Monday, August 31, 2009

CorrectMyText.com Brings Schliemann's Language Learning Method Online


The new collaborative service will help people learn foreign languages using the method invented by German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann.

CORRECTMYTEXT.COM – native speakers will check your text in a foreign language

MOSCOW, Russia - Larnite Ltd today announces the launch of version 1.1 of CorrectMyText.com, a new collaborative service for language learners with the elements of social networking. Once registered, the user can submit a text and get it corrected for free by someone who speaks the desired language fluently. Besides, members can request a recorded version of the corrected text to practice pronunciation.

CorrectMyText.com is the effort of Dmitry Lopatin, a young scientist and entrepreneur from Russia. As a child, he read a book about the famous 19th century German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann who is famous for finding the gold of Troy and inventing his own method of learning foreign languages. To master a new language, Schliemann would read a book written in a foreign language, comparing the text sentence by sentence with the translation in his mother tongue. Then he would write texts in a foreign language and pay to foreigners to get them corrected, sometimes spending all his money. Within two years, Schliemann taught himself 15 languages, including English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and Portuguese.

Inspired by the personality of the scientist and his learning method, Dmitry Lopatin created CorrectMyText.com in April 2009.

To get started, the user needs to register an account on CorrectMyText, which is quick and free. Facebook users can use the site without any registration. The "Facebook Connect" button on top of the homepage enables the user to connect CorrectMyText.com with Facebook in a click. After the registration, the user can submit any kind of text: an essay, resume, letter, or a blog-post and a native speaker or someone who speaks the desired language fluently will proofread the text for grammar and style mistakes. Correcting mistakes for native speakers is easy, so many of them are happy to help with proofreading. Before submitting the text, the user can specify the level of language competence required from the proofreader, the number of checks to be made and request a recorded version of the corrected text. At any time, members can contact each other and discuss language-specific topics using the built-in mailing system. Also, users can comment on texts or corrections, discuss the content, or grammar rules.

CorrectMyText.com offers many unique benefits.

- There are thousands of native speakers who can correct the text at no cost and will do it much better than a teacher or private tutor who cannot speak the language as perfectly as the native speaker.

- The service can help bloggers or webmasters to brush up the content of a blog or website if the personal language competence leaves much to be desired.

- The user can find many new friends from around the world and share valuable cultural knowledge, which is impossible when one attends language courses, or has lessons with a private tutor.

- The user can submit a text on any topic: love, relationships, philosophy, world issues, or a text that contains slang, which one would find embarrassing to show to the teacher or private tutor.

Currently, the CorrectMyText community consists of over 1,500 registered members learning one of the ten most commonly used languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

The site also supports texts in non-Latin languages, which makes it attractive to learners who want to study Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Russian and want to find a language partner to get advice and assistance in proofreading. For the convenience of the users, the interface is localized to 10 above mentioned languages. In the nearest future, the author plans to localize the site up to 100 languages, including Latin and Esperanto.

CorrectMyText.com is a good complimentary service for people who are serious about learning a foreign language and want to get assistance from people around the world.

Visit www.correctmytext.com.


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.


Wednesday, August 26, 2009

15 of the Best Blogs for EFL and ESL Teachers




Blogs are a great way to find free resources, tips, and tools from ESL and EFL teachers around the world. Here is a list of 15 of the best blogs for ESL and ESL teachers to explore:

Becoming a Better EFL Teacher - This blog provides links, resources, and tools that EFL teachers can use to improve their teaching skills. Becoming a Better EFL Teacher also features language learning news to help teachers stay up-to-date on the latest information.

English Conversation - Designed for teachers and learners, English Conversation offers resources for teaching and improving your English. Teachers can use this blog to find resources, lessons, information on learning styles, and several other useful tools.

Burcu Akyol's EFL Blog - This EFL teacher's blog features reflections, tips, reviews, and resources for English teachers. Throughout this blog, teachers can find information on EFL and ESL blogs, associations, professional development, podcasts, lessons, exercises, and teaching ideas.

My ESL Corner - My ESL Corner is a blog created to provide and share opinions, resources, and news about ESL and EFL topics to both English and Spanish visitors. Within this blog, teachers will find useful worksheets, flashcards, learning songs, clipart, e-books, readings, and much more.

