Wed. 11/24/10 Interview w/Hector (Henrico)--Weston

Hector, age 62, had the best fluency of all the learners I interviewed so far. His wife is Colombian but she lived in the U.S. before and worked in Colombia as an English teacher. Interestingly from the comments he made in our interview, he is a self-directed lifelong learner! He taught me a word: autographia. I thought it meant spelling but when I went home, I went on the Internet and found out that it is one of three self-directed strategies originated by the Hungarian multilinguist, Dr. Kato Lomb.

Lomb died in 2003 at 94 years of age, having mastered 17 languages!

Three of her strategies are given below. Hector knew about them as well because he replied to a question I asked him via email, Tell me what you know about 'autographia.' This is what he wrote:

Autolexia: reading for myself.
Autographia: writing for myself, When I try to write about what I'm thinking about each situation.
Autologia: speaking with myself, Thinking in English and having English conversations with myself.

She also has "10 Suggestions for Language Learning" and "10 No's of Language Learning"
Reference: http://www.lingua.org.uk/lomb.alkire.html Originally published in The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (Fall 2005) [not owned by Nova or FAU Libraries].

Her language learning research is "relatively unknown" in the SLA field. The article cited above correlates her strategies to documented strategies, and it can be seen that her work actually lays the foundation for the past 25 years of SLA theory.

Hector responded about what his obstacles are to learning English. He said that he believes it is better not to focus on learning the rules of English so much as learning to listen and develop an ear for English (See Jimena), (lines 465-492). This is in line with the thinking of immersing oneself in all forms of learning a language: informal, formal and nonformal. Also to write about what one is learning, Hector says. Hector epitomizes the ideal Third Age learner because he has the time to dedicate to learning now, and he is consciously aware of his need to incorporate all three forms of learning. He also is an active member of the South FL Astronomers' Association. I witnessed him asking students of the Weston English Cafe to come with him--and one did, I later learned!

Motivation:
An important reason for Hector to come to the E.C. is just to know people (line 552).

Moreover, it became clear to me that most of the participants attending the BCL's English Cafe are quite educated with a minimum of a college degree. This helps explain why so many are over age 50. Therefore, with classes comprised mostly of the young-old or middle-aged, it is appropriate to address their unique learning needs and to discuss andragocial teaching strategies with volunteer teacher and paid staff alike. With increased understanding and awareness of their language learning needs and supports as well as knowledge of their motivations and barriers, administrators and teachers alike will be better prepared and capable of meeting them.