Scope
Better learning enviroments
From a pedagogical perspective, this blog is the result of a personal language learning experiment that I conducted during my language studies in China. The aim of this experiment was to identify, through personal testing, a learning method and process able to induce an acceleration in the acquisition of a foreign language. An additional purpose of this experiment was to transform the learning experience in a conscious, personal, constructive and cognitive developing process.
Semantic management and writing exercises for better performance
On the search for a learning methodology able to sustain the synchronization of the processes of learning with those that naturally undergo in our brain while elaborating information, the object of investigation in my experiment was if, how and in what extent the use of semantic management practices and extensive writing exercises, are able to support – and even exploit – the brain’s memorization activity during the acquisition of a foreign language.
New learning curricula focusing on the process of learning
The result of this language learning experiment was the finalization of a learning strategy that blends traditional (e.g. grammar-translation, super-learning) and modern approaches of language teaching (hypertext practices) and defines a new curricula of learning, whose purpose is to arise the learner’s consciousness about the cognitive processes of learning and to develop the ability of constructing, through selection and organisation of information, a customized learning experience rather than aiming to grammatical hyper-correction.
The learner as architect of the learning experience
The scope of this blog is to show, both a specialised and non-specialised audience, what is possible to achieve in adult language education, by letting the learner assume a proactive role in the definition of the objectives, contents and processes of learning, by exploiting the writing exercises as a medium to explore ideas and express critical and creative thinking, and by using knowledge management softwares for sharing (and tagging) personal constructed realities.
Best practices on how to direct personal learning experiences
Through this blog it is my wish to provide language students with a hands-on approach on how to direct their own language learning experience, demonstrating how to collect and organise linguistic information into significant and structured knowledge (terms lists and short stories), while suggesting teachers a best-practice on how to include the vocabulary learning and the writing experience into a modern curricula of language learning.
Demonstration of learning achievements
By synthetising, in form of short stories, my life as an expatriate in Asia, this blog is also meant to demonstrate the level of language competence I achieved through the use of this personal learning methodology. I hope through this blog to be able to suggest students and teachers from all over the world a new way to transform the complex activity of learning (and teaching) in an enjoyable and rewarding challenge.