Mango Languages

Tonal vs. Total Languages: Do You Know The Difference?

In obtaining language comprehension,  it is important to understand the total language.  What makes a total language?  For starters, a total language is very different from a tonal language.  A tonal language is one in which pitch is used as part of speech.  Examples include Mandarin and Vietnamese.   Vietnamese is a tonal language that has 6 tones: mid-level, high-rising, low-falling, low-falling-rising, high-rising broken, and low-falling broken.  In other words the word “ma” can mean: ghost, mother, but, tomb,  horse, or rice seed depending on the pitch of the “a.”

Vietnamese and Mandarin also share some of the characteristics of a total language.  A total language is one which has, and makes use of: words,  letters, sounds,  gerunds, grammar, participles,  phonemes,  characters, punctuation, words of different sizes, infinitives, subject agreements, irony, sentence structure, inflection, cases, names,  correct spelling, and origin.  Linguist purists  have long debated whether  all 19 elements  are necessary for a language to be attain the coveted “total language” designation.  Most concede that a language need only to encompass enough of these fundamental elements to make communication possible.

English is not a tonal language. Do you speak or know anyone who speaks any tonal languages?

Now Everyone Can Learn a Foreign Language

A few weeks ago I attended a birthday party for a friend of the family. The house was full of kids and grandkids who all came to celebrate a special event. In between the main course and dessert I got to interact with the kids, playing charades, singing karaoke, playing hide and seek, etc. Seeing how the kids selectively communicated with each individual, fascinated me. Their parents were born in Russia and they were leaning Hebrew in school, yet they were born in the United States. It was “Zdrastvuyte” (hello in Russian) to all the guests, “Shalom” (hello in Hebrew) at school and “Hey, what’s up?” among friends.

This is exactly what I thought of when I found this article from USA Today, More children Learn More Than One Language. This article is all about children learning to speak multiple languages at a very young age in our globalized world.

“More and more people are aware of the importance of teaching another language to their child because we are in a global world,” says François Thibaut, who runs The Language Workshop for Children, which has nine schools around the East Coast.

Language study for children is based on immersion, he says. Kids sing songs and play games to help develop language comprehension skills. “This is a natural way of learning language.”

The articles goes on to state, that when children start learning languages at birth, they have the capacity to learn many languages at once without getting confused — because, as the brain develops, so too does the ability to separate one language from another.

Early language learning has been shown to enhance verbal development, as well as reading, writing, and social skills.  Now that Mango Languages offers Little Pim, a child doesn’t have to have an ethnic background to learn a foreign language.  Since we’ve launched Little Pim as part of Mango Languages earlier in the summer, kids ages 0-6 can learn foreign languages in a fun, easy, and effective way. Kids who know more than one language not only have the opportunity to think creatively in a different language but also more opportunities to express themselves through communication.  This is so exciting!

Syntax – It’s not another tax on beer?

If you follow my blog you will know that I briefly touched on syntax once before. The Linguistic Elephant in the Room: Syntax (contrary to what it sounds like, it is not an increase in the price of beer or gambling) is a subfield of linguistics which focuses mainly on the grammar of language.  This blog is just a brief introduction to some syntactic concepts.  I will follow up with additional blogs to build and expand on the concepts presented here and /or introduce additional ones.

An important concept to understand in the beginning of a look at syntax is the idea of “the sentence.”  You may think that a complete uttered or written thought is a sentence.  In part you are correct.  However, in the field of syntax the complete thought is given the term proposition, the written or spoken sentence is referred to as “the utterance.”  The actual sentence is a bit more abstract.  The “sentence” is the linguistic form of the utterance.   For example, I can say on Tuesday, “It’s a nice day today.”  And, you may use the same utterance on Wednesday.  Therefore, these two utterances have different propositional meanings; one being that Tuesday is a nice day, and the other, that Wednesday is a nice day.  However, both propositions used the same sentence or linguistic form.  However, what if we both utter the same propositional meaning, i.e., “Today is a nice day” (today being Tuesday), but you utter this in English and I utter the same proposition but in Spanish? Clearly, the form of these utterances will be different.  Therefore, we are using different sentences to express the same propositional meaning.

