I ran across this article in the Technology section of the New York Times and thought some of you might find it a helpful starting place for recommendations. (Experiences with any of these programs? Post a comment.)
Foreign language study at home is always a challenge–we’ve used Rosetta Stone for modern spoken languages with varying degrees of success–so I’m always on the lookout for new resources.
PAY AND LEARN
RosettaStone, the best-known language program, now offers Totale, (rosettastone.com) a $1,000 product that includes RosettaCourse, a traditional lesson-based module; RosettaStudio, a place where a user can talk to a native speaker via video chat; and RosettaWorld, an online community where you can play language-related games.
“We offer modern-day pen pals facilitated with voice over I.P.,” said Tom Adams, the company’s chief executive.
RosettaStone uses things like colorful flash cards to help students first learn basic words, and then connect those words to concepts and sentences. The idea, according to Mr. Adams, is for the user to let go of the adult “technical questions and just get into a comfort zone, learning new sounds and trying to make sense of them.”
One of RosettaStone’s main competitors, TellMeMore (tellmemore.com), believes it has an advantage because its software not only teaches words and phrases, but includes a speech recognition component that analyzes pronunciation, presents a graph of speech, and suggests how to perfect it. Other videos show students how to shape their mouths to create sounds difficult for native English speakers, like the rolling R in Spanish.
With 10 levels of content, a 10,000-word glossary, videos of native speakers and more than 40 practice activities, TellMeMore believes it has enough material to keep a user motivated.
TellMeMore charges $390 for a year’s access to its resources for six languages; those looking for a quick refresher can buy a $10 daily pass. Weekly, monthly and half-year passes are also available.
The company’s product is currently available only on CD-ROM, but online versions for both Mac and Windows that will include real-time coaching are coming later this year.
FREE NOW, PAY LATER
Livemocha (livemocha.com), a two-year-old Web start-up, offers free basic lessons in 30 languages. Users can upgrade to advanced courses with additional features on a monthly or six-month basis.
For $20 a month, students can submit up to eight voice recordings to a native-speaking tutor, who will then review and make recommendations for improvement within 24 hours. For $70 every six months, students can submit up to two examples a lesson.
All students, whether using the pay or free model, can join social networking groups and speak live (using VoIP) to people around the world who are native speakers interested in learning English.
As with all social networking sites, this feature is open to misuse. Within hours of signing up for Livemocha, I received a note from a young woman, ostensibly from Poland, “wanting to meet me.”
The company says it has “the world’s largest community of people learning languages,” with five million registered users in 200 countries.
Financed in part by the European Union, Babbel (babbel.com) offers paid instruction (and a free trial lesson) in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish for $12 a month, or $6.62 a month for a six-month commitment.
In addition to extended grammar and vocabulary, users can communicate with others in their desired language via private or public chats, or arrange to get in touch via voice.
FREE LANGUAGE LEARNING
If money is truly an object, a variety of free language learning is available from a number of sites.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (bbc.com/languages) offers varying levels of instruction for 36 languages, with features including audio and video playback and translation.
Looking to visit Deutschland? The German television network, Deutsche Welle, can help you make yourself understood (bit.ly/ts6x7). And for those who not only want to learn another language but another alphabet as well, try japanese-online.com, or learn-korean.net.
Apps for a smartphone
No program would be complete without an accompanying smartphone app, and many exist for the iPhone and other devices.
Several are simple providers of useful phrases, including the Lonely Planet Phrasebooks ($10 for each of 18 languages), the Oxford Translator Travel Pro ($10 for each of five languages), and World Nomads (free; 23 languages). The Ultralingua Translation Dictionary ($20 a language) offers simultaneous translation of English and six languages.
Both RosettaStone and TellMeMore say that they are developing smartphone apps as supplements to their online programs, but neither has announced a release date.
Livemocha expects to have an app later this year for both the Android and iPhone operating systems. The company plans on integrating text with a native speaker pronouncing the language, and providing the option for voice recording and live video feeds.
People with kids on the autistic spectrum might want to take a look at the courses invented by Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day. He describes the courses in his book as having a specifically visual component that is very different from other on-line courses and is geared toward autistic spatial learners. I’m neurotypical, so it looks very odd to me; but it might suit ASD kids.
http://www.optimnen.co.uk
Oops- spelling error in website address. It should be
http://www.optimnem.co.uk
Also want to recommend another language learning site called italki. It helps people meet online to do free language exchanges. italki also helps students connect with teachers for paid online lessons. In addition, italki has many free language learning features, such as questions and answers, group discussions, and multimedia materials for self-study. italki is both a social network and a marketplace. The social network helps bring people together to communicate and learn. The marketplace gives students, teachers, and companies the abililty to transact online.
http://www.italki.com
Hope it will be helpful for you.
