my Oxford French/English Dictionary. It became apparent that many dictionaries, especially offline, are reluctant to receive feedback and change to meet the needs of users. This is due to lexicographers systematically designing dictionary consultation as a one-way road where they are communicating but not listening (Nielson, 2008). In terms of using my dictionary, I have found it difficult to find words at times, especially when words have accents. I believe it would help users if there was a short paragraph at the start of the dictionary that explained how words are alphabetically represented with and without accents.

It has also become apparent that this challenge is developing more than just my French Language acquisition. Just from using this blog I am developing my digital literacy skills through applying creative practices, communicating effectively, finding and selecting information as well as critically thinking and evaluating (Hague & Payton, 2011). These skills and more are developed through creating a hybrid of oral and written language in this digital platform. The main components used through this digital platform include permanent language, easily modified language, and pervasively multimodal language.

After class this week we had an interesting discussion of whether online learning helps in communicating in SL offline. I believe that I’m at a level in French where I’m comfortable in communicating offline but sometimes struggle to correctly form sentences and use extensive vocabulary. So for me, I believe online learning, especially in the context of this challenge, helps me communicate in French offline.

Now to focus on this week’s experiences using my technologies.

This week in DuoLingo I have progressed further than expected and learned the new skills conjugations 2, adverbs 2 and household vocabulary. This app has continued to keep me motivated and engaged, particularly through the three activities displayed below (translate this sentence, how do you say and tap the pairs). 

Additionally, I have found two more affordances, one that will keep me more engaged and another that I don’t think I’ll have enough time to make use of. Firstly, the weekly leader board shows where how much XP my friends have got this week compared to me. I saw that I was quite far behind Bronte and surpassed my weekly goal by completing two weeks’ worth of skills. However, as you can see below, she is still much further ahead than me. Secondly, I have discovered that there is a function for practicing weak skills. Skills become weak over time and users are encouraged to practice them to ensure past, present and future skills are all as strong as they can be. However, as I have other technologies and commitments it would be too time consuming to practice skills that don’t help me to reach my goals. 

I will just quickly explain another reason for completing next week’s skill. I have noticed that the upcoming skills look much harder, longer and time consuming to complete than previous skills. So by progressing a little now it will minimise the stress of meeting the next checkpoint by the end of the challenge.
I decided to have a quick look on DuoLingo’s computer platform to see what it offered. An astonishing discovery (see below) is that I have learned 613 French words since starting this challenge! Of course this includes the placement test but I still think this is a wonderful achievement and gives me some quantitative data for the end of my challenge to determine exactly how much vocabulary I’ve gained and the language area that each word belongs in.

Quizlet’s matching game was a little harder since I started the French Intermediate 1 Unit 2 study set. There was quite a lot of new vocabulary that made it difficult for me to match in under 15 seconds. I must have played at least 20 times before I even managed to get under 20 seconds. However, when I did, I was far more familiar with the new vocabulary and was able to achieve my goal of three matching games under 15 seconds. I even beat my personal best by finishing in 11.7 seconds!!!

This week on Facebook there was a lot of incidental learning of grammar and vocabulary from routine activities; however the most learning came from being out of my comfort zone and adding a new job on my profile. After completing the new ‘Emploi’ on my profile I used my dictionary to make sure I was correct before I hit ‘Enregistrer’. Sure enough I was right and I am now familiar with ‘Poste’ meaning a position, among other words.

Navigating my iPad is getting easier and easier as I progress through this challenge. However, I wanted to turn off auto-rotation and had a bit of trouble figuring out how. I knew which button turned it on and off but I had to change my settings in order for that button to do it. As I was aware that the same button turned the sound on and off I found the setting ‘Le bouton latéral sert à’ and sure enough I managed to ‘Verrouiller la rotation’. Through this experience I incidentally learned that verrouiller means to lock and am now familiar with many other words that can be seen in the screenshot below. By completing little activities like this I am learning many new words and am feeling more comfortable navigating my iPad. This is helping me on course to meet my goal next week of understanding most of the vocabulary on my iPad and Facebook.

This week I have not been particularly happy that all four of my technologies have been using different vocabulary, unlike my experience last week. Perhaps this is due to the change in Quizlet study set and progression in DuoLingo. I hope that in the coming weeks the vocabulary matches up again as it really was an excellent way to contextualise new words. However, the combination of these technologies has continued to prove to be effective in catering for my multimodal style of learning which is keeping me motivated and sufficiently challenged. Furthermore, the nature of the activities has also catered for my analytical and authority-orientated language learning styles.

References
Groot, P. J. (2000). Computer assisted second language vocabulary acquisition. Language Learning & Technology, 4(1), 60-81.

Hague, C., & Payton, S. (2011). Digital literacy across the curriculum.Curriculum Leadership, 9(10).

