How much it costs: It is free and available for all platforms and all devices, as it uses open-source software. What language skills it covers: Vocabulary acquisition
Reviews/suggestions: Teachers could easily develop a set and send them to all students, but they are subject to all the normal caveats and limits of flash cards in vocabulary acquisition (decision of whether to link L2 word to a picture or L1 word, lack of one-to-one L1-L2 correspondence, lack of argument structure, lack of sociolinguistic context, lack of allophonic detail, eye-tracking paths). Such apps assume that a lexical entry consists of just one orthographic form, which is linked to just one meaning or one equivalent L1 word. It also ignores the role of output, especially output prompted by a meaningful need to communicate in vocabulary acquisition. Students may benefit more from developing their own flash card sets as a course project in a way where vocabulary is taught along with a rich linguistic (argument structure and collocations) and sociocultural (associations, indexical meanings) context.
Babbel
What it does: Babbel teaches you words and phrases in: Spanish, French, Italian, German, English (for speakers of French, German, Italian, and Portuguese), Swedish, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Indonesian, Danish, and Norwegian. It does this by means of listen and repeat; listen, read and tap-to-match; and fill-in-the-blank using jumbled letters or a language-appropriate keyboard.
Cost/platform/device info: Apple (all devices), Android, Windows – Monthly subscription costs as of 9-24-2014 are: 1 mo =$10.99/mo, 3 mo =$7.33/mo, 6 mo =$6.33/mo, 12mo =$5.42/mo. Note: I got a couple promo emails for buy 3 months, get 3 months. What language skills it covers: Vocabulary acquisition, learning different alphabets (e.g. Cyrillic), and some languages offer lessons on grammar, syntax, and pronunciation.
Reviews/suggestions: I checked out Turkish, Russian, Danish, and English for French speakers, and no two intro lessons were the same. Warning – Turkish crashed on me and had to be reloaded. In Danish, the intro lesson consisted of listening, and reading and matching. In Russian, in contrast, the intro lesson also included repeating words (though you can skip if you don’t want to enable your mic), practicing and predicting spelling in Cyrillic, and predicting previously taught words in little dialogues. Like mentioned in the Anki review, vocabulary is presented out of sociolinguistic context (though, interestingly, the English for French speakers did provide some sociolinguistic and lexical context, explaining when to use hello and giving a functional translation plus a literal translation for ‘Good morning’). “Courses” typically consist of 11 or so lessons on topics ranging from “Vacations”, “Body”, “Feelings/Attitudes”, “Home”, “The Pronunciation of Vowels” (Danish), “BuildingSentences” (Turkish), and “The 100 Most Important Words” (Russian).
BliuBliu
What it does: This language learning program teaches you mainly vocab through authentic materials. From its drop-down menu, it looks like most of the world languages are covered.
Cost/platform/device info: It’s still in the beta version so it’s free. You can access the program through their website. I couldn’t find any mobile apps. What language skills it covers: It mainly covers single words in a context.
Reviews/suggestions: When you choose a language to learn, they give you a level test. They first show you a couple basic words then a series of words from different levels for you to pick out the ones you know. The words are all defined using Google Translate and pronunciation is provided through Google Voice. Then after you are done with the vocab level test, they give you a suggested range of levels (from beginner to native) and you can pick one. They also ask you what other languages you know and what your levels are so they get a better sense of the words you might know in the target language. For the actual learning, you are presented with a number of categories such as technology, humor, fashion, etc. And under the categories, you can find some type of authentic material such as the lyrics from YouTube music video, a blog post, a paragraph from a news article etc. However, there’s often a mismatch between the content and the category. A short joke in French would also appearunder fashion and technology even though it has nothing to do with either. They have the words you don’t know in red, but you can change that or mark other words as unknown. For Chinese, they define most of the characters separately even though it would make more sense not to separate some characters. You get to put all the words you don’t know together. They have a drill system where you have to guess the meaning of these words in sentences. Overall, I like the idea of using authentic materials to teach as well as using your knowledge of other languages to learn a certain language. They also have a great interface. However, you wouldn’t be able to learn much through only vocabulary with no explanation of grammar. Google Translate isn’t always a reliable source for definitions either.
