I I have learned a lot about life from other people - regular people like you and me as well as the experts who write books and teach college courses. I think there is probably a lot we can all learn about language learning from others as well. I have it in mind to begin a new podcast called the Master Language Learner Interviews in which I will interview successful language learners, educators, researchers and an occasional polyglot* to see if we can't learn a few things from their language learning journey. I have a short list of those I would like to find to interview but would love to hear your input as well. So here is the challenge to you: Do you know someone who has done really well at mastering a second language? Send me their name and their contact information and I will look into setting up an interview with them so we can learn their tricks, be motivated by their success and grow as language learners. Thanks!
Digital Dialects has a fun site that would be a great diversion for beginning Turkish learners to stop by. It also has 59 other languages to choose from so it is truly for everyone. Fun games that review basic vocabulary words. Each section has a review page followed by a chance to test your skills in simple games. Check it out today.
I put a new link to a great site on the Listen Now! page. It comes from TT Cocuk and is a collection of nineteen different folk tales, some Turkish and some English in origin. All are audio books that you can listen to as the pages turn on the screen. All are both in English and in Turkish. If you are a beginner (or if you have kids) listen and watch in English first and then go back and listen in Turkish. Try listening to one story every morning in Turkish before you get going for the day. You will pick up a lot. If you are a more advanced Turkish learner, check out the Turkish folk stories for a little culture lesson. Regardless, enjoy.
I came across a great website today. it is about as comprehensive as they come and yet written in a way that everyone can understand. Great for answering all your Turkish grammar questions, this site also includes great little tidbits of Turkish lore, fun news items (find the Bulgarian Politician lighting himself on fire at the bottom of the "About the Turkish Language" page), and much more. Check out Manisa Turkish.
I want to encourage everyone to check out Özgür Pala's great website, Learning Turkish Online. It really is a great site and he offors alot for the self directed language learner. Learning Turkish Online has four beginner, four intermediate and five advanced lessons. The lessons are really well done. Each lesson includes an introduction in English which gives you a description of the lesson, what you will learn, tips for the lesson and an estimate of how long the lesson should take you. They are really focused on comprehension, so questions are all in English. I love this feature of the site. Too often, reading comprehension activities turn into an assessment of my ability to figure out what the question is asking and not an assessment of what I have read or listened to. The lessons are varied as well - some are reading comprehension, some are listening comprehension (watching television clips) and some are both. Each lesson includes true/false questions, short answer and some dictation exercises. Ih ave yet to explore the site in detail, but would recomend anyone looking for another arrow in the quiver to visit the site and spend some time working through the lessons. Thank you Özgür for your excellent resource. I can only hope that he will continue to expand the site and add more lessons.
Looking for ways to help friends learning English? Wikipedia offers a great resource. Here is how Wikipedia describes the page:
Simple English Wikipedia is a version of the Wikipedia encyclopedia, written in Simple English. Articles in the Simple English Wikipedia use fewer words and easier grammar than the English Wikipedia. The Simple English Wikipedia is also for people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with learning difficulties and people who are trying to learn English.
Does anyone know of sites like this in Turkish for Turkish language learners?
I have updated the Ingilizce Dinlemek page and changed the name to Engish4Turkey. I think it will be a great site for the exchange of ideas and for Turks to find a good, interesting and fun source of comprehensible input for helping them learn English. I have also connected this page and that one in the hopes that Turks will come here to record their answers for our narrow listening site on the new Türkler İçin page. As well, you can shoot over to the Native English Speakers page of English4Turkey to record an answer to one of the questions posted there. If you are living in Turkey, just add that fact to your introduction. I think it should be a great place for Turks to go to find good, quality listening material, but it will only be good, if we take the opportunity to share our opinions, values and thoughts to the questions posted there. Be the first! Head on over and participate.
Would you give 60 seconds to help a Turkish friend learn a little English? To help your Turkish friend learn a bit more about your home culture? Well, of course it may take a bit more than 60 seconds, but I am excited by the prospects of a new website dedicated to producing narrow listening files for Turkish English language learners to access nd use. You can be a small part of this by checking out the Native English Speakerpage and contributing a bit yourself. As of now the page is called Ingilizce Dinlemek. Not too exciting so if anyone has a suggestion for a better name, please let me know. Kolay gelsin.
The University of Texas at Austin and Brigham Young University have teemed up to produce a fantastic site called Cultural Interviews with Turkish-Speaking Professionals.There are literally hundreds of short video interviews with Turkish professionals and executives talking about: professional activities, negotiation practices, courtesy, and stereotypes.The Turkish is very clear, they speak quite slowly and really well.As a source of narrow listening it can’t be beat.Everybody is talking about the same topics!Check it out today!And a huge thanks to this website for our first real narrow listening files.We are slowly getting recordings together here, but don’t yet have enough to put a narrow listening file together.It is coming though!For now, check out this great site.Just click on the tabs at the top and then click on the person you want to listen to.Each video is accompanied by the transcript of what they are saying as well.Happy Listening!
Our good friends at Turk Telecom have a great website called TT Çocuk where they have a nice collection of animated childrens stories and fairy tales that you can listen to. Ten stories are in both English and Turkish and there are nine other stories that are only in Turkish. Listen first in English to get the gist of the story and then go back and listen again in Turkish. They are well done and the audio is high quality. I will try and find a place to put a link to the page on the website if there is a positive response to the stories. Be sure and point your Turkish friends to the site as well as a good source of English for their kids. And if you have kids, pull one up on your lap and watch together. I had both of mine on my lap this evening. It's like reading a picture book on the computer.
