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| Image by cemre. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) license. |
As promised at the beginning of
this blog, I have been brushing up on languages. I studied French for many years and had a
brief introduction to Spanish, but my skills in both have fallen drastically. Some of the language is still there, mostly
as random vocabulary words. Still more
of it is locked away in my brain, ready to return when circumstances stimulate
the right remembrances. The rest I will
have to relearn from scratch.
I learned French primarily through
formal grammar exercises, extensive vocabulary lists, and the odd staged
dialogue or controlled vocabulary story.
I relied heavily on my dictionary to make sense of real written
French. My grasp of vocabulary was
rather weak. I could understand each
particular lesson, but struggled to actively apply it in my writing. Speaking, where I had to think on my feet and sort through all the grammar rules,
was even worse. My instruction in French
focused on memorization and knowing, rather than on actively using.
I learned Spanish much more
organically. The emphasis in that course
was on dialogue. I still memorized
scripted dialogues, but instead of acting them out with one or two classmates
in front of the whole class, I practiced them with one classmate, then the
next, and then the next. The textbook
followed the same general format as the French textbooks I had used, but included
a pass code for semester-long access to online listening exercises to support
the learning. These lessons overlapped
with each chapter, but included new vocabulary and context and allowed me to
apply what I had been learning. After
one semester of Spanish, I was more comfortable actively communicating in
Spanish than I was after all the years of studying French.
As I search for tools with a
similar approach to my Spanish course, I am using three different strategies:
I am re-stimulating the part of my brain that
stores my knowledge of French language through directed exposure to written
French language. I am slowly working
through a library book that presents real-life (if dated) examples of French writing,
such as personal ads in a newspaper, classified ads, and advertisements, and
created comprehension exercises around them.
The book is entirely written in French and includes no answer keys. Luckily, I remember enough vocabulary to
understand most of the writing. The
context clues and questions help me understand more of them. When necessary, I resort to online translation
tools to figure out the rest.
I am informally immersing myself
in the Spanish language. I am lucky to
live in a community with a large Spanish-speaking population. I have plenty of opportunity to scan sign,
flyers, and advertisements written in Spanish.
I can overhear snatches of conversations, but, to respect privacy, I do
not listen closely to them. My richest
resource, however, is the local newspaper.
The paper includes English-language and Spanish-language articles. Frequently, the topics overlap. I can use the English-language version to
help me understand the Spanish-language version. The English-language article provides context
and a limited vocabulary that I can apply to the Spanish-language article. Even better, the articles are completely
different pieces of writing; one is never a direct translation of the
other. Seeing the same topic written
from different personal and cultural perspectives provides a deeper learning
experience (and makes the process more entertaining). For more of a challenge, I also puzzle
through the Spanish-language-only articles, using an online translator when I
cannot grasp the meaning of a word or phrase.
I may not have the formal structure in this language-learning attempt,
but I am greatly benefiting from the exposure.
Last, but not least, I explored
the online vocabulary-learning site at www.byki.com. This site has three options for language
learners, although I only discovered one of them by accident. This unintentional option is completely free
and requires no downloading or registration.
Users can simply go to the website and click on the “List Central” tab
to be able to access vocabulary lists submitted by other users in the language
of their choice. Users can also download
free software and register to be able to download up to 12 of the lists to a
personal computer. Lastly, users can
purchase the full software. Those who
choose to purchase will have access to all the free features but also be able
to import existing vocabulary lists from other sites or programs or to create
lists from scratch. Regardless of which
option the user chooses, he or she can sign up for an RSS feed to see when new
lists are added to the “List Central” tab for the language(s) he or she
chooses.
Byki essentially makes virtual
flashcards linked to audio pronunciation clips.
Each list of vocabulary follows the same five-step pattern to help you
master the phrases. First, the site
exposes you to the vocabulary as you click through the flashcards one by one,
seeing and hearing both the foreign phrases and the English translations. In the next two steps, the site shows you
just the foreign language side of the flashcard and asks you to think of the
English translation (step 2) and to type the English translation (step 3) using
either your own keyboard or the on-screen keyboard Byki provides. Lastly, the site shows you the English
translation and asks you to think of the foreign phrases (step 4) and to type
the foreign phrases (step 5). In steps 2
through 5, the computer tracks the user’s answers, adapting the number of
flashcards in use and the number of times each card appears to the user’s ability. After each step, the user can choose to
repeat the step or to move on to the next one.
Byki builds on the tried and true
strategy flashcard strategy for learning vocabulary. The program integrates sight and sound, helping
learners to master two modes of language usage at once. This multi-modal method reinforces the
lessons as well. The robust Byki
concept, then, works well as a supplemental tool for practicing a language or
for learning some new vocabulary.
In practice, however, the program
has some limitations. By nature, some
languages include characters not found in English, such as those in the
Cyrillic alphabet or accented vowels in many Romance languages. The
on-screen keyboard addresses the first problem and attempts to address the
second problem. However, the on-screen
keyboard, at least for French, does not include all of the accented
characters. An incorrect accented
letter, such as an “á” instead of an “à” or the unaccented letter (i instead of
î) must be substituted for the missing characters. Users interested in writing the
language are at a disadvantage. The
software is also case sensitive and punctuation sensitive. You must type exactly what the card says in
order to be deemed correct. Because the
lists are user-generated or user-submitted, the quality of each list varies. Careless construction leads to
confusion. For example, if the list
creator neglects to indicate a specific gender for certain French phrases, the
user may encounter difficulty. Technical
issues hamper the beneficial effects of Byki’s concept.
In spite of these minor
drawbacks, Byki’s vocabulary tool can be successfully used to reinforce language
learning. I recommend it to those
seeking tools to memorize vocabulary.
For best results, use Byki in combination with context-based and
grammar-based resources.
