Mondly is an app that offers language learning in a virtual environment that offers chatbot and speech recognition.
Category: Foreign Languages
Online language exchanges
If you want to practice your speaking and listening skills in a foreign language, you may be interested in a language exchange with a native speaker and English learner, in addition to meeting with the drop-in and individual tutors available at Reed. During the exchange, you speak with your language partner for about half an hour in English to help them with their spoken English skills and then for half an hour in their native language to help you. Language exchanges can be especially useful if you’re studying or practicing a language not currently offered at Reed or not supported by Reed tutors (Arabic and Japanese, for instance). There are several websites that help language learners meet for a language exchange. Continue reading “Online language exchanges”
Language Labs: A Brief History
The middle of the 20th century was an exciting time for foreign language study in the United States. During World War II, the army created the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) to provide education to officers with strategic wartime skills, including foreign language proficiency. Following the scholarly opinion among linguists of the day, who believed that language was acquired through habit, the ASTP taught language primarily through oral drills. As the ASTP spread to institutions of higher education throughout the country, the army developed audio discs in dozens of languages.
The Vowel Worm
As a language learner myself, I often struggle with the unique sounds in different languages. Humans are culturally-bound language learners; this means we are able to hear and identify all human sounds when we were born, but we gradually lose this ability as we get older. For example, Japanese speakers and some Chinese speakers have difficult identifying the English “r” and “l,” while English speakers have difficulties identifying the Chinese “j,” “q,” and “x.” When I taught Chinese a few years ago, I had students arguing that there is absolutely no difference in the Chinese “j,” “q,” and “x,” and I had a hard time explaining how the sounds are produced differently.
Language has a critical period for learning: babies and children are naturally talented in language learning, but from birth to age 7, there is a systematic decline in language learning. Adults struggle more with language learning, but it doesn’t mean foreign languages cannot be learned. This means there needs to be more effort put into language learning. Luckily, technological tools can help in this process. Continue reading “The Vowel Worm”
The Future of Note Taking
We are taught to take notes in class, but note taking has changed dramatically over the past decade. Nowadays we see a variety of classroom note taking cultures—-some faculty encourage students to bring laptops to class and use it as a note taking tool, some worry about what’s behind the screen and introducing unnecessary distractions to class. A number of students argue they take better notes using the keyboard, while others are still attached to the traditional pen and paper method. So is there really a better way of note taking?
Code the Youtube URL for class use
Before I knew this trick, I always felt I had to be the Youtube police for my class. Ideally I would play only the videos I intended to play, and turn down all the other requests from students (well, at least most times)—–the recommended/related videos that Youtube shows on the right side bar (and also at the end of the video) are either amazingly attractive or not appropriate for class.
Practice the Tones
Using tones to distinguish lexical and grammatical meaning is not always an easy task for native speakers of non-tonal languages. When I taught Chinese many years ago, the tones were the biggest headache for my students. As adults, my students were good at learning vocabulary and grammar (adults learn these differently from children who acquire Chinese as their first language, but that’s a whole different topic), but almost all of them struggled more or less with the tones. At the time, I had always wished there was a tool that could show the students the Pinyin of the characters and pronounce it for them, so that my students could get help whenever they practice. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find anything at the time, but such tools exist now and are available at Reed.
Welcome to the Language Lab!
Welcome to the Language Lab—one of the best places on campus to study! We are located in the lower level of the Hauser Memorial Library, next to the Instructional Multimedia Center (IMC). The primary function of the Language Lab is to serve as an aid to the foreign language classrooms, as well as for any independent study of languages. We have some new equipment this fall: Continue reading “Welcome to the Language Lab!”
LangMedia
Recommended Resource: LangMedia
Most language learners are familiar with the term “language proficiency.” Four components — listening, speaking, reading and writing — are measured when a learner’s language proficiency is being assessed. The measurement of world languages proficiency follows the guidelines developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Continue reading “LangMedia”
Meetups and language learning
Meetup is one of the websites that connect you with your neighbors. I have heard many students commenting on how they think having conversation partners or communities would help with their language acquisition, but they struggle to find people they could talk to using the target languages. Meetup is great in this sense, as “meetups are neighbors getting together to learn something, do something, share something” (quote from the Meetup website). Continue reading “Meetups and language learning”