Online Language Learning

 

With available educational websites and apps, we can reach whatever online course we want. Some of them require certain payment but there are free courses either. Moreover, some of these courses give us certificate when we complete the course and required tests etc. Among these courses, there are, of course, courses for language learning, too. We can easily find langugae courses, in some of them, learners even have a chance to take online lessons from native teachers. Udemy, Edx, Stanford Online, Coursera are examples of educational websites. And they claim that “You can learn almost everything” with the help of these sites. And there are so many types of courses such as business, computer science, humanities, data science, personal development, art&design, programming, engineering, health&medicine, mathematics, science, social sciences and education&teaching. Language learning courses belong to education&training programs.  In today’s world, people are obsessed with their phones and phone addiction is such a common problem in societies. In those websites, you can apply to the courses and after that, you should follow the courses according to the schedule that is given. At the end of the classes and homeworks given for practicing, learners take quizzes to certificate of completion or attendance. Those certificates are often free. Technology offers us a variety of sources that can be reached easily. With these advantages, we can improve ourselves and our abilities.

Babbel, Duolingo, Busuu, Memrise, Cambly, Phrasebook are some of the famous apps for language learning. These apps helps us in the learning process with daily exercises. Those daily activities usually do not last for long hours so learners will not be bored. Additionally, those apps do not require any further material. In some of them you can take notes on the app itself and do not have to use extra paper. These apps include little games and they are suitable for each language level. You can start from your current language level and learn more, or you can start to learn a completely new language. These language games in the apps make people feel like they learn effortlessly, which is true. Apps help learners to form sentences, sometimes a situation is given and learners create or complete dialogues. This is such a useful practice, because making conversations in target language is what learners need in order to use the language in daily life and improve their speaking skills. In thoe apps, each unit has vocabulary lists and learners can take notes and memorise them if they want to. But usually this is not necessary as words and phrases are repeated for many times for a successful, permanent learning. For instance, in Duolingo, even if you make progress and reach high levels, you should repeat previous units’ words or quizzes from time to time. In those apps, there are also titles such as shopping and travelling. These parts of the apps can be used in daily lives apart from the practices. Learners can search sentences or questions they need to ask and learn how to talk in situations like that. Cambly, one of these language learning apps, involve video chats with native speakers or native language teachers. Without technology, it wouldn’t be this easier to interact with native speakers or native teachers who have experience and who use the language as we aim to. While practicing with language learning apps, our brain is constantly active and the apps became learners’ favorite game in time. This can be an interesting way to study for children, either. Since they spend a lot of time with playing games and they also like using phones, language learning apps can be pleasing.

Nowadays, people of all ages, love to watch series and movies. And Netflix is among the most popular and widely used sites. There are so many types of movies and series, documentaries are avaliable. Learning a language has to be more than reading theoratical knowledge from books. It has to be in every part of our lives and we need to use the language we learn in our daily activities. LLN, Language Learning with Netflix is a fantastic Google extension we can use for language learning. It can be downloaded easily and is free. Language Learning with Netflix is created by two passionate language learners and it allows us to watch a netflix show or a movie, or anything we want on netflix. Using the extension, we can watch the shows with two sets of subtitles instead of just one. Thus, it allows us to watch our target language and our language one simultaneously while watching something on Netflix, which is a great opportunity to practice even in our free time activity. 

While watching shows, you can pause and see the words’ meanings by simply clicking on them, without making an extra effort to look at a dictionary for each word every time. Language Learning with Netflix currently hosts more than 30 languages and that keeps growing all the time. The extension helps us learn quickly and in a permanent way. Language Learning with Netflix is another proof that learning can be an entertaining activity. Furthermore, by watching movies/shows etc. in target langugae, we can get a greater idea of the culture, and we do not even need to be in that country for acquiring these knowledge of language use and culture, thanks to the available technology.