FluentU app

The FluentU app is a welcome addition to the list of practical apps out there for foreign language learners.  FluentU uses the concept of flipped learning and applies it to video and audio. 

If you have used the FluentU web video resources before, then you'll like the app even more.  For those downloading the free version only, you will find that most of the functions are available.  When I tested it out, I found that the free version had enough tools and applications and I find it even better than their web version.

Another strong point with the FluentU app are the mobility and accessibility it provides.  Being an iPhone app, and soon to be released Android app, great language tools are just a press of a touch screen away. 

Once the Android app comes online, this could well be the goto app for language learners.



Below are some of the apps features and some things to help you get started.  There is also a short video introduction below.  You will also need to register an account. 


Dashboard: This should be the first place to go to set you level, language and app settings. 

Once your settings have been confirmed, Browse will probably be the main page you will use.  When on the Browse page, you will find the app's functions at the top of the screen and easy to use. 

All: This application includes all the videos, audio and flashcards of your selected level in one list.

Video: Shows the videos only.  When in your level, once you select video, you will find there is an extensive amount of videos to choose from.  Most of these videos are linked to Youtube videos produced by independent video producers.  Videos can only be used with wifi and are not downloadable.

What FluentU has done, and done very well, is to texualize the video scripts which includes explanations, the vocabulary meaning, pinyin for Chinese, and audio.  Unfortunately, to access the Learn function you need to upgrade your plan.  I found there was no need to upgrade, but have a look and if you think you need it, then upgrade.

You can also favourite a lesson which adds this to your Favourites list on the dashboard. 

Audio lists the sound recordings available in your level based on topics.   Audio introduces vocabulary and plays short sound files that demonstrates the new words in a series of sample sentences.  These are set up similarly to the videos with vocabulary explanations, audio and pinyin for Chinese. 

 In Audio, the Learn function is accessible and has some useful tools with detailed explanations, sample sentences with audio and translations. The Already Know function lets you skip something you have studied and do not need to go over again. A bonus with Audio is that once you have downloaded the lesson, you can still assess the audio file and everything else off line.

Flashcards is different to Audio in that the vocabulary is grouped in either word usage, parts of speech or grammar items, such as "Personal Pronouns" or "20 Essential Newbie Verbs".  Like Audio, the vocabulary has explanations, sample sentences all with audio and translations.  

FluentU has really hit the mark with their app and I think it is one of the best language apps that I have come across.  

Watch the video below to see how to navigate the FluentU app. 


                              

Suggested Activities

With FluentU, teachers can select the lessons appropriate for their students and create reading, writing, listening and speaking tasks. Some activities could be;
1. Flipped Learning: The teacher could set a note taking activity so students could demonstrate understanding and mastery of the lesson's content.  If there are any questions, students can ask the teacher next lesson or via classroom communication methods such as email. 
2. Peer Teaching: Students could be instructed to select particular lessons or vocabulary items and ask to prepare these to present to the class or mentor and coach other students. 
3. Self Study: Just instruct the students to go for it!

This is a very good language learning app.  It engages the user, it's easy to use, it has a nice clean interface, clear and precise language explanations, video, audio and the tools are very well thought out and useful. 

The FluentU app is available on iOS and, at the time of this writing, they are working at getting the Android version. 

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iPad's Text to Speech Function

The iPad has many powerful functions that are useful for students and teachers.  One of these functions is the text to speech function.  The text to speech function can read out, in just about every language, text from the web, in ebooks, Pages and just about everything that is in text form on your iPad.  

For students and teachers, there are many ways to use this function in language learning and teaching.  You can refer to my post on SpeakIt! which has similar functions and capabilities to the iPad's speech to text. 

Watch the video to see how you can set your speech to text function on the iPad.  


                             

SpeakIt! is a useful tool for learning languages

SpeakIt! Chrome extension is a text to speech tool that basically can read out texts from web pages. It is easy to use and the great thing for language teachers and students is that it can convert text to speech in a variety of languages. So far you can set it to read English - male or female voice, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, these languages have a female speakers voice. 

You can also set the speed and pitch of the voice, it takes a bit of adjustment to get it right, but once set, the text is read out in an audible but robotic tone, but it's easily understandable and is as good Siri and most computer or web generated speech that I have come across. This is a handy supplementary tool for teachers and students and comes at the right price. 

I could not get SpeakIt! to work with web based PDF documents, but it reads web pages without much fuss.  So if you have a text you have saved on your blog or website it works fine, but is not so happy with Google Doc. 

