Behind the Scenes of Fluent's first Online Course: French Grammar for Beginners

I'm very excited today as I finally get to write to you blog folks about my new online course. Its subject is French Grammar - the full thing covering everything students need to complete level A1.

This awesome course contains 15 video lectures, documentation, quizzes and a certificate at the end - a full package which would cost you hundreds in personal tuition, but is on sale for $75. You can register for a place on French Grammar for Beginners today at the special rate of just $35 - this expires on 31 January.

In today's blog post I'd like to tell you how and why the course came into being.

Why make an online course?

French Grammar for Beginners is a new venture, which my longest-standing readers may know as what started out being French on a Windowsill. I would grab my laptop and record my own explanations of grammar, using the best grammar book I know as an inspiration. In these video lessons, I combined my teaching experience with my own memories of learning French. The idea was to give simple examples and make sense of grammar in a way that everyone can understand.

French on a Windowsill was great. The videos on YouTube received excellent feedback, my favourite of all being a simple:
 

You are AWESOME.

This stuff felt great, but I strongly believed that I could offer students a better product, and not at private tuition prices. Last year I started investigating how I could turn French on a Windowsill into a full-on English course. I considered selling the videos on my online shop along with supporting materials, or teaching them as a series of webinars, but none of these offered my learners the great interface, fast download speeds and easy access that I wanted them to have.

Eventually, I came across Udemy. The website is a modern marketplace for online courses and allowed me all the things I wanted to offer, like:

• Mobile apps so learners can watch my videos wherever they are
• A choice of watching the videos online or downloading them
• The option of offering you quizzes and progress reports
• A forum for student questions, which I can respond to publicly

So last year I started working on creating this new version of French on a Windowsill. I recorded two extra lectures to make a full A1 level grammar course complete, I added transcripts and exercises and uploaded all my videos to Udemy. There is also a new intro video, which I will share with you in today's post.

French Grammar for Beginners was complete - my first online course!

Why is it important to learn as part of a community, even online?

1)  Groups keep you coming back
Learning is one of the many things in life that are more fun when they are shared, and many students start making friends on forums and courses which keep them coming back, talking about the subject and ultimately succeeding at their missions.
2) You're going public
Think about the last time you endeavoured to make a big change, like following an exercise routine or cutting Facebook time out of your day. Did you enlist others on your journey or perhaps even
3) More answers means better answers
The internet is built on collective knowledge - it's democratic, and you can benefit from this every day. A question asked or experience shared in a course like French Grammar for Beginners can be viewed and answered by everyone on the course and just like on Quora this has the potential to give you access to the best and brightest learners and teachers, anytime.

So, here's my conclusion:

The combination of community and learning at your own convenience was the perfect way of showing you how online learning is changing the world. It used to be a privilege for scholars at Harvard and Cambridge, but now online learning is bringing in a new age.

How you can study on French Grammar for Beginners

Guys, I hope I've shared my reasons and also ignited your understanding of how online courses can help you learn a language at really great value. For just $75, French Grammar for Beginners features

• 15 video lectures with tables and documentation for downloading
• Revision quizzes to test yourself
• Great mobile learning through the iPad and iPhone apps
• Support from me - I am checking this course regularly and personally responding to student queries

Here's the special offer for you

French Grammar for Beginners will be available with at a price of just $39 all January (standard price $75). Yes, for one more week only. This is less than the price of a single language lesson and a discount for only 50 learners. Just click and have a look around Udemy to see the video intro and free preview lectures.

I'm a learner on Udemy myself, by the way. To preview own course and find out which classes I am taking online, please check out my Udemy profile.

Fellow language learning bloggers: If you would like to promote this course while earning as an affiliate, you can send me a quick email today and I'll provide further details.
 

Kerstin's 3 Steps for Learning Topical Vocabulary

Topical vocabulary means the words and expressions that all relate to one topic, for example cookery, education or firefighting. Today's article introduces a foolproof 3-Step Method, plus get involved by posting your next vocab topic in the comments, and we'll feature you in a blog article next year.

Why is this useful?

