The PLE is our Personal Learning Environment…Great! I mean, I never thought about it, but that’s right! We all have our “channels” through which we learn and improve a foreign language! Day by day we construct a net around us that helps us learning!
Usually I don’t make mind maps to study so at the beginning I thought: “What do I have to do?!?!” But then, after just a while of doubt I started the activity step by step, as Sarah said and…Voila! Done it! I mean it has not been hard! I just had to put down what I do!
I tried to construct my map with FreeMind…but still my relationship with technologies is not that good! So I took the dear old “paper and pencil” and started working on my PLE map!
I decided to divide my personal learning environment into 5 big categories which are “Formal learning”, “For fun”, “Digit@l” “Friends” and "Around me”.
First of all, we have to make a distinction between the formal and the informal learning: "formal learning" deals with school, University and all the “classic” tools like grammar books, dictionaries, homework and activities that we, as students, have to do. I think that this point, is the most prescriptive one, and probably also the less funny…Is it learning grammar rules and their dammed exceptions funny?! NO! At all!! But at the same time it is the most important point of all the map, is the starting point of everything because without an academic course that gives us the basis to learn a language, all the other aspects would not exist! Well, maybe that’s not completely true…many people do learn a language without studying grammars and things like that…But that’s another story!! This has to be my personal learning environment, and this is how it works for me!
So, having cleared up, what the formal learning is, I can now explain you the other 4 point, which all belongs to informal learning!
Under the etiquette “for fun” I put things that I usually do in my spare time like listening to music, watching television or reading. I have to confess you that I have to know the words of the songs I like, it’s stronger then me! I always check the lyrics on the net and in this way I learn a lot of new words and expressions! All those activities are like hobbies, they are not heavy nor boring and they are surely useful to learn a L2!
Another category I put is “digit@l”, actually many of the tools I indicated could be also part of the “formal learning” as we discovered them attending Sarah course at University…But to tell the truth they are so informal!!! I mean, many teachers still work in class with old books and photocopies…Anyway, here I put all the technological tools that I use to find information, to search for what I am interested in and to save and organize my favourites.
The forth category is called “friends” and to me, this is the best one! Leaving philosophical considerations about friendship, I can say that speaking with my foreign friends is the best way to improve my language! I have a lot of Spanish friends, and some English too, unluckily many of them are far away, but thanks to technologies I can always speak or chat with them! And if I’m lucky I can have also conversations face to face!
The last category is named “around me” and contains all those input that come from outside and reach us without my will like fashion, advertisement, the labels of food and products in general. These are all things that surround us and we do implicitly learn things from them!
So, learning a language is a lifelong process, and the channels are several; the most important thing that never has to fail is the personal will! Learning an L2 is not like learning how to ride a bike…Learning a language implies exercise, dedication, study and enthusiasm! We all have to find our incitements and it doesn’t matter if they are formal or informal input! The point is reaching a goal, and my goal is learning English!
Usually I don’t make mind maps to study so at the beginning I thought: “What do I have to do?!?!” But then, after just a while of doubt I started the activity step by step, as Sarah said and…Voila! Done it! I mean it has not been hard! I just had to put down what I do!
I tried to construct my map with FreeMind…but still my relationship with technologies is not that good! So I took the dear old “paper and pencil” and started working on my PLE map!
I decided to divide my personal learning environment into 5 big categories which are “Formal learning”, “For fun”, “Digit@l” “Friends” and "Around me”.
First of all, we have to make a distinction between the formal and the informal learning: "formal learning" deals with school, University and all the “classic” tools like grammar books, dictionaries, homework and activities that we, as students, have to do. I think that this point, is the most prescriptive one, and probably also the less funny…Is it learning grammar rules and their dammed exceptions funny?! NO! At all!! But at the same time it is the most important point of all the map, is the starting point of everything because without an academic course that gives us the basis to learn a language, all the other aspects would not exist! Well, maybe that’s not completely true…many people do learn a language without studying grammars and things like that…But that’s another story!! This has to be my personal learning environment, and this is how it works for me!
So, having cleared up, what the formal learning is, I can now explain you the other 4 point, which all belongs to informal learning!
Under the etiquette “for fun” I put things that I usually do in my spare time like listening to music, watching television or reading. I have to confess you that I have to know the words of the songs I like, it’s stronger then me! I always check the lyrics on the net and in this way I learn a lot of new words and expressions! All those activities are like hobbies, they are not heavy nor boring and they are surely useful to learn a L2!
Another category I put is “digit@l”, actually many of the tools I indicated could be also part of the “formal learning” as we discovered them attending Sarah course at University…But to tell the truth they are so informal!!! I mean, many teachers still work in class with old books and photocopies…Anyway, here I put all the technological tools that I use to find information, to search for what I am interested in and to save and organize my favourites.
The forth category is called “friends” and to me, this is the best one! Leaving philosophical considerations about friendship, I can say that speaking with my foreign friends is the best way to improve my language! I have a lot of Spanish friends, and some English too, unluckily many of them are far away, but thanks to technologies I can always speak or chat with them! And if I’m lucky I can have also conversations face to face!
The last category is named “around me” and contains all those input that come from outside and reach us without my will like fashion, advertisement, the labels of food and products in general. These are all things that surround us and we do implicitly learn things from them!
So, learning a language is a lifelong process, and the channels are several; the most important thing that never has to fail is the personal will! Learning an L2 is not like learning how to ride a bike…Learning a language implies exercise, dedication, study and enthusiasm! We all have to find our incitements and it doesn’t matter if they are formal or informal input! The point is reaching a goal, and my goal is learning English!
