Learning a Second Language - Essay Example

Name: Professor: Course: Date: Introduction Learning a second language is never so easy. This was proven when our tutor took us through eight week training on learning English. Being a Saudi Arabia national, this was a very trying moment since my country is not Anglophone. My history in English as a language was only in high school which I took as a hobby. This paper is a diary on the vocal journal that I wrote during the eight week training. The last section of the paper consists of the notes that I took about the ten steps we had leant in class on effective listening. Week 1 Being the first week of our training, the tutor introduced us to the various sentence construction structures. This was important as it would help in understanding how to eventually make paragraphs. From the interviews, the tutor had noted that most of us had little problems in spellings. This was driven by the fact that all of us were aware that the college was mainly Anglophone and thus each had taken simple English courses and read a lot of English material (James, & Tarik, 2007). For the classmates who came from Anglophone countries, they found this first week as a waste of time. Emphasis was made to the use of 5w’s and how in construction of questions. The relationship of place, choice, mode, person, and plurality in formulation of sentences was emphasized. The difference usage of the 5 w’s and how apart from construction of questions was also taught to us in this week. Two lips exercise tongue twister was the exercise of the week. The below poem was used for practice. “Betty bit a bit of butter, But it was a bitter bite; But a bit of better butter Betty never bit.” (Broughton, 2009) Week 2 After a lot of practice on construction of sentences, the tutor showed us how to use the whole of our body in conversation. According to the tutor, the use of other parts of the body helped the audience to understand what the narrator was saying (James, & Tarik, 2007). Thus even where the narrator and the audience use different accents, use of gestures could help both of them to understand one another. In addition, use of gestures help in reducing the tension for a narrator who is not confident on the language he/he is using. To understand gestures, the class engaged in treasure activity. Gestures were specifically used to show direction, size, relationship, speed, motioning activity and expression of feelings. Tongue tip and upper tongue twister was the exercise of the week. While each tongue twister given had difficulties in pronunciation, the below tongue twister was hard to almost every student; “Twisty twining twirling tendrils tethering together tightly ten tall trees” (Broughton, 2009) Week 3 While the first two weeks dealt with the ability to talk, the third week was all about the ability to listen and comprehend what the narrator was talking about. This could later be tested in reporting speech. To help us in the listening skills, the tutor took us through the ten steps of effective listening as below. Step 1: Face the speaker and maintain eye contact; Step 2: Be attentive, but relaxed; Step 3: Keep an open mind; Step 4: Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is saying; Step 5: Don’t interrupt and don’t impose your “solutions.” Step 6: Wait for the speaker to pause to ask clarifying questions; Step 7: Ask questions only to ensure understanding; Step 8: Try to feel what the speaker is feeling; Step 9: Give the speaker regular feedback; Step 10: Pay attention to what isn’t said—to nonverbal cues (James, & Tarik, 2007). The exercise of the week was back tongue and soft plate tongue twister. The tongue twister of the week was done through a long sentence which was also used to gauge our endurance in speaking. The long sentence was also good to reenergize our talking skills after a weeklong of listening skills. The tongue twister of the week was “A kiss is the anatomical juxtaposition of two orbicular is iris muscles in a state of contraction”. It is also in this week that we dealt on the sound “ng” and its difference with sound “n” (Broughton, 2009). Week 4 After a week-long emphasis on how to improve the listening art, week four was all about the barriers of good listening. The main barriers that we noted in this week are as listed below. 1. Distractions; 2. Cultural Differences; 3. Selective Listening; 4. Being Judgmental; 5. Defensiveness; 6. Assumptions (Owen, 2012) After going through the barriers of good listening, I found that I personally had to work on my listening skills. Specifically, I had a problem in defensiveness and cultural differences. Week 5 All along the first four weeks, the tutor measured us on personal performance, however, this trend changed in week five where we were gauged on group performance. The first activity involved a group discussion where each of the participants in a group was expected to participate. The ability of the members to work as a team and not allowing any of the members to dominate the discussion was so crucial. Also, the tutor tested the leadership skills as portrayed through discussion and the ability to shift discussion (James, & Tarik, 2007). At the end of the week, we watched a movie as a group and were expected to make a report as a group. The effects of distraction in listening were evidenced as we watched the movie. While some were distracted by members of group, others were distracted by subtitles used in the movie. While each of us had different ideas on what to include in the report the ability to convince is what carried the day as once again this depended on leadership skills that were manifested through speech. Tongue tip and upper teeth tongue twister was the activity of the week. Once again this was done through a poem. Since the week was about group work, we recited the poem as a group. Out of the four groups that the tutor had put us, our group was rated second. The poem used was as below; “She is a thistle sifter, and she has a sieve of sifted thistles, And a sieve of unsifted thistles, And the sieve of unsifted thistles she sieves into the sieve of sifted thistles, Because she is a thistle sifter” (Broughton, 2009) Week 6 Metaphors were the topic of the sixth week. This revolved around comparisons and this week we dealt more on poems. This was not so hard to many of us since we had already done some poems in our recitations on tongue twisters. The huddle of the week was to note where the metaphor was been used. This was used to gauge our ability to read and also ability to interpret what we have read. The exercise of the week was tongue blade and front of hard palate tongue twister. The tongue twister of the week was “A selfish shellfish smelt a stale fish” (Broughton, 2009) Week 7 Reading presentation was the main activity of the second last week of the training. This brought together the various skills that we had learnt throughout the week. The ability to construct sentences helped us in reading out the sentences. Also, the skills on constructing question s helped us to note where questions begun so that we could be able to let question sentences sound like questions ending with question marks. As the tutor noted, reading from typed texts was easier than reading from hand written texts even where the reader is the one who had written (Owen, 2012). Also tested in reading was confidence in reading out to a large audience and ability to harmonize different accents. While each of the students read, the rest of the class was expected to make notes. The notes made depended on the listened skills leant in earlier weeks and ability to overcome barriers of good listening. The open resonator was the tongue twister of the week. One of the tongue twisters from the texts read was “How high His Highness holds his haughty head”. The tongue twister that was most difficult was “The farmer wouldn’t half have a fit and a half” (Broughton, 2009) Week 8 In this last week of training, it was a continuation of the seventh week where the reader was to be more cautions in placing spaces where they were supposed to be placed. This was so helpful in harmonizing the accents and also in helping the audience to have a clearer picture of the topic being presented by the narrator. Reading in this last week had to be accompanied by the use of gestures as leant during the second week of training. At the end of the reading, the audience was allowed to ask the narrator questions. This gauged the comprehension of both the reader and the audience on the topic being read. Conclusion The eight week training was very important us. Each of the steps was necessary for the next step. I recall one of my classmates who missed the last three days of week two and the difficulties he had in coping with the consecutive weeks. This was especially because each of the remaining weeks depended on the ability to use the whole body (gestures) in vocals. The skills of effective listening in week three and the barriers of good listening in week four were important not only for the training but also as life skills and were also helpful in other classes as well. There was an improvement recorded in virtually all other classes after week four. The college sets tests on weekly basis for all classes. Group work also helped in increasing the level of interaction among the students and also helped the students in understanding the importance of teamwork both in academics and in other factors of life. References Broughton, K., (2009). Tongue-Twisters. Australia: Author James, M., & Tarik, O., (2007). Evoking Sound - The Choral Rehearsal: Techniques and Procedures. London: GIA Publications, Inc. Owen, H., (2012). Handbook of Communication Skills. U.S.A.: Taylor & Francis Read More