English, ESL…and more - This great blog for teachers and students provides tools, tips, and resources for ESL learners. Throughout the blog pages, teachers can find classified links, writing workshops, GLBT resources, literacy links, multicultural resources, and ESL guides.

The English Blog - The English Blog is an instructive blog for English learners and teachers. The blog features Internet resources, tips, news, trivia, and reviews that can be used for English teaching and studying purposes. Just a few of the resources ESL teachers might find helpful are lesson plans, exams, reference, software, and video.

Nik's Learning Technology Blog - Nik's Learning Technology Blog was created by Nik Peachey, a learning technology consultant and teacher trainer. The blog provides teaching material, tips, and resources for ESL and EFL teachers to use new technology. Within this blog, teachers can find information on teaching English in Second Life, picture phrases, using video in language learning, animated vocabulary, and much more.

An ELT Notebook - This blog, created by an EFL teacher with over 30 years of experience, provides resources to teachers of all levels. Posts include topics on activities, career development, classroom management, lesson planning, teaching skills, and many more subjects that EFL teachers will find useful.

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day - This blog, specifically for teaching ESL, EFL, and ELL, offers daily websites that will help educators improve their teaching. Teachers can search this blog by category or browse the archive.

Blog-EFL - The Blog-EFL looks at the use of high tech tools in English teaching and learning. This language technology blog also provides tips and resources that can be used in the classroom and out.

ESL Daily - This blog, created by teachers for teachers, features information and news for ESL and EFL teaching. ESL Daily also provides resources and tips for teaching, technology, employment, and other useful resources.

ESL Lesson Plan - ESL Lesson Plan has resources, lesson plans, and tips for novice to veteran ESL teachers. This regularly updated blog also provides articles on a wide range of topics, including ESL activities, jobs, certification, lesson plans, budgeting, time management, and workplace issues.

Teaching ESL to Adults - This short and to the point blog from an experienced ESL tutor features articles on grammar, lesson plans, and other resources that teachers can use with ESL students. Teaching ESL to Adults also offers handouts, experiences, ideas, and tips.

Joey's ESL Room - Joey's ESL Room is a frequently updated blog created by several ESL teachers from across a dozen countries. This blog offers different approaches to teaching as well as information about different countries to ESL teachers and those thinking of becoming an ESL teacher.

ESL Teaching Resources - The ESL Teaching Resources blog features a list of resources and websites that ESL/EFL/ESP/EPA teachers can use with students.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about top online colleges for OnlineCollege.org.


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.


Sunday, August 23, 2009

Smartphones Drive Language Learning Innovation


Smartphones Drive Language Learning Innovation

By Guy Newey (AFP)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iOEPaRbHPHlDzMdLN6v4ksy8IhvA

HONG KONG — The boom in "smartphones", led by Apple's iPhone, has inspired language learning tools that would have been inconceivable just months ago -- and a Hong Kong firm is leading the charge.

Tens of thousands of "apps" -- individual programmes that can be downloaded to the phone and do everything from recognising music playing in a bar to guiding tourists around a city -- have been developed for the iPhone since it was launched in early 2007.

The ability to combine audio, video, text and data files with an Internet connection to a central website has helped create a much-improved language learning device, says entrepreneur Chris Lonsdale(pictured).

"The technology allows you to have all the elements in one place and gives you new insights (into how you can learn languages)," said Lonsdale, whose app is a six-month course for Chinese people to learn English.

Lonsdale describes himself as "expert in human performance" rather than a teacher and has given advice to clients ranging from golfers to investment bankers trying to make the best use of their abilities.

In recent years, Lonsdale -- a fluent Mandarin and Cantonese speaker -- has begun tackling how people learn languages, and developed new techniques to counter the grammar-obsessed method that puts so many people off learning.

His work resulted in a course that he says could get you to a reasonable standard of Chinese in just two weeks, and a book, The Third Ear, which combines anecdotes and philosophy with unconventional language-learning techniques.

He also developed a range of CDs that combined language learning with music, based on the idea that words can stick in the brain with little effort if they are associated with a catchy tune.

