I have writtten about this topic elsewhere but wanted to expand on it. I already know English more or less. Nevertheless, I conducted quite a bit of online research to determine what the best site is for learning english. My answer is this
Basically, this site, designed by profesionals in linguistic science, takes the very same approach as Lingua Latina but for persons desiring to aquire fluency in English. It uses just English to teach English and does LL one better by including audio resources. The only downside is that there are no lessons for rank beginners. Otherwise, it is THE BEST and could by itself put thousands of ESL teachers out of business - not that I would wish that per se.
I have searched in vain for comparable sites dedicated to Spanish and French. They don’t exist. I do not see at all why the associations rerpresenting the teachers of those languages don’t get their acts together. Several persons working together on the net and using the right methods could do more to further hispanidad an francofonie studies than thousands working separately each reinventing the wheel (and sometimes badly). So my purpose in this post is twofold: First, I wish laud to the skies the “target language only” approach as it has been implemented by ESLPOD for learners of English. Second, I wish to vehementlylament the failure among language teaching professionals to make available similar resources on the net and at a reasonable cost that could truly revolutionize the teaching of other modern and ancient languges. ESLPOD is showing the way ! Let the others follow!
No one shares my views about the paucity of truly excellent web based language learning materials! Too bad! Consider this: There are tons of great sports sites .. tons of great music video sites! Tons of utter garbarage in various sectors! But there is precious little that is truly excellent for learning languages This is not about belittling the efforts that some teachers or groups have made - afterall something is better than nothing. Nor is it about minimizing the importance of books. No, it is about the scientific, proven pedagogical methods that are NOT be implemented on the web. Books are important for laying a foundation in grammar an vocabulary. But actual language aquisition involves something more, namely the education of the EAR. This is where the web could make a great contribution. But as it is you can go to any mega-type bookstore and find pretty materials for learning Spanish, French or German. I am speaking of such series as “Ulitmate Spanish, French, German”. They these are pretty good but what ESLPOD as done is take the same approach and implement it ABUNDANTLY for potentially millions of globally -based learners. I told people I met in Latin America last year that they should drop out of the pricey “institutes” they were studying in and replace that with ESLPOD. There are untold hundreds of thousands of language teachers in this country. They are organized into societies that are supposedly dedicated to the propagation of the languages that they teach. I don’t know what they do in their conferences and confabs but it does not appear that they are organizing projects that could truly make a difference. They are not implementing projects like ESLPOD that are truly excellent. That pornographers have perfected their arts on the net while language teachers fiddle their fiddles I find to be appalling.
Don’t take it too hard. Personally, what I need most is not comprehension, but fluency. I can write English (duh!) and understand conversations in English (heck, I even watch The McLaughlin group), but, oddly, the words just don’t flow out of my mouth. My mind goes into a blank. It is very frustrating, because I know people who, like me, have never lived in the U.S. or any other English-speaking country, but, nevertheless, speak a lot more fluently.
Hmm interesting. you are obviously a very advanced student of English so I hesitate to send you specifically to ESLPOD. And your case illustrates that we are all individuals with individual strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless, I persist in my belief that as a general principal repeated LISTENING is intimately connected to increasing fluency. I wonder whether you have a lot of opportunity for conversational interactions? If not, internet telephony (SKYPE) could conceivably be of help to you.
Hmm interesting. you are obviously a very advanced student of English so I hesitate to send you specifically to ESLPOD. And your case illustrates that we are all individuals with individual strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless, I persist in my belief that as a general principal repeated LISTENING is intimately connected to increasing fluency. I wonder whether you have a lot of opportunity for conversational interactions? If not, internet telephony (SKYPE) could conceivably be of help to you.
In my opinion, it is the best resource on learning French ever made … the first episode is mostly in English and just blabs about the program, but the other 51 episodes are entirely in French. This was made before the era of the internet, but it is now availible for free at http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html - you have to sign up on the website, but that took me a total of two minutes. This website also offers resources on learning Spanish and German, but IMHO they are not nearly as good as French in Action.
I will second this. It is a wonderful series. I didn’t know it was available online. I have them all on tape. Unfortunately my VCR died a couple years ago. Will need to somehow get all this onto DVD … someday…
