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Language learning MOOCs | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4910 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 1 of 18 02 January 2015 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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For those of you who don't know, a MOOC is a "Massive Open Online Course", and they are generally free courses offered by major universities which offer a taste of what they teach. You can learn a lot from these courses, but so far there have been few offerings for language learning. Today I found these on Future Learn:
Introduction to Dutch a three-week introductory course from the University of Groningen. Exploring English: Language and Culture a 6 week course offered by the British Council. A Beginner's Guide to Writing in English for University Study a five-week course which should be good for some of you advanced students of English who have an interest in improving your writing. Ever thought about taking a course in your target language? Coursera.org is the largest MOOC provider. They don't have any courses specifically for language learning. But if you look to the left of their courses page, you can choose from a large list of languages which the courses are delivered in. For example, there are 116 courses in Chinese, some of which are western universities which offer translations, some of which are delivered by universities in China and Taiwan. There are 33 courses in French, most of which are delivered by HEC Paris or École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Edxoffers courses from "the best" universities, and some of them can even be used for credit at these universities. It was founded by MIT and Harvard University. I have taken an Edx intro to Computer Science offered by MIT, and I can vouch for the fact that it was a rigourous and difficult course. They offer: On Ramp to AP French Language and Culture a three-week review of the basis. Advanced Spanish Language and Culture an advanced six-week class delivered in Spanish. Intermediate Chinese Grammar a thirteen-week course offered by the University of Peking. Engaging India a ten-week course delivered in English and Hindi. Currently only available as an archived course. So far there isn't much offered for language learning, but hopefully this will continue to grow. 17 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 2 of 18 02 January 2015 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ohhh I love MOOCs. I owe my recent upgrade of Spanish to them. (and to my favourite player moving to Real Madrid...)
Coursera does have some more language learning courses: Chinese for beginners (self-paced, ie you can do it any time) Fundamentos de la escritura en español - relatively basic things like correct spelling and punctuation Corección y estilo en español - more advanced stuff for B2-C1. (I've not done either of the Spanish courses myself, but they seem native-oriented. the first one is probably more useful for informal learners and speakers of related languages) Another great MOOC site is Miríada X, for Spanish and Portuguese courses. Well, I've only done Spanish courses there so far, about the Mediterranean, about medicine, about creativity... edit: as for language stuff, they offer English and German for Spanish speakers, and also some Spanish and even Valencian. Edited by Serpent on 03 January 2015 at 9:13am 12 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3990 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 3 of 18 03 January 2015 at 12:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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Brigham Young University offers two online intermediate German classes. Not free, but $32 seems very reasonable.
http://is.byu.edu/site/courses/index.cfm#university=false|hi gh-school=false|middle-school=false|continuing-education=on| ig=on|online=on|paper=on 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4048 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 4 of 18 03 January 2015 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
@Serpent, you are... brilliant. Thanks. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 18 21 February 2015 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
This one started a couple of days ago, on Feb 19. Is anyone doing it? I hope I can manage, despite not having had three years of American high school Spanish ;DDD No but seriously, I hope it's not too academic etc. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| anamsc2 Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4560 days ago 85 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan, German Studies: French | Message 6 of 18 21 February 2015 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've also found FUN good for MOOCs in French (not for French learning but with French as the language of instruction) and Iversity for MOOCs in German.
3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 18 21 February 2015 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for all the links, my previous searches were less fruitful.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 18 26 February 2015 at 4:37am | IP Logged | |||||
Not impressed, although the first text did stretch the limits of my vocabulary. The lecturer is a non-native speaker with a slight but obvious American accent. I hope I won't have to listen to her too much. As far as I can tell, you can simply read the lecture transcripts. The videos so far are pretty short anyway. It says the intended workload is 6-8 hours per week but I was done with the first week in a couple of hours, and that included figuring out how the course/grading works. It's also intended as a preparation for some sort of American exam. I hope there won't be too much exam-specific stuff. I was a bit anxious because of the impressive description but any HTLAL'er who's used to monolingual textbooks and authentic materials shouldn't have much difficulty. Based on what I've done so far, it seems like the authentic materials can be useful for various learners. I opted for a full/detailed comprehension of the text but you don't have to. With audio I just listened once and missed a few words but didn't bother, given how much I listen to content in Spanish anyway. As of now I can't see myself giving this course more than three stars at class central but who knows... I'm totally willing to believe that in the USA this meets a pretty high standard, but as a European I expected way more. But as long as you don't hold your breath and just use the course as one of many tools, it's probably fine. The official textbook is the one from wikibooks, btw. So far there have been no assignments involving it. Edited by Serpent on 26 February 2015 at 5:36am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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