‘A Puzzle that Needs to be Fitted Together’: The Beginning of My Autoethnographic Journey of Learning French Through Music

Abstract

This is the first of several installments of an autoethnography about my experiences as a self-directed learner studying French over a six-week period. My studies paralleled work that students were completing in an English language course at a Japanese university and occurred simultaneously with theirs. I set a learning goal and focused on vocabulary and listening skills in order to better understand French language songs. In doing so, I not only revisited past knowledge of French, but also examined my learning techniques and developed strategies as I made weekly study plans. In this installment, I will give an overview of the project, and tell how I arrived at it and why I chose to study French. I will also describe my language learning history, especially with regard to French and Japanese. Data consisted of observation notes, weekly reflections, song lyrics with my vocabulary translations, and a log of days/time spent studying. This installment goes through the first week of the project, when I chose a song to study, a strategy to try, resources to use, and then did those things. At the onset, I doubted whether I could be successful, but was also excited and motivated to begin a new endeavor.

‘Things Will Look Up Because They Always Do’: The Continuation of My Autoethnography as a Self-Directed Learner of French

“…This was the case with one of my students, who had identical goals to mine but seemed not to know how to "Study" (Werner, 2020).…”

“…By choosing to study French in suburban New York, where Spanish could frequently be heard, I might have been taking the road less traveled (Frost, 1916), but it would lead to so many memories (both good and bad). French was my first love, and I experienced so many firsts through using it: successfully ordering food in another language in a foreign country; a letter-writing language exchange throughout high school with my cousin, Marine; getting ridiculed for my American-accented French (by a crêpe vendor in Montmartre, a Paris neighborhood); experiencing cultural differences (such as being served hot cocoa in a large bowl); drinking alcohol legally as a teenager (in a café across the street from the château in Fontainebleau); and being the only one of my friends who could spell and pronounce [French described briefly in the first installment (Werner, 2020). Detailed descriptions of a similar course can be found in articles by Curry et al (2017) and Morrison (2013).…”

“…Each week, they made a Study Use Review Evaluate (SURE) plan (Morrison, 2013) and reflected on their learning (Watkins, 2015). In the first installment (Werner, 2020), I described the project in detail, told my language learning history, especially with regard to French and Japanese, and I discussed how I was drawn to revisit the French language after many years through my love of music and sports, bundled together during Team France's march to the FIFA World Cup 2018 title.…”

‘Trusting the Process’: Part Three of My Autoethnography as a Self-Directed Learner of French

“…This autoethnography is based on a six-week project where I completed the same work at the same time as my third-year students in a self-directed English course at a Japanese university, which was adapted from a similar course offered at a different institution (Curry et al, 2017;Mynard & Stevenson, 2017;Werner, 2020a). Students made a learning plan, including a learning goal and steps to be taken through the Study Use Review Evaluate (SURE) learning cycle (Morrison, 2013;Watkins, 2015, Werner, 2020a. For their learning goal, they chose a target situation (how they want to use the language), a big goal (speaking, listening, reading, or writing), and a small goal (vocabulary, grammar, fluency, or pronunciation).…”

Introduction: Self-Access and the Coronavirus Pandemic

“…Werner from Ryutsu Keizai University in Japan. In his paper, the author continues where he left off in the previous issue (Werner, 2020) with the description of his experience with his self-directed learning of French.…”