Recent innovations in technology have shown that language learning is becoming more and more popular. The other day I stumbled across a delightful “language learning” YouTube video. There are hundreds maybe thousands of such videos on the Internet and they get lots of visitors.
This particular one, called “language learning evolution (part 1)” was made by a 22-year-old student from Taiwan, who describes how he has learned several languages. The video runs about 13 minutes.
Essentially, his message is: “go slowly, language learning takes time” and “speak, speak, speak.” (He doesn't mention specific courses or methods.) It's personal, fun to listen to, inspiring, and yes, it's cool! I hope it indicates a trend in language learning!
My Own Language Learning Experience
When I was a teenager, my family had emigrated twice and I had attended school in each of the countries. I spoke three languages fluently. Was that cool? No way!
I had an accent, a kind of European mix that kids noticed and sometimes made fun of. On top of it, I was totally clueless about what's been called “the secret (social) rules” of my new home country, Canada.
The whole dating scene was a mystery to me (at age 13 “everyone” went to weekly dances in church basements and community centers). I may have been able to speak English pretty well, but I was not fluent in the kind of social small talk that teenagers on this side of the ocean engaged in.
Did I hide that I could speak other languages? For sure! I didn't want to be different. I had two personas, and my social one did NOT include being trilingual.
When friends came to my place, I tried to keep my parents linguistically in line. But they did slip up from time to time and lapsed into German, the language they spoke with each other. That embarrassed me a lot.
To top it off, my mother did not have the vocabulary for scolding me in English. So she usually reprimanded me in her native language, Dutch. My friends already knew and would tease me: “Now she's getting mad, she's speaking Dutch! What did you do?”
Are Attitudes Towards Foreign Languages Changing?
It wasn't just my peers who thought it was uncool to speak in another language. Riding the bus, my mom and I would speak Dutch with each other. On occasion, someone would turn to her and say: “You are now in Canada. Why don't you speak English!”
I imagine that one could hear a similar comment today, in any country - even though the Internet allows easy access to foreign cultures, social networks, and a large array of language programs - all across language barriers.
As children and adolescents grow into adults, they may discover that speaking another language not only is “cool” but also opens doors professionally. A second language is an asset for studying, working abroad, or traveling.
To the extent that Generation Y (also called the Net Generation) can take advantage of the language learning offerings of the web, they may even get a head start in overcoming the language attitudes of former generations.
What do you think, can the web help change attitudes about people speaking other languages?
Recently, I came across a report by Inc.com, entitled: “5 Innovative Language-Learning Tools.”
So far, I've learned five languages either through immersion, or with traditional methods (grammar-translation, audio-lingual) and materials (textbooks, classroom, CDs).
Now I was curious to see what new technologies were available for my next language learning project: Spanish.Here are some of the innovative features listed in the Inc.com report for five language programs:
For Pronunciation Practice
- audio clips - speech recognition technology - function to record your own voice and play back to compare
For Vocabulary Acquisition and Practice
- flashcards, vocabulary games - feature to build your own vocabulary lists - community page for sharing word lists - review manager (for managing vocabulary practice)
For Improving Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing Skills
- online audio, tv, radio programs, interactive video - spoken and written exercises - visual text - chat feature
For Social Interaction
- spoken and written exercises which can be submitted for peer review - a community platform to find language partners - crowdsourced content
Language Learning with Social Interaction Online
For me, communicating with others is the goal of my language learning. If that is also true for you, then from day one, you’ll want to focus on learning the language of communication.
It means that the vocabulary you practice should relate to your interests, and the topics you cover should be ones you enjoy conversing about. The well-known Australian linguist David Nunan calls this: “learning real language for use in the real world.”
To that end, the features mentioned in the Inc.com report that provide social interaction seem the most interesting and most innovative to me. (Voice recognition systems to help with pronunciation hold great promise, but the ones I have tried were more frustrating than helpful.) Engaging online with native speakers anywhere in the world is a great way to practice. But you have to push yourself to take a few risks.