Busuu
What it does: To learn 9 foreign language by memorizing vocabulary, structure of sentences and conversational skills. You can use the app alone or have access to the community where you can practice your target language with other learners or native speakers.
Cost/platform/device info: They have both the website version and apps for smart phones and tablets. Users can log on with their Facebook or Google+ account, or just create a new one, for free. It is free of charge and you can enjoy most of the courses on it. Meanwhile, you can also subscribe to a Premium membership in order to get access to additional learning functionalities like grammar materials, video lessons etc. on the website. The cost for Premium membership is $9.99/month, or $7.99/month for 6 months($47.99 in total), or $4.99/month for a year($59.99 in total), or $3.99/month for two years($95.99 in total).
What language skills it covers: Busuu divides the language lessons into different scenarios and categories. For each lesson, it starts with vocabulary flash cards and after learning every three words/phrases, there will be a mini reviewing task to make sure you understand and remember the new vocabulary. Then it provides a model conversation in target language, with sound demonstration and translation in L1. After you listen to the conversation, it hides some of the key words in the conversation you have just listened to and lets you fill in the blanks and complete the conversation. Then, you can choose to do writing exercises with the knowledge that you have just learned or practice your oral skills (Premium only for speaking exercises) using the recorder in it.
Reviews/suggestions: The design of the website and its app is pleasing with some soft colors and clean arrangements of the lessons. And you can see all the topics of each lesson and choose the ones that you would like to learn first. Literally, it helps learners to practice all four basic language skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking) but the speaking part is not free of charge, so those who have not decided to use it as a long-term study tool might not want to try their premium service at first. I really appreciate their way of studying vocabulary because repetition is a useful strategy in language learning. And they also have vivid images to help learning. However, I don’t see any systematical teaching of grammar, which might confuse the learners about why the sentence is structured in this way. One of the advantage of Busuu is its own community system that learners can communicate with other users through the Internet. They can share their own homework and let otherlearners to make comments on, or check other learners’ homework. And they also have access to some opportunities to talk with a native speaker to improve their skills. Nevertheless, these functions seem only available on the website because I cannot get into the community services with my phone. All in all, Busuu is more useful for beginner and intermediate language learners because there are no systematical grammar courses in it and all you can learn is the ability to have some simple conversations with others. Since it has 9 different languages that users can learn, we can use it as an introductory tool to see if you are really interested in the language, and then choose a more decent learning method to further your language study.
bulls
What it does: This app allows learners to practice vocabulary words and formulaic chunks via flashcard-like practice .
Cost/platform/device info: There both a mobile and an downloadable version of the platform and each has a paid and a free version. Byki Mobile is available on android and iOS and the downloadable version is compatible with MAC and PCs. The paid version of the downloadable software is 69$ and comes with the mobile paid version of the app for free (otherwise a 8$ cost).
What language skills it covers: Vocabulary
Reviews/suggestions: Like Duolingo, Byki is just one of the products offered by its parent company Transparent Language. On the surface, it seems like another flashcard, vocabulary building app. However, they at least try to support their model by citing second language acquisition research to include the benefits of declarative learning and the importance of knowing lexical chunks as well as vocabulary. The cite a wide variety of research to include some older, but yet some new publications which supports their methodology. A beginning learner reviews a set of isolated words and lexical chunks (“how are you”, “yes”, “no”, “Hello” etc.) and then is prompted to provided an english definition when presented with the corresponding target language word. This activity is then followed by the English word which must then be translated into the target language.
This app falls victim to the “one-to-one” fallacy in that it assigns only one meaning to a particular word. However, during the review sessions the computer does not correct your answers. Instead, the app prompts you to say them aloud or in your head, and the self-report whether or not you were correct. The only time the app explicitly corrects you is at the end of the review session when you take the quiz. If you self report that you got the wrong answer, the app will then repeat that particular word over and over until you self report “correct” or decide to skip it. Either way, it will revisit the incorrect words until until you’ve self-reported a correct answer until continuing on with other words. While this does provide the learner with ample opportunities for input, there is no context whatsoever and all words and lexical chunks are taught in a vacuum.
