Technology and language learning

Computers, MP3 and other high tech ways to learn a language

How big is your language learning library When I ask most of my friends how many language resources, that is, books, CDs, programs etc they own most have a small library. I think when you are learning a language having many resources is helpful. Most people buy a few dictionaries, both pocket and complete, a [...]

Continue Reading How many language books, CDs, programs do you own

Electrical Engineers Develop Glove That Translates Sign Language This sign language to text, is a great breakthrough for the hearing impaired. It is a practical application for facilitating communication. The way it works is with sensors on each finger of the glove that generate signals which also take into account the relationship of the hands [...]

Continue Reading Sign language to text with electrical gloves

Rhythm to learn a foreign language – First memory test About fifteen years ago I had memory recall problems because of some small bleeding in my brain. I was test for memory recall using a ‘digit span’ test. This is a test in which someone would read a string of digits and I would have [...]

Continue Reading Rhythm and music to learn a foreign language

Language of Jesus For thousands of years, a tiny Syrian village has kept a well-guarded treasure: the language of Jesus. Tucked away in the Qalamoun Mountains, just north of Damascus, Syria, is Malula – one of the last places on earth where Aramaic is still spoken. Aramaic was a thriving language during the time of [...]

Continue Reading Preserving The Language Of Jesus

Film titles in foreign language movies Living in another country has made me aware a small annoyance.   I noticed when I go to rent a DVD at the local video store, I often give people the English Title translated into Polish for example (I live in Krakow).   The movie in English will be something like [...]

Continue Reading Movie titles in foreign languages

Increase your brain function National Academy for child development has a page that talks about sequential processing and you can even take a test online. This gives you concrete way to increase your brain function. It is not abstract or fringe science. It is a way that you can increase your sequential processing and therefore [...]

Continue Reading How to build brain function

The math of language learning If children learn 8 words a day for 10 years they learn a language. Adults can learn at this rate of faster if they study. “The speed of language acquisition is such that it averages 8 words per day from birth to adulthood. The existence of a language explosion indicates [...]

Continue Reading The mathematics of language acquisition

how to remember Do you remember the scene in Saving Private Ryan when Private Ryan could not remember any of his brother’s faces? And Captain Miller played by Tom Hanks said ‘it is because you are not associating it with anything, try to remember a specific memory, than you will see their faces.’ Similarly when [...]

Continue Reading Saving Private Ryan and language learning

How babies learn a language How babies learn languages I think how babies learn language is common sense. Many times linguists have crazy theories about how babies learn language. But the bottom line is babies systematically sort though sounds and categorizes them to create a structure which they can subsequently hang further linguistic information. It [...]

Continue Reading How babies learn languages

Radio or TV for foreign language learning What is the better choice to support your language learning though radio or TV? I prefer, radio actually. The reason is on TV there is a lot going on to distract you. While with radio, you can turn out all other distractions and focus on the words to [...]

Continue Reading Radio or TV for foreign language learning