|
Contact
me
|
|
What
is the Language Learning and Travel Network?
Step
1: Create your own Material (Online – world wide network).
Step
2: Share your Material (Face-to-Face – local network).
Step
3: Travel and Experience the Language and Culture (Travelling –
world wide network).
For
a visual presentation (ppt) click
here. In
html: here. In
QuickTime: (here)
And
please read on here:
The
network provides the language learning community with a method
that combines online learning, face-to-face learning and,
eventually, the opportunity for encounters in the countries where
the target language is spoken, making for real communication and
cultural exchange. Members are language learners of all levels,
beginners and professionals, multimedia experts and aficionados,
business people, educators, travellers and people interested
sharing their cultural experiences and knowledge.
Our
system emphasizes learner input, participation and collaboration.
Learners create their own learning materials, aided in this effort
by fellow learners of other languages, that is, by native speakers
of the target language located anywhere in the world or in their
own city. Through a wiki system (like that of Wikipedia), the
texts learners create are broken down and linked to a user-created
vocabulary and grammar database. Standard exercises are also
created for those original texts, and audio files of these texts
are produced by other participating members (again, located
anywhere in the world) for incorporation into the lesson layout.
In the second phase, once the learners have become “experts”
in their respective lessons, they present this material to fellow
network members learning the same target language in their city or
town, consolidating the subject matter learned through
face-to-face peer-to-peer “teaching” as opposed to exclusively
online or passive, one-directional computer-based systems.
Step
1
Imagine you want to learn Spanish. You are
a beginner? No problem. You write a dialog that you feel could be
useful to your purposes, e.g., a conversation in a restaurant, at
the hotel reception, at a bank, etc. You post the dialog you have
created on the online work area. Promptly a network member, in
this case a native Spanish speaker, will translate your dialog
into Spanish for you to see online. Naturally you can recognize
much more easily the elements of that dialog because you created
them in the first place. You then select the main vocabulary items
and create a list on which other network members work, expanding
upon them with sample sentences, comments and references. At the
same time, other members make and submit the audio files of the
dialog, which the system embeds into the page layout so that with
the click of a button you can hear the text spoken sentence by
sentence. You can add photos to enhance the overall visual
appearance and functionality of your lesson. For example, you take
a photo of yourself in a restaurant speaking with the waiter. The
main grammar points of the text you have created are identified
and elaborated upon by fellow network members, and exercises are
created (according to a series of standard formats) to help you
practice and consolidate your knowledge. For example, if the text
you have created contains the sentence “Could you bring the wine
list?”, an indication by your “teachers” online would prompt
you to search in paragraphs 230-235 or the grammar database, and
your “homework” would be to identify exactly where in the
grammar database the use of “could...” is explained as a form
of “can” for expressing a polite request. In this case, for
example, you would cite paragraph 234b, where you found the
explanation of that grammatical point and several sample
sentences.
Step
2
Once you are familiar with the content of
the lesson you have created, you meet with fellow members in your
own city who have created their own lessons for the same target
language. Each learner becomes as it were the “teacher” of
that lesson for the other members. You teach them, they teach you.
You meet in collaborating institutions (schools, cultural centers,
etc.) or in the meeting rooms of collaborating businesses. This
process of mutual presentation of learning materials will
consolidate your understanding and mastery of the subject matter.
In addition, you will be exposed to the material of others and
will be able to review it online after this face-to-face
encounter. Of course, a monitor or “expert” in the target
language will accompany these presentations.
Step
3
In the end, we learn a language to use it,
so eventually you will travel to a Spanish-speaking country and
visit fellow network members in that country who want to learn
your language. You will help them by attending and supervising
their face-to-face sessions (in this case with English as a target
language) and after that session you will participate in social
activities with them (an excellent opportunity for you to practice
your Spanish) and they will help you with orientation within the
city or any other needs you may have.
|
|