It’s possible that the pay version of the software is more robust; however, the free version does not seem to stand apart from the many other vocabulary building apps in the app store. While they cite SLA theory to back their pedagogical practices, they don’t necessarily apply the SLA theory to its fullest potential.
Conjuverb
What it does: Conjuverb is an English to Spanish conjugation app. When you open the app, you can either type in an English or Spanish verb (any tense is acceptable), and then once you press search, conjugations of that verb will pop up in Spanish. The conjugations are organized into different tenses, moods, and aspects, and there are shortcuts to get to each type of tense at the bottom of the screen when the app is open. You can star certain verbs, which is equivalent to favoriting or marking an email as important, so that it is easy to retrieve at a later point in time. In addition to being able to star certain words, conjuverb makes it possible to create flash cards and organize these flash cards into different categories that make sense to the user. There is also a list of the top 75 word list, and then have lists in increments of 75, but it is unclear whether this is your top 75 words, or the top 75 most common Spanish verbs in general. Ultimately, there are over 1600 Spanish verbson this app. It is important to note that the app DOES NOT conjugate Spanish verbs into English.
Price: The app costs 99 cents (one-time payment) and has compatibility with Apple products (ipads and iphones).
Language skills covered by the app: Conjuverb allows its users to improve their mastery of morphology, syntax, orthography, and the Spanish lexicon. However, the conjugations are isolated rather than being part of a sentence or discourse. This isolation makes the app nice to help learn knew words and answer questions about conjugations, but it is not conducive to discourse and pragmatic understandings needed to know when and how to use the verbs. It seems like a nice way to learn new verbs and build an understanding of conjugations and potentially even morphological patterns, but it feels like it would be best used as a supplement to more authentic contexts and texts.
Reviews/Suggestions: With the recent iOS8 update, a lot of people have been complaining that they cannot get the app to work. When it does work, it is slow and lags. These same people have loved using it before and are just waiting for apple to fix the many bugs associated with the new software update. My iphone software is part of the Stone Age, so it works just fine on my phone. I would recommend the app to anyone looking for a quick and easy way to learn a new word, review. (reviewed by Danny)
Duolingo
What it does: It offers sentences in the target language as well as the native language of the user that must be translated. Using gaming technology (earning “lingots” for the digital store, losing “hearts” when a mistake is made, etc.) it draws the user into trying to master “levels” of the language and certain vocabulary in order to advance within the game.
Cost/platform/device info: Free, available to Android and iPhone users What language skills it covers: Translation and vocabulary acquisition.
Reviews/suggestions: You can pay for additional thematic lessons using lingots, which I did for “flirting” just to see what I’d get. The sentences are grammatically correct, but they don’t seem immediately applicable to everyday life. I’ve used Duolingo on a website as a way to brush up on my grammatical accuracy in Spanish. I’m doubtful that I would recommend it as a way to learn a language, but certainly as a supplement I enjoy it. I prefer the website version to the mobile app, as I find it faster to type answers there than on the mobile screen. Perhaps as a nod to the convenience factor in this area, the mobile app now includes preformed words on the screen for some sentence formation questions. This allows you to tap the words in sequence first so that you can input the word order without having to type everything out.
Fluentlee
What it does:Fluentlee aims to connect learners and tutors from around the world for 15-minute video conference lessons to improve conversational language skills. Anyone can be tutor and the site relies on user ratings to identify the most effective teachers. The most common languages taught are English, Spanish, and Chinese, though the company’s website claims to offer over 23 languages.
Cost/platform/device info: $4.75 per session (4-29 sessions), $3.75 per session (30-199 sessions), $2.99 per session (200+ sessions). Users can access the site with any modern computer with internet connection (Windows, iOS, Linux, etc.). Chrome and Firefox are needed for video tools. Users can access the site with iOS, Android tablets, or smartphones, though video tools are not currently available with iOS or Android.