But it was when Lonsdale and his team of 12, based mainly in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, realised the potential of the new iPhone that he was able to put his methods into a single "learning machine" app, called Third Ear Kungfu English.
Lonsdale hopes it will help people shatter the preconception that language learning is about innate talent.

"Learning languages is not about talent, it is about method," said the 50-year-old.
"If you spend two years investing in learning a language and you are still at a low level there is something wrong with the way you are doing it," added Lonsdale, who learned mandarin in six months.

The new product, which his team have been working on for eight months, will target the estimated 20 million middle-managers in China, in particular those working for multinational companies.

"You have this big group of people aged between 25 and 50 who really would like to have English, who need English, but think it is too difficult," he said.

The firm will sell the iPhone or an iPod Touch (the same product but without a phone) to the firms for 5,800 yuan (850 US dollars) with the app included, which will provide a six-month course of lessons, exercises and memory tricks.
One of the features that would have been impossible on previous systems is a video of a westerner pronouncing various words in English.

Just the speaker's mouth is visible, which allows the learner to copy the way the mouth looks when it is making a particular sound -- a technique that is natural to children as they are copying from their parents, said Lonsdale.

The connected nature of the iPhone also allows managers who have paid for the device to monitor how much it is being used and how much progress the student is making. It also allows for feedback.

And every file has been encrypted so that it can only be accessed through a password particular to the user, a key factor when dealing with a Chinese market notorious for piracy.

Estimates about how many apps have been created for the iPhone vary from 15,000 to 65,000. Creators usually either give them away for free or charge a small fee to download them.

A search of Apple's online store comes up with around 1,000 options for "language learning" ranging from dictionaries and flash cards to a language suite teaching Klingon, a language used in the sci-fi TV series Star Trek.

Ken Carroll, of Praxis Language whose ChinesePod brand of online and audio learning tools has more than 250,000 followers, said the new technology offered huge possibilities, but added new products had to be carefully tailored.

"You can't just take stuff from a book and cram it into the mobile space," said Carroll, whose products teach mandarin to English speakers.

"Learning content has to be designed for the medium. It also has to be designed for the environment in which it will be consumed."


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

U.S. Marines to put foreign language learning to use


Marines to put foreign language learning to use

By: Julie Fertig

http://news14.com/content/local_news/coastal/613252/marines-to-put-foreign-language-learning-to-use/

CAMP LEJEUNE – Some Camp Lejeune Marines are learning to master foreign languages that they could eventually use in Afghanistan and other places overseas.
The pilot program enables U.S. Marine Corps Special Operators to double as translators.

17 Marines are enrolled in the program. They're learning to speak one of five languages fluently, including Urdu (Pakistan), Poshtu (Pakistan), Dari (Afghanistan), French and Indonesian.

Linguistics program manager Todd Amis said Marine Special Operators will no longer have to rely on a third-party to communicate while deployed.

"I'm not saying that when you utilize a translator that things get out of place, but unfortunately it is better that we are the person being represented and our goals and ideas are being accomplished," Amis said.

Marines are selected for the program by performing well on a language efficiency test.


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.


Tuesday, August 11, 2009

How Blogging Can Make You a Better Teacher


Lindsay Clanfield wrote: "So, my question is... could you tell me if blogging has improved your professional life and indeed made you a better teacher? What do you get out of it?"

My blog emerged from questions I received from some EFL teachers abroad. After giving detailed responses to several, I noticed that questions began to repeat, hence I came up with posting my responses to a blog for the benefit of multiple respondents. Becoming a Better EFL Teacher was then born back in October of 2005.

The blog provides both online and offline resources for teachers and often includes press releases, links to other blogs and websites and guest posts from EFL professionals worldwide. It’s main purpose still continues to be responses to questions from in excess of 3700 EFL teachers and readers each month from more than 136 countries around the globe. My ELT blog was ranked in the top 100 language-related blogs worldwide last year.

Preparing and writing posts for this blog has caused me to write and publish three language-learning-related books. One of them entitled, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, I give away free on request to any teacher or prospective teacher who e-mails me and asks for it. At this time I’ve sent out hundreds of copies of the free e-book and it still continues to be popular.

