Week 7 Grammar

Grammar:  Grammar is a wonderful thing.  Without it, human speech would be incomprehensible.  Language learners often want to begin learning the grammar of their target language right away (Griffiths, 2008).  Knowing the rules of the language allows learners to know when they make mistakes and how to correct them.  For me, learning the rules or principles of Isthmus Zapotec provides me with a map or key to the language. 

Most important for me: The most important grammatical feature I needed to understand when beginning to learn this language was that many IZ words (and sometimes whole sentences) are clusters of affixes.  Without knowing this, it can be nearly impossible to look a word up in the dictionary.  Learning the common prefixes, infixes, and suffixes of IZ gave me the ability to decipher the meaning of new words (Leaver et al, 2005).  It is especially important to recognize a prefix and infix in order to look past them to find the root word.  Often times the spelling of the root word is affected by the prefix, so being aware of these changes allows for better troubleshooting skills when trying to find the meaning of a new word.  For instance, many IZ words begin with an ‘x’ followed by another consonant (Britton, 2003).  To a native English speaker, this looks intimidatingly foreign; but often times, it just means ‘of’ or the equivalent of the English possessive ‘s: xpere Juan ‘John’s chicken.’  The IZ word for ‘chicken’ is actually bere not pere, but like I mentioned, prefixes can change the spelling of the root. When an x is added to b at the beginning of a word, the b becomes a p forming xp.  This is crucial to know because even if I recognized the possessive prefix but did not know the spelling rule, I would never find the meaning of pere.  However (to make sure), I was just able to find the meaning of bere in my dictionary.  

Pronunciation is grammar, too:  If we use Purpura’s (2004, cited in Griffiths, 2008) definition, grammar includes “everything speakers know about their language,” which includes “the system of meanings (semantics)” (p. 174).  Pronunciation affects meaning; therefore, how we say something can be grammatical or not.  A word pronounced incorrectly can be meaningless to a native speaker.  Tone and stress can also affect word meaning.  I was worried when I read in Leaver et al (2005) that intonation (rising and falling pattern of speech) is the most important aspect of spoken language to master, “improper intonation is far more debilitating than mispronunciation of individual sounds,” and “Even good sounds, with bad intonation, can be so irritating or confusing to a native speaker that the conversation will be impaired” (p. 163).  Intonation is what gives speakers a heavy accent.  Intonation also carries pragmatic meaning, expressing a speaker’s attitude or emotion.  Furthermore, it can indicate the difference between a question or a statement.  Knowing how to manipulate intonation to convey one’s intended meaning is crucial.  The intonation of Isthmus Zapotec is so different from English that it is one of my greatest challenges in learning the language.  For this, the Memrise native speaker audio and Podcast IZ poetry recordings are invaluable to my language learning.

Finally, using my best grammar resource:  The topic of ‘grammar’ this week is timely.  I had made it a goal of mine this week to look at Black and Pickett’s (2001) complete, electronic IZ grammar book, Gramatica Popular Del Zapotec Del Istmo.  At the beginning of this language-learning odyssey, I was certain that this found treasure would be my primary source for grammatical instruction.  Instead, I primarily referenced my Zapotec/English dictionary by Britton (2003) for its convenient introductory to IZ grammar, and a little later relied on the Memrise Juchitán Zapotec course for grammar learning.  In the back of my mind, however, I have been thinking about what I am probably missing by not looking at Black and Pickett’s book.  Needless to say, I have been very aware of the reason for my aversion.  I need this resource on paper for my idiosyncratic language-learning style, but it is 135 pages long, and I did not want to print that many pages.  Well—today, I broke down and printed the whole book and placed it in a binder.  I feel happy and almost relieved now that I can reference this material how ever and where ever I want.  It will be interesting to see how this resource influences my language learning from here on out.  I now have an investment in paper and ink, so I better make it worth it!     

 

Week 7 Memorized Second Poem!