What language skills it covers: Listening and speaking. No reading and writing. Vocabulary introduced in each lesson. Learners can select a profile and learner type that includes: General language learning (all types, all levels), Homework help and test prep (help with FL homework or test prep like ESL, SAT, etc.), Business (learning for a profession like medicine), Expertise on specific subject (connect to tutors who have domain expertise like agriculture), and Read stories to me/my child (pay someone to read you a book in a foreign language). The site acknowledges that there is a smaller pool of tutors for some learner type selections
Reviews/suggestions: The philosophy behind creating the site seems well-intentioned. The site lists three guiding philosophies:
1. Language starts with conversation – conversation is most important reason many people learn a language, though it is often the least taught in other language programs
2. Learning depends on student interest and engagement. Fluentlee draws heavily from IB philosophies. Teachers are supposed to be guides and mentors, not test administrators
3. Language learning needs to be part of everyday routine. Students should practice every day for at least 15 minutes
Only one language is available at a time per account.
It is difficult to critique the program because it was only launched in September, 2013. It will need to distinguish itself from other similar language sites that connect learners with tutors, sometimes for free. The 15-minute lesson structure could attract people who want to practice in small chunks, but the site will need to provide evidence that students are actually learning the language they are practicing. To be successful, Fluentlee will need to improve its technical accesability for all smartphones and increase the availability of tutors (the site admits that Fluentlee might not have tutors available all the time).
InnovativeLanguage
What it does:
The app provides courses in a variety of languages, and many courses are delivered with native speakers. The teaching and learning focus is on authentic, daily English that is used to serve everyday communicative purposes, so the content and skills are emphasized on how to use English for communication effectiveness (not for professional or academic purposes) and on cultural elements which learners can encounter in real-life interaction with native speakers of that language. Once learners choose their target language, they can consider any levels that suit them from Absolute Beginner to Advanced, and can add new-level courses for the same target language or courses of another language. The app offers learners the experiences with both audio or video learning, knowledge/skills review and assessment.
Cost/platform/device info:
The website offers 4 service packages: Free (with very limited access), Basic at 4$/month, Premium $10, and Premium+ at $23. All plans go with different types of promotion at different time registration (e.g. 10% discount this week, or some extra language lessons next week). The main differences between Premium plan types and Basic plan lie in several distinctive features that include unlimited access to mobile learning apps, customed language bank, dictionary, line-by-line audio transcript, interactive voice recorder to check with a native speaker’s voice, personalised learning and assessment with English teachers. After signing up, learners are offered a seven-day trial with Premium access, and they can cancel their subsription at anytime.
To activate the recording function, learners need to install Adobe Flash Player via the link provided on the learning website/app.
What language skills it covers:
As the app focuses on learners’ ability to communicate in the target language, it places great importance on listening comprehension and pronunciation. Most of the lessons and programs are constructed with listening skills, pronunciation of words and grammatical points. Therefore, learners can practice their listening, speaking (via pronunciation feature), vocabulary, grammar (not in deep and thorough knowledge system), some reading comprehension (when reading lectures notes in the downloadable pdf files), and cultural points. However, learners may not have much speaking improvement because they are just required to pronounce and repeat words, phrases, possibly sentences or modeled dialogs, which are not free speaking and not delivered in somewhat natural interactive environment.
Reviews/suggestions:
In my opinion, InnovativeLearning.com is an interesting and effective language learning app that students can take advantage of anywhere and anytime. It has some competitive features compared to other apps:
– Learners can look at the curriculum of their learning level before they take any lessons. Thanks to this, learners can have smarter choices on what they need and want to learn, which reduce their time for trying different lessons to then realize that they should take another level.
– Personalized learning (recommended and revised by a teacher/specialist) allows learners to have a course that not only suits their level but also accommodates their individual needs
– New items (both vocabulary or grammatical patterns) associated with cultural explanation help learners acquire the knowledge faster and produce more appropriate use in real communication with native speakers.
– Learners can create their own language bank (both vocabulary and grammar) by adding their favorite items and labelling them for easier course management. Even more, they can print their bank content straight from the website/app (in printing form) or export it as pdf file and save it to their computer.
– Instructions in audios and videos are co-delivered by both male and female instructors, which prevents learners to feel bored during lessons.
– Season voabulary (autum, holidays, etc.) with up-to-date and seasonal items is very useful for beginner learners when they know more suitable vocabulary to start or facilitate their communication with local people after they just arrive to the host country at a specific time of the year.
– For vocabulary videos, vocabulary is delivered not only by showing images but short moving video clips for illustration, which is more visual especially for abstract notions.
