Mobile phones as language learning tool March 9, 2008
These days most people have cell phones, and many of those people use them to kill time while waiting or travelling. A few companies are taking advantage of this by offering language-learning services as an option to the usual video games or e-mail.
The biggest advantage to this method of learning is that users can study at their own pace, wherever and whenever they have the time.
Recent advances in cell phone technology have resulted in sound quality high enough that users can distinguish slight differences in pronunciation of the target language. The cited disadvantages of using cell phones for such study methods–small screens–are not likely to bother people using their phones for listening practice.
Cell-phone learning can be traced back to Waseda University Prof. Yang Da, a Chinese-language teacher who sought help to put his lessons online. Then doctoral candidate Wu Jianming, who now works at KDDI R&D Laboratories, helped the professor develop an e-learning system in 2003, following it up the next year with a similar system for cell phones.
Today, there is a growing interest in the Chinese language, but for Japanese students, pronunciation and listening comprehension are regarded as the most difficult skills.
The learning systems developed by Yang centers on practicing listening comprehension. Ninety percent of his students have reached level four (out of 11, with 11 being the highest) on the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi Chinese proficiency test after only three months, when using the computer-aided system. Level four, which would normally take a year of intensive study, is high enough to enter a Chinese science university.
Read the complete article at YOMIURI Online
- Posted in : Uncategorized, General Technology, Mobile Marketing, SMS News, Mobile Technology
- Author : Roni
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