PLE: People, Life, Experience

photo by www.jupiterimages.com




I reflected briefly on which is the best way for me to learn and I've come up with the following key words that describe my personal learning environment: interaction, experience, repetition, action, real-life situations, media.


As you can see, my PLE is far from being based on technological tools. Apart from media, which is of minor importance, my PLE focuses on experience and interaction.

















For me formal learning is quite ineffective. The knowledge I acquire in formal processes is extremely short-term. Why? Because I find hard to remember things that are transmitted to students in the traditional way, like listening to the teacher, reading from textbooks or other written sources, doing boring exercises... Unless something is supported by a real-life experience, I don't memorize it. For this reason, working in a certain field, having various summer jobs that require active knowledge of a language, is of great help to me. Doing translations, for instance, is one of the ways I learn the best. First, because in translating a lot of research is involved and by doing it you expand your knowledge without being aware of it. In addition, it's often very repetitive, and repetition is the synonym for success if you want your knowledge to be permanent.

Apart from experience, interaction and my own active participation are also very important. For example, the best way for me to learn new words is to talk to native speakers. If the new word in question comes out in a funny, embarrassing, shocking or weird context, memorizing is even faster. In this way I remember the situation, the person I talked to and these facts help me build a context, a background which is essential when learning new words. The fact is, that the more senses (and feelings) are involved in learning the more effective the learning is. To conclude, other people are extremely important in this life-long process called learning. The information I collect and store in interaction with my peers and friends from all over the world is the most long-lasting.