So.. what is OpAL

OpAL, Open Access to Languages is a project born to make languages accessible to students of modern foreign languages within the context of the UK education. With this project we aim at providing language learning support materials to those who have already an  understanding of how languages work but may feel rusty or still insecure, and also to those who have never had experience of learning a second language. OpAL at present is divided into four modules: Grammar and Grammaring, The “many” Parts of Language, Using a Bilingual Dictionary and Online Translation Tools.

The thinking behind the project is that in HE we have many students who feel put off in some areas of language learning (for example: grammar) therefore they don’t even attempt to learn a new language. Students may consider grammar boring, or of no use whatsoever to learn a second language. They may not even be familiar with the grammar of their own native language. In order to break down barriers, we aim at explaining the process that occurs when a learner starts learning the language. And to make the jump from theory to praxis accessible we have enrolled the help of students of languages. Our students are the ones creating materials to explain grammatical areas, or materials on how to use online tools such as dictionaries. From our point of view they have the experience of learning – we have the experience of teaching. Now it is their time to share and prove that language learning is not an area to be afraid of!

The materials students create and share are simple, accessible tools that represent and prove that understanding the mechanism underlying any language is not difficult. Moreover,  understanding what the basic components of a language are, how to identify and use them appropriately, is an essential skill that will enable anybody to understand their own language better and to even feel capable to study a second, third or fourth language.

Happy language learning to all!

Ayuko’s work for OpAL

diccionario bilingue OBRA 3 Ayuko has been contributing to our introduction to the Open Access to Languages project on creating materials to facilitate learning a language. She, Luke and Michelle, have been contributing as part of PLanT in creating materials to explain and guide  students in the use of bilingual dictionaries and translation tools. She has created a presentation with Prezzi giving some tips and examples on use and missuse of the dictionary and of online translation.  Her experience working for the project in her own words: ” My work was creating an activity to practise using online dictionaries and translation tools from Spanish to English. The main objective of the activity is to become aware of using or quoting carefully the meanings found in dictionaries and translations. My experience of learning languages motivated me to join the project. I had a dilemma; I could not explain what I wanted to say even though I used the dictionary, because I did not consider whether the meanings I found in the dictionary were suitable for the contexts. Through
participating in the project, I learned again how to utilise dictionaries and use translations in a proper way. I hope that the activities we created help students with their use of dictionaries (as a tool to learn a language rather than just to look up meanings) and enjoy learning languages with dictionaries.”

Pilar Gray Carlos

Machine translation: friend or foe?

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Since the use of automated machine translations has been made more accessible, we often see or read of some type of translation gaffe. Sometimes mistranslation are merely anecdotal, other times they can be serious and offensive blunders.

In 2010 the online periodical Kazakhstan Today was unable to convey its intended meaning through a machine-translated English article without producing a few chuckles. The article discussed how Kazakhstan’s former president felt the country was not passing gas the way it should. While intending to report national news on energy, this short, two-paragraph article made four separate references to the important issue of “passing gas.” Months later, the periodical altered the translation and removed the offending phrase.

In 2007 a group of Israeli journalists used a translation engine to send an email message to the Dutch Consulate in Tel Aviv. They wanted to discuss an upcoming visit to The Netherlands for a seminar on Dutch politics, but they ended up asking the minister several nonsensical questions about his mother, including her sleeping arrangements.

Machine translation can be useful in certain cases, for instance, the U.S. Government has used computers to quickly translate millions of pages of potential terrorist chatter, which are then searched in English to identify key documents that then require high-quality human translation for added certainty. Legal service firms do the same to identify potential evidence from thousands of documents in a foreign language, which saves months of time and millions of dollars.

The use of low-quality translations, can be effective to get the gist or to scour documents for certain keywords and subjects. But when a quality end product is needed, then human translation is needed. The experts must come into the scene and apply their knowledge.

