Taking a Critical Stance on Online Learning

This was a bit of a different week, and I did not feel as successful with learning French, as I have been doing. I decided to try a separate App, as I did not want to just rely on one source. I switched to Mondly; however, I was displeased with the results. To begin, I could only do one lesson a day, and if I wanted to do more, I had to pay. Secondly, it all seemed super similar in comparison to Duolingo. Within this App, there are pictures and a voice reading the questions and answers aloud; however, I felt like everything that I was “tested” on, was a “give me” answer. This made me feel like I was not learning much, as I was hoping to. Lastly, there is no opportunity to practice orally and instead, you only swipe for an answer or type it in. I think it is important to know how to write in French, but it is essential to practice orally as well. My goal is to be able to have a conversation with Daniel by the end of the semester, so if I am not practicing speaking the language, I feel it will not be a successful conversation.

Picture below is after a few days of using the app and as you can see, I could only do one lesson a day and if I wanted to do more, I was asked to pay.

In this next week, I am going to stick to Duolingo and make the goal of trying to reach level 23. I will continually put my progress on Twitter and talk with my friend from home since I am moving back home this weekend and I will talk with them when I have the chance to. I believe by practicing the language with someone else and not just the internet; I will be more successful. I am still super pleased that I have overall learned so much in French thus far that I felt this App was too “simple” for me. This means I have been learning and that is a good sign.

Within my blog post this week, I realize how critical I am of my online learning and the struggles that come with it. Another difficulty that I have been facing is power outages, which means no wifi, which means no learning. In these moments, I am struggling to find strategies to continue to learn French. But without wifi, I literally cannot learn. There is going to always be struggles with online learning and just the internet in general. Because of it I have realize the importance of community supports throughout the learning journey because, without them, I might miss out on a day of learning.

I found an article online that discussed the importance of learning French as a second language in Canada, which I felt was very relevant and motivated me to keep learning!