iPad's "Define" function for Language learning

The iPads' features bar has a range of useful and powerful tools that helps users complete a wide range of activities.  The one I'll be talking about here is the Define feature.  I did a post on the Speak  feature a while ago which is also a useful tool.  

The Define feature is very useful for language learners when on the web or when reading texts on your iPad.  It works the same way whether reading a webpage or in an ebook or Pages, unfortunately it does not read PDFs or Word docs.  With each new app you use though, you may need to manage  the app by downloading a dictionary the first time you use Define in that app.  

Steps to using Define

1. Press the word you want the definition for.
2. Go to Manage (bottom left of popout).
3. Choose your dictionary from the list.
4. If the definition has more arrows, then you can drill down to more content. 

Define is a very useful tool and one that will support language learners in their reading and comprehension of texts.  As with most support material and tools, teachers will need to plan how to use Define to best help in their students learning.  

I would not recommend using Define, or similar apps, extensions or print dictionaries to translate every single word of a text and I doubt many teachers would.  I taught students to use various strategies to read a new text. For example, I taught students to first skim a text to get the gist, then if they have to translate any word, decide which are the key words they need to translate, there is no need to translate every word.  If the correct text is selected by the teacher, then the student should not be required to translate more than 5 - 10% the text, this can vary depending on text type and nature of the activity. Personally, I do not think it is a good idea or practical to give students an unseen passage that is loaded with vocabulary that the student has not learnt previously. 

The Define feature is a handy in-app tool which provides good support for language learners and when coupled to Speak make a powerful combination and could even be used for planned flipped learning activities. 

Readlang Chrome App

Readlang is a great Chrome Web Store app that easy to setup and can translate a wide range of languages.  Readlang can be set to any language web page, just choose your language preferences once you access the dashboard.  

Readlang has other language learning functions that students and teachers could find very useful.  You can create your own vocabulary lists and flashcards which you can review when needed.  Create an account online to benefit from all the functions available and find more useful and practical tools to help you and your students learn a language.  

To access Readlang, download it free from the Chrome Web Store, then double click on the extension and adjust your settings.  The annotated images below will help to get you started. 

I have only used the free version and I think for most students and teachers the free version is more than adequate.  There's a premium version that may be worth looking into as well.

Readlang basics to get going.

Readlang Dashboard

Review Flashcards
This function takes you to your web account for Readlang.  

Import to Readlang
You can import your webpage to Readlang and work on the text there.  I think it works fine in the webpage, but like all things, play around and see what your preferences are. 

Open Dictionary
This is a useful online dictionary that you could have students open if preparing a text. 

Translation Settings
You have two settings with the free version.

1. Replace: replaces the highlighted or selected word with the translation.  For example, if I highlighted a word, it would replace the word with English.
2. Above: once you scroll over the word you want translated, this places the translation above the word, if you keep your mouse on the word you can also get a boxed translation with its various meanings and for Chinese, the pinyin. I think for students, this is the best option. 

Readlang Homepage (in your web account)

Your Readlang homepage has some very useful functions which will serve as good learning tools for you and your students. 

Library
In the Library are your saved texts.  Public Texts, which are those shared by Readlang users, and also Websites, which are the most popular websites shared and used by Readlang users of the language you have chosen. 

Word List
Once you have highlighted a word, for Chinese it can pick the compound words, Readlang saves this to the Wordlist.

Flashcards
Once you have a Wordlist, Readlang sets up Flashcards with translations and also a voice function so you can hear the word. 

You can even setup an email reminder for you to practice your language. 



Readlang can access webpages in any language, provided its'  one of the languages supported by Google.  This is why I think Readlang is a much better learning tool than Language Immersion which I reviewed earlier.  

I think teachers and students can get a lot of valuable support from Readlang.  Teachers can flip their lessons, scaffold reading texts that they allocate to students on the web so that differentiated learning activities can benefit all learners of any level.  Students can read texts, save vocabulary to their lists and review them later.

You can use it on your iPad, with limited functions (explained below) and I imagine other tablets are similar.  By adding this to your iPad via the Home Screen button, next to your url address bar, you can use the Readlang dashboard functions just like an app. (You can do this for any website) Just note that this will only give you the functions in the dashboard, which is what I meant by limited, not the web page language functions as described above. 

   Look for this symbol if you want to create an app to add to your homescreen on your iPad.

Next, I'll be talking about how to get the same web functions working on you iPad, without Readlang. 

Language Immersion Chrome Extension

The Language Immersion Chrome extension is a useful and practical tool for language teachers and students.  It provides for all the languages that are available in Google translate, but like all similar digital and web translation applications and extensions, its translations are not perfect.

Language Immersion only translates web pages from English into another language, which I think limits its' usefulness.  Please let me know if you have found this not to be the case.  It would be a much better product if it was available to also translate from another language into English or other language.  

Setting up the amount of text you want translated is easy.  By adjusting the level, you can set how much of the web text you want to translate.  If you would like to translate the whole text from English into the target language, this extension will translate it, but as mentioned above, I don't think you could guarantee 100% accuracy.  I would recommend using it more as a vocabulary support or a scaffolding tool.  If you are going to translate the whole text or a large part of it, it would be best to check the accuracy before giving it to students. 

Differentiate activities with Language Immersion could be useful as well.  By setting the  , immersion level for different levels, you could actually create some differentiated activities.  It might be easier for the teacher to set the different levels of the web text, then screenshot the page, then distribute the different levels to the students to work with.       

Language Immersion can be downloaded for free from the Chrome Store.  It may be hard to find so here is a shortened url to help http://bit.ly/LangImmerChrome   

It's rating of 3.5 stars in the Chrome Web Store is probably half a star too generous. 

Below are a few images on how to set up Language Immersion.