Course 103 in 2012

What an inspiring man on earth!

អនុស្សាវរីយ៍នៅប្រទេសសិង្ហបុរី

ខួបកំណើតប្រពន្ធខ្ញំុ

Creative Writing

I am now walking through a forest. It is a thick forest, too thick that I can hardly see the sun. However, I can hear birds singing beautifully. As I am walking, a path suddenly appears in font of me. It is quite a smooth straight path as if it is being used regularly. Continuing walking along the path, I surprisingly find a bright shining key so I pick it up and examine it before I keep in my pocket just I case I can find its owner. Then I keep walking till I see a wonderful waterfall. I go to wash and have a drink before I get back to the path and continue walking. A few minutes into my walk, I see an abandoned house. The windows are broken, the door is left opened and the floor is dirty. Looking into the house makes me so scared that I run away as quick as possible. Then I continue walking till I see a giant wall. At first I thought it was the Great Wall of China. But for the fact that I am not in China so that can’t be the one. The wall is too high for me to climb so I decide to reverse my trip and begin to run as fast as I can back to where I was.

Alan's Comment

After telling him about meeting with Prof. Richards, here is what Dr. Alan Klein has to say about me:

"...but, more importantly, here you are having an academic conversation with the most famous English professor in the world..."

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My First Class of Post.Grad. Dip.

This is what he wrote to me:

"Dear Chea Theara, Both your paper and your test were so good that you got an A in the class."

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Motivation in language learning

Now I have a bigger picture why some people are so successful learning a language or languages while others tend to give up learning a language very easily. This also explains why some of my students perform very well while the others struggle. I wish I had discovered this long before I came here so that I could have helped my Pre-Departure Students, who were preparing for their Graduate studies in Australia and New Zealand. They are the very right groups of people who will benefit very much from watching the video and reading the article. 

From the article, it is very much related to my experiences in learning English. At the age of 19, I went to a cheap, local English language training centre, which for marketing reason (I guess) was named as a city in the US, Atlanta. Even though I was not fortunate enough to attend a very good language school, I had, and always have, a very strong motivation to speak good English. Therefore, I always tried to create an environment in which I could access English materials as much as possible. To exemplify, I always made sure that my radio was tuned into the BBC World Service, literally 24 hours a day. I didn’t always listen to the BBC World Service, but it was there so whenever, I wanted to listen I just pay attention to it. When I went to University where I was training to be an English teacher and at the same time to build English proficiency, I had to skip very two breakfast to buy a local English paper to read; again, I didn’t understand much from it but I just keep doing it. All of these came from my strong motivation.

Also the opportunity to interact with native speakers and maintain the usage of English as much as possible does really contribute to success of language a language. Again, I have been fortunate enough to work in an international working environment in which I have chances to communicate with native speakers from US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and so on. And I have been doing that for more than six years. So unconsciously, I have acquired the language.

It is also the case of utilitarian need or instrumental orientation mentioned by Dr. Arguelles; I have to demonstrate and maintain certain level of English to keep my job. In other words, all Cambodian teachers must score at least 6.0 on IELTS to keep the job and for those who score 6.5, with no individual band scores below 6.0 will be entitled to a bonus of 100 USD a month for two years on top of their salary while those who score 7.0 and above will get 150 USD a month for two years. The bonus itself is very attractive and motivates teachers to always maintain their level of English.

What have been discussed above really show how much motivation, whether internal or external, can influence on language learning. However, Dr. Arguelles also suggests, in his youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY3iRItq7xM a concrete action plan on top of an achievable goal in place to be successful in learning a language.

I also found the AMTB questionnaire interesting and perhaps useful provided that we have access to the answer key or some kind of explanation. It can be used to identify learner’s motivation and attitude to learning a language. Those who lose the track in learning English, for example, do need to know the level of their motivation which can be measured by this questionnaire. 

First Part of My Assingment

My Experience in Studying Spanish Language Learning

Introduction

Learning foreign languages has gone from a school requirement to a need for a well-paid job and to curiosity. During my high school years, one of the subjects was French, which, during the 1990s, was introduced in most of high schools in Cambodia from grade 6—the first grade of junior high school. For the period of six academic years, I had between two to three hours of French class every week. Quite sadly, I managed to get the least out of my French class; yet, I never wanted to find out why I did poorly studying this language; it might have been because this language would never bring me anywhere in the Cambodian job market so I just ignored it.

In late 1999, after my high school graduation, I moved to Phnom Penh, the capital city, to pursue my higher education; that was the time I started to learn English hoping to have a well-paid job. In the same year, for curiosity, I also took up three other Asian language classes, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean, all of which I gave up only after six months, two years, and on year respectively. Since then, I have only focused on my English, which I have improved a lot.

