Wednesday, March 10, 2010

New series: How I Learned Your Language


Many recent posts (especially this one and that one) made me think a lot about learning languages and how the process affects teaching. Many books have been written about SLA but I haven’t come across one written by a nonNEST discussing how he/she learned English.

That’s why I’ve decided to start my first series called ‘How I Learned your Language’.

Although my teaching experience is limited, I’ve been learning languages for more than 20 years. First came Russian, then English, French and Turkish. And there has always been Kashubian.

I have enough material for at least 5 posts but I’d love to hear your stories. If you want to share your experiences please contact me using the button in the top left hand corner or email me directly.

Here are a few things you might consider:
  • is the language you have been learning similar to your mother tongue?
  • how old were you when you started learning?
  • did you learn it as EFL or ESL i.e. in a native speaking environment or not?
  • was you teacher a native speaker or not?
  • which methods did he/she use?
  • what was the language of instruction?
  • which coursebooks did you use (if any)?
  • what was the most difficult/ easiest part of the language to master?
  • what is your preferred learning style?

Now which language should I start with? Any suggestions?

5 comments:

  1. So is Polish your native or is it Kashubian? Or both :) I'd like you to start with English.
    Now a question: do languages I used to speak or used to study (and nearly failed the exams)also count?
    I nie mogę się powstrzymać :) Bardzo mi się podoba Twój blog, pomysł pracy w Turcji i w ogóle to o czym i jak piszesz :)Wszystkiego dobrego :) Marta

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  2. Sounds interesting. Had to look up Kashubian on the ol' Wikipedia (you learn something new every dayy!). Maybe I can throw together a little something about my experience with Spanish. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to this series! Cheers!

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  3. Marta!

    Mozesz pisac o wszystkich jezykach, ktorych sie uczylas :) Czekam na Twoje historie!

    Ciesze sie, ze moj blog ci sie podoba! Ciezka to jednak praca...

    Nicky!

    Looking forward to your story :) Great to see you here again!

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  4. Wooo, this sounds like a great thing to look at. I could certainly say a few things about learning (and keeping up with) Spanish - would multiple posts about learning the same language be ok? I guess we all probably have had different experiences and differing degrees of success :) I too am really looking forward to this!

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  5. Mike!

    Multiple posts about learning the same language are fine :)

    What I really look forward to is comparing what different people have to say as I might get too subjective writing only about my own experiences.

    Waiting for your story/ies!

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