This is an development idea. So I’ve used online resources for many years and so far I didn’t find anyone doing this, but I believe it would take online learning to a new level.
The idea is in short to make a nonlinear “game” where you are learning words to do everyday tasks. It would work well using the resources such as memrise already posses and could easily be made to work for multiple languages.
Example: Going to a restaurant.
Imagine you are going to a restaurant. First you meet your friend, you have to greet him and ask “how are you”. When you succeed to do this in the given language you may proceed. Then you maybe sit down and the waiter will ask question e.g. “would you like something to drink?” if you are advanced you might say “can i please have a glass of water” or for beginners “no” may be sufficient such that user can try to just pass through the scenario and then may redo it later in a more fancy way. Then of course the scenario will continue with ordering food etc.
This would make learning more immersive and teach you how to use your skills in a real world case. Often when learning a language it might go well on memrise, but if things become nonlinear as they always do in life, you end up unable to formulate an answer. I know such an idea would require a lot of effort, but maybe it could be like a premium feature or just be launched as a game. I hope someone found this interesting?
PS: Not sure where to post this but if someone from memrise find this cool please let me know
That would actually be a great idea, @L4nka. Very great, indeed. That way, you’d be forced to remember the words and terms. Practicing like that would be a good enforcer. Now, all we need is someone to make it.
very good idea. Some ppl actually learn this way the language. I find it difficult though to remember the right phrase at the right time, and if I don’t, I don’t have a good way to reinforce/correct myself, like memrise has.
That’s a huge understatement. Doing what you suggest well would cost tens of millions of dollars and require a large team of expensive experts. In the end, I doubt that it would be much more effective than just studying with textbooks/workbooks and flashcards.
To take your example, you want the student to say “can I please have a glass of water,” but what do you want the program to do if he doesn’t say it correctly, such as uses the wrong pronoun instead of “I”, or doesn’t say “please”, or uses the wrong gender for “glass?” Should it just say “You gave the wrong answer, please try again,” or should it analyze his error syndrome and provide specific feedback? If you want a simple system that does the former, then you are looking at ten million dollars, but if you want the latter, you are looking at maybe ten times that budget. I doubt that anyone would be willing to invest that much money on the remote chance that someone would pay to use it.
Not saying someone should do it, just say it will make learning more effective and interesting. I know it requires a lot, but i’d say you overestimate how hard it will be. Anyway, just ideas
Yes, all new advanced things are expensive. Probably memrise has also invested 10M or so, but this is the best of learning, because that is how we learn and aquire new language naturally: in real life usage.
Going from my memory of the figures the last time I checked their financial statements, I think Memrise spent about half that, or six million dollars developing this site. And that’s for a very simple flashcard app, which is nothing of the level of complexity that L4nka is suggesting.
Ideally, yes. But many people can and do achieve mastery of a foreign language through traditional studying techniques, such as classes, textbooks, doing exercises, watching movies, chatting with natives, etc. There is demonstrably no need to use the system that L4nka is proposing.
And such a system would never be a substitute for real-world practice. Regardless of how much money and resources you put into it, it would always be limited, whereas real life isn’t, and is much more demanding and instructive than any simulation ever could be.
Even chatting with a native in a messenger app about current events would be infinitely more helpful than playing on a computer simulation, and it doesn’t cost anything to do.
I thought the idea is that it is something that is used in real life. At least that is how I read it. But I think you are right, it is a nonlinear “game”. Actually, that is more or less the approach Pimsleur is taking. But since they work with fixed recordings, there is not reinforcements of things you have wrong or adaption to your personal learning style and level. Computers can make that more interactive. I think the Rosetta Stone has already part of that, by using real life, situations with out using a ‘speaker’s’ language.
there are more (free) Android apps about main-/sub topics and teaching phrases (I shortly installed and tested 1++).
Mondly even has speaking sessions in various topics, where you are part of a two person dialog and you can even record the text which is being said.
You can then later play the full dialog with your own recordings, either from person A or person B (mixed with male/female natives or both or your own recordings).
If you want to check the newer Mondly VR app (headset) for interacting dialogs e.g travel (unfortunately I don’t have a VR headset, I can not test) you can find more informations on their blog http://blog.mondlylanguages.com.
It really is up to the software to add useful sentences / phrases to their topics like those mentioned above.