Recommendations: The app would deliver a more satisfactory servive to their learners if they could minimize their small disadvantages that are not worth having.
– It is better that the instructors do not take turn so often in the audios, which easily distracts the learners. For example, the male teacher says “Next word”, the female then says “Busy”, then the men explains the word meaning, and the woman repeats the word two times for pronunciation practice. This turn taking may bother beginners because it takes time for them to process English in mind and when they have not yet get familiarized with the female voice, the man jumps into, easily leading to distraction. Instead, they can take less frequent turns like one finishes this word and the other can continue with the next word/phrase, which seems to be more complete.
– There are differences betwwen the instructors when they are giving lessons. For example, at beginner level, while one speaks very slowly, the other speak very fast as if the instruction is intended for intermediate level. It is recommended the teachers should conduct their teaching at the same pace that fits a certain level.
Keewords
What it does: It’s a vocabulary learning tool – kind of like electronic flashcards. You choose one of these languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, Greek, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish, and then you download that language’s application (apps are named Hack Arabic, Hack Chinese, Hack English, etc.). Each app has 1,500 of that language’s most commonly-used words, the idea being that if you learn those words, then “you will understand up to 75% of a text or a conversation” in that language.
Cost/platform/device info: On the website itself, you can sign in for free and play free games on your browser. It becomes a freemium in some parts, like if you want sound for pronunciation, then you would have to subscribe. Additionally, each language has a mobile application that you can download from the AppStore for $2.99. The applications are only available for iPhone and iPad.
What language skills it covers: Vocabulary acquisition
Reviews/suggestions: I like that you can at least play the games online for free and that, depending on which language and which category or level you’re playing on, there sometimes is a voice that pronounces the words as they show up. The two types of games you can play on your browser are: a flashcard game and a matching card game. The flashcard requires you to write, so it’s not very good if you don’t know how to write in Greek, Cyrillic, Chinese, or Korean! The flashcard will show you the word in English, and if you don’t know it then you can flip the card to peek. Then you type in the word, it glows green if it’s correct, and then it gives you another word (and tracks your progress in a bar above the flashcard). The Matching card game gives you a word in English and then has 3 cards below it, each with a word that you must choose as the correct one. This game is better for languages with non-Latin orthographies because no writing is required. These two games aren’t perfect,though. I checked out the Chinese one, and it’s kind of misleading because a lot of the words in English aren’t directly translatable. Sure, the cards might provide part of a word or the general meaning of one, but something that is always said the same way in English may be said using different words in Chinese. Flashcards don’t give you any linguistic context for proper word use.
everywhere
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BLI
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Lingobee
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LinguaHut
What it does: LingoHut’s mission is to help people succeed socially, intellectually and economically by teaching basic conversational skills. LingoHut concentrates on essential and basic language skills needed when assimilating into a new environment with an emphasis on speaking skills, but also listening, and writing. The website is rich in possibility for the beginning learner. The site is divided into three sections: Learn Languages (Aimed at the English speaker trying to learn a new language), ESL (Aimed at those who want to learn English), and GeoLingo (Interactive map that allows users to learn how to pronounce and compare the same word in many languages. By clicking around the map, users can also learn country and language facts). LingoHut’s content is translated into over 53 languages.
Cost/platform/device info: LingoHut is free and is currently only available as a .com with no plans for an app. It’s visually appealing and easy to navigate. Its strength is in its offerings. For the majority of the languages, there are over 100 lessons available.
What language skills it covers:The lesson is presented with audio pronounciation and visual text. The lesson is reinforced through activities: flash card, matching game, tic-tac-toe game, concentration game, and listening game.
Reviews/suggestions: If a learner wants to gain vocabulary and phrases, it’s a good start, but it is not intended for the intermediate or advanced learner or those looking to see vocabulary, phrases in context. I would consider it more suited to the tourist who wants to learn survival language skills or the language learner who has just begun his/her learning journey. It is also heavy on the ads, so I recommend disabling before navigating this site. The lessons are developed by teachers and could be easily adapted to many different situations. One thing to note is the region from which the teacher suggesting the lessons is from as this might affect regional authenticity of language learner to learner. Good for the basics, but not authentic back and forth discourse.