If you make it your goal to learn all the words in a language, you'll never know when you're done. Setting a goal like "500 words" is also though, because who counts all the new words they're learning?! So bring on the topical approach. You can get into a topic you're interested in and feel like you're really getting somewhere.

Learning topical vocabulary is not difficult - here are 3 steps to success:

1. How much do you know about this in English or your native language?

The key here is to set your goal posts right, so that you'll know the detail of what your topic is all about. Plus, remember that language is never isolated from what it talks about. In other words, the success in remembering vocab is based on knowing what you're talking about. If you want to write like an expert about history, better know the facts before the words.

For example, I once worked at the fabulous Panaz, who make all kinds of flameproof fabrics. I was their Export Sales Administrator, on the phone all day taking and confirming orders in French. I could have learnt all the words for fabric and upholstery I wanted, but these customers wanted someone who first knew her stuff, and then knew all the words for it.

So here is Step 1: Be sure you know what you're talking about, and then you'll know which words and expressions you need.

2. Note it down, then relax-repeat-remember

Forget talent - repetition is the heart of success. Many people recommend "SRS", which means a spaced repetition system. In other words, you will have to go over words again even if you remembered them today. The repetition of running through those lists is what makes it go in, so it's got to be a routine for a week or two. Remember Fluency MC? It's relax - repeat - remember.

For more ideas on getting that vocabulary to stick, check out 6 Techniques for Learning Vocabulary.

Step 2: Follow the 3 R's: Relax, repeat, remember.

3. Test yourself twice

It's easy to check how many words you know, so make your first test an article in the paper and a TV show about your topic. With libraries, the internet, YouTube and Facebook at your service, I challenge you to find something you couldn't read a lot about in almost any language. How about searching for the #tag on Twitter (see below)?

Now for the second test, maybe a little bit more daunting but this is going to be more fun too: Have a conversation, chat about the topic, go listen to someone and say what you think! Of course it should be possible to bring most conversations around to your chosen topic (and an amusing challenge, too!) eventually, and then throw in the new words, ask questions and feel the power. You've just become an expert!

Step 3: Test yourself once by consuming, and twice by producing language.

Twitter search result for "Flameproof" in German - there really is media for anything

Favourite topics?

As always, I want you guys to get involved and think about how this article will serve you best, so you are invited to write a comment below and tell me what your vocabulary topics are. How about Christmas, cookery or knitting? Or look at the cool Sally Holmwood, who's currently studying personal banking words for her part-time job in an international bank.

Don't miss out on the launch of the Fluent Guide to Vocabulary Learning for Self-Directed Language Learners.

Thanks for reading this article on Fluent - The Language Learning Blog. Don't forget - if you sign up to our newsletter, you will receive a free Guide to the Best Language Learning Resources!

Linguistic Gift Ideas 2013

Hello blog readers, this Friday we are entering the final few weeks before Christmas! Yes, Hanukkah is over and so are the modern inventions Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and I helpfully dozed all the way through them. Well, here I am, better late than never, in bringing you this year's Linguistic Gift Ideas.

The Gift Ideas Board

On my updated Pinterest board, I have lots of good stuff from cute French t-shirts to funny language guides and travel books. Please have a good peruse and root around the board, and let me know what you're giving for Christmas this year!

Follow Kerstin H's board Linguistic Gift Ideas on Pinterest.

Awesome FlashSticks landed in the Shop

Sticky word notes, they're my number one. In all honesty, these are a learning tool that always works.

If you want to give some as a gift or it's too much effort to make your own, someone has now invented FlashSticks: pre-printed Post-It notes in four languages and designed for your chosen learning level. I am genuinely excited to be offering packs of FlashSticks through the online shop on my website! They are pre-printed, colour-coded and really fun. SO recommended.

Order by 19 December for Christmas delivery in the UK, and by 14 December for delivery within Europe (all posting dates are on the Royal Mail site).

Amazon Link

And just in case you're buying something on Amazon for Christmas this year, please consider going through this link here for US/this one for UK and supporting my blog. It doesn't cost you anything extra, and I get a little commission from them. These links land on my book Fluency Made Achievable, but will work no matter where on Amazon you go from there. Thanks guys!