So the form we give to propositions is important, but what about the form?  What makes one form acceptable and another not in a given language? You may think of word order.  And, again this is partly correct. See the examples below:

(1) I picked up the mess Erik made with the cookies and juice you put out.
(2) I picked the mess Erik made with the cookies and juice you put out up.
Example (2) sounds awkward.  This may lead you to say, that the words ‘pick’ and ‘up’ seem to belong together.  However, now look at the following example:
(3) I picked the mess up.

And what about the following:
(4) I picked up the mess.
(5) I picked it up.
(6) *I picked up it.

So, it’s more than just whether ‘pick’ and ‘up’ come together in the sentence. Can you think of any other examples similar to the ones above?

Intuitive Language Construction – Part V Comprehension

We are excited to continue sharing our language learning methodology–we call it the linguistic science behind the Mango Languages Online Language Learning Software.

Doesn’t that sound really smart?

Intuitive Language Construction was developed after looking at current products on the market and listening to feedback from users.

The one thing we heard over and over is that they wanted a program that was fun, easy, completely integrated, and that included the following components:

1. Vocabulary (Click to see previous post)
2. Pronunciation (Click to see previous post)
3. Grammar (Click to see previous post)
4. Culture (Click to see previous post)
5. Comprehension
6. Retention

In this post we are going to talk about comprehension.  No one wants to go through an online foreign language learning program and not understand what they learn.

Our system was conceived as an online experience–not as books and tapes that were later forced into an online format.  We incorporate strategic instructional design, custom developed to be as effective as possible for online learners only.

Although online learning definitely has benefits in the form of accessibility, affordability, pace, and convenience, it opens up a wide variety of new difficulties that were not present in traditional learning environments.

Our Intuitive Language Construction methodology accounts for those difficulties and is specifically designed to help students manage and overcome them, actually increasing comprehension as they learn.

TBLL–No, It's Not a Medical Condition

The task based language learning (TBLL) approach is derived from cognitive and interactionist theories and research findings.  TBLL attempts to avoid fitting language learners into a box of stereotypical language use, i.e., where the student is only familiar with a sentences in specific forms or specific context, by rather using the language to carry out meaningful tasks, such as visiting a doctor, conducting an interview, or even asking someone out on a date.   Doughty and Long (2003) describe 10 methodological principles (MPs) of TBLL.  This post will present the first and second principles of task based language learning (TBLL) and discuss how Mango incorporates these in our system.

Principle number one of task based language learning is to use tasks, not texts, as the unit of analysis.  We use language to do things, to communicate.  Therefore, why would we study linguistic structures removed from the context in which they are used, (i.e., random vocabulary lists), to learn a language?  With Mango Languages every chapter starts with specific conversational goals, or conversational tasks that the student will be able to do effectively after successfully completing the chapter.  Additionally, the target language, or language being learned, is always given in context.  But, the learning doesn’t stop there.  The Mango system then expands on and exploits the grammar and vocabulary that was learned in the initial context in order for the student to apply what they have learned to other contexts as well.

The second principle of task based language learning is to promote learning by doing. Connecting the material to be learned to real-world events and activities serves for better incorporation into and retrieval from long-term memory. According to Doughty and Long (2003), “Computer simulations of target environments and tasks constitute a good example of learning by doing. The basic idea is that a learner on his or her own can gain experience in a simulated environment under conditions of reduced stress and without real consequences to their actions” (p 58).

Well…learning by doing is what Mango is all about!  If you follow the Mango blogs you already know that Mango uses Critical Thinking slides to get language learners actively involved in their learning experience.  This is done by requesting that the student not simply regurgitate what was already given to them, but rather produce new phrases from what they already learned, and/or to apply previously learned grammar concepts to new words and/or phrases.

So, what do you think?  Do you learn better when given a task to accomplish?  Do you learn better and retain more when you are passively receiving material or when you are actively engaged?