Week 7

Word of the Week:  chixhe ‘hurry’

(It took me an unusual amount of time to memorize this word from Memrise, but now I own it and love using it.  I believe it took me much longer to learn this word because I was not familiar with the Spanish translation, apúrate.  Because my Memrise lessons are in Spanish, I had to learn this word in Spanish before I could get it right in IZ.  Frequently, I confused apúrate with aparece ‘appears’—IZ  ‘rihuinni.’)

  

Note about last week’s WOTW:  I was correct about the meaning of xquendaranaxhiee’; it does mean ‘my love.’  The reason I doubted myself was because in the English translation, ‘my love’ comes in the second line of the poem.  In the original IZ, it is in line four.  Also, love without all the affixes is spelled n-a-dx-i-i.  In xquendaranaxhiee’, the phoneme /dx/ (pronounced ‘j’ as in John) has changed to become /xh/ (pronounced ‘sh’ as in shell).  I have noticed a lot of spelling changes in this language; a challenging feature of learning IZ.

Memorized Second Poem:  I did it!!! My great accomplishment for the day is that I memorized Neegue’ ca (‘Just Yesterday’ by Víctor Terán)!  My sense of urgency had withered a little after Friday’s poetry event, but still within a week of my ambitious goal.  This means that I am three weeks early in meeting my goal to memorize a minimum of 20 lines of poetry; my two poems total 22 lines.  Of course, I am not going to stop here.  I will memorize one more poem by Week 10.  This is why I like setting realistic goals for myself.  I make it quite possible to experience the elation of success, which is very motivating for me.

Memorizing Neegue’ ca while watching a tennis match:  As I explained in my previous blog, I could not begin to memorize the poem until I learned the meaning of the words.  Next, I worked on learning the intonation and rhythm of the recited poem by listening to the Terán Podcast and transcribing.  I listened to the poem and read the poem many times to become familiar with it.  Today, I put in the concerted effort to memorize the poem orally and in writing.  This process began at the tennis courts.  I was conflicted by having to choose between my IZ study time and watching a loved one play a championship tennis match, so I compromised.  This was the perfect opportunity to try out listening to the recording of the poem that I made on my cellular phone for study outside of home.  With just a handwritten copy of the poem and my phone, I was able to work on memorizing Neegue’ ca while watching the tennis match.  I discovered that these two activities were compatible.  In fact, it was almost relaxing to watch the tennis ball fly from one side of the court to the other while reciting pieces of the poem aloud.  I was not sitting near anyone, so I was not at risk of sounding like a lunatic.  By the way, my loved one won the game!

Memorizing Neegue’ ca while eating pizza:  Returning home after the game, I continued the memorization process while eating pizza.  This time I, practiced writing the poem from memory, since speaking was not practical while eating.  I broke the fourteen lines into four sections, two four-line parts and two three-line parts.  After all the listening and reading practice, this memorization process through writing occurred rather easily.  I had already memorized the first section orally, so I practiced writing it to build speed.  The second section took a little more effort.  After writing it from memory, I combined writing the first two sections from memory for speed.  I thought it would take me much longer to memorize the last two pieces, since they contained the most new words for me; but surprisingly, it only took a few more rewrites until I got it.  I concluded this learning session by writing the entire poem three times from memory to ensure that I didn’t just get lucky.