Interestingly enough, as part of the course requirement of the Language Acquisition class by Dr. Alexander Arguelles, I was assigned to start studying a foreign language as hands-on example for the explanation of language learning theories that we discuss in class. Out of the options of whatever language I can choose, I select Spanish for a few reasons. First of all, it is one of the European language which, I had thought, may have some connections to English; doing that I wish to see whether it would be easier to study the language in the same family or it would have negative impact on the new language I am studying in terms of, for example, pronunciation or grammar, or even sentence structure. Secondly, I may use this opportunity to explain why I could get very little out of my French class and to have a better guess if I could have done better, or worse, than that.

Materials and Learning Methods

Since it was our at-our-will options, different students selected different languages to study; therefore, it had to be self-teaching/learning strategy.  However, kindly enough, Dr. Alexander Arguelles helped us by providing both materials and suggestions on learning strategy of the language we chose. For this reason, I got given the first ten lessons of Pimsleur's Spanish Audio CDs. I was advised to follow Pimsleur's Methods by listening to the thirty-minute audio track during which I have to loudly repeat the words or phrases I am told to. At the same time, I also have to keep a study log in which I note down all issues related to how I perceive the language study, the method, especially the connection between language learning theories discussed in Language Acquisition class and my real-world experience in learning this new language.

As Information and Computer Technology (ICT) has also influenced on my both personal and professional life, I know that there are some ways that ICT will be of help in learning this new language. I found a website that offers free basic Spanish lessons on top of the http://translate.google.com/ that I use for translation a lot of languages into English or vices versa. Therefore, I am not going to rely only on the Pimsleur's Spanish materials but also extra materials available online.

Nervous

That's really how I feel. The more I talk to different lectures, the more I'm getting nervous. Each of them always mentions how much impression Jack C. R. had on me when he first met me in Phnom Penh. They asked me about the paper I presented and published in CamTESOL, and where and how I learned my English. And each lecturer seems to remember my name well. I presume they must be talking a lot of about me in their staffroom. I just feel that they set very high (maybe too high) expectation from me. It can be good and bad. It'll be bad if my performance turned out to be unsatisfied, which I really don't want.

It's not a complain but really is an worrying thought or fact.

Help me please.

My First Spanish Class

When I first played the audio track, I was shocked by the speed of the speakers. Here is what I found:

• There seems to be different spelling and pronunciation for the same verbs when they’re being used with different subject pronouns.
• The pronunciation is just nightmare, esp. “r” and “j”
• However, the sentence structures seem to be simple and easy to understand.

I followed what is being said on the audio track and repeated where the narrator asked to repeat.

After that half hour here is what I can do: I play the audio track again and type what’s being said into English “ Excuse me, miss, do you understand English? No, Sir. I don’t understand. I speak a little Spanish Are you from North America? Yes, Miss.”  I played and paused each chunk then I typed what I heard in Spanish into English.

For my curiosity, I then go online to check some more pronunciation on translate.google.com where I can confirm some pronunciation matters and meanings of the words. I can also see spellings so that I analyze the sounds in my head.

I also do a bit of study on http://www.123teachme.com/ where I can see everyday conversation.

My First Assignment

The first and most intensive class I take is the Language Acquisition: Social & Psychological Dimensions by Dr. Alex. With the three-week class, I need to complete an assignment in which I am required to start learning a completely new language. I have to keep a daily study log for the period of three weeks and at the end I have to write up a report in which I have to describe my new language study and discuss which theories applied to my experience as a language learner and which ones did not apply. I also have to compare and contrast my experience of that of my classmates so as to analyze the reason why I have learnt relatively more or less than the others have done.

I decided to take up Spanish! The methods I am going to use are:

1.  Listen to the audio CD Dr. Alex gave me for half hour a day
2.  Do some more practice on an online material: http://www.123teachme.com/
3.  Listen to Spanish Radio online: When I started studying my English ten years ago, I also listened to the BBC World Service everyday, eventh ough I didn’t get anything until about 3 years later.

I am curious to see how it goes.

Full Time Student

Right after my high school, I have never been a full time student. Not that I couldn't afford but I actually chose to do so. Consequently, I have never been an outstanding student. 

Yet, here comes the opportunity! I now have a chance to prove my really ability as full time student. What it means is that if I happen to do badly, which is also a possibility, then I shouldn't put a blame on those 14 committees whom I had been trying to convince to give me scholarships. But who knows, I might do better than I used to at University. 

Let's see.

Count Down

It won't be much long me leaving them. It'll be hard but it's definitely gonna be something I am proud of.

Free lunch

Getting given free lunch is great, but it can be very depressing and embarrassing. It’s awesome because you don’t have to work as hard as the little red hen to get a loaf of bread to eat; yet only disables are provided free lunch! I hope it won’t last long. Kids, work harder to be able to at least avoid being given.

នាវាជីវិត

I will have to face missing them terribly, or feeling sorry for them when they're grown up and need good education and good quality of life. Being a father is not that easy, but fun sometimes. I have 35 days more before I temporarily leave them...

Chea Theara Return

After years of competing and many failures, I finally got offered to do Post.Grad. Dip in Singapore from July till November. It will mean a lot for me, both exciting and painful ways. I will have to be away from my beloved girls for months... But everything I am doing is really for them.