Laufer, B., & Hulstijn, J. (2001). Incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language: The construct of task-induced involvement. Applied linguistics, 22(1), 1-26.

Levy, M. (2009). Technologies in use for second language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 93(1), 769-782.

Nielsen, S. (2008). The Effect of Lexicographical Information Costs on Dictionary Making. Lexikos, 18(1).

Waring, R., & Nation, I. S. P. (2004). Second language reading and incidental vocabulary learning. Angles on the English speaking world, 4, 97-110.

Week 1

The first week of the learning challenge has been difficult but overall it’s off to a great start!

I sent off my 200 word short essay to my French NS sister and quickly received relevant feedback and constructive criticism. This feedback confirmed my need for a learning challenge to improve my grammar and vocabulary as they were particular weak points through my essay. However, I completed the essay at a higher level than I originally thought I would, giving me a bit more motivation in my ability to complete this challenge.

DuoLingo’s gamification style of learning has been so much more engaging than I expected, that I did a bit more than a week’s worth of work already! However, as this challenge progresses and I have other work and university commitments, the original standard of a level each week will be sufficiently challenging and stimulating. This week I have learned the skills Adverbs 1, Occupation and Negatives (see gold skills below).
 I have realised that my standard of a ‘level’ is different to DuoLingo’s and may not have been explained well in the proposal (see VoiceThread below for explanation).
There have also been quite a few new affordances of this app I’ve discovered that will assist in keeping me motivated throughout the challenge. Firstly, I’ve added Bronte as a friend on DuoLingo and will be able to compete against her throughout our challenges to see who gains the most XP (I’m currently winning!). Secondly, I’ve discovered the DuoLingo shop where different outfits and bonus skills can be bought with Lingots – app’s currency earned through completing lessons and levels in addition to meeting daily goals and daily streaks (see below). Thirdly (as demonstrated below), when learning new words they appear orange and underlined; when clicked their definition(s) appear. This has been particularly useful in building new vocabulary and understanding specific sentence stuctures. Fourthly (as demonstrated below), I’ve discovered the select all correct translations activity and have found it to be challenging and motivating. Finally, (on a different note), I have found evidence of the effectiveness of DuoLingo that has been demonstrated by Vesselinov and Grego (2012) to be more effective in language learning than a university language course!

Quizlet has met my expectations by offering a diverse range of new vocabulary and a fun matching activity. I firstly looked through the vocabulary from the French Intermediate 1 study set to familiarise myself with the new words. Secondly, I tested myself using the learn activity to successfully add 20 new words to my French vocabulary. Finally, I engaged with the matching activity many times until I finished in under 15 seconds 4 different times.
At first I was going to complete this matching activity a 3-4 times in under 20 seconds, however, after my first week’s experience I realised that I didn’t set the bar high enough. I will now be completing the matching activity in under 15 seconds 3-4 times per week depending on difficulty. This will allow for further consolidation of a wider range of vocabulary in a more difficult and challenging experience. I’ve set the benchmark for the rest of the challenge with my personal best of 13.4 seconds!

Facebook has been quite difficult so far trying to navigate through daily tasks. However, after a week I feel as though I’m learning many new words and am on track to meeting my goals.
 While almost every word is new to me, it has been made easier through the scaffolding of already knowing how to do most tasks. My French-English dictionary came in handy for translating new words such as évènements (events). There have also been many phrases and sentences that pop-up which give me a challenge. This is exemplified through the picture below that I hadn’t come across in the English version of Facebook. After comprehending what it was saying I realised it wasn’t relevant and closed it. 
OH, I also had a quick look in the settings (paramètres in French) for a change… I think I’ll leave that for later in the challenge! 

Changing my iPad to French has also been challenging yet rewarding. The days of the week and names of months are the first French words that appear when opening the iPad. While I’ve learned these words before I hadn’t seen them in some time. This is just one example of how useful the iPad is for contextualising new (and old) vocabulary to enhance my understanding. So far I’ve managed to send and forward emails, download apps, set reminders, navigate webpages and more, all in French. Many words however are still in English, such as the names of most apps, which is making navigating my iPad more manageable than I expected. 

Overall, I have been particularly happy that all four of my technologies have been using a range of new vocabulary at the same time. I didn’t expect this from DuoLingo and Quizlet especially as they seemed to be quite different in terms of focussed vocabulary. I believe this has assisted in minimising the potential constraints of these technologies by putting the newly acquired vocabulary into context. Additionally, the combination of these technologies has proved to be effective in catering for my multimodal style of learning which is keeping me motivated and sufficiently challenged. Furthermore, the nature of the activities has also catered for my analytical and authority-orientated language learning styles. 

À la semaine prochaine!