{"id":1398,"date":"2013-09-25T07:30:46","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T11:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=1398"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:40:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:40:37","slug":"a-year-in-review-whats-new-in-transparent-language-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2013\/09\/25\/a-year-in-review-whats-new-in-transparent-language-online\/","title":{"rendered":"A Year in Review: What’s New in Transparent Language Online"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It\u2019s been a busy year for us here at Transparent Language. Last year we launched our online language learning system, aptly known as Transparent Language Online<\/a>. We’ve spent much of the last twelve months improving Transparent Language Online with new features, capabilities, and courses.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s what we’ve been up to\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adding New Features<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

EveryVoice<\/em>\u2122 Speech Analysis
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019re very excited to announce that Transparent Language Online\u00a0now includes\u00a0EveryVoice\u2122<\/i>\u00a0speech analysis technology. Developed by yours truly, EveryVoice<\/i> analyzes and matches your utterances to native speaker utterances with surprising accuracy in any language. We’ve leveraged EveryVoice<\/em> to revamp two classic activities:<\/p>\n

Voice Driven Multiple Choice<\/b><\/em>
\n<\/i>Click no more! With EveryVoice<\/em>, you solve multiple choice questions by speaking the answer. EveryVoice<\/i> will listen to what you say, compare your sound wave to the possible answers and report if you said the right or wrong answer.\u00a0\"translit_japanese\"<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Pronunciation Practice with AIM<\/em>
\n<\/i>Sometimes it\u2019s not about what you say but how well you say it. \u00a0The\u00a0Automatic Intelligibility Meter (AIM) can actually measure how \u201cunderstandable\u201d you\u2019d be to a native speaker of the language you\u2019re learning. \u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Easy Typing
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Did you know Transparent Language Online\u00a0is the only online learning system that actually teaches you to type in the language? Typing is a critical skill, especially in this digital age of email and social networks.\"easy<\/a><\/p>\n

To make text entry easier for you, we created Easy Typing. This feature allows you to input foreign language characters without knowledge of the foreign keyboard. Easy Typing solves this issue by offering you up to five valid characters from which the user can choose the correct character.<\/p>\n

Adding New Languages<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

We are proud to support more than 80 languages in Transparent Language Online, but with more than 7000 languages spoken in the world, there\u2019s plenty of room to grow.<\/p>\n

For English speakers, we added 10 languages.\u00a0 A number of these we produced under our 7000 Languages Project, through which we partner with heritage, cultural and other organizations to support their efforts to preserve and promote their language:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Ojibwe*,\u00a0Ojibwe Central*,\u00a0Ojibwe Nothwestern*,\u00a0Cree*,\u00a0Oji Cree*,\u00a0Dakota*,\u00a0Balinese*,\u00a0Tuvan,\u00a0Mongolian<\/p>\n

* Created under the 7000 Languages Project<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For non-English Speakers, we added content in 8 foreign language pairs, targeted at Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese native speakers:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Portuguese Brazilian, Italian, French, and German\u00a0for Spanish Speakers<\/p>\n

Spanish, German, French, and Italian for Portuguese Brazilian Speakers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Adding New Courses<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Alphabet Courses<\/b>\u00a0
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Transparent Language Online\u00a0is the only major online language-learning system that makes a meaningful effort to instruct typing in every language we have available.\u00a0 Writing, typing, and reading all begin with knowledge of a languages alphabet.\u00a0 As an English speaker you could do pretty well with the Spanish or French alphabet, but what about Arabic, Hindi or Thai?<\/p>\n

\"russian<\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/a>For non-Latin alphabets we could see that our traditional Alphabet Explorer was not enough, so we developed complete Alphabet courses for 18 of the more challenging languages, including:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Arabic, Arabic (Iraqi), Armenian, Bulgarian, Chechen, Dari, Farsi, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Pashto, Russian, Thai, and Urdu<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Conversation Courses<\/b><\/p>\n

The Spanish Conversation Course<\/a> is a video-based language course that helps more experienced Spanish learners prepare for practical, everyday interactions. The core learning material is derived from a series of authentic Spanish video
\n<\/a>s delivered entirely in the target language. The course is organized around 5 common situations (video units): shopping, at the hotel, travel, restaurants\/eating out, and asking for directions. With approximately 40 hours of learning material this course delivers plenty of great material for experienced Spanish learners.<\/p>\n

Developed in cooperation with BASAbali <\/a>as part of the 7000 Languages Project<\/a>, we have also added the \u201cBalinese Conversations\u201d course, focused on 24 authentic conversational videos shot in stunning Bali.<\/p>\n

Essentials Courses<\/b><\/p>\n

The German Essentials Version 3 course is designed to help people prepare for practical, everyday conversations. The course is organized around 10 common situations (units): getting around the city, eating out, shopping and money, getting to know each other, dealing with emergencies, etc. The course provides more than 60 hours of learning material intended to take beginner and advanced beginners to the intermediate level.<\/p>\n

For speakers of French, Portuguese, and Spanish, we have added English Essentials courses with fully localized learning support.\u00a0 Each of these courses is built the same way as our regular Essentials courses, but focuses on building English proficiency.<\/p>\n

Intermediate English Course
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

Targeted at the largest segment of the English learning audience in the United States, \u201cIntermediate English\u201d<\/i> is a full immersion-style course that is targeted at higher-level English learners. Based on every-day situational dialogs, Intermediate English<\/a> provides an ideal resource for learners to build their conversational English capabilities. The course includes 10 units themed around a common social situation. Intermediate English<\/i> includes over 3,000 words and useful phrases. The typical learner will spend between 40 and 55 hours of learning time to complete the course.<\/p>\n

Find a library near you<\/a> that offers Transparent Language Online.\u00a0None close by? Print this\u00a0info card<\/a>\u00a0and bring it to your local librarians to let them know you\u2019re interested, or\u00a0sign up for the free trial!<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

It\u2019s been a busy year for us here at Transparent Language. Last year we launched our online language learning system, aptly known as Transparent Language Online. We’ve spent much of the last twelve months improving Transparent Language Online with new features, capabilities, and courses. So here\u2019s what we’ve been up to\u2026   Adding New Features…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[238805,544694,520016,543990],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1398","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-company-news","category-for-educators","category-for-learners","category-for-libraries"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7058,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions\/7058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}