Cool Apps for Language Learning

November 3, 2010

Are you teaching or learning a language? Want to do it the 21st century way though your Android, iPhone or Blackberry? There are literally dozens of apps out there to help you learn foreign languages!

Some of them are language specific, while others offer multilingual options. Here are some examples:

24/7 Tutor – Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and German

Katahira App – Japanese (Katahira)

Greek – flash cards

American Sign Language (ASL) – tutorial and reference app

Cherokee – iPhone app for this endangered indigenous language

Korean Essentials – a free app from the Apple Store by AccelaStudy

Spanish vocabulary – by Componica

Matt Silverman, in Mashable/Mobile, wrote about free apps for the Android phone, including one called Talk To Me. He writes:

“Talk To Me is an impressive app that can translate your input text or speech between over 40 different languages, and in most cases, speak the translations back to you. The interface is really dead-simple: An input for text, a drop-down list to choose your languages, and a big green button to activate the speech recognition.” Read the full article here.

Claire Bradin Siskin offers a superb overview of instructional and learning apps for languages for iPhone, Blackberry and other smart phones, including a list of places to get them.

Angel Brady at Princeton University did a great review of over 20 different apps for language learning.

Here’s an idea: Ask your students what apps they can find for their own mobile devices. Build your own links and resources for your students by engaging them in the process of figuring out what works for them, what doesn’t and why.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Who You Gonna Call? Marketing Isn’t a Solo Sport

October 12, 2010

So many educators seem to think that they have to market and promote their programs all by themselves. Not only is this ineffective and exhausting, it is impossible. Marketing isn’t a solo sport.

Get yourself out of the mindset that you have to do it all yourself. Ask people for help. Ask them to attend your events or give a guest lecture in your class. And if that makes you uncomfortable, ask for their advice, as for suggestions, or even get their opinion.

There’s no shame in asking other teachers, administrators, parents, colleagues, or members of the community for help. Call up a teacher at another school and ask if you can have an inter-school event like a talent competition or speech contest. Partner with the dance teacher in your school to do a lunch time program on Latin dance to promote Spanish language and Hispanic culture.

Even asking, “Could you give me some ideas…?” is a powerful question to start with.

Ask with a smile. Be genuine. People will help.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

Comments Off on Who You Gonna Call? Marketing Isn’t a Solo Sport | education, language program administration, marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Sample Host Family Application

October 9, 2010

Choosing host families for your international education or language program takes significant time and effort. Matching prospective students with families willing to open their hearts and home to a foreign student who is studying English as a Second Language (or any other language or subject, for that matter) requires skill, patience, background checks and a fine balance between working with the people that you have in your pool of students and families and ensuring that some basic requirements are met.

The first step in setting up your host family selection process is to develop your host family application. The application needs to include more than just the name and address of the family. You also want to ask questions about lifestyle, such us: do they allow smoking in the home?

The local police service in many communities will perform security checks for a small fee. Adult members of the household should include a police security check, as you will want to know if anyone in the household has had criminal charges brought against them, or if there have been incidents of domestic violence in the home.

The more questions you ask up front, the better chance you’ll have of selecting excellent families to host your students.

Here’s a sample host or billet family application that you can download and adapt to your own needs. Remember to include a statement about privacy if your area requires you to do so when you collect personal information.

Related posts:

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Free, online resources on how to take notes in university

October 4, 2010

Know someone in university or college who struggles with note taking? Here are a few excellent free, online resources that offer practical tips, strategies and advice.

Taking Class and Lecture notes
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/notes.html
Dartmouth College site on note taking. Scroll to the bottom of the page for even more resources.

Note Taking Skills from Lectures and Readings
http://education.exeter.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/note_taking_skills.htm
Exeter University (U.K.) page on taking good notes. There are other links directly under the main title of the article to related pages. Good stuff here.

Taking and making notes
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/students/academic/Studysupport/Takingandmakingnotes/
Page from St. Andrew’s University (UK). I like this page because it takes a strength-based approach to note-taking.

Taking notes from Textbooks
http://www.athabascau.ca/counselling/whats_in_it_for_me.php
University of Athabasca page on how to take notes from textbook. Very practical advice on how to get the most out of your textbooks.

Note taking at University
http://lss.info.yorku.ca/resources/note-taking-at-university/
This page is a little text-heavy and definitely worth the time. It’s jam-packed full of useful strategies for note taking.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

Comments Off on Free, online resources on how to take notes in university | education, learning strategies, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Factors international students consider when choosing where to study

October 1, 2010

A recent article posted by Inside HigherEd, originally written by John Morgan for Times Higher Ed. talks about what motivates international students. The article reveals the results of The British Council’s Student Decision Making Survey, which includes information gathered from around 115,000 students, from 200 countries. There are three major priorities identified by international students which affect their decision of where to study abroad. The article reports that “higher quality is cited by 54.2 percent, followed by career improvement (53.8 percent) and the chance to live overseas (51.5 per cent).”

Quality outranked price as being a factor in the decision-making process of international students. Prospective students are more interested in getting value for their educational dollar (or Euro, won, yen, real, peso, etc.) than they are in finding a bargain, it seems.

The article also talked about changes in the market. Specifically, countries who traditionally have not offered courses in English are starting to do so. Nordic countries were cited as the example. If more countries start to offer formal education in English, students may be less tempted to study abroad. There will have to be something else in it for them other than learning the language. Cultural immersion, a chance to experience the world, adventure, the opportunity to travel and perhaps explore job opportunities, may become more important factors than the language alone.

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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