Stuart Webb, Western University and Elke Peters, KU Leuven With university classrooms and language schools closed because of the pandemic, language students must find new ways to practise and improve. In recent years, an increasing number of applied linguists have been advocating regular TV viewing to learn English. Research shows that students are motivated to …
Dawning of a new musical experience
Music is the universal language of mankind, according to U.S. poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Studies have confirmed that claim by showing that music listeners can accurately discern the mood and function of a song without understanding the lyrics written in a foreign language. Learners of Spanish, from novices to near fluent, are often encouraged to …
Trivia: Spanish is spoken where?
Where is Spanish broken? In answering, most people may blurt out Spain and countries in Latin America. The more mindful may know that Spanish is the second most spoken language in the U.S., after English. Little known, perhaps, is that Spanish is actually an official language of the African nation and former Spanish colony, Equatorial …
Spanish among easiest to learn for English speakers
The U.S. Foreign Service Institute classifies world languages into categories 1 to 4, in ascending order of learning difficulty for native or native-level English speakers. To no one’s surprise, Spanish is in category 1, meaning it is among the easiest to learn for English speakers. Spanish, like other languages in category 1 (Portuguese, Italian, French), …
Continue reading “Spanish among easiest to learn for English speakers”
Documentary on Peru: Hidden Treasure
Last week, I watched a Netflix documentary named ‘Perú: tesoro escondido’ or ‘Peru: Hidden Treasure’. The film runs for 1 hour 16 minutes which is a tad long to watch in one sitting for most people. After a lengthy but beautifully filmed and narrated prologue, the first theme is surfing along the coastline. I as …
Are language learning apps effective?
Duolingo is my top Spanish learning app (see earlier post). There are other good apps such as Babbel, Busuu, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone. Personal anecdotes aside, is there any scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of such online language learning apps? A recent Michigan State University study reports that all participants who ‘completed the requirements improved in …
Effective language learning: mastering an art or getting results
In the Youtube video, Marianna Pascal compares 2 attitudes in learning a language: mastering an art or getting the desired results. Although Marianna was specifically addressing the issue of learning English for a Malaysian audience, I believe it applies equally well for a Spanish learning one. The experience of learning a new language to many …
Continue reading “Effective language learning: mastering an art or getting results”
Lima, Peru in the midst of COVID-19
Lima, Peru is at the top of my list of places to visit. Of course, all travel plans are suspended for now because of COVID-19. While the situation in Canada is stabilizing, the situation in Peru is anything but. Please read the NY Times article entitled ‘Virus Exposes Weak Links in Peru’s Success Story’ for …
Duolingo: the constantly improving language learning app
It is fitting that this blog’s first post is about Duolingo, the app that ‘has organically become the most popular way to learn languages online’, and on which ‘more Americans are learning a language than in the US public school system’. On a personal level, it was my first Spanish learning tool, one that I …
Continue reading “Duolingo: the constantly improving language learning app”