Some ideas for teaching activities are;

1. Reading Set the students a reading text and have them repeat after each sentence or short section.  But you'll need to monitor they do not start talking like a robot!
2. Listening (combined with Reading) activity  For example, students could work in small groups or on their own to complete a listening-reading activity.  This could be an unseen text of one of your Google Doc or blog posts in [language].  This could be turned into a listening-reading activity by having the questions placed below the text. The student could highlight as much as they think they can listen to in one playing, and repeat the process to gain full comprehension and answer the question.                                                                                                                                                     The advantage of having a combined listening-reading text is that students can sound out the new vocabulary, and find it in the dictionary if needed, especially useful in character based languages such as Chinese.                                                                                                                                                                                                     This method also allows students to work at their own pace through the text at the speed they are comfortable with.  As most students have varying listening skills, this is another way of differentiating the task.  

This type of listening activity may be best used to supplement the listening resources you already use.   SpeakIt!, Siri and other digital reading apps are still someway off from sounding like native speakers.  

To activate SpeakIt!, first click on the SpeakIt! icon, highlight the text you would like read out then click the icon.   Right click to set your options, high light the text you want read out then click the SpeakIt! extension.  Watch the video below for an demonstration. 

                                  

Test SpeakIt! out on the Chinese and French texts below.

Chinese sample text

小明你好！

  我已经在中国两个星期了，这里人很多，但是中国人都很热情我喜欢中国人，他们帮助我学汉语。我觉得说汉语难，但是听汉语不难。我的汉语老师是王老师。他去年去了澳大利亚，今年五月再去了。

French sample text

Il était une fois une maman cochon qui avait trois petits cochons. Elle les aimait beaucoup, mais comme il n'y avait pas assez de nourriture pour qu'ils puissent tous manger à leur faim, elle les a envoyé tenter leur chance dans le vaste monde.

Find iSpeak in the Chrome store.

Workflow and App Smashing

Recently I presented a workshop to language teachers on workflow and app smashing. The term "app smashing" sounds so cool and app smashing itself is so much fun and you can really create some valuable activities with apps for your students. App smashing is also known as "app synergy" or "workflow", I also like the term "app blending", it's much softer than "smashing", but I imagine students prefer the "smashing" imagery. But whatever you want to call it, the concept of "app smashing" is nothing new to teachers.

Most agree that "app smashing" is taking at least two apps and using the functions of the apps to create something. Before digital technologies, I suppose we would have taken paper and pen plus maybe sticky taped a photo or other photocopied image to create an activity sheet. This would then be followed by photocopying or stenciling a class set and even added a audio cassette recording of the teacher and set activities to that. See, workflow, taking tools (technologies of the day) to create something is not new. In the pre-digital era, paper, pen, audio recorder, VHS recorder, even the television, were part of the "technology" of the day. Remember stencils and overhead projectors? Who would of thought these technologies would be superseded only 20 years later by digital technologies such as tablets that can mirror, laptops and smartphones? So no matter if you've been teaching 50 years or 5 years, you can already have the knowledge to do some app smashing.

App smashing is fun and can be very productive. Like taking a digital photograph, you can "app smash" as much as you like, drafting and re-drafting your creation till you have, what you judge at least, to be a worthy product for your students. If you download free apps, app smashing does not cost anything but your time. The other great thing about these digital products is that you can modify them and improve them after each time you or your students use them. It's never ending. Don't keep all the fun to yourselves either. Give your students a class activity or project based assignment and get them to smash some apps and call it "app smashing". What do you think they would prefer to call it? "App smashing", "app synergy" or "workflow"?

Any good app smashing activity needs to be well thought out and well planned. This is where I think the term "workflow" fits in. I think scope and sequence, lesson plans, teaching programs, are all different types of workflows. The content in these guide or inform us what to teach and work to cover. They can also include examples of how we can achieve to objectives of our units of work and lessons with "how to" samples. These "how to" sections could include app smashing. That's my take on "workflow" anyhow, isn't it to make "work flow"? 

There are teachers, who seem to have the talent to make apps blend effortlessly together, but for most of us, good planning and good knowledge of the apps to be smashed is essential. Use the apps you want to include in your lessons and be the "app master" of that app. Some students will catch on quick with how to use apps, but there's nothing worse than a teacher giving out an activity that includes app smashing and not being confident in using them. Here are a few ideas of basic to advance app smashing ideas I have used.