Lingua.ly
What it does: Allows users to read articles and learn vocabulary words in context. Users collect vocabulary words by (a) double clicking on words from real and current articles, (b) by manually entering a word, or (c) doubling clicking on a word from anywhere on the web (users need to download the browser extension for this feature). The collected words can be used as flashcards. The user can freely edit their flashcards by selecting photos and example sentences that will best help them remember words in context. The app also tracks users progress through memory tests. Based on their progress, Lingua.ly finds articles that best matches users’ abilities but are still challenging.
Cost/platform/device info: Free. Devices supported are iPad, iPod, iPhone, Android, Mac/PC via web browser. Platforms supported are iOS, android and web browser.
What language skills it covers: Vocabulary, reading, discourse, translation and pronunciation.
Reviews/suggestions: Pros: The app promotes autonomy. Users take control of their learning by adding their own words and reading articles that interest them. Teachers can assign word lists for students to input into their collection. Students can then choose articles that contain the teachers list of vocabulary words and interest them. Vocabulary acquisition occurs within current and realistic contexts. Cons: Words are not treated as chunks, they are selected individually which does not account for collocations. This makes it hard to draw meaning from phrases. The test option is repetitive and doesn’t test users vocabulary acquisition, as words are out of context and not in chunks. Furthermore, the app lacks output opportunities. The app is aimed at receptive skills only and not productive skills All-in-all this is a brilliant use of teaching in context which is fun, engaging and realistic for users. I would definitely recommend this app!
LingQ
What it does:
LingQ is a mobile app and internet site that helps users to learn a new language. They currently offer 11 different languages, most of them are European languages and the big ones from East Asia. LingQ offers language learners “lessons” where they can learn about language in context. Learners on the app can read and listen to texts and then translate them into their first language. All sorts of content is available from diaries to music lyrics to vocabulary about food to TED talks.
Cost/platform/device info:
LingQ is a free app, but there is an “upgraded” versions which give you access to more lessons. There are “challenges” that you can complete that give you points. They aren’t redeemable or anything so it’s more of like a “brag to your friends” thing. If you upgrade, you can have cheaper prices for accessing tutors or speaking partners on the website. You also have the option to submit your own content in your native language.
What language skills it covers:
This application/website is heavily dependent on grammar translation. The bulk of the lessons give you “psuedo-access” to genuine content. Only when you pay money do you get the chance to have actual interaction with another human speaker or tutor. As a grammar-translation app, there are ample opportunities to work on listening, reading and writing skills. If you have access to the tutors or speaking partners (via skype), then you have more communicative opportunities. Still though, those tutors and speaking partners are helping you do grammar translation work…
Reviews/suggestions:
Pros: If you’re looking for a free website to work on beginner level language learning, this isn’t a bad option. It’s tough to find a database of native speakers and tutors that are available to help you learn another language. Also, if you’re looking for a place to generate language learning content or teach language one-on-one, then signing up as a tutor would be an easy way to make some cash.
Cons: Like most language learning apps, the heavy emphasis on grammar translation limits the kind of learning that could occur. The site could also work on being a little bit more user-friendly.
LiveMocha
What it does: LiveMocha is a flashcard approach to language learning. The methodology claimed on the website is Whole-Part-Whole (Demonstration/Observation, Deconstruction/Learning, Practicing). They offer “courses” in 35 languages. They are designed by native-speakers/users in the LiveMocha community and not all the languages are complete. They make use of in-tandem learning. You can submit your exercises to be reviewed by a native speaker, and you, in return, correct exercises for learners of your language.
Cost/platform/device info: It is free to sign up for LiveMocha. It is online on the website listed above – there is no mobile app for the program. To take full advantage of the program, you need to earn points. You earn points by completing exercises in your TL and for correcting exercises for learner of your language. You can also buy “coins” to get the features, bells, and whistles.
