Content

1. Persuade, both your instructor and the institution, that your work meets the objectives for this course. Discuss your learning experiences in this course, including any details that are unique to your own learning process, especially as represented by the contents of your portfolio. The course objectives are as follows:

I feel that I am right where I need to be, if not a little more advanced, based on the evaluations of my talkabroad conversations as well as the video tests shown in this portfolio. I feel confident in all aspects of the intermediate low level, with many of the intermediate mid aspects, and a few of the intermediate high aspects. I feel that it is also apparent that my communication and fluidity has improved immensely since the first day of this class. I found that having to record all of our conversations as well as recording my weekly journals really forced me to be more aware of my speech. Knowing that the professor would be able to go back and listen to our conversations certainly encouraged me to prepare properly for each assignment from the beginning. It also allows me to see an improvement in myself that I may not have believed otherwise. Until I went back and listened to my recordings I truly believed that I had stayed at the same level throughout this semester, merely gaining some new vocabulary. I believe this is a testament not only to how important it is to have access to previous work, but to how important it is to compare where we begin and where we end. Without the reflections on this portfolio as well as the weekly reflections, I do not thing I would have profited as much from this course. It is incredibly rewarding to be able to see how far we have come from where we started.

It also gives me a greater sense of pride in my work this semester, and confidence that my study techniques are effective for me. I tend to rewrite all new vocabulary in different colors and to attempt to attach the ones that I have difficulty with to an image or particular memory. It also helps me greatly to complete all of my French assignments while or just after listening to French music. I also believe in being as prepared as humanly possible for all conversations in particular. I always look up pertinent vocabulary ahead of time and be sure to choose words and expressions that I can actually remember, as opposed to what may sound most sophisticated. This was demonstrated in my first talkabroad conversation with Genvieve. I had most of the relevant vocabulary memorized; however, one can also see where I overlooked some vocabulary, and how my conversation was slowed down because of it. I tried my best to avoid this during my second conversation, focusing instead on what I could say and how best to explain what I could not, instead of focusing on vocabulary that I just did not have at the time.

Jessica

2. Answer the following questions, using links or excerpts (visual, audio, or written) from your ePortfolio to illustrate your answers:

I believe my learning is best demonstrated by my improvements in pronunciation, fluidity in speaking, and utilization of new vocabulary, as is seen in my journals and the video tests that are apart of this portfolio.  I felt I was most successful in integrating our new vocabulary and improving my natural speech in the target language. I speak at about the same rate, but with many fewer errors and without back-tracking as often. The content of this course certainly intersects with my field because my concentration is in French; however, it goes beyond simply being one of my French courses. It helped to illuminate for me how much I currently know, and how much I still have to learn. I have interacted with all of the concepts in this course before in other French classes; nonetheless, this is the most in depth I have gone and the most competent that I have felt in a specific area of study thus far.

This gives me confidence that I am truly improving in my chosen language of study, while also exciting me for all of the learning that I know is still ahead  of me. It is most interesting to me that in deepening my understanding of this language, I can see where I struggled when I began learning French as my first foreign language. This experience has helped me to better understand what I am learning in my Japanese class and to better know how to study it. Greetings and expressing emotions are topics that I learned in depth in high school, but did not hold onto as well as I would have liked. Relearning some of that information with much more informal vocabulary as well helped me to understand why I could not grasp it before. I did not allow myself to be immersed in the language. It was too hard, so I did all that I could to work in English, then twist it into French. I did this for the first five years of studying French. I am trying to get away from that habit in both of my foreign languages, and to eliminate this techniques of avoidance in my every day life. It is much easier to stay with what is familiar and safe; however, I am realizing that this neither helps me to grow nor succeed. Recognizing this during my first class on this campus will really help me to face what I am afraid of not only in my courses but in my life: failure.

I may be able to pass by, but I will not truly succeed if I do not push myself to take seriously everything that I do. Moving forward, I will focus on not only immersing myself in my language courses, but in my other endeavors. I will attempt to speak, think, and read in my target language in all of my language classes as much as I am able. I will also be sure to really attempt to apply this to my future jobs. I will be sure that once I find that I can no longer put forth my best effort at a job, that I need to reevaluate whether I still need to be there. In all that I do, I want to succeed as I feel I have done this past semester.

3. Connections to Discipline

I am majoring in World Languages and Cultures with a minor in Japanese studies. That being said, the closest connection that I have experienced would be to my other language class. It is very interesting to see the great difference in my knowledge of how to express myself in native language in comparison to French and in comparison to Japanese. I feel like the gap is closing between English and French, but I get to see through Japanese how it was when I first began learning a language. Despite this disparity, I do truly feel that I am picking up more quickly on Japanese because I have learned what is most important to focus on when learning a foreign language; I know which areas I need to strive for a depth of understanding in and which areas I should focus on memorizing for now. Learning new sentence structures also seems much more familiar to me; it is no longer such a stretch of the imagination to understand the rules I must follow in my foreign languages. This helps me immensely to understand the instruction of foreign language. I aspire to teach a foreign language, whether that be French to native English speakers or English to native French speakers, so this is very eye opening and will be invaluable once I begin instructing my own students.

Having this understand also aids me in being more understanding of others in general. In seeing the many different rules of language there are just between the three languages that I interact with I am forced to be more tolerant of others who know English as their second or third language. I currently work as a server and see many people for whom English is not their first language; too many times I have had to hear complaints from fellow workers about their lack of communication skills in our native language. Although I have always tried to be understanding and accommodating, this course has truly opened my eyes to just how hard it is to communicate even the most simple requests. If one does not already have the vocabulary required for a certain setting, communication is almost impossible. This is only aggravated by impatient and ignorant people. I will do my best moving forward not to only attempt to meet people where they are in my native language, but encourage my friends and colleagues to do the same.

4. Self-Assessment and Reflection

This semester my greatest frustrations came from having so much new vocabulary to integrate with the expressions that I use most frequently. I have been taking french for many years now, and speaking fluidly, in particular while using informal language, proved to be a challenge for me. I was able to overcome these issues by practicing this vocabulary, by myself and with my classmates, without allowing myself to shift back into more comfortable expressions. I also listened to French music everyday before class. Most days I heard music in the target language for at least forty minutes; I even began to notice my new vocabulary in the songs I was hearing each day, which helped to reinforce them. Responding to these challenges in these ways proved very successful. Not only have I retained a fair amount of new vocabulary, but these techniques also helped to improve my pronunciation and ability to express myself more accurately.

I believe that the communication skills that I acquired this year will help me in many ways. I am a French major and wish to teach French one day, so this is information is great just in helping to improve my French in general. I also aspire to spend at least one year in a Francophone country; these communication techniques will be indispensable in interacting appropriately with future co-worker, friends, and native speakers in general. I also feel like I could help any visiting friends to feel more comfortable during their stay; I fully expect my best friend to visit me often, but she does not speak a word of French. I feel much more confident now that I could live in a Francophone country without struggling with everyday interactions.