Archive for 'Archived Posts'
Should all foreign language instruction be proficiency-based? Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 25, 2018 in Archived Posts
We write often about language proficiency on this blog, from the different scales used to measure proficiency, to how you can assess your own proficiency level, and even how vocabulary size relates to proficiency level. A language proficiency scale provides a very useful, standardized measurement of one’s abilities. Proficiency, however, is not just a measure…
There is no “cut-off age” for learning a language Posted by Transparent Language on May 14, 2018 in Archived Posts
There are many myths surrounding language learning: some people are “gifted” with a language-learning gene, raising children bilingual will impair their English skills, and there’s no need to learn a language anyway because everyone speaks English. While those myths have been repeatedly debunked in recent years, there is one misconception that persists: a cut-off age…
Measuring the cost of learning languages Posted by Transparent Language on May 7, 2018 in Archived Posts
How much does it cost to learn a language? With the demand for language skills sharply increasing, there may be a more pressing question: how much is it costing us not to learn languages? An opinion piece in the Economist casually states that language learning has become so affordable that “the cost of learning a language…
A Science Leveraging an Art: Putting Languages to Work Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 23, 2018 in Archived Posts
There’s a compelling post on the Collaborative Fund blog called An Art Leveraging a Science, which discusses how seemingly disparate skills complement one another in professional scenarios. Language skills surely fit into that formula for many fields, though perhaps it’s more a case of science leveraging art. An Art Leveraging a Science focuses on the…
Is there still a place for language labs in higher education? Posted by Transparent Language on Feb 26, 2018 in Archived Posts
When you hear “language lab”, you probably picture rows of computer desks, occupied by headphone-clad students working on some kind of project. But the modern language center has evolved far beyond a computer lab. Language centers serve as community and cultural centers on campus. The term “lab” is no longer an accurate title, as it…
Why do we still teach foreign languages as a separate subject? Posted by Transparent Language on Feb 5, 2018 in Archived Posts
Languages aren’t used in isolation, so why do we teach them in isolation? In U.S. schools and training facilities, languages have long been taught as an individual subject—a set of words, grammar rules, and pronunciations to memorize and recall at the right moments. Not by coincidence, the U.S. has also been notoriously ineffective at producing…
Is it time to turn the page on language textbooks? Posted by Transparent Language on Jan 22, 2018 in Archived Posts
Who has two hands and a device always glued to one of them? Almost every member of the younger generation. Today’s generation of students and young professionals are digital natives—they can hardly imagine a world before smartphones, Google, YouTube, or instant access to virtually any information. If they have a question, need directions, or want…