Technology and language learning

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love the things it enables me to do more efficiently and easily. I love how it helps keep us connected with friends and family back in the UK. I love how it gives me access to resources, music, recipes and information. And I hate how dependent we all (me included) seem on it and how hard it seems to 'switch off'. And how easily looking at a phone becomes a default when I've a few spare minutes.

But, I've recently been thinking about how helpful technology is to our language learning and thought I'd share some of the different ways we use it.

• Anki. This is probably by far the most useful way we use technology for language learning. Anki is a program for memorisation using spaced repetition and is basically the computer version of the piles of index cards of vocab to memorise and review regularly. Even more helpfully, there's an app for our phones that syncs to our computers. L and I both use Anki every day for vocabulary learning and reviewing. We discovered in classes that we both had a relatively wide range of vocabulary compared to other learners and this is basically attributable to Anki. Bonus points for the fact that I can review my cards one-handed on my phone while feeding S. Minus points for the fact that I eventually realised that catching up on my Anki cards during middle of the night feeds didn't really help me retain new words.

• Watching TV, talks etc. online. A lot of our language work now is improving our understanding, so watching Turkish TV series or talks is super helpful practice - and there's a lot available on YouTube, as well as lots of series that are dubbed into Turkish on Netflix. We've found one of the big advantages, in comparison to traditional TV, is being able to pause as often as needed and go back over bits as many times as is necessary. I've also been reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Turkish (with a dictionary next to me!) then listening to the audio book on YouTube and following along with the book.

• Internet dictionary websites. Hard copy dictionaries definitely still have advantages but this is much easier than lugging a dictionary everywhere with you. There's also Google Translate when you're desperate, though we learned early on not to trust it completely!

• The YouVersion app. As well as the myriad English versions, there are also versions in lots of other languages, including Turkish. And the Turkish translation has audio for the NT, though not the OT currently. There is also a complementary app for kids with interactive animated stories that also comes in Turkish and with audio, which J loves. 

So, love it or hate it, it looks like we'll be utilising technology here for a while longer.