Yes, it's stressful to speak in a foreign language in a real situation. But just think: Your language partner is in the same situation as you.
Learning Italian?When you get into a conversation with Italians, you have little time to think about the many particularities of the language: noun gender, different types of articles, prepositions, etc.
Here are ten easy rules that you can become aware of when reading, listening, or writing Italian. With time, you'll start recognizing items or patterns that follow these rules and they'll become automatic even when you speak.
These rules cover just a few Italian grammar points, but they're a start and easy to remember. You can used them to build on.
1. Nouns ending in -o are normally masculine.
• il ragazzo (the boy) • il libro (the book) • l'albero (the tree) Notable Exceptions: Feminine nouns ending in -o: • la mano (the hand) • la foto (the photo) • la radio (the radio), l’auto
2. Regular masculine nouns that end in -o change their ending to -i in the plural.
• i ragazzi (the boys) • i libri (the books) • i cavalli (the horses)
3. Nouns ending in -a are normally feminine.
• la ragazza (the girl) • la scuola (the school) • la casa (the house)
Notable Exceptions: Masculine nouns ending in -a: • il problema (the problem) • il cinema (the movie theater) • il programma (the program)
4. Regular feminine nouns that end in -a change their ending to -e in the plural.
• le ragazze (the girls) • le scuole (the schools) • le idee (the ideas)
5. Instead of il, the definite article lo (the) goes before masculine singular nouns beginning with z, s+consonant, ps, gn.
• lo zio (the uncle) • lo studio (the study) • lo psicologo (the psychologist)
Note: Feminine nouns starting with z, s+consonant, ps, gn, have the definite article "la". • la zia (the aunt) • la strada (the street) • la psicologa (the psychologist, f)
6. The definite article gli is the plural form of lo, instead of the masculine plural i.
• gli zii - the uncles • gli studi - the studies • gli psicologi - the psychologists
7. The definite article is used with possessive adjectives, except with singular nouns denoting family members.
• il mio libro (my book) • la tua amica (your friend, f) • i miei amici (my friends) • le tue case (your houses)
But: • mio padre (my father) • tua madre (your mother) • mio zio (my uncle)
Note: With plural family members, you use the definite article: • i miei parenti (my parents) • le tue zie (your aunts)
8. To make a sentence negative, put non before the verbal expression (incl. object pronouns).
• Non voglio mangiare. (I don’t want to eat.) • Non ho finito. (I haven’t finished.) • Non lo conosco. (I don’t know him.)
9. The preposition in (to/in) is normally used with continents, countries, regions, and large islands.
• in Africa (to Africa/in Africa) • in Francia (to France/in France) • in Toscana (to Tuscany/in Tuscany) • in Sardegna (to Sardinia/in Sardinia)
10. The preposition a (to/in) is normally used with cities and small islands.
• a Roma (to Rome/in Rome) • a Capri (to Capri/in Capri)
Last week, I read an article on the difficulties that the majority of Spanish high school students are facing in understanding spoken English.
According to data taken from the latest European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC), only 12% actually understand simple expressions about everyday topics.
Given such data, a simple question arises: What is wrong with ESL programs in the current educational system in Spain? From my own experience, two main reasons immediately occur to me:
1. Firstly, the quantity of English input that a student receives in class is extremely low. On average, the amount of time spent engaging in listening activities is 30 minutes per week.
2. Secondly, and as importantly, the quality of the English that students hear is quite poor because: (a) Portable stereo systems have inadequate sound quality and can hardly be heard in the back of classrooms. (b) Exceptions aside, the pronunciation of non-native teachers is sometimes not quite up to standard. This fact, together with not hearing native speakers often enough, makes it hard for students to improve their listening skills.
Consequences of Dubbing
In addition, there are a few extra-academic factors, which definitely have an influence on the listening skills of high school students. One mentioned in the article is the dubbing into Spanish of movies and television shows.
This alone represents an additional obstacle to ESL students because, as a result, they are not being exposed to the English language as much as it would be desirable outside of class.
