15 Language Learning Resources at Your Fingertips
If you've been learning languages for a while, you know that attaining
proficiency in a foreign language requires considerable practice.
What can you do to practice your language skills? Other speakers
of the language you're learning may be a continent away or they
may be right in your own community. Either way, there are a multitude
of resources available to today's language learners.
Language proficiency consists of a variety of skills -- the ability
to speak, comprehend, read, and write -- and each of these requires
a subset of passive or active abilities: knowledge of vocabulary,
the command of grammatical structures, understanding of cultural
contexts in which language appears. For this reason, it is helpful
to practice language in various ways. Besides, none of these skills
exist in isolation. Practicing and improving your ability in one
set of skills can also promote your language learning in the other
areas.
1. Find a pen pal
Modern technologies have undeniably brought the world closer together.
Years ago penpals communicated primarily through letter writing
(hence pen pal!). Today there are many more alternatives
which are much faster than snail mail and are still cheap or even
free, including e-mail, fax, text chat or voice chat, text messaging,
or video conferencing via the Internet. They don't even require
a pen.
Finding a foreign language pen pal is easy. Many online services
exist that will allow you to file a pen pal request or search
databases for pen pals suitable to your language needs, age, and
interests. You can find a partner for nearly every language, even
those that are less commonly taught. The eTandem
service allows you to register online and will actively match
you based on your application with a suitable partner. At Mylanguageexchange.com,
you can locate your own pen pal. The site gives you the opportunity
to post a request for a pen pal or to search other requests by
language and several other limiting criteria. Polyglot
and Language
Buddy both allow you to search for a language partner by language.
Potential pen pals may also be lurking in our Foreign
Language Forum here at Vistawide. All of these services are
free.
2. Rent and watch a foreign film
Visit your local movie rental store and browse the foreign film
section. Most films will be in the foreign language with English
subtitles. If you're choosing a video rather than a DVD, be sure
that the film is not dubbed, but rather in the original language
with subtitles. Some university libraries have foreign videos
that you can check out. Another alternative is to join an online
DVD subscription service. Netflix
has over 3500 foreign films available for rent -- by far
more than any other rental service. If you prefer to download
movies online, you will find a handful of foreign films at Movielink
.
Especially if you are a beginning language learner, you will likely
not understand much of the language in the movie. Native speakers
talk rapidly, use slang, and often speak in accents or local dialects.
Nonetheless, watching a foreign language film is a fantastic way
to attune your ear to the sounds of the language. You'll probably
notice that by the end of the film, you're able to understand
bits and pieces of what you hear. Gather your friends together,
make some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the trip!
3. Read or watch foreign news online
The Internet gives web users access to 100s of international
news sources within seconds. The Internet
Public Library provides links to online newspapers in over
150 countries and Broadcast-Live
provides a list of television stations with streaming video.
Reading a foreign language newspaper or watching a video broadcast
from another country is a great way to hone your language skills
and familiarize yourself with an area where it's spoken. You can
pick up vocabulary pertaining to current events and become exposed
to different perspectives on those events. And you can become aware
of local issues of importance to the readers or viewers of that
particular news source.
After you have gone through the news stories once, read up on international
events in your own language to fill in the details that you missed.
Then go back and read or view the news reports again. The second,
or third, or even the fourth time around, you will understand successively
more.
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See also specific language pages for additional resources:
French - German - Italian - Japanese - Spanish