Week 6 in Review: Success with Memrise; listening, recording, and speaking

Commitment and success with Memrise:  Over the past couple of weeks, I have focused on building my vocabulary and grammar skills through Memrise http://www.memrise.com/course/46103/juchitan-zapotec-2/.  I am keeping a pace through this online course by committing myself to learning (planting) something new or sometimes just practicing (watering) what I have previously learned everyday.  “Everyday” sounds demanding, but I tell myself that I only have to do ten minutes on the days that I am too tired or too busy.  So far, this has been a successful strategy to maintain discipline and motivate myself when I don’t feel motivated.  This commitment to myself does not mean that I never miss a day of Memrise—life (and sometimes death) happens.  My missed days, however, are few.  Since I began using the online Juchitán (Isthmus) Zapotec language-learning course on April 18, 2013, I have accumulated 18 hours of learning.  Not bad for less than a month!  That’s an average of about 5 hours per week of pure language-learning, not including the poetry study and additional language practice through other means.  I have been using my printed Terán poems to apply my newly learned vocabulary and grammar.  This is a part of what I call “discovery learning” because every time I look at the poetry after spending time on Memrise, I “discover” something new.  I am gradually “seeing” the language, like scales slowly being shed from my eyes. 

Listening:  Week 6 has been a week of listening.  I am learning a new poem, Neegue’ ca ‘Just Yesterday’ (see blog post http://jessicabruin.blogspot.com/2013/05/week-6-language-learning-and-motivation.html), and this time I have an audio example through the Terán Podcast http://www.poetrytranslation.org/downloads/24 (a benefit I did not have when memorizing the poem Bidxi ‘Frog’).  I aim to recite the poetry like Terán himself, thus learning how to use native-like pronunciation and intonation.  It is not enough to just imitate Terán, though.  I listened to Terán recite Neegue’ ca countless times, transcribing the poem phonetically as I heard it.  Hugely important, I realized that there are no breaks between words, only at the end of a line.  Of course, I think I can make the broad assumption that in any spoken language, speakers do not pause between every word of an utterance.  The trouble for a language learner is trying to hear where one word begins and ends; without being able to do this, it is nearly impossible to decipher any meaning from an utterance.  By phonetically (in a very amateur way) transcribing Neegue’ ca as I heard it, I could chunk words together according to stress, tone, and phoneme length.  I was able to map the melodic features of the lines of poetry that I otherwise would not be able to remember from just listening.  I basically turned the poem into sheet music, so I can more accurately practice reading the poetry without the aid of the audio.  (I suppose this provides evidence that I am a visual learner.) 

Recording:  I recorded Neegue’ ca from the Podcast onto my cellular phone so that I could use it to practice with anywhere.  After doing this, I thought about recording myself reading the poetry.  This is not something I felt comfortable with, but I thought it would probably be helpful to know what my IZ pronunciation sounds like.  I started with reciting the poem I already know well, Bidxi.  Playing the recording back was not particularly eye-opening, but I decided to keep the recording to compare with future recordings as I improve.  I then recorded myself reading Neegue’ ca before making my phonetic transcription.  After making the transcription, I recorded myself again.  There was a noticeable improvement from the first recording to the second.  Mainly, I did not have long pauses between words, making me sound like I am learning to read for the very first time.  The second improvement could be observed in my intonation; I sounded more like Terán when reading my phonetic transcription.  Lesson learned: self-recordings are worth the self-embarrassment. 

Some necessary dictionary torture:  I have a strong memory; however, I cannot memorize words that I have not given meaning to.  In order to memorize this new poem, I needed to find the meaning to all the words that I had not yet learned.  As I had mentioned in an earlier blog (if interested, see http://jessicabruin.blogspot.com/2013/04/week-4-learning-experience-using.html), I dislike using a dictionary extensively.  Nonetheless, I plowed through the new vocabulary, having to invent meaning for the words that were not in the dictionary or obviously represented in the English translation.  As previously mentioned, the English translation is not word for word.  Meaning cannot always be translated exactly from one language to another, so a poet translator must use his own creativity and talent to transfer meaning without compromising the original poet’s intent. 