Benefits of Digitalization
However, I'm convinced that with the advent of media digitalization, the option to choose between Spanish and English audio tracks on multimedia content is giving students the chance to improve their language competence. I
It might actually be interesting to research a bit further: Will those students, who regularly watch content in English, do better than the 12% percent of students who understand simple expressions?
Bio: Pablo Montoya is both the writer and a speaker of our Spanish 1 course; he is also assisting us in developing our ESL course for Spanish speakers.
Anyone scanning the Internet will find a huge number of online language games and learning programs. In addition, there are lots of apps available for phones and tablets, including iPhones and iPads.
Those are all a tremendous resource for language lovers! And a lot has happened since we asked the question: Why Games?
Flashcards Do Work!
Many of the online programs and apps are based on a flashcard model, and teach words and short phrases only. Flashcards exercises are indeed an excellent way to drill and recall vocabulary. They are also perfect for grammar items, such as verb conjugations, adjective endings, noun genders, contractions, etc.
In digital form, flashcards can space recall optimally, and often use pictures and combine visual and auditory information. You’re in charge of your learning and you can easily track your progress.
Are Flashcards enough?
However, one may reasonably ask: Can you really learn to SPEAK a language by just memorizing words and word forms? For most of the European languages – and those are the ones we know best – we believe, the answer has to be no!
The reason seems quite obvious: Conversations and narratives are not just a series of isolated words or phrases. In order to create meaning, you have to choose the right words and put them into a particular sequence. Often, it's the sequence that is crucial for the meaning. As a starter, you need to show whether you're making a statement or asking a question.
Add to this the need to find the correct gender of the noun (and, depending on the language, also the correct ending), the right tense and verb conjugation, the position of a preposition, etc. - and it becomes clear why speaking a foreign language is not an easy process.
The Language Games Challenge!
The challenge to those of us who are developing online language games or apps is this: How to create compelling games that can teach much more than a series of words and phrases - games that build the confidence to communicate?
It's the repeated use and practice of phrases and sentences in a meaningful context, that will ultimately enable you to speak with some fluency. Words and grammar rules are not enough. Conversations are a process of dynamic communication. By the time you have deliberately constructed the perfect sentence, the conversation may have already moved on.
In future blog posts, we’ll review some of the available language games, and please, share with us your experiences!
“Input based language learning” - as the polyglot Steve Kaufmann likes to say - can have a powerful "snowball effect"... "the more you understand, the more you learn."
My Spanish Experience
This has definitely been my experience these past two months of learning Spanish. Before setting off for a month in Barcelona, I armed myself with the basics of the www.gamesforlanguage.com Spanish 1 course:
• A vocabulary of about 700 practical words • An understanding of how those words behave in the context of communication • A grasp of how those words sound, alone and in context
I then “snowballed” my input learning: I took in whatever Spanish was spoken in my immediate surroundings; I listened to Spanish radio, watched crime series on TV, bought El País to read at breakfast, and searched the net for online news in Spanish.
And, I started reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s novel “El juego del angel,” on my Kindle, when I got back home to Boston. I’ve been surprised at how good my understanding of printed Spanish has become in such a short time. I’m also very pleased at my progress in understanding Spanish on radio and TV.
Hearing and seeing words or phrases many times really helps improve my understanding of Spanish. I actively guess the meaning of words from the context provided and/or from other words that I've learned.
That’s all great. And, if you want to learn to speak or write - in other words, produce the language - you have to deliberately take that step. Yes, you can wait until you understand lots more vocabulary.
But you won't own it until you start producing it. In my opinion, the sooner you start producing (speaking and writing) your new language, the better it is.
Our one month stay in Barcelona gave me the opportunity to speak right away, to apply and adapt the phrases and sentences I had learned and practiced before.
Why stop at five (5) Languages?
Before Spanish, I had acquired five languages, all in different ways. My 1st and native language (German) just happened. (We all know how that goes). My 2nd and 3rd languages (Dutch and English) were full immersion experiences, but at different ages (9 and 11).