What language skills it covers: The language courses are broken down into mini lessons. Some are topical (eg: “At The Airport”) – mostly teaching phrases and vocabulary. Each lesson begins with an introduction (recording or video) of the target vocabulary and phrases. Then you go through the vocabulary flashcards. There is a button to flip the card to see the other side. All the explanations are in the TL, but there is a “translate” button to translate into your L1 (particularly helpful with languages that do not use the Roman alphabet). Then you hear recordings of the vocab in use. After that, you can practice by listening to the recording and choosing the correct answer from a multiple choice. After that you have 4 exercises (read/write, read/speak, listen/write, listen/speak) which you can submit your answers to and wait for native speakers to correct your responses.
Reviews/suggestions: LiveMocha is definitely a lot of fun and a good way to gain some quick access to language learning. You can learn some basic vocabulary and phrases – great for survival usage when traveling, and or acquiring basic skills, but I am not sure how fully you will be able to learn the language. This would be a great way to go language shopping if you are interested in learning another language but not sure which one(s) interest you…? A few problems are that the corrections to your exercises have a slow turn-around. You are at the mercy of someone to correct your exercise and provide feedback – which is not always quality feedback. Because you earn point for providing feedback for others, some people just want to collect the points so rapidly correct without any thorough or helpful feedback. It seems more often that people quickly correct other people’s work just to earn points so they can get back to their own work. It’s nice in theory. Also, the language taughtis often simplified and general (not natural or realistic) which is often the case with such programs which use a template system and then translate all the languages into that template. In short, LiveMocha is fun an helpful as an additive to language learning, but not on it’s own unless your goal is to familiarize yourself with the basics.
LivingLanguage
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LonelyPlanet
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MLibrary (Mango Languages)
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Memrise
What it does: As predicted by its name, Memrise is a memorization tool. Essentially it is a flashcard making/practice app. Most of the flashcard sets, or “courses,” as they are called, are for learning foreign language vocabulary, but there are other types of courses as well: for example, country capitals or world leaders.
Each time you learn a new item, you are presented with a “mem,” which is usually an image with some text which acts as a pneumonic device. An example of a mem for the French word parler is a picture of Johnny Depp with the caption “I want TO SPEAK to the captain. Damn t’the depths whoever thought of parler!” This seems a little longwinded for a flashcard, but the idea is to present the user with something funny or outrageous that helps the word stick in their head. Users can create and upload their own mems and there is a selection offered for each new vocabulary term, so learners can pick whichever mem resonates with them the most. New words are also accompanied by an audio file which gives the pronunciation of the term.
Memrise’s biggest claim is their “scientific” formula for effortless learning. The ongoing metaphor permeating the layout of the site and app is a garden. Each new memory is referred to as a “seed.” Users are prompted to “water” their seed memories at scientifically calculated times in order to help them grow. The app prompts you to review your memories once a day or once every few days, with the intervals between “waterings” becoming less frequent as the words supposedly move into your long term memory.
Another of Memrise’s key features is its gamification. As far as incentive, Memrise operates on a point system. Each correct answer in a learning session is worth 45 points. Each correct answer in a reviewing session is worth 150 points. This means that the points add up very fast! It can be very satisfying at the end of a review session to see that you’ve earned several thousand points. Points from you and your friends (the users you follow) are displayed on a “leaderboard” on your homepage, in order to motivate learners further through the spirit of competition.
Cost/platform/device info: Memrise used to be completely cost-free, but has recently added a “premium” membership option which runs $9/month or $59/year. Luckily the addition of the premium membership has not limited any of the content available to free users. Rather than additional content, premium members are offered more features to customize their learning experience. They receive reports on their learning habits and which words they struggle with the most. This could theoretically encourage self-regulation of when and how users learn the best and help them pinpoint their most productive study habits.
What language skills it covers: Memrise is limited mostly to practicing vocabulary and phrases. The app has recently added a listening component, where an audio file is played and users have to choose the correct translation. Most response types are multiple choice, but the more advanced levels require a typed response, which also provides a bit of writing/spelling practice.
Reviews/suggestions: The most exciting feature of the app is the communal exchange of information. Anyone can contribute a course to Memrise on any topic they wish. This function makes the site a great tool for making personal vocabulary sets to study for a specific class or exam, if you don’t find a pre-existing course to suit your needs. The downside of having amateur users upload their own sets is that not all of the information contained therein is always reliable. Sometimes there are spelling/punctuation errors in a flashcard or the translation is simply incorrect. There is also not a very direct way of reporting these errors to the uploader or other users who may be learning the course. There is a forum on which they can post about each course, but only users who specifically click on the forum will see the posts; the errors will not be made apparent to them while they are learning. One suggestion would be to add a “report” function to the site which marks a flashcard as somehowincorrect or inappropriate.