An urgency to memorize for a speaking opportunity:  I was pressed to try to memorize Neegue’ ca before Friday evening (5/11).  I wanted to recite it for David Shook at his poetry event that I planned on attending that Friday.  I memorized Shook’s English translation in a day, but there were too many new things to learn before memorizing the original in Isthmus Zapotec, even within a few days.  Although I did not meet my deadline, I appreciate having the extrinsic motivation to push me to make the progress I did achieve.  Nonetheless, I had the honor of reciting Bidxi  and reading Neegue’ ca to Shook.  The embarrassment was well worth the opportunity to receive a little feedback on my pronunciation.  He kindly and attentively listened to me; and while clearly amused, provided me with an encouraging response.  I am giving myself permission to believe him for saying it wasn’t bad.  I think he mentioned something about glottal stops.  I don’t know if mine were perceivable or not, or in the right places.  No matter, I was thrilled to have the poem's translator as my audience for a few brief moments! By the way, Shook is not only a translator, but a gifted poet himself! http://davidshook.net                               

Field Trip May 11, 2013: Shook poetry event

A Rave Review:  David Shook’s book release event on May 11, 2013 at the landmark Neutra VDL house of glass in Silver Lake, Los Angeles was intimate and down to earth.  This champagne social and celebration of the release of Shook’s new poetry book, Our Obsidian Tongues http://davidshook.net/, was an unforgettable evening of literary arts.  Shook entertained his enthusiastic and attentive guests with his sharp wit and disarming humor.  His poetry, however, was the main attraction, captivating and mesmerizing all who listened.  The performance included a surprise poetry reading with Mexican poet, Gaspar Orozco.  The performance concluded with a book signing and plenty of great conversation.           

Week 6 Language Learning and Motivation

Week 6

Word of the Week:  xquendaranaxhiee’   

(I just love saying this word.  It is from the poem, Neegue’ ca ‘Just Yesterday’, which I am currently memorizing.  I’m still working out the meaning.  To me, it seems to be a possessive noun, maybe (my) ‘love.’)

Learning Experience

New goal, new poem:  My priority for this week was to begin memorizing another Terán poem.  I listened to the Terán podcast http://www.poetrytranslation.org/downloads/24

over again and read along aloud, both the English and IZ.  I enjoyed listening to the podcast more this time than the previous times.  Although I have not listened to the podcast in over a week, I have been reviewing the printed poems frequently.  I feel more familiar with the poetry now, I see more deeply into the meaning and appreciate the metaphors more than before.  I feel that I am being drawn into the poet’s world.  I also enjoyed having more of an ability to read along in Isthmus Zapotec.  (I have been getting my pronunciation practice over the past couple of weeks through Memrise http://www.memrise.com/course/46103/juchitan-zapotec-2/.)  Sometimes the poet reads faster than I can pronounce the words; but often times, I felt like I can pronounce the words along with the poet with accuracy.  It feels wonderful, like speaking in tongues.   The words just roll out of my mouth, but I can’t think and speak at the same rate yet, so I don’t necessarily know what I am saying. 

            I chose to memorize Neegue’ ca ‘Just Yesterday’ for a couple of reasons.  The poem is one that I would be comfortable reciting to others, and I think it is simple to understand and visualize for the casual listener (of course the English translation would be the source of that meaning for most).  The poem is only 14 lines long, very obtainable, and combined with the previous 8 lines of poetry learned with Bidxi, I will meet my goal of learning at least 20 lines by the end of the 10 weeks.  I will include the poem into this blog a little later.  Next I’d like to talk about motivation.
(A little later...)

Neegueˈ ca by Víctor Terán               Just Yesterday translated by David Shook 

 1         Neegueˈ ca nga                         Just yesterday

 2         sica ti xcuidi                              my love was

 3         nacu ti neza lari cubi                  like a kid breaking in

 4         xquendaranaxhieeˈ.                   the year’s new clothes.

 5         Neegueˈ ca nga                         Just yesterday

 6         riluéˈ xquiibalé yuˈduˈ                I was a bell

 7         zeˈ ne zeeda                              joyfully coming and going

 8         cabidxi yecheˈ mixaˈ.                 announcing mass.

