Learners: Activity 1
Who are the learners?
Please read the information about learner characteristics before working through these activities.
Look at each learner’s entire interview. Answer questions on the individual personalities and backgrounds of the two learners.
- How long have they been learning Korean, and what kind of exposure of Korean have they had? Did they learn Korean in a more communication-oriented or accuracy-oriented way?
- Did they begin learning Korean before the end of the critical period?
- What is their educational level? Why are they learning Korean?
- Is their present orientation either toward communication or accuracy?
- What is their personality? (e.g. introverted or extroverted, shy or gregarious)
- What is their motivation for studying Korean?
- How do they seem to prefer to learn?
Transcript (PDF)
Anna B Interview
Transcript (PDF)
Please type your answers to the questions in the box below.
When you have finished typing your answer, click to compare your response with the Learner Language staff response.
- Sophia took a Korean class in the YMCA for one year while she was teaching English in Korea. Also she studied Korean with a private tutor for three months in Korea. In the U.S., she took Korean courses at the University of Minnesota for one year.
Anna B took Korean courses at the University of Minnesota for two years. She has not been to Korea.
- Both Sophia and Anna B began learning Korean after the end of the critical period.
- Sophia earned her first undergraduate degree in teaching English as a foreign language and currently is pursuing her second undergraduate degree in Anthropology. Anna B is a junior undergraduate, majoring in Asian languages and literatures.
- Both learners’ orientation seems to be to communication. Sophia likes to practice speaking in Korean. Anna B enjoys writing in Korean and uses Korean with her roommate at home.
- Sophia seems to be a confident outgoing communicator with an extroverted personality. Anna B seems to be cautious and more introverted than Sophia. Anna B takes more process time before speaking out.
- Sophia is learning Korean to do her anthropology work in Korea later. Anna B is learning Korean because she has interest in and likes Korean pop-music.
- Sophia seems to prefer to learn Korean by conversing with other people. She spontaneously responds to the interviewer and actively inquires about what she does not know. Anna B seems to be a more analytical learner. She takes long pauses to process the input. She tries to use grammar structures that she learned in her Korean classroom, but sometimes uses incorrect forms. These differences could be due to personality, or simply to proficiency level. Time will tell.