The Special Needs Child and the Foreign Language (by Sally Holmwood)

Sally Holmwood, tutor at Indigo Languages is establishing herself as a regular and always very welcome guest here on the Fluent Language blog. Her experiences working with young people of all ages, both inside and outside the UK school system make her views so profound, and Sally has a real passion for her languages to share with you. Today she is discussing a special group of people, often forgotten in the language learning world: Special needs children.

One Tongue, Two Languages

As well as working with languages, I support individuals with special needs in a wide range of settings. There is a wealth of information, on the internet and beyond, about teaching languages to children with special needs – and plenty of resistance from parents and school staff alike!

“My Child Struggles to Communicate in English - Why Teach Them a Foreign Language?”

Many parents I know of children with severe learning difficulties would argue against teaching a foreign language to a child that experiences considerable difficulty in speaking their own. I know two mothers of non-verbal autistic boys, for example. For the mothers, English is not their native tongue. They live in England and so speak to their sons in English. They believe that, as their children hear English all day, wherever they go, it might confuse them to hear a different language spoken at home. Such apprehension about introducing a child with a learning difficulty to a foreign language is not uncommon. Some parents and staff believing pupils’ time might be better spent focussing on building independence skills.

Using Language-Learning as a Stepping Stone

At Languages Without Limits, the rationale that we are all different is reason enough to introduce pupils with special needs to a foreign language. Seeing the variation between people from different cultures showed pupils that it is acceptable to be ‘different’. There is scope for revisiting useful basic language concepts when learning a foreign language too. The teaching of social and other core skills can be integrated into foreign language lessons, shifting the focus just slightly. (Read this twice because it applies to all learners, not just special needs ones. -ed.)

“But This Child Can’t Speak!”

We may believe the non-verbal child does not benefit from learning a foreign language - but can we really be sure? If you haven’t heard of Carly Fleischmann, the Canadian teenager with non-verbal autism, now’s the time to look her up! Watch her video below to see for yourself the stark contrast between her father’s assumptions about her understanding and what she herself wants to communicate! Carly, like many other non-verbal youngsters, now has an electronic communication aid – many of these can even be furnished with foreign language software!

David R. Wilson has compiled a list of resources that include guidelines on making foreign languages accessible to pupils with a number of special needs, who may need to learn in a different way to their peers.

A Time and Place for Everything – Including Traditional Teaching Methods!

Rudyard Kipling once said

The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it!

We know that there are three learning styles – visual, auditory and kinesthetic (tactile) – and certainly some pupils with special needs learn better if they can ‘get stuck in’. Videos, games and songs and plenty of opportunity to get up out of their seat to act things out will enhance their learning experience – the more tactile, the better!

Take fruit. Teach the names – and even the signs – not just by showing a simple photograph or cartoon image as a visual aid. Embrace the wonder that is ICT. Even better still, bring actual pieces of fruit in for pupils to try and allow them to feel, smell and taste it. Make the most of stories like Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" – just think how this could be used to combine simple vocabulary with a brilliantly multi-sensory experience for children with special needs!

The Higher Functioning Special Needs Child

Let’s not forget the high functioning autistic learner either, who, like any of us, is highly motivated by things they really like. It may be the rigidity of maths or science that appeals. To others, like one young man I know, it is foreign languages. Excelling in school at French and German, he taught himself Russian at home. Foreign languages come complete with strict, non-negotiable grammar rules and a clear right or wrong answer for many questions. This can play to the high-functioning autistic pupil’s thirst for rigidity of routine. They may find such things easier to grasp than confusing abstract concepts found in other subjects.

Is the Special Needs Child the Better Language Learner?

We know that the pupil with special needs learns in a very different way to one without. We may have concerns that a child with special needs may not understand a foreign language, particularly if they are non-verbal, but that shouldn’t mean we exclude them altogether from the opportunity to learn. After all, Carly Fleischmann showed the world just how wrong people could be about the level of understanding of a non-verbal child.

The question of whether the special needs child makes the better language learner is a tricky one that brings me back to the diversity of all pupils, so much so that I am inclined to sit on the fence and say simply that we are all motivated by the things that interest us! We all deserve to be offered the same experiences and to receive support, where necessary, to make the most of them.