 9         Yanna nuaaˈ                              Now I am

10        sica ti binidxaapaˈ bidaˈnaˈ         like the virgin bride whose lover

11        ne qui nuxooñenécabe laa,          refused consummation,

12        sica ti gubidxa bidé xiaga            like a sun finished burning

13        ni gatigá rindisa bi                       whose ash

14                                rucheeche laa.              is scattered by the wind.

Motivation for continued language learning:  After assessing my midterm progress, I had the feeling of reaching a milestone and beginning a new chapter in this language-learning odyssey.  I felt a little overwhelmed with what I felt I still needed to learn within the next few weeks.  When I feel overwhelmed, I experience an aversion to that which is the source of those feelings.  I overcame these de-motivating feelings by telling myself to return to my main interest of this project, which is the poetry, “Choose a new poem.”  My strategy to re-motivate myself is acknowledged by Leaver et al (2005), “renew your positive feelings and motivate yourself again” (p. 106) (see bibliography http://jessicabruin.blogspot.com/2013/04/bibliography.html).  I enjoy Isthmus Zapotec poetry very much. 

Other sources of motivation:  Typically, I consider myself to be primarily motivated to learn Isthmus Zapotec by intrinsic factors; I enjoy learning foreign languages and about people who are different from my self (Griffiths, 2008).  I am also learning this language for extrinsic reasons, such as fulfilling a course requirement.  I also have a more pressing immediate need to memorize another IZ poem.  I am thrilled to be attending a David Shook (translator of Víctor Terán’s Isthmus Zapotec poetry) event this weekend celebrating the release of his new book of poems “Our Obsidian Tongues,” and hope to have the opportunity to speak with him.  I would like to recite a Terán poem for him, and I feel that the Bidxi poem is too juvenile for the occasion.  The IZ poetry is a topic that we both have in common; therefore, my ability to recite a poem, I hope, will demonstrate my sincerity in learning the language and culture.  My ultimate goal with this would be to have Shook agree to meet with me at a later time to discuss his involvement with the language and his experiences learning IZ and translating it into English.  I would also like to ask him for the literal translation of some of the lines of Terán’s poems.  I cannot determine the meaning of every word or metaphor in IZ because Shook’s English translation is too different, and my dictionary does not have an entry for every word I’ve looked up.  Thus, my motivation at the moment to learn a new Terán poem is instrumental, helping me to make a connection with another poet and secure a future meeting.                 

Midterm Progress Report

Primary objectives:  The following report illustrates my success in meeting many of my midterm goals.  I am happy with the progress I have made with my primary objectives: I memorized 8 lines of poetry rather than 10, but I consider this satisfactory since I can recite and write the poem from memory without hesitation.  I also know the meaning of each IZ word in the poem and some quirks regarding the English translation.  I am aware of all the IZ phonemes, but need to listen to the language much more to practice correct pronunciation, paying special attention to tone.  The sentence structure word order is VSO, but I have many times observed a subject pronoun at the start of a sentence, preceding the verb.  I still have a lot to learn about IZ grammar, but I am well on my way.  I know the articles of the language, and am building knowledge of the conjunctions. I can identify dependent and independent pronouns; I know that this language does not mark gender, not even in its pronouns.  Pronouns do indicate animate objects from inanimate, and humans from animals.  A grammatical feature that I particularly like is the distinction made between inclusive “we” and exclusive “we.”  I met my goal in writing four original sentences.  I think I could write many more, although, I am uncertain about the sentence structure and when to combine words, such as an adjective to a noun.  Writing original sentences with out the aid of reference materials in the target language provides a revealing assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses with grammar and vocabulary.

