I've been aware for a while that Duolingo has had podcasts in Spanish, and though I've heard good things, I've never checked them out (as I'm neither needing to learn Spanish nor lesson planning for intermediate learners). But I was really excited to see that Duolingo is finally starting to release a podcast in a language other than Spanish--and I say that as a Spanish teacher! It's really lucky for Spanish to be the go-to language for new content, experimentation and innovation, but I also feel for my colleagues in other languages. I happen to have studied 3 semesters of French back in undergrad, but that was quite a while ago. I briefly maintained lofty notions of maintaining or even growing my French knowledge, but that pretty much slipped by the wayside. So when I saw the announcement of the French podcast, I immediately went to check it out, specifically the transcript, because I find I rarely have the attention span to dedicate to just listening to something, unless I'm doing something else at the same time (no commute for me at this point, so no listening to podcasts in the car). I was pleasantly surprised to find that, with a background of 3 semesters over 10 years ago, I was still able to understand 95%+ of the transcript. The TL pieces are contextualized with a little bit of English introduction (but not direct translation), and that (probably/certainly?) helped. Honestly, I think it would be great if they would publish the TL parts with and without the English. With, for the context and for those who want the extra support. But also without, for those who want to test themselves sans context or just don't want the English interruption as they reread/listen for increased acquisition. In addition to understanding the language (comprehensible: check), I thought they did a nice job of not oversimplifying or using fake learner language (complex: check), and the story itself was interesting and sweet (compelling: check). So it hit on all cylinders for me. I'm looking forward to more, and I hope they continue developing other languages as well.
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AuthorThis is a place where I record thoughts on second language research and pedagogical theory Archives
June 2019
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