tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67157703761151407782010-04-29T12:20:11.546+09:00Albeca LLChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13533223937642993371noreply@blogger.comBlogger161125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-2165999357510680342010-04-29T02:01:00.000+09:002010-04-29T02:06:30.721+09:00

In an article on VOA News, Catherine Snow of Harvard's Graduate School of Education gives us some numbers on how many exposures you need to a word before you learn it:In order to have a high probability of learning a word, you need to encounter it fifteen, twenty times.

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-83280127918842330742010-04-29T00:15:00.000+09:002010-04-29T00:36:09.929+09:00

It's pretty rare for a language-learning tool to annoy me enough that I feel the need to write a post about it. But Grammarly has managed to do just that. I saw Grammarly recently advertised on some language-learning site I was on. It's supposed to automatically check English-language text for grammar and other various mistakes. I thought it sounded interesting, so I clicked through the ad. On

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-58350519741433264472010-04-28T22:30:00.000+09:002010-04-29T00:20:17.053+09:00

Steve and I have been having a bit of an interesting back-and-forth on how to approach grammar. It started with my post entitled If you want accurate grammar quickly, Steve Kaufmann's method is not for you, and then moved over to the comments section of a tangentially related post on his blog. The back-and-forth actually led me to think that we're a bit closer in our approaches than my earlier

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-65381143442303626222010-04-27T20:04:00.001+09:002010-04-27T20:37:15.180+09:00

Extracted from the current manuscript of the book, to the right you'll find the meat of how my preferred method for learning grammar works, in convenient flow chart format. As with learning any piece of knowledge, you'll learn a grammar rule best through spaced repetitions. As such, through much trial and much (much, much, much...) error, I've found that combining a wide variety of repetitions

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-18648708441418338732010-04-27T19:28:00.000+09:002010-04-27T21:39:57.527+09:00

OK, so I don't really think that output trumps input, but I thought I'd lead off with a contrarian title vis-à-vis Steve Kaufmann's post entitled Why input trumps output in language learning. Some amount of input necessarily needs to come before you can produce any output, but saying one trumps the other is like saying reading blogs trumps writing blogs; sure, you can learn a lot by reading blogs

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-22523086434237936922010-04-27T18:59:00.000+09:002010-04-27T19:30:01.783+09:00

According to this Italian parody of a 60s/70s English-language pop song (via Fluent Every Year), it might just sound like gibberish...I was about ready to write the English subtitles for that video, but who needs to add English subtitles to English-mimicking gibberish when you can add it to a completely foreign language?This Tamil-language video, which has been floating around the internets for

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-55438022486733348702010-04-26T20:48:00.000+09:002010-04-26T20:49:04.184+09:00

One of the points of contention in the ongoing back-and-forth between Steve Kaufmann and Benny the Irish Polyglot is whether Benny can truly pull off fluency in three months. Specifically, Benny is in Berlin studying German right now and will deem himself fluent if he can pass a really hard German test and if he can fool native speakers for 30 seconds that he is a Berliner. Jelly donuts aside,

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-78711034713954011102010-04-25T10:37:00.000+09:002010-04-25T12:25:06.487+09:00

There are so many language-learning resources out there on the web, it's kind of tough to figure out how to make use of them all. In looking at how I'm using these tools myself, I put together the following little process to incorporate many of the language-learning tools I've been using into a single workflow: Oh, and this workflow is completely free. Let's walk through this, after the jump.

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-45236408139480971952010-04-24T10:41:00.000+09:002010-04-24T20:24:27.698+09:00

This is the best our graphics department could do.The great language-learning blogosphere battle of the day has been Steve "The Inputter" Kaufmann v. Benny "The Haxor". The latest salvo in this battle comes from Steve:In my view, there are three divergent approaches to language learning, divergent in terms of their emphasis or principal focus. This is true whether we learn in the classroom,

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-65077516860381879722010-04-23T00:30:00.000+09:002010-04-23T00:42:40.484+09:00

The image you see here is a visualization (which is obviously not comprehensive) of how a given piece of information in a language might get lodged into your brain. The piece of information could be anything: a vocabulary word, a grammar rule, pronunciation, a character, etc. Every one of those lines emanating from the piece of information connects with one kind of exposure. The more exposures

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-23050902648340109282010-04-22T09:34:00.000+09:002010-04-25T12:24:57.927+09:00

iTalki just announced that they've added features that make iTalki into yet another place where you can get your foreign-language writing corrected online for free.From their post:Have you ever wanted to write something and get help correcting it? Now you can write a short post in your Notebook, and get other italki members to correct and comment on it.They kind of make it sound like they're

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-56991007204850489162010-04-03T14:24:00.000+09:002010-04-03T16:44:34.792+09:00

I've mentioned before that my current go-to spaced-repetition system is Anki, but there are a lot of other options out there, including well-known systems such as Smart.fm, Mnemosyne, and SuperMemo. Another contender in the field is Cramberry. What's kept me from making more use of Cramberry is that you can only study 30 cards per day in the free version of their web app. That said, they're

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-32452038394332726152010-03-30T19:53:00.000+09:002010-03-30T19:57:20.742+09:00