Secondary objectives:  I have a basic, background knowledge of the origins of the Zapotec people and language.  Ruins of the ancient city Monte Alban have given archaeologist and linguists a glimpse into the pre-Columbian/pre-Cortés civilization dating back 2,500 years ago.  Zapotec hieroglyphics were determined to be the oldest writing system of Mesoamerica.  The Zapotec civilization ruled over the Oaxacan Valley, and at its peak, dominated other indigenous groups beyond its regional boundaries.  I will continue learning more about this ancient civilization in the coming weeks, especially about the different phases of Monte Alban and the story of its demise.  Although the ancient Zapotecs had a writing system, it was lost with the ancient civilization.  Since the arrival of the Spanish in 1522, indigenous languages became the language of second-class citizens.  Spanish became the dominant language in the isthmus, and   the restricted use of Isthmus Zapotec was confined within the walls of indigenous homes.  The writings of Zapotec poets from the late 19^th century onward fought for Zapotec culture, way of life, and language.  Zapotec poetry to this day is a powerful medium, projecting the voice of the Zapotec people throughout Mexico and around the world.  I look forward to speaking with at least one Isthmus Zapotec speaker to learn what this poetry means to him or her.        

	Midterm Progress Report for Isthmus Zapotec		May 3, 2013
	Primary Objectives	yes	no/level attained
1	Recite 10 lines of poetry		Memorized 8 lines-Bidxi ‘Frog’
2	Know all phonemes of the language and be able to produce most		Visually recognize IZ phonemes, same as English plus 7 different phonemes: dx [ʤ], x [ʒ], xh [ʃ], j [ħ] or [h̰] (unsure), ñ [ɲ], and different sounding r [r], [rr], [ɾ], (I even hear /r/ pronounced [l] sometimes; /r/ seems to have many allophones); can pronounce most IZ phonemes, trouble with /j/ and sound changes in certain environments
3	Recognize basic grammatical features: word order verbs nouns/subject objects articles prepositions other	yes yes	Not always VSO, still figuring out the exceptions Don’t always recognize nouns (subject or object) from other parts of speech; I do recognize all pronouns Need work on recognizing prepositions Can recognize some conjunctions, adverbs and adjectives
4	Write 4 original poetic lines or sentences	yes	1.  Nadxiieˈ saaluˈ. ‘I love your music.’ 2.  Zasirebe niza dxiña ca xti bani. ‘He will drink        the sweet water of life.’ 3.  Neegue la, xpi’cube’ ca  bixooñe tí xu ca. ‘Yesterday,  his       dog fled because of the tremor.’ 4.  Siadó la, naa re’ ti biadxi dxiña (before) ziaaˈ dxiiña.     ‘In the morning, I eat a sweet plum before I go to work.’ (Because I made up these sentences, the grammar may not be completely accurate.)
	Secondary Objectives	yes	no/level attained
1	Learn origins of Zapotec language and people: dates region language family dialects	yes	Culture is about 2500 years old; IZ people are native to the Oaxacan Valley, Monte Alban ancient city; first written language in Mesoamerica; Otomanguean language family—57 languages, dialects exist within language regions, Juchitán is an IZ dialect
2	Learn history of IZ language and people: dates region population notable people		IZ people call themselves Binnizá ‘People of the Cloud,’ and their language Diidxazá ‘language of the cloud’; Cortés arrived in 1522 bringing the Spanish language and culture to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; 1981 local party (mostly indigenous) took control of the city of Juchitán de Zaragoza; estimates range from 75,000 to 200,000 IZ speakers; Friar Juan de Córdoba late 16th century wrote first IZ dictionary; Francisco de Burgoa late 17th century wrote first study on IZ culture
3	Learn origins of literary traditions and role of literature and poetry in IZ culture and society: literary traditions culture society notable people		Important modern literary tradition; late 19th century IZ poets wrote in indigenous language to defend culture; IZ poets founded “The New Society of Juchitán Students” and an IZ publication called “Neza”; cultural magazine called “Sliced Iguana” founded to defend IZ culture and politics (1975); some activist poets Enrique Liekens Cerqueda, Andrés Henestrosa, Pancho Nácar, Gabriel López Chiñas, Nazario Chacón Pineda, Víctor de la Cruz, Marcario Matus, Victor Terán
4	Learn about current IZ issues: language status migration politics education other		Mexican government relegated IZ language to dialect; known IZ community in New Jersey; elected local political party COCEI, socialist; problem with creating a unified writing system for all Zapotec languages
	Wishful-Thinking Objective	yes	no/level attained
1	Meet a native IZ speaker make contact with a native speaker or make arrangements to contact		Interviewed two native speakers of Valley Zapotec; waiting to hear back on arrangements to meet with an IZ native speaker and other Zapotec speakers

