For the month of December, I have chosen Marianne Petit to be The Linguist Learner of the Month. She is a 35-year old woman living in a Paris suburb called Melun. She works in a high school as a receptionist and does not have a lot of opportunity to use English. Nevertheless, she enjoys learning it and has decided to improve all her English skills on The Linguist.
Like many Linguist members, Marianne started learning English at school. She said that the English lessons were based on pre-selected stories, and she had to learn a lot of grammar rules. She also had to participate in many drills and exercises. Marianne did not feel that she had an active role in the learning process. She was always told what to do and what to study. Also, she only studied English for two or three hours per week, which was definitely not enough. School allowed Marianne to learn the basics, but no more than that.
About ten years ago, she took private lessons from a native English speaker. However, she quit after one month. She had to do many drills and she didn't have any opportunity to practice what she was learning. She didn't feel that she was learning anything she couldn't learn on her own. At the different ESL schools Marianne attended, they taught vocabulary using word lists and memorization. She didn't find this method to be effective and, again, she didn't get to practice what she had learned. Marianne is a very motivated Linguist learner and she says it is because she is able to study content that she enjoys and she can choose different discussions to participate in. Since she became a member of The Linguist in July, she has learned over 1200 words and phrases and saved many more. She has also submitted over 3000 words of writing, listened for almost 70 hours and participated in many discussions and 1 on 1 conversations. She says that The Linguist has helped her a lot because she is able to practice what she learns and she can listen to English anytime. She also enjoys the podcasts and the interaction with other Linguist members, both on discussions and through the blogs.
Marianne's positive attitude toward English learning has been an important factor in her progress. She knows that The Linguist system is a tool that can make it easier to learn English, but that each individual person must put in a lot of effort and time in order to become fluent.
