Re: Distinguishing Research Purposes and Practical Purposes
For the purposes of my research, I wish to understand exactly how an education experience can be enhanced through the use of different techniques. The varying factors that make up a satisfying and effective language acquisition course should be understood through the research that I perform. At the same time, the practical purposes of this research are to accomplish effective means of enhancing these classroom experiences; learning Arabic should be made easier, and it should be done by creating a new type of curriculum. With the help of the suggested language interventions, I wish to be able to create a better learning experience altogether. The biggest challenge for that, however, is learning what makes a good learning experience; this is what I will be researching. This conceptual research should have a practical purpose, however, and that is to create this enhanced curriculum based on the things I learn (Trochim, 2008).
Re: Clarifying Focus and Locus of Inquiry
In my inquiry, my focus is to determine the way in which people learn new languages, and how best to enhance that. I define second language acquisition as the means by which to learn, remember, and speak a secondary language that was not learned and spoken natively. Someone who successfully encounters second language acquisition has the ability to speak to someone who natively speaks that tongue, and to do so without complication or lack of understanding. I hope to figure out what kind of environment allows people to learn difficult languages that are far outside their realm of familiarity (e.g. Arabic). As for the locus of my study, the use of Arabic is of particular interest in this context, being that of defense languages learned in a military context. By learning Arabic, soldiers stationed in these areas can better interact with and communicate with those who live in these specific environments. They can learn more about their surroundings, and be better equipped to survive and accomplish their objectives (Schram, 2006).
Re: Analytic Memo on Learning
What does learning mean? Ostensibly, it can mean the acquisition of information from a reliable 'other.' Learning is the means by which we know and understand more about the world and the subjects we dedicate ourselves to. Often, we learn things we do not want to, but feel we have to, because they hold a specific purpose. These purposes may be to make someone else happy, or they may have a secondary purpose (e.g. learning this unpleasant thing allows me to do my job better, and my job makes me money that grants me the happiness of security, or wanted possessions). Either way, with learning comes knowledge and skills, both commodities in society and the job market.
Learning happens through a variety of forms. Someone can directly tell you something, which you then store as information that you know; conversely, experience can cause people to learn things, providing a direct link between happening and knowledge. The result of true learning is knowledge; this is what is acquired when someone properly learns something, regardless of the source (Shank, 2006).
References
Shank, G. D. (2006). Qualitative research: A personal skills approach Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Schram, T. H. (2006). Conceptualizing and proposing qualitative research. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall
Trochim W. M. K., & Donnelly, J. (2008). The research methods knowledge base. Mason, OH:
Cengage.
