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2012 study charts | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6317 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 1 of 16 25 December 2011 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have spent the last week or so developing some language charts for use in Microsoft Excel which I thought might be to useful to those, like myself, wishing to systematize their study for the coming year and be able to record their daily study time and analyze the data in exhaustive detail. These charts are based loosely on those offered some time ago by ProfArguelles, but go into even greater depth of analysis and additionally allow you to specify the number of languages you want to study. I hope they are of use to some of you here.
Here are the Excel charts: http://www.filejumbo.com/Download/71D552FC99402AAC One caveat: These charts do not work in OpenOffice Calc, since the macro which sets the number of languages does not run properly, rendering the charts totally useless. I have not tried any other spreadsheet applications, but since they were designed in Excel, they are best suited to it. Perhaps someone can figure out a way to make it compatible. To set the languages, simply enter the range of languages you wish to focus on for 2012, starting with the default cell "Lang1", which you should overwrite, and then click the "Set languages" button above it to generate a spreadsheet with those languages. These charts use filters and pivot tables, which allow you to display data by particular dates, days or months. With these charts you will be able to answer specific questions like "How many minutes and hours of reading did I do in language X during the month of March" and "Was the amount of speaking I did in language Y during January more or less than the amount of writing done in Language Z during the months of April and June?" By filtering specific information, you can obtain data that is relevant to specific queries, thus enabling you to decide with greater precision where you need to improve and which areas of study need to be emphasized and so on. While you are of course welcome to adapt and modify these sheets to suit your own purposes, I'll explain briefly what each of the study columns is supposed to represent. Reading This refers to free reading, ie. unaided, non-textbook reading such as a novel or a work of non-fiction. Any didactic or learner-oriented reading should be recorded in the "Analysis" column. Listening This refers to the unaided listening of native materials such as podcasts, radio and audiobooks. Any didactic or learner-oriented listening, such as textbook dialogues, should be recorded in the "Analysis" column. Writing This refers to free composition. Any textbook-oriented writing such as exercises or translations should again be recorded in the "Analysis" column. Any transcription work should be recorded in the "Scriptorium" column. Speaking This refers to spontaneous, free speaking. Analysis As hinted at above, this covers anything besides transcription that does not involve the free, unaided use of native materials. Time spent on such tasks as textbook dialogues, pattern drills, dictionary work and grammatical study should be recorded in this column. Scriptorium This refers essentially to transcription work, ie. copying out text passages by hand while optionally reading aloud. I of course welcome feedback and suggestions for improvement. If there are any glaring bugs or glitches, I will try to fix them before 2012. Let me know what you think. Cheers, Chris 21 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5272 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 2 of 16 26 December 2011 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, this is very helpful and at the same time very simple tool. No fancy stuff.
Though, I have one question. What to do if I study, for example, 2 languages in one day? EDIT: I figured it out the simple way. Apparently, you just have to copy the day and put it below the first language of the day. So you have to rows with the same date, but different languages! Edited by arturs on 26 December 2011 at 7:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Isabliss_27 Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4746 days ago 68 posts - 74 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Russian, Latin, French | Message 3 of 16 26 December 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, it's a very helpful tool, I'll use it :)
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 16 26 December 2011 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Many thanks for this ChristopherB, I never even thought to use the magic of pivot tables to keep track of my language activities before now. I've already set to work on my own adapted version.
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| Takato Tetraglot Senior Member HungaryRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5049 days ago 249 posts - 276 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, EnglishB2, GermanB2, Japanese | Message 5 of 16 26 December 2011 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
I will delete Lang1 and write sp;jp instead, or something similar, so that's a choice as well. And thanks to the creator. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5210 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 16 26 December 2011 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for sharing this, ChristopherB. I've downloaded it, and hope to try it for my Romantic 2012 year.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6910 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 16 26 December 2011 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ideally, I'd devote time on all my languages. In theory, (at least) German, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, French... Esperanto, Portuguese, Irish.... the list could go on forever. However, since I'm not studing each languages every day (and - since my list of languages is bit longer than in my profile), I'd find it awkward to let each day occupy ~10 lines in the chart just because I've added "all of them".
I like the individual tracking a lot, but for now, I'm going to stick to Arguelles' spreadsheet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6317 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 8 of 16 27 December 2011 at 5:29am | IP Logged | ||
You can most certainly study two languages in one day, but you don't have to copy and paste anything. In the Column N3, where Lang1 is written, enter your first language and then enter your second in the row beneath it, in N4. The the third in N5 and so on. Then click "Set languages" (the button at the top) and it will generate all that for you. No need to copy and paste! Here's an example: 
 Edited by ChristopherB on 27 December 2011 at 5:39am 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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