The Linguist - language learning should be fun

Research about LingQ

If any one is doing research on language learning, you may be interested in the following call for papers. It would be nice to do a project about LingQ.

Canada International Conference on Education (CICE-2010),
April 26-28, 2010, Toronto, Canada (www.ciceducation.org)


The CICE is an international refereed conference dedicated
to the advancement of the theory and practices in education.
The CICE promotes collaborative excellence between academicians
and professionals from Education.

The aim of CICE is to provide an opportunity for academicians
and professionals from various educational fields with
cross-disciplinary interests to bridge the knowledge gap, promote
research esteem and the evolution of pedagogy. The CICE 2010 invites
research papers that encompass conceptual analysis, design
implementation and performance evaluation. All the accepted papers
will appear in the proceedings and modified version of selected
papers willbe published in special issues peer reviewed journals.


The topics in CICE-2010 include but are not confined to the
following areas:

*Academic Advising and Counselling
*Art Education
*Adult Education
*APD/Listening and Acoustics in Education Environment
*Business Education
*Counsellor Education
*Curriculum, Research and Development
*Competitive Skills
*Continuing Education
*Distance Education
*Early Childhood Education
*Educational Administration
*Educational Foundations
*Educational Psychology
*Educational Technology
*Education Policy and Leadership
*Elementary Education
*E-Learning
*E-Manufacturing
*ESL/TESL
*E-Society
*Geographical Education
*Geographic information systems
*Health Education
*Higher Education
*History
*Home Education
*Human Computer Interaction
*Human Resource Development
*Indigenous Education
*ICT Education
*Internet technologies
*Imaginative Education
*Kinesiology & Leisure Science
*K12
*Language Education
*Mathematics Education
*Mobile Applications
*Multi-Virtual Environment
*Music Education
*Pedagogy
*Physical Education (PE)
*Reading Education
*Writing Education
*Religion and Education Studies
*Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
*Rural Education
*Science Education
*Secondary Education
*Second life Educators
*Social Studies Education
*Special Education
*Student Affairs
*Teacher Education
*Cross-disciplinary areas of Education
*Ubiquitous Computing
*Virtual Reality
*Wireless applications
*Other Areas of Education


Important Dates:

*Research Paper, Case Study, Work in Progress and Report Submission Deadline: December 15, 2009
*Notification of Paper, Case Study, Work in Progress and Report Acceptance Date: December 28, 2009
*Final Paper Submission Deadline for Conference Proceedings Publication: March 1, 2010
*Participant(s) Registration (Open): November 20, 2009
*Author(s) Early Bird Registration Deadline: January 31, 2010
*Author(s) Late Bird Registration Deadline: April 26, 2010
*Conference Dates: April 26-28, 2010

You do not need #language instruction in order to learn a language.

You do not need language instruction in order to learn a language. That is right. It is not necessary. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is not the only way. In fact I doubt if a majority of people learn another language through formal instruction. Essentially you need time, motivation and activities that help you notice what happens in another language.

By far the most useful way to notice what happens in another language is to listen to the language a lot, and I have discussed this at great length here. Reviewing things in flash cards, grammar exercizes, teachers corrections, writing and speaking, and tests, can all help us notice, but are not necessary nor as effective, in my view, as lots of input, meaningful, interesting input. 

Some teachers will say that formal instruction in the classroom is the only way. On the other hand I have heard teachers tell me the classroom is a ceremony without meaning, only necessary because many learners lack the motivation to learn, whether in the classroom or outside the classroom.

Some learners sit in class and demand a grammar-based instruction process with lots of explanation, although, often, the fact they are still sitting in class trying to improve their English, should be proof that this does not work for them.

Many adults have told me that they were forever frustrated trying to learn Spanish verbs, or Russian cases, or intransitive and transitive verbs in English, and were delighted to be in an input based system like LingQ.

It really depends on what you like. What you like will usually determined what works for you.  So formal instruction is not necessary, it is just one option, and in my view not the best one.

Teaching Spanish to illegal American immigrants in Mexico.

Let's assume I were teaching Spanish to illegal American immigrants to Mexico.