My 4th language (French), I learned in school and studied at a Canadian university. I was able to read Stendhal, Flaubert, Proust, etc. easily in French, but even with years of school and college lessons, I was not able to hold a French conversation. That only came when I had someone to speak with.
I started learning my 5th language (Italian) with an audio-only course, which trained my listening and speaking skills. I had little understanding how the language was written, so I automatically wrote Italian using French spelling. It also took me a long time to learn to read Italian well enough to experience any “snowball effect.”
Learning Spanish Was Different
My recent experience learning Spanish was a different one from learning my other languages. I used both “input learning" (reading and listening) and “output learning" (speaking and writing) to prepare for our stay in Spain.
Reading and listening are not at all passive ways to learn a language. Your mind is actively engaged in decoding sounds and printed letters; you’re constantly guessing, looking for clues, trying things out.
Similarly, when you speak and write a language, it’s a learning process. You are not just producing what you know, you’re analyzing, interpreting, you’re trying out - all with the goal of communicating something as clearly as possible.
Three(3) Practical Tips
To learn how to speak in a foreign language, you have to actively make the effort to speak, and you have to speak a lot. Getting yourself into a practicing mode for speaking a language is not hard. Assuming that you are also doing plenty of listening to your new language, here are three (3) practical tips: (Do this every day, if you can.)
• Take a short text and read it aloud, several times. • Take a couple of new useful phrases or sentences, and say them aloud many times during the day. • Role play short dialogues, and act out both voices. Ham it up!
If you can find an exchange partner for practicing conversations, all the better.
A recent article by Dan Hurley in the New York Times suggests as much. Hurley starts by describing a “memory game” where kids have to remember “which window a cat was in.”
First, it's in a window just before, then in a window a Level before, and finally in a window two Levels before. It's as simple as that: “The cats keep coming and the kids keep remembering.”
Working Memory and “Fluid Intelligence”
Apparently, the “cat game” is one of the games that some researchers say can improve “working memory,” which is defined as: “the capacity to solve novel problems, to learn, to reason, to see connections and to get to the bottom of things.”
All of us use “working memory,” Dan Hurley explains, for remembering telephone numbers, doing math in our head, understanding metaphors or analogies, for making sense out of language, etc.
The sum of the skills of working memory is what we call “fluid intelligence” (as opposed to “crystalline intelligence,” which is produced by long-term memory skills).
Long-term memory and “Crystalline Intelligence”
It seems clear to us that language learning requires long-term memory skills. You need to acquire a good store of vocabulary, grammar structures, and (foreign language) sounds in your brain to be able to communicate, and thereby enhancing your “crystalline intelligence.”
But “working memory” is just as essential. We, at GamesforLanguage.com look forward to research that analyzes the relationship between second language acquisition and improvements of “fluid/crystalline intelligence” in adults.
Language Fluency and “Working Memory”
Just learning words, with the many flash card games now available for phones and tablets, is a good way to accumulate a store of vocabulary, and rules for pronunciation and spelling.
But flashcards alone won't make you fluent. Fluency requires the ability to speak and communicate. And this, in turn, involves a “working memory” that is well-engaged.
A new language confronts a person with many “novel problems.” The learner will have to decode and use new grammar patterns, new sound combinations, to figure out the meaning of new words, and so on.
Language Learning Requires Practice
We can well imagine that real and continuous efforts to acquire and try out a new language will make you smarter by boosting your working memory.
As Hurley states: “practice improves performance on almost every task humans engage in, whether it’s learning to read or playing horseshoes.” However, the required practice is often the greatest hindrance to becoming proficient in a new language.
And as he cautions: “Just like physical exercise, cognitive exercises may prove to be up against something even more resistant to training than fluid intelligence: human nature.”
Language Games to make Practice Fun
Games can make language practice fun, and by taking the boredom out of the required language practice, you’ll improve your “working memory” playfully.
Will you end up being smarter by learning a second (or third) language? Hurley's article seems to suggest as much! But we're also looking forward to more research on that particular topic. In any case, if you start learning a new language now, you'll be ahead!
