This blog entry is an evaluation of a Learning Language blog.
Can you learn a language via a blog?
It depends on the technology incorporated into the blog. I researched several learning language blogs, however, the blog I found most interesting is Internet Polyglot found at http://internetpolyglot.blogspot.com/.
Purpose
The purpose of this blog is to promote a website of the same name: http: www.InternetPolyglot.com. Internet Polyglot is a website devoted to learning languages, such as English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese, and more. There are literary hundreds of options. You can select your current language and the language you want to learn, such as Spanish to French, or German to Farsi.
Language Goals
The goals I found useful and effective on the blog related directly back to website, which are to help their members learn foreign languages. Internet Polyglot states that it is dedicated to helping members learn foreign languages by providing them a way to memorize words and their meanings. According to Internet Polyglot Team this helps them to grasp more information and retain it for longer time.
Content
The blog is designed like a typical blog that includes entries, links, comments, and more. The content presented in this blog includes blog entries from the Internet Polyglot team. These entries offer exciting news about the field of learning languages It also discuss leaning methods such as typing games and audio pronunciation features used on the website. Past blog entries included a “word of the day” that showed different languages for the same word.
Technology
The software I found on the blog is actually links back to the website to interactive games. The blog offers links to fun learning activities, such as matching games, guessing games, and typing games. I found the software is easy to use and easy navigate from game to game. There are plenty of opportunities to practice. In regards to receiving feedback, there are also ways to check your answers and receive scores.
Target Audience
There is no clear grade level and age level of a targeted audience, however, based on the text, I assume the blog and the website is designed for adults of all ages with a desire to learn a new language. There are chat rooms and forums that are designed to appeal to adults.
Strengths and Weaknesses
There are strengths such as the interactive games; however, there are also weaknesses. One weakness is that the overall appearance of the website is not vey exciting. I think the website should include pictures. One of the strengths is that even though the website offers paid lessons, all of the pages are free. I think the strengths of this website far out weight the weaknesses. I am sure I will use this website in the near future as I continue in this class, L530 Computer-Assisted Language Learning.
References:
- Internet Polyglot Blog: http://internetpolyglot.blogspot.com/ found on September 10, 2007
- Internet Polyglot Website: http://www.internetpolyglot.com/, found on September 10, 2007, Version 2.3.0, Copyright © 2007 Internet Polyglot
3 comments:
I looked over your choice of website with great interest. However, while the blogs were a worthwhile read, I found myself wondering as I surveyed the site why they would want to use such a potentially powerful interactive tool like this just to help users memorize vocabulary more easily; that seems like a very 1.0 kind of goal rather than a 2.0 one. I also wasn't able to play the interactive games. I think the links may have been temporarily out of order or I was doing something wrong. In any case, thanks for your well-written review.
Hi Rea-- How did you go about finding an ESL blog? Did you find a portal site? I just used google and found it to be a very hit-and-miss approach.
thanks for sharing your insightful comments! I agree that one weakness is the overall appearance of the website is not that attractive. It can add some video clips or animation...
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