Foreign+Language

= Foreign Language and Technology = Foreign Language is one of those subjects where innovation is a must. We all remember tedious hours of repetition, verb conjugation, and being clueless regarding to what the teacher was trying to accomplish. Technology such as the iPad, and the Kindle allow teachers to provide students “with rich learning resources … changing the lecture-based class pattern into research-based pattern” (Zhu, 67).

Adding light, color, patterns, video and images to teaching, allow not only the student but the teacher to create an interactive environment, giving students access to native speaker pronunciation and intonation, as well as, addressing multiple intelligences. This is especially important when leaning a second language, since a variety of images, dialogues and movies will offer the student a more realistic view of the language within a context. However, technology must not be used by itself, since excessive use neglects content, teachers must still explain and teach, so students can fully understand the concepts and how they can be applied in many different situations.

“Multimedia should be a method to assist teachers to convey knowledge as well as a cognitive tool to create situations for students for coordinative and active learning” (Zhu, 69). Kindle and the iPad have embraced this new technology, creating different tools for learning. The iPad has many apps designed for Foreign Languages, and not only Spanish. The 24/7 Tutor series has Free Tutor’s for many languages they provide a set of the most commonly used words and phrases, pronunciation help and quizzes to keep track of the students process. There are also apps for culture, which highlight features of different countries that can help students with research to further their knowledge, as well as fun apps such as Play2Learn, which teach Foreign Languages through games. For teachers, iPad has created new tools that generate games like Jeopardy games, there are timers, counters, many ways to create an interactive classroom, while maintaining the students’ interest and facilitating their work load.

Kindle has added dictionaries, grammar books, practice books, how-to books, children books and many classics to their Foreign Language repertoire. There you can find books in Spanish, French, Italian, German and many other languages. They also thought on how Foreign Languages may need to be applied, so there are guides for nurses, police officers, government workers, teachers, and many more. Kindle allows you to have in the palm of your hand many books that can be applied within a classroom at the touch of a button, students can be reading a novel, and switch to the dictionary to find a word, or to a grammar book to find out how it is applied, making it easy to have everything you need at any point in time.

Creative new apps to learn Foreign Languages (Spanish): []