[RNLD] Message to r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au Exploring online language learning, for example 'Duolingo' or 'Say something in'

[Peter Nyhuis]

Hi Angela and Kumalie,

It depends a lot on what kind of learners you have and what they hope to
achieve. Are they adults or children? Are they heritage speakers or total
outsiders to the language? Do they want to learn useful phrases, grammar,
or do they want to expand their existing vocabulary? Are they literate in
their first language?

Most of the offerings out there (even Duolinguo, despite the way it sells
itself) only really provide translation-based vocab training. If your
learners don’t read English comfortably, or the platform doesn’t allow you
to change the language of instruction to one they can read, then it won’t
be very useful. And in the case of Duolinguo, it’s not even designed to be
an open platform that you can contribute languages to – even if you did
manage to convince them to work on an Arrernte course, it may be difficult
for the language community to maintain ownership and control over the
process. Memrise, on the other hand, allows contributions from anyone in
any language, but is even more exclusively driven by translation-based
vocab training. And if you are trying to teach young kids, they're probably
not going to be very excited by flashcard-based apps for long, no matter
how shiny and colourful. Even for adults, staying committed to regular
practice of a new language is always a struggle, with or without an app (as
I’m sure everyone here knows!). These flashcard apps work best when they
support a larger learning pathway (including speaking practice, learning
grammar, etc), rather than when they are just used in isolation.

However, if you do want to go down the flashcard road, it might be worth
taking a look at Anki, which is (like Memrise) a so-called ‘spaced
repetition system’. It’s much uglier to look at than Memrise, but it’s more
flexible, allowing flashcards where you have to fill the blanks (which can
be useful for teaching grammar), or where you have a picture or video on
one side and a word to learn on the other (which means you don’t have to
rely on translation). It’s also open source, so if you have the funding you
could get a developer to take Anki’s basic system and then design an
interface that suits your particular needs, and you wouldn’t have to pay
Anki anything for it.

If you’re looking for some non-flashcard ideas, when I was working in the
Wubuy revitalisation program at Numbulwar school I prototyped a few
web-based video games for teaching kinship terms, verb prefixes, directions
and so forth – shoot me an email if you would like to take a look. (They
can all be freely adapted for other languages too)

Hope that helps,

Peter

On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 4:12 PM Angela Harrison <
angela.harrison at batchelor.edu.au> wrote:

> We are looking at investing some funds to create online language lessons
> in Arrernte. We have looked at a few platforms and are interested to hear
> feedback from others in the language teaching world as to their experiences.
>
> We have looked at *‘Memrise’* – which looks good from the point of view
> of accessibility, ease of use and vocabulary learning, however we would
> like something which is more sophisticated and allows learners to learn to
> build sentences.
>
> *‘Say something in’* looks like it uses a lot of the same principles as
> master-apprentice, like focussing on intensive speaking and listening
> rather than reading and writing. This one has the advantage that the
> learner can listen and repeat without needing to look, which is great for
> using on car trips, or while bike riding or walking.
>
> *‘Duolingo’* appeals the most to Kumalie Riley, Arrernte teacher, who
> says it is most like the Arrernte teaching she is familiar with in that it
> uses flashcards and has a focus on speaking and listening as well as
> reading and writing.
>
>
>
> We have tried to contact both Duolingo and Say Something In but have
> received no communication in response.
>
> We are interested to hear the experiences of others – is it likely that we
> will hear back from them? Has anyone had experience with putting a language
> into one of these platforms?
>
> Thanks,
> Angela and Kumalie
>
>
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Angela Harrison
>
> *Project Manager*
>
> Centre for Australian
> Languages and Linguistics (CALL)
>
>
> *Desert Peoples Centre Campus Alice Springs*
>
> p:
>
> 8951 8344
>
> w:
>
> batchelor.edu.au
>
> <https://www.facebook.com/batchelorinstitute?ref=profile>
> <https://twitter.com/Indigenous_Inst>
> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/batchelor-institute-of-indigenous-tertiary-education/>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Peter Nyhuis

Language Documentation Lab
School of Languages and Linguistics
The University of Melbourne
Parkville VIC 3010
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