I use this example because of the ongoing debate at my language and literacy listserv on the role of language teachers. The prevalent view amongst the teachers on the listserv is that rigorous linguistics courses, theories about education, sociolinguistics, challenging values, teaching critical thinking etc. are essential to successful language teaching. I am pilloried for suggesting that learners simply be encouraged to listen to and read things of interest to them. In so doing I am indirectly implying that much of their theory is irrelevant, which is my intention, of course.

Many of their learners are immigrants (legal and illegal) from Latin America. So, if I were a teacher of Spanish to working class illegal American immigrants to Mexico, what would I do?

I would not encourage my learners to question the prevailing societal values in Mexico. I would not try to instruct them in critical thinking. I would not ask them to analyze texts, nor instruct them in how to infer meaning from their reading.

I would turn them on to the most popular Mexican TV and radio programs, magazines, comic books and eventually,  novels. I would encourage them to find out about what their Mexican neighbours are interested in. I would prepare audio content with transcripts relevant to this popular content.  I would encourage them to get MP3 players and do a lot of listening and reading. I would tell them that their Spanish learning is mostly up to them, and that their best teacher is the society and language world that surrounds them, and encourage them to explore.

Listening to stories is more effective than traditional classroom language study

Beniko Mason has done a lot of interesting research on language acquisition. Here is a report on Japanese students learning German, which suggests that listening to stories is more effective than traditional instruction. Check out the rest of her website

Innocent till proven guilty?

This article appeared on the front page of the Vancouver Province, implicating my friend and hockey coach Dusan Benicky in sexual assault of a minor, based on allegations about an event that allegedly happened over 15 years ago to an unidentified accuser.  I wrote this letter to the Vancouver Province.

"Yesterday my friend Dusan Benicky was on the cover of the Province, accused of molesting a youngster from 1991 to 1994. I have known Dusan for about 30 years . My sons and grandchildren have been coached by Dusan, as have countless others, including NHL pros, and there has never been anything improper. But that is not the point.

Why does the Province participate in this public humiliation of an ordinary citizen, on the basis of allegations by an unidentified accuser? Why is this so important that is must be sensationalized on the front page?

The police are obliged to investigate these accusations. No doubt they have been persuaded that they have grounds for prosecution. As an innocent man until proven guilty, however, does not Dusan have some rights, for now at least, to have his reputation protected from the hysterics that you encourage? This would not be the first case of false prosecution for sex abuse. If the charges are shown to be groundless, what is left for Dusan?"

I saw another article in the local newspaper, the North Shore news, and sent a copy of my letter to their reporter who justified this sensationalism by saying to me,

"when a person in a position of authority (hockey coach, boy scout leader, teacher etc.) is criminally charged with child sexual offences as Dusan Benicky has been, it is a matter of public interest."

I disagree. I replied to her as follows.

"Child abuse hysteria, often groundless, seems to be increasingly common and the victims are typically teachers, day care workers, coaches and the like, who are vulnerable to accusation by people with various motives.

I think we, as a society, need to be mindful of the lives that are destroyed by the aggressive methods used by police to pursue these cases. People are innocent until proven guilty and the consequences of a wrongful accusation in such cases are often irreparable."

What do you think out there?

#Tiger Woods' values - words that do not mean anything.

I, and others, have  commented here about the way some words  lack meaning and have become  mere ornaments. We sprinkle our discussion with these words to dazzle others, to show how deep, how moral, how sincere we are, as if the fact that we use these words makes us exemplars of their personification.  "Critical thinking", "creativity", "cultural sensitivity" are examples that come quickly to mind. These are terms that have lost any meaning in an absolute sense, at least to me. If they have meaning it is only in the specific action of individuals with reference to specific situations.

Even the term "values" is another example of an empty verbal bauble. Witness Tiger Woods who said, with a straight face, “I have not been true to my values".

Surely values are reflected in what we do, and not in what we say.

#bilingual dictionaries or monolingual dictionaries for language learners.

I essentially only use bilingual dictionaries when reading in a foreign language, even for languages that I speak well. I have never understood the arguments in favour of using monolingual dictionaries.  I guess it depends on how you use dictionaries.