LibriVox bills itself as "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain". Translated from that cute catch phrase back to English, that means they have audio book versions of books that are in the public domain, with links to the textual versions as well. Read more... The vast majority of books with recordings are in English (nearly 10,000 of them), but there are a few thousand books in

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-11440749834627906982010-03-30T08:13:00.000+09:002010-03-30T15:22:18.060+09:00

I previously explained how to use Lang-8 and Snapvine to get recordings of your foreign-language speech corrected. Unfortunately, Snapvine is going out of business tomorrow, but Cinch comes through to let you do pretty much the exact same thing.How to do it, after the jump. Read more... I've so far tried this out only once in Italian, with the following recording:It worked just as expected; Lang

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-19217732024614210422010-03-27T21:57:00.000+09:002010-03-28T01:24:47.482+09:00

Earlier, I told you about how to get foreign-language text read to you online for free through computer-generated text-to-speech software. Text-to-speech software still doesn't quite pull off completely native language, so wouldn't it be great if you could actually get a native speaker to record some audio for you? That's the whole concept behind RhinoSpike, a new, completely free website

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-61236591969362676912010-03-05T17:57:00.000+09:002010-03-07T15:45:44.403+09:00

If you're learning English and wondering where you can get video with subtitles, look no further than your friendly neighborhood YouTube. Google is launching some new features on YouTube that will make for some good language-learning resources for those whose target language is English. In particular: For selected English video content, YouTube is implementing automatic captioning. For all

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-19383631305375619162010-02-21T19:01:00.000+09:002010-02-21T19:49:29.352+09:00

You might recall that Michael Phelps did a stint as the spokesman for Rosetta Stone. Did you also know that Rosetta Stone and Phelps managed to uncover something about Chinese that has eluded linguists, scholars, and even the Chinese themselves for millennia?Watch the latest business video at video.foxbusiness.comThe highlight starts at 0:53:Interviewer: And, Michael, I understand you used [

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-80957338447032176032010-02-17T22:56:00.000+09:002010-02-18T01:16:36.242+09:00

ChatRoulette has been generating quite a bit of buzz over the past week or so. The concept is quite simple; you video chat with randomly selected people, and if you don't want to chat with any particular person, you just press F9 to get hooked up with another random person. It's the brainchild of some 17-year-old Russian kid who's now getting courted by U.S. investors.The idea has great

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-86291433737652956792010-02-03T00:33:00.000+09:002010-02-03T00:41:08.988+09:00

This is one time when I'm happy to recycle a quote from a press release:Transparent Language Inc. announced today the release of free versions of their Haitian Creole language software based on the British Red Cross Emergency phrase list. The language learning company has added the 62 common medical questions and statements from the British Red Cross to its Haitian Creole Byki software. In the

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-81045904174485323012010-02-03T00:24:00.000+09:002010-02-03T00:27:39.661+09:00

Score one for the Hattiesburg American, a newspaper serving Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and its community columnist, Cindy Burleson, because they got us the answer to this pressing question. And I quote:Rico Suave suggests language learning aids you in finding a future husband or wife by simply "increasing the size of your selection pool."I don't think we can deny Mr. Suave's point. Indeed, given

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-9807934813974743682010-02-03T00:18:00.000+09:002010-02-03T00:20:31.090+09:00

The New York Times last week ran an article by Eric Taub entitled "The Web Way to Learn a Language". For the most part, the article is an uncontroversial list of some of the better known language-learning resources on the web, followed by a grab bag of a few lesser-known, language-specific resources plus a few iPhone apps.That the article is an incomplete list of the numerous resources available

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-60991169132485507642010-02-02T23:54:00.000+09:002010-02-03T00:30:33.927+09:00

In a post aptly entitled "Why Livemocha is better than Rosetta Stone" (hat tip: Kirsten Winkler), Livemocha explains just that. Here's how Kirsten sums it up:Reason 1: Livemocha offers hundreds of hours of free courses in over 30 languages.Reason 2: Livemocha lessons include revision of speaking and writing exercises by native speakers.Reason 3: Livemocha has a community of over 4 million members

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-23545119659948691522010-01-27T00:37:00.000+09:002010-01-27T01:00:18.450+09:00

That's the title of an article by David Behling, a professor at Waldorf College, cunningly designed to pull in people like me looking to shoot down a ridiculous argument. Unfortunately Professor Behling is pulling a fast one on us, because he comes down firmly on the side of learning languages.I of course agree with that sentiment, but there's a few places where I can't quite agree with what he's

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-23308176908807698052010-01-24T13:04:00.000+09:002010-01-24T15:43:45.769+09:00

We in the language-learning blogosphere are generally not impressed by university-level language programs. Some of us have even gone so far as to envision a brave new world of institutional language learning where entire language departments get the boot and students take advantage of native speakers, study abroad, and the multitude of resources available to them to learn their language of

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6715770376115140778.post-78935471190450086192010-01-09T13:19:00.000+09:002010-01-09T13:25:24.827+09:00

The study this time comes from Portland State University. I can't say the results surprise me, although they did surprise those conducting the study.Link: Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning [Kentucky Educational Television] (via The Linguist on Language)

Vincentnoreply@blogger.com4