Other pros of the site are the aesthetically pleasing layout and the sheer abundance of topics and languages that are offered – even uncommon languages like Aalutiiq, Greendlandic, Xhosa, Argentinian Sign Language, Dovahzul (a constructed language from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim video game), and Morse Code!
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ReadLang
What it does: Readlang is a program that provides an online e-reader of sorts and uses Google Translate to translate words and phrases instantly when you click on them.When you do that, the program saves the words in a database that you can refer back to later, and even creates a set of flashcards for you to practice with; you can also upload the flashcards to Anki if you want. There are certain texts and videos that have been uploaded already (and labeled according to difficulty on the CERF scale), mostly things that are public domain or linked from the internet. You can, however, upload your own pdf or epub files and get them translated as well; I think as long as you keep them private you are allowed to upload whatever you want. There is also an extension that allows you to translate ANY website in your L2, and it saves the words you translate there to your word bank too! It currently supports 51 languages.
Cost/platform/device info: There is a mobile version of the extension for iOS and Android (not for Windows Phone, however).There aren’t app versions of the program (yet, it’s still in the beta stage), though the site functions fairly well as mobile site, and you can create an app-like link on your phone to link straight to the site. As far as pricing goes, the site is freemium—you can translate as many words as you want from as many texts as you want for all time, but you can only translate ten whole phrases per day, and the phrases can only be 8 words long or less. If you pay $2.50 a month, however, you can translate all the phrases you want. I read about a teacher version that is undergoing trials as well. This version boasts the ability to upload texts to share with only your students, to see how far students have read, what the most translated words are, and how often they are practicing. I didn’t see anything about a cost associated with this version.
What language skills it covers: The alleged purpose of the site is to help people learn languages, which I find to be a bold claim. I think it could be a very useful aid for memorizing new or difficult vocabulary, but not something you could depend on. It provides a whole lot of “comprehensible input” in theory, and I suppose if you could memorize enough words you might be able to eventually read in a new language? You would only be able to read though, probably not speak or listen. There is no function for providing output.
Reviews/suggestions: In terms of weaknesses, the main one I find is that it uses Google Translate, which doesn’t translate whole phrases that well and is often just straight up wrong or doesn’t know the word (I’ve already found several mistakes). There is also an inherent problem with one-to-one translation, as it assumes that you can translate a word out of its context the same way every time (which you can’t). This is especially problematic for verb phrases, i.e. in romance languages where you might have a two-part verb plus a few objects that have to be translated as a unit to get the correct meaning. Technologically, the mobile version is much slower than the desktop one, so it would be difficult to read a longer text on your phone. It’s also seemingly another way to cheat, though if you’re on the free version it would be difficult to translate whole passages. As an undergrad student, and maybe even as an upper-level high school student, I would have found this useful forcollecting the bank of new words. In undergrad I was constantly looking up words in difficult texts, writing them down, and ambitiously vowing to study them later. I rarely did. The flashcard function is ideal for that problem, but only once the reader has a significant mastery of the syntax and vocabulary of the language they’re reading in.
RosettaStone
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UTalk
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Voxy
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WordLens
What it does: Wordlens instantly translates printed words using the device’s built-in video camera in real time.
Cost/platform/device info: It’s free and available for all devices. All language packs available in the app are free so far, but paid language packs are expected to be updated soon.
What language skills it covers: Vocabulary Acquisition
Reviews/suggestions: I checked with speakers of different languages offered in this app, and it seems that most Romanized languages work pretty well with translating. Russian translation seems a bit wonky, but according to the app developers, they are working on fixing it. Wordlens is definitely a cool application that will allow people to travel to countries of different native tongues even if they don’t speak those languages. One downside of the app is that it does not work with handwriting yet, but I hope the developers fix it soon so people with different L1s can communicate by writing in their L1s and using Wordlens to translate them.