Learn One, Learn All!

The language learner with special needs may need to approach language learning in a completely different manner. Yet amongst the vast technologies that exist today, there are certainly many ways in which to offer them an experience of learning a foreign language that is meaningful to them. Perhaps the question we should be asking ourselves from now on is not simply whether individuals with special needs should learn a foreign language, but rather how they should be doing so?

About Sally Holmwood

Sally lives and works in West Sussex, England. She splits her working week between individuals of all ages with special needs, and languages (specifically German and French). Sally loves to make time to travel the world when she's not working - sometimes Europe, sometimes even further afield! Furthermore, she is a big fan of great television: Sherlock, Bones, The Big Bang Theory and Doctor Who. Stay in touch with Sally on Twitter or Facebook.

**Note from Kerstin : Like Sally, I also believe very strongly that language learning should be open to everyone who wishes to do so. This is not an easy path for anyone, and her ideas of the learner with autism finding comfort in rigid grammar rules, or the tactile learning styles, should be an inspiration to us all. How do you bring more adventure into your learning styles?** 

Language learning with Yabla

Today I want to write an article introducing you to some software that might really go some distance to keeping you learning languages online. It's called Yabla, and online at Yabla.com.

What I like about Yabla is that the system is not in a specific learning method or a big method that you have to learn first. Instead, their special software is designed to make that target language video world accessible.

Here's how it works

The materials come from TV, film and music videos in the original language. The system gives access to native language videos and allows language learners to watch things in the original language, understand them, expand their vocabulary and quiz themselves on listening comprehension. So in other words, if you've ever wasted an hour on YouTube this is your thing.

All videos display in the Yabla player, which looks like this:

I've annotated this picture for you so you can work out what the different sections are about. We have

1. Control buttons. The coolest ones are "Slow" which slows the whole video down without sounding like it's creepy monster talk (i.e. it's pitch corrected) so that you can understand the native speakers better, and "Loop" which will run a very short section on a loop until you are ready to move on.
2. Subtitles. These are available in the language of the video (here it's German) and the menu language (here that would be English), but as you can see there is a little "Hide"/"Show" menu on the right hand side so that you can watch the video with or without subtitles.
3. Subtitle Lookup. Every word in the subtitles is clickable, and will show up in the dictionary once you click on it.
4. Difficulty rating. Yabla tells users how difficult it thinks the videos are and rates them from 1 to 5. For example, my French is good enough to watch a 4/5 video without any subtitles, but I want them on for 5/5.
5. Game. The in-video game is a listening comprehension exercise, asking you to find the missing word in any phrase contained in the video. Yabla regularly publishes the high scores so I'm pretty sure you couldn't resist if there's a bit of a competitor in you.
6. Dictionary. Yabla player searches various dictionaries, or Wikipedia, for every word that you click on in the subtitles. This way you get the benefit of several uses and you can see the word used in a sentence straight away.

Here are two of my favourite demo videos:

1. Piggeldy und Frederick - Der Himmel: Piggeldy and Frederick are cartoon pigs and they live and learn, and have done this for as long as I can remember. I used to enjoy them when I was little, and still enjoy them today. Suitable even for early learners (or 2/5 on Yabla's own difficulty rating).
2. Canadian Chocolate Seller - Chocolats: The lady makes chocolate. The video contains chocolate. I think now I'm hungry.

In conclusion, I think you guys should give Yabla a go. A 1-month subscription costs $9.95 and it's refundable within 7 days, so that you can test drive the system thoroughly. The system is great for:

1. listening comprehension: slow it down where you need to.
2. writing skills - take notes and compare them with the subtitles afterwards
3. growing your vocabulary - write down new words and quiz yourself or use the in-built Game and Flashcards features.

Yabla is available for learners of English, French, Chinese, German, Spanish and Italian.

Final message to Yabla: Where is the Russian version? I can't wait!

Final message to you: Fluent Language's blog is an affiliate partner and receives a small commission if you decide to sign up for a Yabla account, so thanks in advance if you do!