‘Learning This Way Is Like Piecing a Puzzle Together’: Bringing My Autoethnography as a Self-Directed Learner of French to a Conclusion

Abstract

This is the fourth and final part of an autoethnography about how I tried to enrich my vocabulary and improve my listening skills through French language songs. I made a learning plan and followed the same Study Use Review Evaluate (SURE) learning cycle as my students in a self-directed English course at a university in Japan, over a period of six weeks. Throughout the project and in the course of writing it up, I made comparisons and identified connections between my learning and that of my students. In this installment, I first compare the difficulty levels of the vocabulary in the three songs I studied by finding the lexical frequency profile of each. Next, in revisiting my trouble with understanding spoken French while in France, I discuss how cultural awareness, in addition to linguistic knowledge, is necessary for intercultural communication. After that, I briefly explore empathy as a factor in advising students, and particularly how learning in the same way as them (as in this project) can assist a teacher/advisor in better understanding and helping their students/advisees. Finally, I discuss the writing process as a method of inquiry. I feel that writing this autoethnography has transformed me into a better learner, teacher/advisor, writer, and researcher, and in this way, I hope to help others benefit from this method too.