5 Most Powerful Tech-based Tools for the Foreign Language Classroom

5 Most Powerful Tech-based Tools for the Foreign Language Classroom

1. Music and Videos

If you’re not using this one already, you’re really missing out! Remember the first rule of language learning: Input, input, input!
Students can’t sustain their skills on textbook explanations alone — they need the constant reinforcement that authentic sources provide. An important part of the language learning process for your students will be simply listening to native speakers and picking up new phrases, grammar patterns and more. When they hear their language lessons brought to life, they will better understand how to employ their knowledge.
Audio listening exercises can be good for testing what students can distinguish on their own. That being said, when it comes to music and videos, the video is the pedagogical powerhouse of the two. The combination of pictures, intonations and gestures gives students context clues that they can’t get from classroom interactions alone. So, the next time you think about teaching the German subjunctive, consider something like Die Prinzen‘s “Ich wäre so gerne Millionär” for catchy input.

2. Educational Websites

After your students have been getting good input from authentic sources, have them try some guided practice activities provided by useful websites. Here are some of my favorites from the (digital) vaults:
Quizlet is a powerful and flexible online learning platform based on a tried-and-true memorization tool: the flash card. The “sets” of digital cards can be used to drill vocabulary, but also work well for grammar topics like gender or verb conjugation. Teachers can create and organize sets for their classes and monitor students’ activity and progress on a given set. Students in turn have access to a huge archive of sets and can easily search for topics like “Konjunktiv I German” or browse by language. The activities are fun, with plenty of opportunities for working in pairs. All in all, a great tool for homework and in-class playfulness. Try it on for size.
Foreign Language News Sources
What could be more authentic and relevant than current events? News in the target language affords the student a fascinating glimpse into the everyday life and attitudes of people who speak it. These are also topics that your students should be somewhat familiar with, giving them a clear context to build from. A photograph of houses lying in rubble with the headline “Erdbeben!” will be enough to communicate the idea “Earthquake!” If they’re familiar with the story from NPR (…or Facebook), the word “China” will be enough of a hint. In addition, many national news sources, such as BBC and Deutsche Welle, offer slowly-spoken news and supplementary activities specifically for language learners.
FluentU teaches language using strictly authentic materials such as news, music videos and movie trailers. This has the major advantage of ensuring that all material is up-to-date and culturally relevant. In a word: meaningful. This is just the thing students have been missing during hours of regurgitating fabricated textbook conversations about what they like to buy in the supermarket.
It’s designed to get students familiar with foreign vocabulary in a fun, friendly, totally approachable way. FluentU makes it possible to learn languages from music videos, commercials, news, inspiring talks, cartoons and more.
With FluentU, your students will learn the real language—the same way that natives speak it. They’ll hear their new vocabulary words in context, spoken naturally and casually. Every student is guaranteed to find videos they love to watch, and you’re guaranteed to find videos that meet your teaching needs. FluentU has a very wide variety of videos, as you can see here:
FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is easily within the reach of any student, at any skill level, thanks to the interactive transcripts.
Didn’t catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

50 Smartphone Blogs to Watch

Image
50 Smartphone Blogs to Watch There's quite a collection of good and colorful blogs that track iPhones, Android devices, BlackBerries and other  smartphones  and no shortage of overlapping coverage among them (How many different "scoops" on the  Android-powered Motorola Devour phone did I come across today?). Some are written by professional reporters, others by unapologetic geeks and others by thinly-veiled marketers. Here's a spin through 50 of these  mobile phone  blogs, excluding more general gadget sites and including a few from my employer, IDG General Smartphones BGR (Boy Genius Report) : The mysterious Boy Genius and friends blog about mobile gadgets from Apple, RIM and others, and more often than not, are the first ones out with the information. Blog posts cover everything from the latest device rumors to straight financial news. One sign that this is a go-to site: The hundreds of comments posted by readers on the site's blog entries. C...
Read more

Facebook’s rumored smart speaker would be DOA

Image
Facebook’s rumored smart speaker would be DOA If Facebook is planning to make a smart speaker, it should really reconsider. A report in  Digitimes  today  says that  Facebook’s Building 8 research group  is developing a smart speaker with a 15-inch touch panel. There are lots of reasons to be skeptical of this:  Digitimes  has a mixed track record on tech rumors; supply chain sources can misidentify projects or describe early tests that don’t make it to market; Facebook doesn’t have a voice assistant yet; and a 15-inch screen on a speaker seems kind of ridiculous. Asked for comment, a Facebook representative said, “We don’t have anything to share at this time.” All that being said, it still seems entirely possible that Facebook would want to get in on the smart speaker game. Facebook doesn’t have a role in the smart home yet, despite having its tendrils in so many other facets of our lives. And even though Amazon has a strong early lead, th...
Read more

The Machines Are Learning To Gamble Like No Human Can

Image
The Machines Are Learning To Gamble Like No Human Can When it comes to betting, sports is all data. Since the 1970s, baseball has been revolutionized by the Society for American Baseball's (SABR) unique understanding of statistics. Now a company is attempting to utilize the vast wealth of data available in sports for gambling purposes, with an AI at the heart of its operation. Stratagem is a British company that takes bets on soccer games. Currently, it employs some 65 human experts who study matches across the globe and uses machine learning to automate parts of the process of betting, like figuring out when people like to gamble the most. But what's down the pike, founder Andreas Koukorinis tells potential investors and  The Verge , is an AI that can watch a game in real time, and, with thousands upon thousands of data points, predict who can win. "They're short duration, repeatable, with fixed rules," Koukorinis  tells   The Verge . "S...
Read more