Update 2 (December-January)

The biggest challenge to learning a language abroad is immersion.

This becomes infinitely more difficult with my accent. The Italians instantly recognise me as English and I wistfully watch as my opportunity to practice the language flits away gaily. Not to say that I am not persevering; I am, I do and often! Despite my stubborn refute to reply in English, recently I seem to be engaging in more Anglo-Italian conversation than I feel comfortable in. It’s cyclical, unproductive and often leaves me with an undue sense of frustration.

Nonetheless, I am coming into my fourth month abroad and have linguistic progress (or lack thereof) to discuss. 

Much of what I have implemented for myself is taking fruition, albeit somewhat gruellingly. My language class has become an invaluable source, working as a refresher to concepts already familiar, revision for more complicated aspects of grammar and a comfortable transition environment for concepts that I am unfamiliar with.  An added bonus of this type of work is the invaluable sociolinguistic tit-bits I readily internalise, it’s beneficial to understand when an Italian is feeling less than polite. This is an example of incidental vocabulary learning as explained by Gass and Selinker in their 2008 text 'Second language Acquisition', the acuqisition of such vocabulary is meaning driven. Basically, my curiosity towards why that drunk Italian man keeps shouting that particular phrase motivated me to go off and understand it. My retention of such terminology has, so far, been longitudinal. I deeply suspect this is on account of it being interesting.

Beyond this, I have been intermittently reading La Repubblica as the language does not seem overwhelmingly complex. However, I say this as a person for whom listening comprehension still heavily relies on contextual cues and successful reading practice results in a gleaning of 40% of the text. But any practice is good practice and it is important not to become disheartened.

My Dictaphone is perhaps the most invaluable tool that in my artillery. This allows me to record and revise lectures and my leisure. The only downfall of this is proximity. I have to be pretty close to the front of the theatre in order to capture a clean recording. This increases my chances of being asked a question/spoken to/looked at or interacted with in general, in any way, by around 300%. The anxiety fights but the will to learn soldiers onwards. At least half of the time, anyway.

My speech-anxiety, however, still rages unchained. Slow and frequent conversations, accent practice and a stubbornness of will, should hopefully relax this tension in time.

One of the most striking progressions within linguistic achievement that I have noticed within myself is the ever-growing proficiency surrounding linguistic comprehension. Basically, I can eavesdrop with surprising success now. I can pick up vast amounts of conversation around me, a definite increase in comparison to a few short months ago. I attribute this to, along with attendance of lectures, copious audio-practice in the form of film. Specifically, my favourite films. In particular, a children’s film. The 2009 animation ‘UP’. As humiliating as this is to admit to an audience, as the dialogue is simplistic (and, admittedly, committed to memory) it was relatively easy to understand in full. (This also works with; Harry Potter, The Nightmare on Elm street franchise and The Lion King.)

Amusingly, after the above paragraph, I have yet to locate a stable tandem partner.

Update 1 (October- November)

It's been two months since my last post and roughly three months since I began living in Pisa. 

Figuring out the Italian education system has been a feat in itself. I can say with confidence that nothing has been straight forward within the sphere of university, I suspect my level of linguistic competence (or lack there-of) is in no small way a contributor to this. Despite each adversary along the way, I have successfully enrolled into classes!

I understand nothing.

Well, that's untrue.  I understand basic language, non-topic-specific lexis that I have come into contact with before. I'm sure this will ease with the diligent study of core texts. For the meantime I attend lectures, with my trusty dictaphone and a plethora of multicolored materials and attempt to glean as much as humanly possible of what the lecturer is saying. I rarely come away particularly confident with my understanding.  

  Its clear that the way I use language currently is social, so far my current language use exists between friends and in contexts of transaction. Within the social strategy of language learning (as described by Rubin, 1981) I often ask questions and seek clarification, imitate the speaker and rely heavily on contextual cues (or guessing), these are just an example of some of the strategies that Rubin identifies as social which I notice that I routinely use (along with exposure to Italian media such as Radio and TV).

Another way in which I am attempting to further my linguistic understanding is through the attendance of a language class (CLI) which is provided by the university. It's a relatively intimate group in which I have the opportunity to revise concepts that I am familiar with and engage, under the supervision of the professor, those aspects of language which I haven't quite grasped yet. ( I am so sorry Enza, Grammar continues to befuddle me).
   Throughout this course I have been able to employ alternative strategies of language learning, these diverge from the social strategies and focus more on my individual learning process. I am employing ''meta-cognitive'' strategies of language learning, which is described by O’Malley and Chamot’s (1990) as; 

“knowing about learning and controlling learning through 

planning (including advance organizers, directed attention, functional planning, selective attention and self-management), monitoring (checking, verifying, or correcting one’s comprehension or performance in the course of language task) and evaluating the learning activity (checking the outcomes of one’s own language learning against a standard after it has been completed)”

In the coming months I hope to secure a language tandem partner, in order to somewhat desensitize myself from my speech-anxiety, and to enrich my social group. I would also enjoy to build upon my written Italian through the writing tasks which required for  Reading and begin subscribing to newspapers and journals in order to advance my reading skills.  Wish me luck! 

A little (well...) introduction!

This blog is mainly to document my linguistic progress over the 10 months (or so) in which I will be studying as an ERASMUS student at the University of Pisa, making reference to relevant sources in order to explore and evaluate the many different facets and techniques involved in second language acquisition.

I intend to post semi-regularly, around once a month. A goal which I hope is not too ambitious.

Within my posts I aim to comprehensively document the trials and tribulations of someone attempting to learn and live in a foreign country (better yet, a foreign country in which I feel I have yet to acquire a sufficient level of language competence).

In order for the reader to understand the level of language  proficiency in which I am embarking on my year abroad with, I will provide some background of my Italian Learning so far;

I hail from an all Italian, Italian speaking family (for the most part- for example, my father speaks mainly in a Northern-Italian dialect, which greatly dissuaded him from sharing his language with me). I was surrounded by Italian as a child, however to my knowledge I never showed a great deal of interest in adopting the language as my own.
Throughout my adolescence I have attended countless Italian-teaching schemes, many of them geared towards gaining a GCSE qualification as the metaphorical ''carrot at the end of the stick'' - I have never completed any of them. In fact I held no type of linguistic qualification of any description before I somehow managed to secure a place at the University of Reading and have to this date completed two years of (somewhat intense and at times overwhelming) Italian studies.

Now, I find myself in my third year at University (a fact which I regularly have to remind myself is real) with the opportunity to spend a year studying in a beautiful country, with time to explore and to speak and to fully immerse myself in the culture.

Hopefully, this blog will reach others who feel that they are in a similar position to mine, conversely I would hope that my posts are an entertaining read for anyone who is interested in the process of language acquisition!


Parleremo presto!