A single workflow to make use of online language-learning tools

There are so many language-learning resources out there on the web, it's kind of tough to figure out how to make use of them all. In looking at how I'm using these tools myself, I put together the following little process to incorporate many of the language-learning tools I've been using into a single workflow:

Oh, and this workflow is completely free.

Let's walk through this, after the jump.

Read more... Start with reading and/or (but preferably and) listening to something in the target language. LingQ is all about content with both text and audio, so that's a good place to start looking, but you're hardly limited to LingQ; any recordings you can find with transcripts, unabridged audio books (including children's books), etc., will do the trick.

To the extent there's anything you don't understand in the text or audio, look it up and add it to your spaced-repetition system. Anki is my current SRS of choice, but some other popular choices are Smart.fm and Mnemosyne.

Then write something about what you read or listened to in the target language. Try to make use of whatever you needed to look up and add to your SRS, and to the extent that you need to look up anything else, add that to your SRS as well.

Then get that writing corrected. There are a number of ways to do this, but Lang-8 is my standing favorite, and italki recently implemented this feature. Again, if the corrections include things you need to look up, add them to your SRS system.

Once you've got the corrected text, record yourself speaking it and get that recording corrected by native speakers. I use Cinch and Lang-8 to accomplish this.

You've now written and read that writing. Now it's time for some plain old talking. Making use of everything you've learned thus far, record yourself saying something about the running theme and get that corrected in the same way you got the recording of your text corrected. Once again, if the corrections give you any thing that needs to go into your SRS, add it.

At this point, you should have everything you need to get in your SRS. Now go over to RhinoSpike and get native speakers to record the pronunciation of each of those words. Take those audio recordings and add them to your SRS system. From there, you just need to review your newly added items as part of your regular SRS review.

You've also got two things that you've recorded yourself: your corrected text and some plain old talking. Go to RhinoSpike again and get a recording of both from native speakers. Once you've got those recordings, add them to a playlist on iTunes and listen regularly. I'd recommend just throwing all of these recordings into a random-order playlist and listening to them in the background while doing other things. This will provide a review of all of the above.

This entire workflow can be tailored to your level. At the most basic level, you can even use children books; my kids have plenty of books that come with audio CDs in all three of their languages. But you don't necessarily need to dumb the text down; you can also just keep it short. For example, if you're just starting a language but want to read a news article, you could limit yourself to just the first paragraph. This will likely take a while, but it won't be insurmountable.

If you've got a way to make this workflow, I'd love to hear it!

Get Cramberry (spaced-repetition app) for iPad and iPhone for free (U.S. residents only)

I've mentioned before that my current go-to spaced-repetition system is Anki, but there are a lot of other options out there, including well-known systems such as Smart.fm, Mnemosyne, and SuperMemo.

Another contender in the field is Cramberry. What's kept me from making more use of Cramberry is that you can only study 30 cards per day in the free version of their web app. That said, they're doing a promotion right now that will get U.S. residents their iPad apps for free, and the first 50 people to download the iPad app can also get their iPhone app for free. And I'm guessing that those apps, which currently cost $2.99 (iPad) and $4.99 (iPhone), don't have the any study count limitations, even when you're getting them for free.

Get your free apps, after the jump.

Read more... From an email that went out to Cramberry's mailing list earlier today:

To celebrate the launch of our new Cramberry app for iPad, we're giving away free copies of Cramberry for iPhone and iPad. Here's how it works: Send us an email (contact@cramberry.net) telling us how you use Cramberry, and we'll send you a coupon code for a free copy of Cramberry for iPad. Once you've downloaded the iPad app, send us your iTunes receipt, and we'll send you another coupon code for Cramberry for iPhone. You must download the iPad app to receive the iPhone app. You can download the app from iTunes on your computer; you don't need an iPad to participate in this offer.

Note: this offer is only available to U.S. residents. Sorry!

After I sent them the required email, stating that "I use Cramberry for language learning, of course!", they wrote back to me with further details, including this one that they should have probably had in the first email:

Only the first 50 people to download the iPad app will receive free copies of the iPhone app, so act quickly!

So while the iPad app appears to be available for all, the iPhone app only goes to the first 50 to get in line.

If you're not already signed up for Cramberry, you probably should sign up and give it a whirl before contacting them. With a little luck, I'll be checking out a free copy of their iPhone app shortly (don't have an iPad, nor any plans to get one, so checking that out will have to wait, despite the fact the download is already sitting in iTunes).

This post was updated a few hours after the original post to reflect that only the first 50 downloaders of the iPad app can get the iPhone app for free, which was only revealed by Cramberry in the email in which they sent the promo code for the iPad app.