The blog also improves me professionally since I need to keep abreast of new techniques and trends in ELT and foreign language learning such as “Pecha Kucha” which almost no one’s heard of here in Colombia. I get countless e-mails, comments, questions and ideas from EFL professionals from around the globe, a few of whom even came to visit Colombia as a result of my blog post information. I post readings for my Santiago de Cali University EFL learners and my EFL Teacher Training post-graduate studies students too. This blog also resulted in several ELT-related speaking engagements and conference invitations along with an on-going article writing post at an authority website online.

Blogging about EFL and some of its many aspects has helped me in more ways than I could list. I encourage more EFL teachers to try it for themselves and their foreign language learners if they truly want to see growth in their professionalism and foreign language teaching and learning skills.


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.


Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Are You Speaking American English?

An American English Video?

This video is a spoof of the ridiculousness of some English as a foreign language learning series videos. EFL teachers should always make every effort to use authentic English language materials with their language learners to avoid having their students imitating and sounding similar to this. There are far, far too many cases of English language learners "studying" English for years, then taking a short vacation trip to the USA or Canada only to discover they can't speak and don't understand anyone who speaks to them.

Authentic English Language Material is Freely Available Worldwide

This is a completely avoidable situation, in my opinion. Especially if English language learners are "weaned off" of bland "made for EFL" videos which strip the language of its dignity and spontaneity. Even if you have no access to printed materials like newspapers, magazines and other media in English where you live and teach (or are learning) English, the internet is so chock full of free, readily-available materials and audio-visual media of all types, that there is hardly any excuse for "I don't have any materials in English" excuses any more.

Learn to Teach English

Get serious, get help if you need it, get certified if you're not already - teach English well using authentic language and dynamics or do your learners a big favor and go do something else for a living. If you're really lost or in trouble and don't know the way to go, e-mail me and I'll provide you with whatever assistance, materials and / or suggestions that I can.


Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily

By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP) WASHINGTON

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5-F8j-yYdLNUrlLhObAy0vbd4SgD99IBQS00



The best time to learn a foreign language:

Between birth and age 7.

Missed that window?

New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.

"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.

Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.

Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English — "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.

Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.
Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.
"You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.

It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.

Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.
The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns — nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time — like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba — while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies.
While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.

"We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."

Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site.
What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.

Recall that Japanese "L" and "R" difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in "motherese," the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.

Japanese college students who'd had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated "Ls" and "Rs" while watching the computerized instructor's face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.

"It's our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal," says Kuhl.

But she'd rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.

"You'll be surprised," Kuhl says. "They do seem to pick it up like sponges."

EDITOR's NOTE _ Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington. Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.


Saturday, August 01, 2009

Learning a Language for Love in Vancouver, Canada

The city of Vancouver, British Columbia has recently seen a boom in international marriages. This boom has led to steady growth for Vancouver area language schools.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/learn/languages/prweb2667284.htm

Vancouver, British Columbia (PRWEB)

"His aunties were driving me crazy," Christine Li said. "Every time I went into the kitchen they would start talking in Italian at double speed. My fiancée was raised by his aunts; I really needed to know what they were saying."

Christine signed up for a conversation class in Italian through the Modern Languages program at International House, Vancouver. "Christine's story is not that unusual," says Cameron Prior, the Director of Operations for IH Vancouver Modern Languages.
"In fact one of the top reasons for learning a new language has to do with family. And immigrant families need no convincing about the value of learning a second language."

Mixed marriages are increasing and Statistics Canada data supports this trend, there was a 33% increase in mixed unions from the 2001 census to the 2006 census. Multi-cultural Vancouver leads the country in these types of unions.

"We think it has to do with the type of immigrants that Vancouver and British Columbia has attracted over the last twenty years," says Prior. "Since Expo 86 and also due in part to the success of the Provincial Nominees Program, Vancouver has been a destination of choice for new immigrants. These entrepreneurial immigrants tend to be better educated, and there is a correlation between higher levels of education and mixed marriages."

International House Vancouver - Modern Languages is a leader in second language learning. In addition to its extensive English as a Second Language programs, and a very successful Japanese immersion program for children, the Modern Languages program offers courses in several languages such as French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Italian, German and Portuguese.

Christine's story has a happy twist, her fiancée, Roberto, has also signed up for a second language class at International House Vancouver, he is learning Mandarin. He wants to know what Christine's grandmother is up to in her kitchen.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.