Could there be any other ways to make an effective use of machine translation? Perhaps we could find a pedagogical use for it. What if we use them with the purpose of helping us to learn another language? Sites such as Google Translation are increasingly becoming more and more sophisticated. We can learn short sentences and vocabulary, but even more, if we understand the mechanisms of how a language works, we can even detect where and if there are any syntax or grammar mistakes. By learning to identify and then correct these mistakes we reinforce and increment our knowledge of the language. Find out the mistake in a sentence and correcting it tends to be one of the exercises that any student of a second language does as part of their learning. Activities which include translation sites can be built into the class or homework. After all, students will use them, but the key is to enable them to use them correctly and to their advantage.

References http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705362590/Machine-translation-can-bring-blunders-successes-in-international-business.html?pg=all

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/07/babel_fish_insults_dutch_foreign_minister/

Pilar Gray Carlos

Michelle’s work for OpAL

IMG_3544 with cut and resized Michelle Oritsejafor and Ayuko Yamada

Michelle’s own words about her project: “I’m creating a video that will act as a guide to show people learning a new language how to make the most of a dictionary, which is something that sounds simple and basic, but is not really taught. I think learning how to use a dictionary in this interactive video format, using animation, and sound, is a fun and modern way to help students, even if they only incorporate some of the advice. I also think this will be beneficial for beginner level language students who can be confused by online dictionaries, and hopefully the activities we created can help them at least be wary and more aware that online dictionaries and translators are not always right.

The software I am using is Sparkol, which allows me to animate text and pictures and explain my ideas in an entertaining way, and I can see students watching the short video on their phones, or ipads on the go or at their desktops. I think it is a tool that all levels of learners can use, because many people forget the basics of learning a language, which can complicate things. Overall I hope this really helps students use dictionaries more during the language learning process.”

Pilar Gray Carlos

OpAL and PLanT

Ayuko resized Ayuko Yamada

One of the aims of OpAL is to have students involved in the creation of materials. PLanT (Partnership in Learning and Teaching) has enabled three our students to participate in our project. Luke Bailey, Michelle Oritsejafor and Ayuko Yamada are students with plenty of experince in learning a second language. They have been planning and designing materials for other students to use.  Luke, Michelle  and Ayuko are involved in exploring the use of online dictionaries and translation tools. Here we have a picture of Ayuko showing us a draft of her presentation on using online dictionaries that will become part of our OpAL project.

Pilar Gray Carlos

 

Online dictionaries help to build vocabulary for listening skills

digital-communications-laptop-computer-monitor-screen-mac-pc-free-stock-vector[1]This week I went to an excellent lecture/session, given by Jane Ward, on the process of acquiring listening skills when learning a second language. The research she is undertaking is based on psycholinguistics, studying the ability of learners of foreign languages to decode and parse speech. When we listen to other languages that we don’t know, what we hear is a torrent of sounds (see Enza’s introduction to “grammaring” in OpAL). At some point in that torrent of sounds we start identifying units of meaning, i.e. words.  In the process of understanding, learners use a whole array of cognitive and metacognitive strategies that we, the language teachers need to bear in mind when facilitating their language learning experience.

The above studies highlight the need for vocabulary building from a different perspective to the traditional approach. Learning how to improve listening skills is an area that needs much work. Listening is a reception skill that enables the student to produce the language orally at a later stage. If students don’t learn words (I will not go into grammatical or syntactical categories yet) they will not progress in their understanding of the language nor in the correct production of it. For students to improve their listening skills they need to improve their vocabulary first; this does not just involve reading and writing the words to memorize them. Students need to hear how the written words sound in order to recognize them when they are produced by speakers. That can be difficult if they don’t have the help of a native speaker. The use of online bilingual (and monolingual) dictionaries can certainly help students in this area. Sites such as www.collinsdictionary.com or sites such as www.spanishdict.com offer the sound as well as the meaning of the word. Students can then get acquainted with the new piece of vocabulary at two different levels, the written and the aural. We are all very familiar with reading written texts; we can read them at leisure, underline, find a dictionary and check the meanings. With oral texts, particularly if they are produced by a set of native speakers in real time; the experience of trying to make sense of the conversation can be daunting for learners. The more we expose students to means by which they can match sounds with meanings the more we equip them to be successful in their language learning journey.