Thanks.
This is my review of Rosetta Stone: http://laura.fo/arabic-language-resources/curriculum-review-rosetta-stone/
(I did get through it, but I’m not a fan.)
There’s a lot of no-cost, quality material online for students of German: http://laura.fo/german-language-resources/
Susan-
Rosetta Stone and Power Glide take an approach to foreign language that is good for the traveler, not so good for the student who wants to learn more than phrases that will assist them in finding the nearest baño. I wanted a grammar-based program that would contribute toward eventual fluency by way of understanding essentials.
Our high school junior is learning French with Break the Barrier, and our freshman will start Spanish this fall. Couldn’t be happier with this approach, particularly for our students who have a solid underpinning in Latin.
http://www.tobreak.com/index.php
~Kendra
WOW, Breaking the Barrier looks fantastic!! I learned Spanish this way, learned it well and retained it not too badly for a whitegirl lol. My accent always sucked even with learning lab every week for 4 years in our schoolclasses. Anyway–with my 1st three, I settled for PowerGlide, The Learnables (which I still like and will use again shortly with my little girls) and who knows what else I hobnobbled 2together. Believe it or not, I found MY (w/my name in it) old textbook at a library book sale one time. I flipped thru the pages and sighed. ‘Why couldn’t someone make a program like this,’ I thot. Yay, this looks like a good attempt at just that!
Kendra –
How long have you used Break the Barrier in French? I’m looking at it for Spanish.
Thanks!
Yes, Helene, exactly! You and I must have been taught the same way. Aside from the 4 years of Spanish I had in high school (including AP), I also had to study French and German for my major (vocal performance). All of those classes on both the high school and college levels took a grammar-based approach. It just makes sense.
Maureen- We’ve used it just this first year. I really like the French and am about to order Spanish for my next son. Good stuff!
As Harvey Bluedorn of Trivium Pursuits says–immersion is great for kids and who just want to converse maybe–and evenso they’re gonna converse at a limited level til they widen their vocab by READING and speaking with and understanding ppl who READ; and read well as in EVERYTHING, not primers and readers.
Harvery says OLDER ppls need the grammar way to just learn. Even in school, you learn English *grammar* once you TALK fine–hopefully (ya feeling me, brutha?). Grammar IS really useful. Like, maybe those ancients weren’t so bogus after all… :)
We too found that the language immersion programs, ie Power-Speak (formerly Power-Glide) and Rosetta Stone were very lacking in the grammar, usage & mechanics departments. My daughter not only wants to learn to speak but also the mechanics of the language – go figure! We found Breaking the French Barrier to be exactly what we were looking for and it teaches in nice little incremental bites and has good review. We’re supplementing with the BBC’s French in Action (it’s kind of dated, but you get good French) and it’s working well. Plus, Breaking the French Barrier is WAY cheaper than those others – about $80. I about fainted when I looked at what Power-Speak is charging for just a semester!!
We’re are sticking with this program.
Deanna
We have a bilingual home where the kids are being taught to read and write in two languages at the same time. I am a native English speaker, who is teaching her kids in English and in French. While I learned French at school, I am discovering a whole new knowledge of the language by teaching it phonetically to my daughter. It has made me wonder if parents interested in classical teaching need to find a more classical approach to teaching a second language! I have written about my experience in a blog entry to which I have included a link. As for parents with knowledge of French, who are trying to teach their kids French, I have some excellent ideas for learning to read French phonetic instruction books.
http://cassandrapw.blogspot.com/2010/05/teaching-reading-to-bilingual-kids-and.html
What about Rosetta Stone Homeschool programs? They advertise it as though it is a comprehensive language program. They include an “Alternate Paths of Study” method which supposedly enables the student to focus on areas they are more interested in, such as reading and writing. Are the Rosetta Stone programs mentioned above, the regular programs or the Home School programs?
Thank you in advance for your response(s).
Another website you might consider for completely free is http://www.learnalanguage.com. It has 7 language, French to English, and Spanish to English. Another website with free lessons is http://www.spanishprograms.com and you have the option to purchase the software.