Personal Learning Style

I answered a couple of questionnaires recently that revealed much about me and my learning style.  Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) revealed the kinds of strategies I typically use for language study http://richarddpetty.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/sill-english.pdf .  I answered the questions based on my typical language-learning strategies and experiences over the years.  From a scale of low (1.0-2.4), medium (2.5-3.4), and high (3.5-5.0), my scores ranged from a medium 2.8 in “remembering more effectively” to a high of 4.0 in “compensating for missing knowledge.”  Frankly though, I think that the section on “remembering more effectively” provided a limited selection of strategies that did not necessarily match mine.  In general, this survey is an imperfect assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses in learning strategies, but it did make me ask myself some good questions.  Most importantly, there were statements that I felt would make me a better language learner if I could answer at least “usually true of me.”  For instance, “I start conversations in (target language),” “I try to find as many ways as I can to use my (target language),” and “I look for people I can talk to in (target language).”  These are language-learning strategies that I have not done enough of.  Having to rate myself on these strategies, force me to look at myself more honestly.  I take pride in my language-learning skills and strategies that come easily to me, but I do have an aversion to the aforementioned areas that would most likely improve my fluency.  This also has made me think about whether I am a member of a community of practice of “good language learners” or a member of an “imagined community” as compared in Kanno and Norton’s (2003) article “Imagined Communities and Educational Possibilities: Introduction” http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/S15327701JLIE0204_1.  Either way, I aim to practice “good language learner” habits. 

Language-learning motivation:  Perhaps, I am motivated by the idea of being a good language learner.  Since taking the SILL survey and gaining a conscious awareness of my weaknesses, I have stepped out of my comfort zone this week and instigated a conversation in Spanish with a native speaker.  In imperfect Spanish, I told the speaker who had observed my Zapotec materials that I was studying Isthmus Zapotec.  I asked this person in Spanish if she knew of anyone who spoke this language.  She told me "no," but she knew people from Guatemala who spoke another indigenous language.  The brief conversation came to a natural close, but I pushed myself further to explain that I had to use Spanish to study Isthmus Zapotec because my resources were not in English.  This was my excuse for my motivation to practice speaking Spanish with this person, but, more importantly, was something more I could say in Spanish.

Reid’s Perceptual Learning-Style Preference Questionnaire http://lookingahead.heinle.com/filing/l-styles.htm unsurprisingly told me that I was a visual learner.  Learning styles identify the “individual differences in information processing” (Nel, 2008, p. 49).  These learning styles or preferences are habitual and natural to every learner, aiding in the absorption, processing, and retaining of new information.  This questionnaire looks at four different learning style preferences, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile.  I am very visual in the regard that I remember what I have read or seen written on any surface.  According to Leaver et al (2005), this makes me a visual verbalist.  In recalling information, I see words in my mind; but when this fails me, I use pictorial images to remember things.  I am also a good auditory learner; however, I feel that I have more control over remembering things through reading.  I may only be able to hear something once, but I can read information usually as often as needed.  Know matter our personal learning preferences, to be a good language learner, it is important to be flexible with our learning style “to adapt to the needs of a given situation or task” (Nel, 2008, p. 53). 

This questionnaire also made clear that I prefer to work alone, and feel that I learn better through independent study.  This does not mean, however, that I do not find value in working with a group.  There are different kinds of things to be learned in group study or group research that cannot be learned alone.  When I work with a group, I adjust my priorities and goals to meet the needs of the whole unit and individuals involved.