In a recent survey we conducted with our students, it emerged that the majority use bilingual online dictionaries. We encourage students to use dictionaries to find meanings, but we don’t encourage them to look those words up and listen to them at the same time. Online dictionaries have the advantage of providing the sound file, an advantage that has not always been highlighted.  With OpAL we are trying to point these tools and their uses to students.  Learning a language does not need to be a difficult and fragmented experience.

Pilar Gray Carlos

Language learning, what motivates us?

Language learning in the UK is a topic that has been gaining interest and exposure in the social, political and educational scene of the UK. A recent article (with the above title) published in The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/19/language-learning-motivation-brain-teaching explores motivation for language learning.

According to Professor John Schuman from the University of California (UCLA) the motivation to learn a primary language (what we generally call the mother tongue or native language) lies in the need a child has to interact with the person who looks after him or her. The relation between the need and the outcome of the need is clear. When applied to learning a second or third language that motivation changes.

Within the past 50 years two terms have been used to describe and categorise motivation for language learning: instrumental and integrative. Integrative refers to affective parameters “get to know, be with, interact and perhaps become like the speakers of the target language”. Instrumental relates to more pragmatic ones “fulfilling a school requirement, getting a job, getting a promotion in that job, or being able to deal with customers”.

Which one applies to the motivation to learn a second language? A combination of both instrumental and integrative motivation will lie at the heart of any choice. The reasons for learning a second language will be as varied and as individual as each learner.

As teachers in higher education we are often asked, “what is the most useful language to learn?” We often reply, “it depends on what you want to get out of it”. Students may balance their choices on strategic and pragmatic views for getting the most out of their university years. But in the end what makes their language learning experience successful and encourages them to carry on learning is the relationships they form with their fellow students and their tutors.

Creating an environment where students feel safe and nurtured is one of the challenges for any provider of second language teaching. That is an environment that needs both institutional and national support if we look into the alarming shortage of speakers of second languages in the UK.

In times of economic and financial difficulties one of the first areas in education to be cut is the area of languages. A wider effort is needed in the awareness that communication lies at the bottom of any human relationship. It is common sense, isn’t it? We need language to communicate; communication is what motivates a child to learn a primary language in the first place. Efforts by different organizations and initiatives have been and are taking place in the languages’ landscape of the UK. We have a combined effort undertaken at present to bid for a strong investment in attracting students to languages at university level. We have organisations funding projects and activities for language providers at university level to promote languages in schools. Is that enough? Will the attitude towards second language learning change?

As a non-native who has lived the past 20 years in the UK, I have seen many changes in attitude towards a variety of topics at social and cultural levels (“cultural” understood as the lifestyle of a community). When will the attitude to languages be one of these changes? We need expert graduates in modern foreign languages. We also need students with expertise in non-linguistic areas, who are capable of expressing themselves in a foreign language in a variety of social and work related environments. We need languages for all and, at all levels.

Pilar Gray Carlos

Learning how to use a dictionary in MFL – transferable skills and learner autonomy

dictionary wordleThe amount of vocabulary a person knows plays an important role in how well the person can communicate and understand a language. Resources such as dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri, paper and/or online, enable students’ access to the vocabulary they need.
Our brain is limited in the amount of information that can be stored, we cannot memorise all the information contained in directories or encyclopaedias. All we need is to know where to find information and how to access it fast and efficiently. Learning to have access and to use a variety of reference materials is a valuable transferable cross-curricular skill for any student.
In MFL by exploring and understanding the use of bilingual dictionaries, glossaries and thesauri, students are able to understand and explain unfamiliar vocabulary. Students need to learn not just how to use a dictionary, but also to disregard, choose and learn from whatever they find in it. The ability to find out information is only the first step. The second step is to make sure that the information found in online dictionaries, paper ones or in web pages passes from the printed word into their active or at least passive vocabulary.
That brings us to learning autonomy. Students who use a bilingual dictionary with confidence are certainly less dependent on teacher’s input. By becoming independent learners they gain control over their own learning. This control seems to create a much better attitude toward the subject they learn. A language learner learns the meaning of a new word; a good language learner develops an awareness of what he/she can learn about new words: spelling, collocation, synonyms, etc.

Pilar Gray Carlos