(Updated 4/15/2017) A couple of days ago the national Spanish newspaper El País ran the following article:"Se puede saber idiomas sin viajar (pero no igual)" [One can know languages without traveling (but not equally well)].
The article then continues: “Can one become fluent in a language without traveling? Yes, according to the Minister of Education, José Ignacio Wert. No not entirely, according to the majority of experts.”
Now that we have stayed in Barcelona for a couple of weeks – we rented an apartment for a month in the Gracia neighborhood of town - it makes total sense that being in Spain adds a huge level of reality and relevance to the Spanish words, phrases, and sentences that we learned with our Spanish 1 course to prepare for the trip.
Traveling is great - Practicing is essential
Yes, Barcelona is totally bilingual – we also hear and see a lot of Catalan (which we actually can read pretty well, see an earlier blog post). Still, Spanish is all around us.
We've been immersed in Spanish right from the moment of arrival, when our taxi driver greeted us with a rush of Spanish, and then patiently engaged us in Spanish small talk about the weather, the traffic, FC Barcelona, etc.
It's great that we can use Spanish for everyday life. No problem doing our food shopping at the market or in one of the many little shops around; or, ordering meals in cafés or restaurants and paying for them. We can ask directions, ask for information, and for explanations.
We can even make small talk with people standing next to us in shops, or sitting at a table next to us in a café. (We often use the phrase: ”Gracias, pero quiero practicar mi español” - when somebody tries to be helpful in English...)
But for us this is just a start. What then are the next steps to getting out of the “eternal intermediate level,” as Alejandra Agudo, the writer of the article, aptly calls it?
The most important one is to continue to build on your language skills: Continue to acquire practical and relevant language and absorb its grammar in a meaningful way.
Real-Life language helps you to communicate
Beyond that, Alejandra Agudo points to two other recommendations that we subscribe to enthusiastically:
• Learn the language that is really spoken - “el lenguaje de la calle” (the language of the street). Don't just learn textbook language which also may be a little outdated. A couple of examples for here in Spain: We hear the word “vale” spoken dozens of times a day. Literally, "vale" means "it's worth." But in Spain, it's the equivalent of OK, and everyone says it in any situation. Or, a shopkeeper or waiter will say “Dígame ...” to ask what we want. And, in general, much to our surprise, the casual form of address is used a lot here, even with us!
• Make the language you are learning part of your life. Start keeping a journal in your new language, even if it's just a couple of sentences a day. Whatever self-talk you do, do it in Spanish, German, French, etc. Look up and learn the words of everything in your surroundings and of your daily activities: chair, table, door, I'm setting the table, I'm getting the newspaper, etc. and say them to yourself, aloud, if possible. In that way, learning a language successfully is almost a life-style choice.
Language learning is a process of building. You create a good base of knowledge and understanding, and then, thoughtfully, gradually, with many repetitions, you start adding to it. Traveling or not, your language skills will improve dramatically. (And, if by chance you'll be traveling to Barcelona our Spanish Travel Memories may interest you.)
A couple of weeks ago, I came across a letter in the Social Q's column of the New York Times called "Misinterpreted." It was by a woman who speaks Spanish to her 15 month-old-son to teach him her language.
She, too, knows that young children pick up a language fast and that the sounds of the new language will be wired easily into their brain from the get go. As she says: "This way, our beautiful boy will know two languages." It's a dream that many parents share.
The dilemma
When the mother picks up her son from daycare, however, the teachers are unhappy when she speaks Spanish to her toddler and complain that they feel excluded.
This is definitely a dilemma in the US for someone speaking another language! And not just in the US. Intermarriage, dislocation, as well as travel have created the same problem on every continent.
There's a tug-of-war between wanting to speak another language to teach and practice it and irritating others by excluding them from the conversation. So what are the guidelines of good language behavior?
A delightful and thought-provoking article called "Language Etiquette. Say What?" [New York Times, 1997] gives some answers: "Try to speak the language of the country you are in. Be tolerant of those who don't speak your language. ... Do not talk about others assuming they won't understand. ... But use your own language in private conversations if you wish."
