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Open University: learning a foreign language – is the OU better than evening classes

Bill Ferguson — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 17:49:59 +0000

Question from a reader

"I hope you don’t mind my contacting you. I have read your interesting blog. I came across the sentence "the OU is trundling off in its own direction and making it hard for students like me to stay with them.".

Can I ask you how/why you feel this way? Is it expense, or quality of teaching, or what? I am seriously thinking of embarking on one or two language modules with the OU, and am interested in your views on whether they are as good or better than the conventional evening classes or even just ‘teach yourself’ books. I should add that I do have (ancient) O level passes in the languages I’m interested in, so I will not be a complete beginner…well, maybe not! Thanks for any help you can give."

OU Results L140

Bill Ferguson — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 10:55:48 +0000

At last the results have come out for L140. Sadly none of my group of "study buddies" or me, made distinction level (85% or better in each component) but we didn’t disgrace ourselves and we all passed. Here is my long awaited letter from the OU:

Open University L140 Results letter

Strangely I didn’t feel like celebrating, maybe because the gap between end of course and results was so long. The other reason is perhaps a sense of disappointment that the OU is trundling off in its own direction and making it hard for students like me to stay with them.

Here is my summary of my OU Spanish experience after 2 years

L194 is excellent – it takes you from nothing to better than most ex-pats in a year, it was fun to do and a little bit of work each day kept me up to date. My tutor, Gemma was exemplary, even gave out her personal mobile number.

L140 is a good course, apart from the eluminate online tutorials which were unhappy events. It’s a bit heavy on old fashioned drills and exercises even though they are done in a modern way with CD-ROM. Once again I was lucky to have a good tutor, thanks Laura! so I could get help by email when I needed it.

The biggest problem, that I keep harping on about, is lack of conversation practise. I think it should be an intrinsic part of the course. Talking to other students this was a common criticism and probably part of the reason that hardly anyone intended to continue to the next level with OU. Maybe a tie up with a Spanish institution who teach English would be possible, one-to-one "intercambios" between students on Skype, half an hour a week might do the trick (wish I’d thought of that sooner).

No matter how well you can conjugate irregular imperfect subjunctives, when someone grunts and mumbles something to you in a noisy bar it is a good idea to have a phrase or two ready in response. I feel poorly equipped with "Spanish sounding phrases " for daily use "on the street". I intend to work on this on my next trip to Spain, I want to take all the podcasts from Notes in Spanish with me, and try out some of the phrases that Ben suggests will make me sound "like a local".

To finish this post, here is a link to a catchy piece of Spanish music that I like.

After Open University, Adult ed and Kindle 3

Bill Ferguson — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:31:00 +0000

There is a space of less than a week between finishing L140 with Open University and starting a level 7 Spanish course with Kent Adult Education. This is going to be interesting: the prospectus suggests that I am going to struggle at this level but 2 years ago I was attending French at level 7 and we had quite a spread of ability in the class, so I hope that the range of proficiency in the new class will be broad enough for me to slip in somewhere above worst. Vamos a ver (we will see).

Kindle 3

As always I am looking out for helpful technology. I had noticed the Amazon Kindle making the news from time to time and it had never seemed anything more than an irrelevant techie gadget. Until a few days ago. I came across a blog post from someone who had designed a Spanish dictionary for Kindle, he says that if you highlight a Spanish word it will translate it instantly and that stopped me in my tracks. I have been slowly and painfully wading through books written in Spanish. Not as real books but as electronic versions on my PDA and PC. The possibility of having a reader with an interface that is kind to the eyes and the chance to instantly translate the words I didn’t know was seductive.

Then I read how the next generation of Kindles had been streamlined to pocket size and lighter weight. I checked out a couple reviews on You Tube and decided to risk it. I pre-ordered as Amazon were out of stock and reckoned on a month or two to wait. Today I had an email from Amazon telling me it has been dispatched – watch this space for a review. Spanish books I have been reading: Stieg Larson "Los hombres que no amaban a las mujeres", Harry Potter, Stephanie Meyer "Crepusculo", Isabel Allende "La casa de los espiritus". I’ve got them all as text files or PDF’s so theoretically I can get them onto the Kindle. I also have a dozen or so books that I haven’t even started yet.

The end of L140

Bill Ferguson — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:22:41 +0000

I haven’t posted for 6 weeks and the reason was Open University, in particular L140. This course has taken over my free time. The final exams (OU call them "end of course assessments") consisted of an essay; not too bad I thought, and a speaking assessment. That was stressful. The speaking assessment, 2 days ago, was done by telephone. It involved phoning in to a conference centre where four students at a time had to role play, in Spanish, while being recorded for later dissection and analysis by the examiners.

I think we did ok, the four of us. We each presented our allocated topics in the 2 minutes allowed. And we spoke together for the 8 minutes allowed, without any pregnant pauses or anyone dominating or being left out. It will be December before the results are released. The OU still rely on the Post Office and pigeon post for communication at the ends of courses.

Looking back to when I started studying Spanish in November 2008 I am pleased with my progress. I wish I could have gone further with OU but the next level is double the workload and I know I couldn’t do it justice while I still have to work for a living. My ambition is to eventually be trilingual and the next stage of the journey is going to be challenging: I will gradually reintroduce French while continuing to study Spanish.

