2017 Language & Culture Acquisition Strategy, Tips, and Plan

A. Melinda’s learning preferences

o Primary: Relational – Audio/Visual
o Secondary: Structured – Visual/Tactile

B. Tips for Melinda’s personality:

 Use what you learn in your structured sessions in some unstructured situations.
 Plan well – While frustrated by grammatical based programs, you like structured and
orderly presentations of information with hands-on learning. You are conscientious and
work hard.
 Get help in designing/managing a personal language learning program
 You like variety
 Use music, poetry, or art to help you learn
 You prefer learning settings that allow for lots of variety, flexibility, action, groupwork
and “field trips” If you get out and and participate in activieties where people use the
language, you will have fun and learn a lot. (Rt brain)
 Avoid being so concerned with accuracy that you are inhibited from talking
 May be overly sensitive to rejection, distressed by lack of harmony,

Suggested Activities and Techniques for NF/Relational style [M’s primary]

Stage 1: [possibly not needed?]
1. Survival phrases & Power Tools
2. Look and Listen Techniques
3. The Physical Response techniques
http://wolofresources.org/language/how_to_learn_wolof.htm
4. A grammar Checklist
Stage 2
1. Series Technique - Recounting all of the steps in a process is called the Series Method.
Here again, the speech is made easier to understand by the fact that each step in the
process is relatively predictable, which drastically limits the range of possibilities you
have to consider as you process what you hear. Consider all the steps in preparing a
potato to be fried. You pick up a potato. You turn on a tap. You pick up a brush. You hold
the potato under the running water. You rub the brush back and forth against the potato.
The dirt that was on the potato is washed away. The water becomes dirty. The dirty water
runs down the drain. You turn off the tap. You open a drawer. You take out a potato
peeler. etc. (You can finish the series as an exercise.) Ordinary life provides hundreds of
ideas for series. If the series are based on every-day mundane processes, you can bet that
the vocabulary you hear and learn will be vocabulary that a basic speaker should know.
2. The Eating Out Activity
3. Join the work Activity
4. The Dumb-smart Question techniques

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For SJ (Structured) [M’s secondary]
Stage 2 [Stage 1 was the same as above]:
1. Series Technique
2. Shared Experiences Technique
3. Production Practice Techniques
4. Eating Out Activity

Consider the communicative approach (used in modern language learning programs – good at
rapidly bringing someone up to speed): in a learning setting, lessons are generally divided into
units which stress one receptive skill (reading or listening) and one productive skill (writing or
speaking), combined with grammar and theme-based vocabulary.

C. Language Tips

1. Know why you’re doing it. Articulate this here: Peter Morris said, “Cultural adjustment is
all about actualizing your full potential. Don’t be content to limp along at 70%. Work
toward 100% before you get so busy and committed.

2. Aim high, not just to get by. Don’t aim at just getting by so that people understand you
in everyday situations, but rather to speak like the way the nationals do. You are going to
communicate God’s message and truth which demands of us the highest motivation
possible. Therefore, you should not be satisfied with low standards You do not have the
right to speak about deeper spiritual issues until you have proven yourself to be interested
enough to learn their language. Also, it’s key to actually want to be like the host people.
3. Lay strong foundations. Start well. Begin slowly. The way you begin will strongly
affect your language facility for the rest of your time among the people God is sending
you to. Therefore, take it slowly at the beginning. Take time to master the fundamentals
before trying to talk about complex or spiritual subjects. Don’t allow yourself to fall into
bad habits, e.g. allowing your language to be heavily “contaminated” by a foreign accent
or foreign grammar constructions.
4. Listen lots wherever you are — in buses, when you are shopping, at church etc. — even
if you can only understand one or two words at the beginning. Believe that you are
taking in far more language than you are consciously aware of. Even when you feel
brain-weary, resist the temptation to tune out or to slip your mind into neutral gear.
5. Find a partner or talk to yourself out loud. Seek help. Be open to correction. Ask your
language helper and friends for it. Don’t expect everyone to correct you, or even that
every mistake you make will be corrected. Rather ask specific people specific questions,
e.g. Did I say that correctly? And never, ever brush away help from a national when he
or she tries to help you, or argue with them as if you knew their language better than they
do. If you do, your reputation as being proud and defensive will spread around the
community.
6. Keep it relevant (i.e. useful, conversational)
7. Have fun with it: Using your new language in any way is a creative act. Consider writing
and recording songs. Think of some fun ways to practice your new language: make a
radio play with a friend, dance, draw a comic strip, write a poem, or simply talk

