By Richard Benton, PhD When people think of learning other languages, images of faraway, exotic landscapes and peoples flood their minds. When they arrive in that distant land, they imagine they will observe those new people before returning home to show photos and recount tales of adventure. I have lived this life, but recently I questioned this purpose. Is travel about bringing home photos and stories? Is it…
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Update Jan 2019** If you’re wondering what happened to WeSpeke, as of about a year ago, the service appears to have stopped offering non-English language learning opportunities, has removed its exchange feature (which was the point, right?) and is now partnered with CNN to offer news-based content for English learners. I’m extremely disappointed. I’ll keep…
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It’s a language learner’s dream to be able to see a word just once and memorize it forever. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of us, the human brain just doesn’t work like that. Still, as we learn more and more about the cognitive underpinnings of memory and the brain, we have discovered several simple –…
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Most of us would most love to become polyglots or at least very fluent in a certain language. Naturally, becoming a polyglot is no easy task and involves thousands of hours of exposure to input in the target language and/or more formal study. If we look at some of the best-known polyglots in the world…
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There’s no denying it and there’s no stopping it. Mobile technology is revolutionizing the education industry and the world. Now, in 2015, there’s an app for everything and most of the major language learning software providers have begun offering mobile apps to complement – or in some cases even replace – their primary products. But amid…
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When it comes to learning a new language the single greatest strategy is going to be any in which there is direct contact between yourself and a native speaker – be they a professional teacher in a classroom setting, a one on one tutor or just a fellow language learner with whom you’re engaged in…
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