These are very good suggestions, but they're not really relevant to the situation of the mother who wants to make her son bilingual.
The dilemma has been an issue for me for most of my life. My first language is not English, I learned it as a young teen when my family moved to Canada. In addition to my native German, I spoke Dutch fluently and by that time had also started to learn French.
That means, I've had lots of opportunities to speak non-English languages with family and friends. My mother especially was set on creating a multilingual family, a tradition I have vigorously continued.
Be inclusive
So, I'll echo Philip Galanes' suggestion for the mother who wants her child to become bilingual, and elaborate a little: - Be as inclusive as possible and approach the situation in a playful, humorous way. - It's OK to speak Spanish to your son, but then tell the teachers the gist of what you said in English.
Who knows, the teachers might pick up a little Spanish in the process and could then teach all the other kids a few phrases too! You could even consider handing them a list of fun and useful Spanish kid-friendly phrases to share around ...
In any case, I definitely agree with Philip's caveat: "It's not nice to exclude people". I encourage multilingual people to find ways to be as inclusive as possible.
As of February 2014, GamesforLanguage has been a completely free-to-use site. You can play all Quick Games online without registering. When you register, you can also play our online courses. Because of their format, the games and courses work best on the computer. On a mobile device, you can squeeze the frame to fit.
For us, GamesforLanguage has been and continues to be an amazing resource. We have used it to learn and improve our Italian, French and Spanish, with the result that our travels are much enriched.
We enjoy the interaction with other language enthusiasts online, and love the challenge of learning new languages for the pure fun of it. And, we are very happy so see that old and new learners come to our site daily.
Original Post. February 2012:
As a new online foreign language learning site – we just celebrated our first anniversary in January – that uses a story and games as key teaching tools, we are still experimenting with the pricing structure for our programs. GamesforLanguage.com currently offers beginner/refresher courses for four (4) languages: French, Spanish, Italian, and German.
We are interested in attracting learners who either can't afford the expensive programs on the market or who find some of the free programs not sufficient or effective. Programs which require CDs, DVDs, or downloads also may prevent learners from practicing while traveling or at a lunch break during the day. We believe that frequent, ideally daily, “language breaks” will greatly accelerate the foreign language learning process. That's where an online program really works well!
During our free Beta phase we quickly acquired thousands of learners who wanted to try our free language program. (See also: "How to Play and Learn with Gamesforlanguage.com".) However, many of these learners were not motivated enough to “stick with it” and continue with the course.
On the other hand, there are clearly many who acquire language courses for hundreds of dollars (e.g. Rosetta Stone, Fluenz et. al.) and, because they now have “some skin in the game,” these buyers are quite motivated to use such courses. (They may also experience the “Rosetta Stone Effect” - but that's another matter...)
The G4l Earn-back program
That's why we came up with an innovative "earn-back your purchase price” offer. Maybe our purchase price of $29.95 per course is too low for anybody to consider having “skin in the game.” But for someone who is motivated to start learning a new language in 40 days, the incentive to earn back his/her purchase price by completing daily lessons with a 95% score should be irresistible. The first two (2) lessons of the 36-lesson course are free.
The 40-day window for completing all remaining 34 lessons will also allow for some skipped/lazy days. The reimbursement of $.88 for each completed lesson with a 95% score also applies to each referral to our site. (One caveat: As some buyers also benefit from our “Play&Learn” coupons and our four-course package of $59.95, the per lesson reimbursement may be lower for some buyers and, in any event, cannot exceed the purchase price.)
We assume that some interested learners may doubt their own commitment to complete all or most of the lessons in 40 days. They may also doubt GamesforLanguage's commitment to proceed with the earned reimbursement 40 days after the purchase – but those who do, should keep in mind that we want to acquire our language learning customers by word of mouth and referrals and not by expensive marketing campaigns.
Recently, I came across a report by Inc.com, entitled: “5 Innovative Language-Learning Tools.” 
A recent article by 