Writing Messages: Communication Opportunities for Students ( and teachers!)

This is a blog entry that I will compose over a few days, perhaps a few weeks since I am pretty busy trying to create my own speaking opportunities in Japanese. To start off, I want to share some successes that have turned into firm beliefs about acquiring fluency and confidence in an L2.

Like most people studying a language, I feel excited to try out my new language skills, vocabulary, and phrases, but a little unsure too because of my lack of real-life practice (I'm busy, and also shy sometimes). In short, all of us who study a second language whether by desire or necessity need more speaking time. So, if we cannot get an abundance of real-world speaking time, writing messages is a pretty good substitute and one that is time efficient and practical.

Where can we write messages these days? We can write a message to our roommates/flatmates or family members (in our target language) to pick up the clothes in the living room, to not forget to pay that electric bill! Stick them on the fridge. If it is a short and simple note, your non-L2 speaking housemate or family member will understand it probably. Your family and roommates may enjoy (or be annoyed) by the new and interesting messages in a different language other than their own. As foreign language teachers, what about assigning message writing as homework? 

    "Write messages this week to all your family members about real issues and stick them on the fridge. Take a picture of them and show me next week."

Besides the old-fashioned note-on-the-fridge, I have found Facebook helpful. I have lots of Japanese-speaking "friends" and making a commitment to only write in Japanese to my friends has really helped! I feel my motivation has increased because I feel like I am using my new language in a meaningful way ( and people answer and respond to my posts!). Beyond just feeling good about it, I can actually exchange important information about events or topics in discussion. At this point, I will mention that I usually write from 1 sentence to around three sentences. Not much because we don't have so much time, but even a little message can increase our motivation and connection to our L2.  A message can be short and sweet. Write just enough to give yourself a sense of accomplishment, give yourself a communicative opportunity, and convey some real-world information or your feelings. 

...More coming later. 

Thank you!