Now that I have shed the weight of OU, at least for now, my next job is to sort out this blog and make it easier to use for any readers new to the obsessive compulsion of learning not one, but two new languages, as adults, from scratch.

Open University Course Material L140

Open University – an update

Bill Ferguson — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:54:06 +0000

It’s late July and suddenly the end of L140 is in sight. The 4th TMA is due in 4 weeks time then soon after is the end of course assessment – an essay and a telephone interview. And that’s it. I think I’ve reached the end of the line with OU for now. The next course is more demanding, 15 hours a week! In my experience when OU says 15 hours/week, it means 15 hours to read and do the material if you already know it, or are blessed with a photographic memory, otherwise you can safely double that estimate.

So I need to fall back on my original principles:

study stuff that is interesting
do something each day
make it fun

The dreaded TMA

Bill Ferguson — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:53:31 +0000

If you have ever studied with the OU (Open University) you will know what I mean. The TMA (tutor marked assignment) is something that is capable of reducing a sensible, mature adult to tears of grief, rage or frustration.

SECTION 1 STUDENT INFORMATION

SECTION 2 TUTOR INFORMATION

Name
Address
OUCU
EMail
Personal Identifier
Sent By Student	01-Apr-2010
Course	L140 Feb 10	TMA No.	02

Tutor’s Name
Tutor’s Number
Appointing Region
Date Returned	29-Apr-2010

Question Grades/Scores

Overall
Grade/Score

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
90	70	75																		235

The psychology of the OU is very clever. Like any successful cult it lures you in by being nice, you see the potential, if you only do one or two little things, to gain a big reward. So you follow the trail of crumbs more and more intently, quite enjoying the cycle of small effort and reward until suddenly the TMA hits you. The System is in your face demanding that you prove yourself worthy by completing a task. No more Mr Nice Guy! Nit-picking purists will pull your assignment to pieces. They will subtract marks ruthlessly at the slightest excuse, sometimes telling you nicely where you went wrong, and you can see the post mortem when your computer spits out the results sometime after the cut-off date.

If you do well it feels good and you carry on until the next one, and next time because you want to do well again, the pressure is greater. If you did poorly, the pressure is on to make up for it by doing well next time. Either way the pressure grows and you find yourself taking more and more time to study until eventually the Course dominates your life.

So that is the reason I haven’t posted here for a few weeks

Where have all the Spanish Classes Gone

Bill Ferguson — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:39:28 +0000

I’m getting started on the L140 Open University course, one of the suggestions is that students arrange some conversation practice with native Spanish speakers. No problem you might think. I put out lots of feelers but so far I haven’t found anyone to practice with, so I started looking for conversation classes.

According to Wikipedia, Spanish is the 2nd most widely spoken language in the world. You wouldn’t think so if you lived in Kent. I have been trying unsuccessfully, to find a Spanish conversation class for the past few days, today I got through to a very helpful person at KAE (Kent Adult Education) who looked through their database on my behalf and confirmed what I thought – there are currently no Spanish conversation classes run by KAE in the entire county. I knew that foreign languages were having a hard time but I didn’t realise just how bad things were.

Maybe my comments on KAE were more apocryphal than I realised at the time (http://thirdlanguage.co.uk/adult-education/local-authority-adult-education-classes/ ), perhaps the bureaucracy has worn down the teachers and the hard-to-navigate website has put off enough potential students so the classes have withered and died.

I haven’t given up yet, there is a possible lead I am following. I will write more when I know more.

L140 Open University Course Materials

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:31:44 +0000

The L140 course materials from the Open University arrived today. I haven’t done much with it yet apart from open the box. Inside there are three books, a couple of DVD things, a calendar, a study guide and a letter of encouragement. Don’t know why but I feel like a nervous teenager . . . in a nice way!

Here is a picture of the contents. I might just look at the covers for a day or two, savour the experience . . . is it just me, does anyone else feel a bit weird when the new OU course arrives?

Open University L140 Course Materials

Open University – L194 Portales

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:51:40 +0000

At last the results are here. I am very happy to have passed with a distinction! So far so good. My next Open University course is due to start in February, this is L140 En Rumbo and I am already concerned that it doesn’t have any tutorials with it. The course team suggest that students enrol for a conversational class. That’s fine if you live in a city but out here in deepest, darkest Kent it’s a challenge to find one. Does anyone know of a conversational Spanish class in the TN30 (Tenterden, Kent) area?

I’ve already bought the course books for L140: The Oxford Spanish dictionary is huge and I risk spraining a wrist if I try to pick it up with one hand. The grammar book looks scary, I hope it is only for reference. Here are some pictures of the book covers, I will let you know how I get on with them during the course, but so far the dictionary hasn’t let me down.

OU Course books for L140

Open University L194 Portales

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:14:36 +0000

My Open University course L194 “Portales” has officially finished. I have to wait until February next year before L140 “En Rumbo” begins.

I enjoyed the course although the last section seemed rather pressured, I had the impression that the course team dumped everything that had been left out into the 6th and final section of the course and the calender didn’t allow time for it to be properly studied. Perhaps the idea is for students to work on that material while waiting for the next course.

My other gripe about what was otherwise an excellent course is to do with the admin: after submitting all the assignments online it seemed very odd to have to post the last one, especially given the precarious state of the mail service at the moment. And then there is the length of time it takes for the results to get back to the student. Why we have to wait until December to get the result of a 10 minute oral exam in September is a mystery.