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What would you want in a language site? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| rollo Diglot Senior Member Joined 4755 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 14 12 April 2013 at 7:08am | IP Logged |
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I often find that language products don't really "do it" for me. I mean, personally, I DO like Pimsleur a lot and usually start there.
But once I get past the beginning stuff, there's not anything out there that really helps me - other than books, that is. i've checked out different sites, and - granted, i usually just did the free trial versions - wasn't super thrilled. i keep thinking there's gotta be a better site! so, i got inspired to make my own... but i can't be the only one with good ideas for a language site. so, what would you want to see in a language site? i'm open to ideas! thx Rollo 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5091 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 2 of 14 12 April 2013 at 8:42am | IP Logged |
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I've thought a great deal about this before and even considered making my own. Also, I assume you're talking about a specific language (i.e. MasterRussian.com) as opposed to a general language learning site. Some of my thoughts are as follows for you to consider or ignore as you please. :)
1. Get to using the language quickly! It's depressing when courses seem to think you need to study grammar for 6 months before you can handle a paragraph or two in the target language. 2. Don't shy away from grammar terms. Offer explanation when needed, but if you need the word palatalization, use it (this is a particular issue for me with Russian, it took me far longer than it should have to realize that what Russians call a soft consonant is really a palatalized one). Ideally you would use the grammar word and make it clickable so users could get a detailed explanation if needed. 3. Give the user a clear path to follow. Many language sites just have links to all the various elements (for example, pages for nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) which words great for a reference but horribly if you want to learn from square 1. Ideally you'd have everything broken up into chapters with something to identify what you'll learn, then it serves both purposes. (i.e. Lesson 1 - The Alphabet, Lesson 2 - Present Tense Verbs, Lesson 3 - Common Phrases, etc.) 4. Review often. Not everyone learns well from grammar tables and summaries and whatnot, but the users that do will greatly appreciate having a place where they can go to see a brief summary of everything they've learned so far. I'll post more if something comes to mind. Good luck! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5435 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 14 12 April 2013 at 2:58pm | IP Logged |
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Soemthing along these lines can be found for French in Fluent French Now but it really is for intermediate and advanced users
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6555 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 4 of 14 12 April 2013 at 6:34pm | IP Logged |
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I want to create a super language learning site that combines the goodness of existing sites:
1) shared talk online language partners 2) lingq reading tool with content, mouse-over dictionary and word tracking 3) htlal forum 4) fluent in three months blog 5) cherry blossoms dating 6) anki SRS 7) drama addicts torrents 8) lang 5 essay correction and adds some new stuff 9) youtube polyglot society 10) subtitle mouse over super tools etc Of course, I'd fix the obvious problems that the existing sites/tools have, and reign as emporer. So maybe I'd be the only one who'd like it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5267 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 5 of 14 12 April 2013 at 6:51pm | IP Logged |
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The University of Texas Austin Brazil Pod Conversa Brasileira has some very innovative features with their intermediate-advanced level videos for Portuguese learners. The videos have "pop-up" commentary in text and audio- the video pauses when you're listening to the commentary and resumes when you click "back" after you are finished with the commentary. The videos have Portuguese and English subtitles, pdf transcripts and notes. You can also download the video (without special features). There's also a related discussion forum. Of course the option exists to opt out of any of the special features. If this were available for the most popular languages like Spanish, French, Japanese, Georgian or Finnish :), it would be a lot of members' favorite resource.
Kudos to Orlando Kelm and the UT Austin team. It's not the perfect site but not bad for free. Edited by iguanamon on 12 April 2013 at 7:15pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| rollo Diglot Senior Member Joined 4755 days ago 11 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Russian | Message 6 of 14 13 April 2013 at 12:24am | IP Logged |
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lot of fun suggestions.
iguanamon - that's a great site, and actually not that different than what i was picturing. if you have any other ideas, please let me know. if i'm gonna build something, i may as well get it right! although, leosmith, i don't think i could incorporate ALLL that! :) Rollo 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 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 7 of 14 13 April 2013 at 2:48am | IP Logged |
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Ohhhhh @iguanamon, I tried the football lessons and they are awesome! Wish there was more stuff like this :P
My fave resources are, of course, http://gloss.dliflc.edu and lyricstraining.com :) OP, check out GLOSS if you haven't yet!!! I love how the topics are *interesting*, like football;) also science, technology, medicine, society... economics and politics for those who like them. Edited by Serpent on 13 April 2013 at 2:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5014 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 14 13 April 2013 at 7:44pm | IP Logged |
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I dream of a site where I could actually find language exchange partners because there
would be people learning Czech. (On italki, those I contacted are inactive). If there is one thing I really envy to natives of better languages, it is the ease of finding someone for exchange. And a site that would help me across the intermediate and advanced ground. Perhaps tips on good native material, on important specifics of spoken and informal language etc. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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