I use dictionaries as little as possible. I want in and out as fast as I can.  I just want a quick indication or hint as to the possible meaning of a word to help me through some context in a foreign language.  A translation into a language that I know well, like my own, is invariably clearer, shorter and faster than some effort to explain a term using other words of the same language. Describe a tree, hunger, green, fast, or feelings using other English words, or do it with a translation into French or Spanish. Which is faster? The same is true going from a language I am learning into a language I already know.

But it all depends on your study habits. It just seems that the monolingual dictionary people seem to favour them as a matter of "you should" "it is better for you", and I have never understood that.

"anti #Anti-moon. A different take on things.

Anti-moon is a popular website where language learners discuss and debate issues surrounding languages and language learning. The learning philosophy at anti-moon has many things in common with what I believe; the importance of input, the need for motivation, and the relative inefficiency of the classroom and deliberate grammar study.

There are, however, a number of important points on which we disagree and I will set them out here.

Here are some of their positions (in italics) with my comments.

Reading is easier than listening, concentrate on reading.

Yes it is usually easier to understand when we read, although by no means always. But it is easier to listen, just about whenever and wherever we want. Listening is tremendously beneficial to our reading. We need both listening and reading, but I have far more time available for listening than for reading.

Learn the meaning of every word as you encounter it.

This is impossible to do in practice, and futile to attempt. Words will click in when they do, and you cannot control it.

Learn to pronounce very word correctly when you meet it.

The pronunciation will get easier and easier over time. Stay focused on input, listening and reading. Worry about output when you are more familiar with the language.

Spend hours and hours of time on the Web, every day, learning English.

Simply not practical for most people. If you can spend an hour a day on your iPod enjoyably listening, you will do fine.

Use an English-English dictionary.

No. I find that a bilingual dictionary gives me a better, clearer and quicker head start into learning a new word. I will eventually learn the full meaning of the word from encountering it in many different contexts.

Study the example phrases from your dictionary.

I prefer to study examples from my listening and reading. They are easier to remember. The (online) dictionary is just needed to help me understand what I am listening to and reading. I do not study dictionaries. I find it hard to remember anything from  dictionaries, definitions or examples.

Start speaking English with your best friend.

Massive input is more practical, in reality. Your best friend may not speak English well. A native speaker may not want to talk to you until you speak well. You can pay for a tutor but costs will quickly add up. I prefer to spend most of my time listening on my iPod and reading. Now that I feel more confident, I also talk with tutors at LingQ, but most of my time is still spent on input. It is just easier to organize unless you live surrounded by the language.

Use SuperMemo to memorize vocabulary.

I prefer to spend most of my available time listening and reading. My Flash Card review is random. There is not enough time available to devote myself to thorough vocabulary study using memory systems. My vocabulary has grown quickly, just the same.

Dialogue avec mon jardinier and Empties (Vratné lahve)

My wife is away for a week, so the last two nights, after cooking myself a nice dinner, I watched two movies, one French and one Czech. Both were refreshing departures from the kind of Hollywood movie that has basically turned me off movies. One was Empties (Vratné lahve) and the other was Dialogue avec mon jardinier. I enjoyed them both. I am back on to watching movies, but tomorrow and the next night it is the Vancouver Canucks, unless they play as poorly as they did the last game in which case I may just read my book. I am reading American Caesar, the story of Douglas MacArthur, an excellent biography.

#Multilingual people are more creative, or are they?

The European Commission, in a study called "The Contribution of Multilingualism to Creativity", has concluded  that multilingual people are more creative. I am always ready to believe this kind of research, in fact any research, that concludes the multilingual people are somehow better.

Unfortunately I doubt if the great inventors of the past were any more multilingual than anyone else. I know many creative people who are not multilingual. I think it was Voltaire who said about a famous polyglot that he speaks 6 languages and has nothing to say in any of them.

Nevertheless, I am in favour of multilingualism. I also agree with the position in the study that we should learn languages through interesting and meaningful content. That is, after all, what we do at LingQ.

#Critical thinking, cultural awareness and creativity.

Critical thinking, cultural awareness and creativity are popular buzzwords in education, and in language education in particular. I have found that many of the ESL and English literacy teachers who contribute to the NIFL listserv that I sometimes follow, are very interested in "challenging the values" of their students, or getting them to think more critically about the society in which they live. They also seem to agree that intercultural sensitivity is important to the teachers' ability to do a good job.

