Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi <\/em><\/a>as a class activity. The students were challenged to call out words they knew. I thought, \u201cThese will never be words to me!\u201d Lo and behold, the troublesome space of difficult-to-pronounce vocabulary, verb tenses, and faux amis would one day be a new lens through which I viewed the world.<\/p>\nLearning French was a transformative journey for me, but it was not a destination quickly or easily reached. In his presentation \u201cThreshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge,\u201d uploaded to Youtube on February 23, 2012, Ray Land explains, \u201cThreshold concepts change the learner; they reconstitute them, and it can take a long time.\u201d I found this to be true. My initial approach to French was mimicry. I found superficial mimicry to be a very useful survival tool. However, it felt strange to use words that meant nothing to me but held significance to the native speaker. \u201cUn caf\u00e9, s\u2019il vous plait\u201d and \u201cune baguette, s\u2019il vous plait\u201d remain valuable phrases for me. Although mimicry produced results for simple tasks, I was unable to participate in meaningful conversations avec les Suisses. And forget about successfully telling a joke!<\/p>\n
In the liminal space I found engagement with native French speakers awkward and difficult. For months I retreated and avoided French-speaking interactions. Maggi Savin-Baden highlights responses to disjunction: retreat, temporizing, avoidance, and engagement.[2] I recognized in myself retreat and avoidance responses when triggered by disjunction. I struggled to make sense of what was around me and felt a defensive reluctance to adapt. I felt disconnected and learning was done with little community. It took time to admit that I was the barrier. Advancement in language learning did not come until I experienced increased self-awareness concerning my default modes in stressful situations. It required a willing heart to discover and engage that ultimately helped me get \u2018unstuck\u2019. It was then I noticed significant growth and joy in the process.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to describe the moment when mimicry shifted to understanding and appreciation of French. Simple words like un caf\u00e9 and une baguette unexpectedly became more than items on a menu. These words represented a culture I had grown to appreciate. I had found and accepted my place there. Glynis Cousin asserts concerning Learner Transformation, \u201cNew understandings are assimilated into the learner\u2019s biography, becoming part of what he knows, who he is and how he feels.\u201d[3] I went from Californian, English-speaking Elysse to bilingual, third-culture Elysse; it remains my identity today.<\/p>\n
I can relate Threshold Concepts to language learning. Unfamiliar vocabulary, grammar rules and fun slang serve as a portal to another world, a new culture. This is relevant across all disciplines. It\u2019s uncomfortable, humbling, and incredible. The world that opened up to me in Switzerland was not only French. It was Raclette cheese, Cailler chocolate, the Swiss Alps, and amazing public transit. These things that were once unknown to me now have meaning. I became part of them. I arrived on \u2018the other side\u2019 so to speak. The introduction to new Threshold Concepts<\/em> can be troublesome and awkward, but engagement and wonderment in liminality has the potential to shift learners toward a new meaning frame. This was and continues to be my experience.<\/p>\nI remember walking through the grocery store just a few days before leaving Switzerland. I heard C\u00e9line Dion’s Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi<\/em> over the speaker system. I had to smile because I understood every word.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
[1] V.S. Naipaul, The Enigma of Arrival<\/em>. New York: Vintage Books, 8, 2010. Kindle.<\/p>\n[2] Maggi Savin-Bedin, “Disjunction as a form of troublesome knowledge in problem-based learning.” In Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge, <\/em>edited by Ray Land and Jan Meyer (London: Routledge, 2006), 164-165.<\/p>\n[3] Glynis Cousin, “Threshold concepts, troublesome knowledge and emotional capital: An exploration into learning about others.” In Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge, <\/em>edited by Ray Land and Jan Meyer (London: Routledge, 2006),135.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bonjour. Je m\u2019appelle Elysse. Je viens de Californie et j\u2019ai \u00e9tudi\u00e9 le fran\u00e7ais \u00e0 Neuch\u00e2tel, en Suisse, pendant 10 mois. Hello. My name is Elysse. I am from California, and I studied French in Neuchatel, Switzerland for 10 months. This short introduction became my go-to presentation whenever I met someone during my time in Switzerland. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3018,3020,3021],"class_list":["post-35210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlpgp03","tag-thresholdconcepts","tag-troublesomeknowledge","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35210"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35221,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35210\/revisions\/35221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}