Words

Session Activity- Write words digitally

Item Produced- Digital spreadsheet of all words, pronunciation, and gloss from the last 13 days.

Summary-  I took each day and made it a sheet in an excel workbook. I then typed five columns (Day, date, word as it was in transcribed, orthographic transcription, and the descriptive meaning of the word or phrase as transcribed). I then took all of these individual day sheets and copied their info into an inclusive list of all days. This list was sorted alphabetically by the orthographic column to make a rudimentary dictionary. If I want to look for a word and only have the English, I can re-sort by the meaning (gloss) Column to get this information.

Linguistic Effective-  re-reading and typing the words in a few sittings was a chance to review the words and make connections I never saw before. This review produced a list of words I had not yet asked

Linguistic Ineffective- Penmanship, pronunciation changes, and incomplete inquisition all contributed to the large patches in the vocabulary list.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Penmanship

Cultural Effective- None of great impact

Cultural Ineffective- Not a cultural experience

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  None

Tomorrow- I should write the list of the words I want to ask and bring them back up with the speaker

Further Comments- I had procrastinated this for a while, but now that it is done, I feel much better and more prepared. I am eager to see my speaker's reaction when I present him with this list. I also and eager to get on with my next homework assignment of transcribing the story.

Guest Visit

Duration- .0:56:10

Session Activity- Talk in a group with another french speaker

Item Produced- Follow-up data on pronunciation

Summary- This meeting was out of the regular lessons as another speaker joined us for conversation. I asked both for help repeating words to aid with orthography corrections. In all it was a pleasant evening, and I believe both speaker and guest enjoyed their time.


Linguistic Effective- Composing the list of known consonants, in order to make a list of unknown consonants and words in which the unknown appear greatly streamlined this process. Would highly recommend filling in the word charts

Linguistic Ineffective- Having two speakers, one entirely new to the established interview milleau, was difficult to make forward motion within the activity.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Stress the importance of following the steps in the orthography process

Cultural Effective- It was very cool to see my speaker interact with another fluent speaker.

Cultural Ineffective- I do not know if my speaker welcomed the opportunity as much as I did- it seemed like he felt the other speaker to be intrusive on our learning time

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  maybe I should ask the speaker less definitely before inviting the guest

Tomorrow- Nail down orthography and begin transcribing into a database

Further Comments- Although my speaker was hesitant, the guest was quite eager. In fact, the guest called me back to ask to attend the next session. I am in a strange situation where I do not know if the speaker would enjoy a constant third person. I also do not know how to tell the third that they may not always be welcomed though they were welcomed this time

Orthography

Duration- 1:02:00

Session Activity- Go through notes and make a consonant list

Item Produced- List of consonants and list of consonant issues

Linguistic Effective- Going through the notes is a great cognitive exercise.

Linguistic Ineffective-I feel like I had more notes than I actually had, that’s kind of a bummer to realize how little you have actually collected. It was a good reality check.

Linguistic Provisional Improvements- Make a better flow for this section. It is difficult. Acknowledge the gap between collected and perceived.

Cultural Effective- Reviewing the words will make me a better conversationalist at the next lesson

Cultural Ineffective-not much was added culturally as this lesson was more of a review

Cultural Provisional Improvements-  None really.

Tomorrow- Ask the speaker the words I have questions about, make a list of taboo words and phrases to ask

Further Comments- This lesson made me feel overwhelmed. It was the first time I read through the book and had no idea what to do. I felt (as the author!) the directions were not clear, and it was very difficult to set aim at  the objective with the information given. Once I figure out how to do this, I will have to re-write this section.