I question this emphasis.  I feel that if the goal is to improve language skills, especially in an ESL environment, we are better to let learners read and study content that is of interest to them, regardless of what it is. I think that we all have some ability to think critically, to be sensitive to other people and other cultures, and to be creative. I am not convinced that teachers can influence these things directly. It is up to the learner to expose him or herself to a range of experience, directly and through books, and gradually these skills and perspectives will develop, somewhat differently in each one of us.

Most of the teachers who participate on this language and literacy listserv I referred to, react very negatively when I question their assumptions, are reluctant to look at their own theories in a critical manner, and can get very testy when someone outside of their ideological framework states contrary opinions. I do not see how they can teach virtues that they themselves do not practice, or at least that they practice no better than the average person.

I much prefer to let learners explore, and to make sure we put a range of experience and knowledge in front of them. After all, exploring the world on our own terms, and arriving at our own conclusions, are part of the joy of living, as a thinking and moral being. This is  a basic  right  should not be usurped or trampled upon by teachers, no matter how well meaning they think they are.

Connecting LingQ to the #iPod, any advice?

We know that we have to move LingQ onto hand held devices. At present LingQ can be accessed by an iPhone or iPod touch but the screen is hard to use for many of our functions.

Which functions are most useful to have on an iPod or similar device?

We are planning to facilitate exporting of lists so that people can use any flash card system they like on an iPod.

What else? Is there anyone out there who develops for these devices?

#Rosetta Stone, structuralist and naturalist approaches to language learning.

I had a chance to go through Rosetta Stone and recently sat in on an e-conference organized at the E-Teachers Academy by Kirsten Winkler, a multilingual "Edupreneur". We used a software platform called WiziQ.

One of the panelists was Duane Sider, the Head of Learning at Rosetta Stone. Here is a discussion of different approaches to learning with reference to Rosetta Stone. I have no idea what Mr. Sider's background is as a language learner.

#Altruism on the web, what does it mean?

I am not saying that people do not enjoy helping others. That is the point they do it as much for their own enjoyment. However, in order to be able to spend the time helping others, we first have to have an income of our own. We cannot just all be volunteers. Most of the "free"stuff on the web is an effort to promote a product or service, where some things are free and others are for a fee. This is not altruism. Public education is paid for by the tax-payer. It is using money that might have been used for a park or a hospital bed. It is not free. Yet there will be more and more free education available for a variety of reasons, most have to do with the efficiency of the internet and the opportunity to help one another. Mutual benefit is more dependable than altruism, in the long run.

The #iPod touch and the #iPhone will change language learning

The iPod as already changed language learning but the iPhone and the iPod touch will take things even further. Here is a video I did on the subject as a result of my visit to the ACTFL conference in San Diego.

Which accent should I learn?

From the Forum at LingQ.

Hi Steve

I have a question about accents when learning languages.

I cant really decide what would be the best solution regarding acquisition of foreign accents when learning my target languages.
On one hand, I think that it would be best if I focused on one type of accent. For instance, using the spanish to the latin american type of accent, when learning spanish, I could be more consistent in my learning experience and more convincing when speaking maybe.
On the other hand, I think learning diferent accents would make my language skills more allround, more multi-faceted - should I happen to talk with a person from Spain, I could use that accent, and should I one day happen to speak with a person from Mexico, use that accent etc.

What do you think? - Thanks

I see no harm in listening to a variety of accents in order to be familiar with them. At first you may even have trouble telling which is which.

As to which accent to imitate, that is a personal decision. Usually it is easier to copy an accent that you find pleasing. This may also be the accent that is most useful to you, in other words Brazilian if you are going to work in Brazil, or Quebecois if you are going to work in Quebec, or Australian or whatever. In many languages there is a sort of accepted standard accent, or a few. There is a standard American accent which is found in the MidWest, and West and in Canada. The accent in the Northern half of France, or Hoch Deutsch, or Northern Chinese, or the Tokyo accent etc. Usually it is wise to go with the standard. There may two standards, one in Spain, say, and another in Mexico or Latin America..and Argentinian would be considered an outlier.

