As a slow learner of written Japanese I am at Wanikani Level 20/60 after about a year. I like to check out how others are going about it. So I create a feed for Reddit’s LearnJapanese. Here is someone who finished up all 60 levels of Wanikani (a kanji learning program, $100 off this week for a lifetime license) after only a year and a half, and has now gone beyond Wanikani for a year.
From that we can learn about new tools. An old one that has been updated recently is Yomitan, whose browser extension allows you to research meaning, readings, and more while on the web. Another new one for me is the jpdb, a database of kanji you can customize to a great extent.
People are talking about podcasts created by NotebookLM. We are astounded at how the two people discuss any topic we want, in such a natural dialog. The male voice sounds like a mild version of Howard Stern, and the female voice reminds me of…not sure. On the other hand, we complain that the voices are always the same, the speed and delivery also the same.
Google has another tool that lets you have more control over the output. Marc Watkins explains.
Right now you can write a prompt or link to a webpage for input, and select voices and dialog register (formality). Still no speed settings.
One of the important steps in vocabulary learning is to decide if a word is “worth” learning. Will I use it in conversation? Will I need it to understand an important idea or concept? (How is the word “idea” different from “concept”?)
The four words in the photo are pretty useless, unless I use a boat. But the ideas that make the differences (is it built on wood or dirt? Does it stick out into the water or not?) are important distinctions that can help in other areas. Just to think about how words are different can help you understand more about a language.
Here is another example: Smell and Stink. Something can smell good or bad, but Stink means it always smells bad. Now look up other related words like Aroma and Stench. Use a thesaurus (dictionary of synonyms or similar words) to find other smell-related vocabulary.
The important thing is to spend time with your new words.
While I am the first to decry the use of the textbook as the syllabus, we are going to stick pretty close to this book so we will be able to “cover” (another loaded word) the concepts in this course. Let me give my reasons here. But also note that the class plans will morph depending on the participants. I count it as my job to prepare for as many eventualities as possible. More on that tomorrow.
The book is a part of the Cambridge Applied Linguistics series. Read their blurb, and the iTDi (my) take on it in the course description.
For me, the elephant-and-3-blind-men approach to the theory made the book head and shoulders above others in the field. I am one of the blind men, feeling the elephant as either a wall, a rope, or a trunk. They look at TBLT from five different perspectives (Cognitive, Psycholinguistic, Sociocultural, Psychological, and Educational). I enjoy how each builds upon the others while introducing new aspects. That is what I meant by being inclusive.
Conflicting and controversial viewpoints come up and are hammered out. This is probably the result of having five authors. The richness they bring to the text is astounding. If they could have added Peter Robinson, it would have been a perfect book.
I get the Kindle version for these kind of projects. That makes it easier to “mark up” with highlights, quotes, notes, and even flash cards, then share those with others in the class. It’s also cheaper (US$25).
Last December, Steven Herder at iTDi asked me to lead (coordinate? teach?) a course as part of the new Great Minds series. I am honored to be considered along with my new colleagues Steven, Dorothy Zemach, and Scott Thornbury.
We discussed the shape of the series, and we came to focus on books that contained a diverse look at one specific part of language teaching. Scott chose to look at the work of Earl Stevick, calling the book a festschrift. Steven was fascinated by the work of John Hattie and Visible Learning. Dorothy is looking ahead with a new book on 21st Century Skills. I wish I could take them all.
The closest thing on my bookshelf was a recent (2019) look at Task-Based Langauge Teaching by leaders in the field. It is kind of a festschrift to a body of research that I was heavily involved with, but had wandered away from (to CALL). I wanted to take a deep dive, and thought this the perfect opportunity.
I have been preparing the TBLT course for iTDi since then. Like one of my favorite authors, and many bloggers, I find that posting about my preparation helps me think about the book, the course, and to let the potential participants know a little about what they are getting into.
So the plan is to document my preparation from this point. As I read more, and research more, the excitement builds. I hope it will be evident over the next 70 days, until Day 1 of the course. Maybe I will see you there, but if not enjoy the musings on TBLT.
Stay tuned. (Suggestion, use RSS or find me on Facebook and Twitter, and I will announce new posts there.