Intuitive Language Construction – Part IV Culture

We are excited to continue sharing our language learning methodology–we call it the linguistic science behind the Mango Languages Online Language Learning Software.

Intuitive Language Construction was developed after looking at current products on the market and listening to feedback from users. The one thing we heard over and over is that they wanted a program that was fun, easy, completely integrated, and that included the following components:

1. Vocabulary (Click to see previous post)
2. Pronunciation (Click to see previous post)
3. Grammar (Click to see previous post)
4. Culture
5. Comprehension
6. Retention

In this post we are going to discuss the fourth component of Intuitive Language Construction…Culture.  This is another big difference in the Intuitive Language Construction methodology.

Mango integrates cultural notes and tips into every lesson, ensuring our students develop an understanding for the expectations, traditions, and etiquette of the people with whom they want to communicate.   Most language learning systems simply ignore culture, but at Mango we think it really is critical to a student’s success in a foreign country.

For example, imagine you didn’t understand the difference between formal and informal greetings.  You wouldn’t want to walk into a meeting with your new boss and exclaim, “Hey Dude. What’s up?”  It would be inappropriate, and in some cultures, it would be a really big offense!  It could possibly even get you fired.

At the same time, you wouldn’t want to be introduced to a new friend at a café, and say something like “I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance.”  That’s a little too formal and can be off-putting.

Understanding culture helps people understand which conversational tools are most appropriate for which situations and which audiences.  Our curriculum is developed by native speaking professional language teachers – many of whom teach at the university level and hold PhDs.  They really understand the cultural challenges that a learner will face for a specific language, and they carefully design each learning experience to help students overcome those challenges.  You just can’t get that through the common word and phrase lists that other learning systems offer.

Why do you think culture is important in the language learning process?  Or do you have a funny cross cultural story to share?

Intuitive Language Construction – Part III Grammar

We are excited to continue sharing our language learning methodology–we call it the linguistic science behind the Mango Languages Online Language Learning Software.

Intuitive Language Construction was developed after looking at current products on the market and listening to feedback from users.  The one thing we heard over and over is that they wanted a program that was fun, easy, completely integrated, and that included the following components:

1. Vocabulary (Click to see previous post)
2. Pronunciation (Click to see previous post)
3. Grammar
4. Culture
5. Comprehension
6. Retention

In this post we are going to discuss the third component of Intuitive Language Construction…Grammar.  Grammar is the way the words combine to form sentences, and this is really at the core of what makes our Intuitive Language Construction methodology unique.

Many other language learning systems minimize the importance of grammar by teaching you simply to utter phrases and vocabulary rather than to carry on a real conversation.  I think this is so strange, because when I was in school all of my teachers stressed how important grammar is.  Unfortunately, it is underserved in most language learning tools.

Mango is different.  Because Intuitive Language Construction is based on real conversations, Mango students are continually learning sentence structure and grammar in addition to vocabulary and pronunciation and culture.

Mango incorporates a variety of grammar tools such as semantic color mapping, literal translations, grammar notes, and critical thinking exercises, which help users learn to adapt their skills and apply them to similar conversations.

They start to identify and recognize linguistic patterns, and they come to understand intuitively how to recombine the pieces they learn to construct new meanings.  The coolest part of it all is that this knowledge is acquired without the student even realizing they are learning it.  We really should call it “stealth grammar” because it sneaks up on you.  Grammar doesn’t have to be hard, but it is an essential part of learning a foreign language.

What do you think language would be like without grammar?

To Communicate Without Communicating: Is It Possible?

It is widely accepted that communication is needed for language learning.   Rooted in this idea is the communicative approach to second language acquisition, or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).  Two main principles of CLT are: (1) the development of communicative competence, and (2) the supposition that communication is both an end and a means to language learning (Alcón, 2004).   Dell Hymes (1972) identifies the development of “communicative competence” as the main objective of CLT.