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8. Learn like a kid: The key to learning as quickly as a child may be to simply take on
certain childlike attitudes: for instance, lack of self-consciousness, a desire to play in the
language and willingness to make mistakes. We learn by making mistakes. As kids, we
are expected to make mistakes, but as adults mistakes become taboo. When it comes to
learning a language, admitting that you don’t know everything (and being okay with that)
is the key to growth and freedom. Let go of your grown-up inhibitions! If they laugh at
something you say, try to laugh with them at yourself.
9. Leave your comfort Zone: Be ready to put yourself in potentially embarrassing situations.
This can be scary, but it’s the only way to develop and improve. No matter how much
you learn, you won’t ever speak a language without putting yourself out there: talk to
strangers in the language, ask for directions, order food, try to tell a joke. The more often
you do this, the bigger your comfort zone becomes and the more at ease you can be in
new situations. Immersion is the best way (but only if it’s a positive experience).
10. Dive in: no matter which learning tools you use, it’s crucial to practice your new
language every single day: Really go for it and try to use it throughout the day. As the
week progresses try to think in it, try to write in it, try to speak to yourself even in that
language. Put what you’re learning into practice – be that writing an email, speaking to
yourself, listening to music, listening to the radio. Surrounding yourself, submerging
yourself in the new language culture is extremely important.” Remember, the best
possible outcome of speaking a language is for people to speak back to you. Being able to
have a simple conversation is a huge reward in itself. Reaching milestones like that early
on will make it easier to stay motivated and keep practicing. And don’t worry, you won’t
annoy people by speaking their language poorly. If you preface any interaction with, “I’m
learning and I’d like to practice…” most people will be patient, encouraging and happy to
oblige.
11. Have realistic expectations of yourself. Know yourself — your limitations, your own
style, your strengths as well as your weaknesses in communicating. Don’t compare
yourself with others, even wives with husbands etc. Some get there slowly, while others
take longer but perhaps become even more loved by the people in the process as they
witness just how hard you are working. Throw off any desire to be better than everyone
else or expectations to master the language in the first few months or even the first couple
of years. Realize the inevitable struggle and times of discouragement. When these hit
you, remember that you are normal. We’ve all been through this before many times.
Press on. Let the tears come. Talk about your struggles with a fellow-missionary. Pray
with them. Ask them to support you in prayer. But keep going.
12. Important to do content and language integrated learning (rather than focusing on just
grammar or even the language as a whole) – Learn something new in a new language.
(e.g. car mechanics or soccer or agriculture or cooking…)
13. Culture and language should be integrated. Unfortunately much of “text-book” culture
study is very shallow fact-based information related to holidays and foods. “Culture
study” can also suffer from stereotypes/generalizations, both positive and negative.
14. While we’ll never come to see the world – how things are – through another’s eyes, we
can go a long way toward seeing how others may see things.

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 D. Language and Culture Acquisition Plan:
A. Pre-Assessment in August, 2017
Free Language Assessment Links: ranked - best first
1. https://www.lengalia.com/en/placement-test.html: B1 8/29/17
2. http://www.tiatula.com/tests_nivel/index.php
3. http://leveltest.cambridgeinstitute.net/index.php/es/es-test-espannol
4. http://www.cervantes.to/test_inicial.html
5. https://www.languagelevel.com/
6. http://www.donquijote.org/spanishlanguage/test/

7. https://www.123teachme.com/online_spanish_test - easy/fun but not aligned with any

rating system
8. https://www.nationalspanishexam.org/index.php/exam-preparation/past-examinations
(good but long, and detailed, but not aligned with any rating system)
9. https://www.nationalspanishexam.org/index.php/exam-preparation/online-practice-
exercises
10. http://www.spanish-test.net/ - didn’t work for me
11. recommend repeating the assessment in mid January 2018 and every 2 months

B. Language helper –
A key to organizing your early language learning is the way your native speaker friends
understand their role as your helper and co communer. Explain to them that you need a
friend, not a teacher. People base new roles on ones they already know. "Teacher" may
seem to them to be the obvious one. Don Larson reminds us that "mother, father, uncle,
aunt, older sibling" are closer to what you actually need. You need someone who will talk
to you in such a way that you can understand her, and who will help you along as you
struggle to put your own thoughts into words. That's all you need. If the person can read
English, let her read this very paragraph if you'd like. She will be "teaching" you in a
sense, but not in the sense that she is likely to have in mind. So it is better to call it
something like "language practice". And call your language sessions "visits" rather than
"lessons". – from SIL Learning article
Interesting article: http://wolofresources.org/language/letmealonech1ch2.htm

II. Ideas:
Write out conversations such as testimony (and correct grammar from a real piece)
Write out questions you would tend to ask others (p.ej. cuentame sobre su vida)

Brandon - Analytical and Relational, visual

Tips for my personality

1. As a relator: my interest in people, empathy, and desire to have close relationships helps
me communicate verbally and nonverbally, including underlying meanings.

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2. I’m adaptable (but so much so that I risk losing my own identity), intuitive – good at
grasping systems and often a good judge of others’ reactions (but may be overly sensitive
to rejection or overly distressed by lack of harmony)
3. I want to help people develop
4. I want to grow and develop myself

1. Assessment: August 28, 2017

a. Lengalia: C1 [roughly = ILR “>3/3+” or ACTEL “S”)
b. Cambridge: Institute: B2.II
c. Tiatula.com C1
d. Don Quijote B2
e. Languagelevel.com B2
f. 123teachme.com – “superior”
g. Cervantes: B2

h.
2. Read
a. Books – Andrade?, Gary Teja?
b. Newspapers – la nación, futbol, noticias internacionales
3. Practice telling
a. Jokes
b. stories
4. Domains - Running vocab – trialing Ankiapp.
a. House – within each room, exterior, yard, neighborhood (sidewalk, street lights)
b. Car
c. Tools
d. Local lingo (e.g. llover pelo de gato”)
e. Soccer
f. Idioms
g. Local proverbs/sayings
5. Culture exploration/understanding
a. Understand street # layout name designation
b. Request and use 2-3 cultural mentors
i. (e.g. how to say no politely;
ii. How do you work with someone collaboratively but you have some things
that you want to keep control over.
iii. For Pastor Esau: how to get someone to share from their heart in culturally
appropriate ways – How do I cultivate a safe learning environment- what
fears or insecurities might get triggered for the different people (eg
verguenza por falta de educacion.; How do you keep space for your family
and what have the ramifications been?)
c. Review:

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 i. Domains of Ministering in a culture of honor and shame
ii. Culture Shock – local vocab and other pointers
6. Consider keeping a language learning journal (observational/reflective)