However it is matter of taste. The more you like an accent, and even the voice you are listening to, and the content you are listening to, the easier it will be to imitate it. As David says it is a matter of attitude. You sort of have to like something to imitate it, at least it helps.

Learning need not take place in a classroom.

In Manfred Spitzer's book on learning and the brain, he makes the point that learning takes place in the brain and not in the classroom. Last year  the US Department of Education reported that elearning is more effective than classroom learning. In New York schools they find that listening to iPods is much more effective in helping ESL learners than the classroom. Universities are putting courses on the web. Teachers are learning from students how to use iPhones and iPods for learning. A new world is unfolding, and fast!  It will reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness of education.

Please read this recent comment on a previous post on this blog.

"Hi! Same here where I live (Spain). The average of English, even with people who have university degree is very poor. In part, that is because, for example, school kids only have 2 or 3 hours in English a week. And of course, they almost always study grammar.

The sad thing is that, every year, they review what they studied the year before, because they forget almost everything (imagine to study present perfect, and so on again and again) So this way, kids tends to hate learning languages, and it's a pity. I myself hated learning English, but now it's different, because I like reading and listening interesting stuff for me, and I feel that I am not studying, but I am getting fun.

I am a software engineer, and the vast majority of my colleages have rudimentary knowledge of English (mostly when they read, not speaking). And it's supposed that a software enginner has to master English!

Òscar (Catalonia, Spain)

PD: Sorry if my English is not very accurate. I do my best :-)"

But the education establishment is mostly resisting.

#language - Open education and innovation in San Diego versus the education mafia at home - a let down.

One of the most exciting themes at the ACTFL was the spontaneous development of innovative education solutions. At one end the University of Texas is offering first rate language learning resources, including whole courses, freely on the web, with the students having the chance to print these as textbooks via print on demand services like QOOP.

On the other hand there is an explosion of new learning apps being created for the iPod and iPhone. Many teachers were still unaware of how the iPod can be used, or even what it is in many cases. But many of those that I met,  will certainly learn, and will learn quickly, and will develop innovative learning programs. 

It makes sense for languages. There is evidence in this article from the NY Times that ESL kids do much much better with iPods than with classroom instruction.

Exciting stuff.

Then I returned to Vancouver, back to earth, back to Canada, where a language "cosa nostra" decides what learners are allowed to do. Apparently the Chinese government sponsored Chinese language service called the Confucius Institute was going to produce and distribute, free of charge via the internet, course materials for learning Chinese, to people in British Columbia. They were told in no uncertain terms to back off by the British Columbia Teachers Federation. BCTF. They backed off.

And then we have the Canadian Immigration department. The Department is at the mercy of a similar mafia group of outdated language teachers,opposed to any learning method that does not conform to their Canadian Benchmark System. The same group is also fighting the government's attempt to introduce vouchers, whereby the immigrants would be allowed to spend money on the school of their choice. Why should learners decide anything? It is for the teachers to impose. That is the teachers right and privilege.

And the government backs down, and so does the Confucius Institute. Why are we allowing the education mafia to dictate how learners are allowed to learn, especially given the poor results with the existing teaching methodology?

Discouraging stuff. Why is Canada such a backwater?

The # language learning revolution, an example from #actfl.

A teacher of Chinese in the Los Angeles area creates lessons and Flash Cards for her students with the characters they need to know for the week. The Flash Cards are attractive, and have her recorded pronunciation of the words. She checks the students iPods to see what they have been doing on them. She was helped in all of this by her teen-age daughters.

ACTFL conference, a new era of learning, but the golden trinity remains the same.

I am sitting in my hotel room collecting my impressions from the ACFTL conference. I will be posting on this over the next few days or week or so. I will talk about the good, the bad and the ugly.

My overall impression is that things are moving fast. Technology is going to dictate massive changes that not all teachers are equipped or prepared to deal with. On the other hand, many of them are, and are taking great initiatives. Many teachers, of all ages and languages groups accept that they have to learn from their students.

I also heard confirmation to me of what I have always believed. This came from the Director of the Language Learning Centre of a prestigious university, whose name I do not remember, but I will give her credit later. She said:

Language learning depends on three things, and I call this the golden trinity.

1)Time on task

2)Motivation

3)Attentiveness

Everything else is secondary.