Communicative competence is really just a fancy term for the ability to communicate, that is, the ability to efficiently and appropriately use language in a given situation.  The idea that communication is both an end and a means to language learning is supported by additional research and theories such as Long’s Interaction Hypothesis.  As discussed in my previous blog post, Long argues that interaction and the fine tuning, or negotiation of meaning, of the target language input that occurs in conversational interaction is a driving force for language learning.

Communication is the main goal of using Mango.  Following the Communicative Approach to language learning and in agreement with Long’s Interaction Hypothesis, communication is both the end and means to language learning.  The Mango System applies this idea by beginning each chapter with an authentic conversation in the target language.  The student is then requested to use the target language as they learn it, either by repeating material that was taught or by creating new phrases/chunks out of previously learned material.  Once a chapter has been completed the student will then hear the initial conversation again.  So the Mango system begins with a conversation, provides input, solicits output, and then ends with a conversation, all of which are elements of communication.  With this we can see that Mango applies the concept of communication as a means and end to LL.

So what do you think?  Can you learn to communicate without communicating?

Intuitive Language Contruction – Part II Pronunciation

We are excited to continue sharing our language learning methodology–we call it the linguistic science behind the Mango Languages Online Language Learning Software.

Intuitive Language Construction was developed after looking at current products on the market and listening to users and what they wanted.  The one thing we heard over and over is they wanted a program that was fun, easy, and completely integrated.

We listened.  Mango Languages includes the following components:

1. Vocabulary (Click to see previous post)
2. Pronunciation
3. Grammar
4. Culture
5. Comprehension
6. Retention

In this post, let’s look at pronunciation.  Mango gives you a better, more accurate sense of pronunciation.  I bet you never knew a fruit could do that!

In each course, our audio is recorded by a professional, native-speaking voice talent, using a standard “accent free” dialect.  Why is this important?   Native speakers using a standard accent give you the best possible baseline to model your own pronunciation after.

We also provide additional pronunciation tools to help users:
1. They can see a phonetic spelling at any time, by simply rolling over the word with their mouse cursor.  Users LOVE this feature…

2. We also provide the option to hear 2 different audio speeds:  fluent and articulate.  These are two separate recordings by a professional, native voiceover.  This is totally unique to Mango…
Our competition often provides a “slowdown” button, which plays the same standard audio clip, but mechanically slowed down, creating distortion in the voice, and making it difficult to effectively mimic.  How do we do that?

3. We offer voice comparison technology in our online language learning system!  This feature allows you to speak into a microphone and compare your pronunciation with that of the instructor’s, until you really get it right.  This system allows you to compare your voice with both fluent and articulate speeds.

Most language learning systems incorporate some form of pronunciation instruction, but Mango takes it to a much more interactive and accurate level.

Which pronunciation tool do you use the most? Why?

Intuitive Language Construction – Part I Vocabulary

When learning a foreign language it is important to understand the Linguistic Science behind the book, tapes, or in our case, the online language learning software. Mango Languages is very excited to share our foreign language learning methodology.

Intuitive Language Construction was developed after looking at current products on the market and listening to users and what they wanted.  The one thing we heard over and over is they wanted a program that was fun, easy, and completely integrated.

We listened.

Mango Languages includes the following components:

1. Vocabulary
2. Pronunciation
3. Grammar
4. Culture
5. Comprehension
6. Retention

In this post, lets first look at vocabulary.  These are the words themselves that make up the language.

Most language learning systems focus a lot, if not solely on vocabulary…and there’s no doubt that it’s important. However, Mango focuses on the words and phrases that will be usable in common, real life situations for the language and culture you’re studying.

Mango helps you understand context and makes the most of your valuable time. Vocabulary words are given to you in the form a conversation, rather than just a list.   Some systems provide long lists of terms all at once, making it difficult to follow and learn how all the components work together. Others provide individual “flashcards,” but not a complete conversation, making the vocabulary much less useful since there is no context for the words.  Ultimately, spending hours going through stacks of cards just isn’t fun, but after using Mango you can actually hold a conversation and communicate, which really is the point of learning a foreign language, right?

What do you think is the most important part of a language learning product?