Orlando's Ideas on Language

Learning

Love learning foreign languages, without worrying about

perfection.

Grammar-talk, how much do I need it?

September 23, 2015

(h ps://orkelm.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/img_4642.jpg)
o que será de nozes? – language
This week I got an email from a listener of our Portuguese podcast
series. Here is Maria’s question:

Sometimes when you talk about all the different tenses and things related
to grammar, I find myself ge ing totally lost because I don’t even
understand a lot of basic English grammar (and I’m a native English
speaker). What advice do you have for someone like me? I’ve very
motivated to learn Portuguese but learning a language has been such a
struggle. I sometimes wonder if I’m just one of these people that just
doesn’t have the brain for it. Also, how do I stop myself from analyzing
everything I want to say in Portuguese before I say it? I find that when I
speak in Portuguese, I end up speaking so slowly because I’m trying to
translate what I want to say in my head from English to Portuguese. I’ve
been told that this isn’t good to do. That you have to just have confidence
and speak without thinking too much about making mistakes. But I fear if I
do that no one will understand anything that I say!

I thought it would be good to answer her question here as a blog

post.

First: Grammar Talk. I once had a student who asked me something

like, “Prof. Kelm, does that mean that with the third person plural of the
present perfect tense that we need to add an “s” to the past participle?” I
looked back at this student in awe! Really, I couldn’t process that
many grammar words without a gigantic pause to analyze what he
was asking. So, I understand how learners can feel lost in grammar
talk. My answer, no, you don’t need to be a grammar expert and
you don’t need to be fluent in grammar talk. However, romance
languages, like Portuguese, have a million verb forms. Think about
it, verbs tells about time (past, present, future), verbs tell us about
person (I, you, he, she, we, they), verbs tell as about a thing called
“aspect” (when something began and finished), and verbs tell us
about a thing called “mood” (factual vs. hypothetical). Verbs are
pre y powerful in Portuguese. Whatever time you spend to
understand all that verbs can do, that time will really help you to
memorize and learn all of the verb forms. So, no, you don’t need to
be fluent in grammar talk, but yes, if you spend time to learn all the
functions that a verb has, you are going to make the learning of
Portuguese that much smoother. My recommendation is that you
bite the bullet and take some time to learn the ideas behind verb
forms. Buy one of those “500 verbs” books and crunch on all of verb
forms in all the tenses.

Second: Do people have the brain for language learning or not. Easy
answer, no, I do not believe that some have a brain for language
learning and others do not. However, I do believe that sometimes a
person’s personality does affect language learning. A person who by
nature is shy, reserved, perfectionist, will probably have a harder
time mustering the courage to speak out loud in another language.
We all have to go through the phase of being slow, limited, and
halted in our foreign language. Li le by li le things get be er. And
that is actually the key element. My experience is that learners
underestimate how much time, effort, and hard work goes into
learning a foreign language. You may be making spectacular
progress in your learning of Portuguese, but if you have unrealistic
expectations of how soon a person obtains advanced proficiency,
you may doubt your progress. My recommendation is to keep
plugging away. The pleasure of speaking to others in their
language, and the fun of experiencing a new culture in another
language is worth it.

Third: Translating and analyzing in your head, will it every stop?

Here the answer is that every language learner will resort to his or
her native language. Initially there is no way around it, simply
because every time you come to a word you do not know or a
conjugation you cannot say, your brain jumps back to your native
language. You are, in essence, a bilingual person and if your brain
has no way of saying something in one language, it will jump to
another language. My recommendation, relax about it and realize
that as your vocabulary grows, and your experience in using
common phrases grows, you will find yourself translating less and
less. Then, all of a sudden one day you are going to consciously
realize that you just had a conversation without having to revert
back to English. It will be cool, and it will happen.

Fourth: Fear Factor. You got it Maria, there is often a fear factor
when we speak another language. There is something almost
miraculous when these new sounds come out of our mouth, and
people actually respond to them. Some day you will have the
experience of being in Brazil, ordering some food or drink, and then
the waiter will ask if you want that with ice, or spicy, or with
banana, who know, but the waiter will cause you to modify your
memorized line. And you will then clarify your order, “yes, I would
like banana with my açaí.” At that moment you will realize that all
of those strange new sounds that came out of your mouth were
actual words, and native speaker reacted to them by bringing you
your order. It will be cool, and it will happen.

Hope that helps Maria, boa sorte!

Photo: A poster at the movie theater with a fantastic play on words

in Portuguese: O que será de nozes? “What will happen to us/nuts?”

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

“Sorry” – Man, we use ‘sorry’ a lot
when speaking English!

July 14, 2015

This week I was reminded again how often native English speakers
use the word ‘sorry.’ And most times when I try to say a phrase in
another language, where ‘sorry’ is used in English, I simply have to
find a new way to say things in the other language. This is what
linguists call pragmatics, when we look at how phrases are actually
used in everyday exchanges. You will also hear linguists use the
word ‘calque’ which refers to loan words, which sometimes make
no sense when we translate things literally word by word. We have
to be careful about which phrases can be translated literally and
which ones cannot.

For example, in English, when we find out that someone has died,
we may say something like, “I’m sorry that your mother has passed
away.” or “I’m sorry to hear that you mother passed away.”
Similarly, when we find out sad news about another person who is
sick, we may say, “I’m sorry to hear that your mother is sick.”

However, in Chinese there is a phrase, 节哀顺变 (jie2ai1shun4bian4)

which as near as I can tell, means something like, “restrain grief,
accept fate.” Of course, as with most Chinese phrases, I rarely
understand how the parts add up to the whole, but in this case, in
talking with friends and in consulting with dictionaries, they all
confirm the idea of “restrain grief, accept fate.”
Somehow the Chinese and English comparisons tell me a lot about
cultural norms. In English, “sorry” is not an apology, it is more of
an expression of sorrow. It is as if we are saying, “It also makes me
sad to know that you feel sad.” The problem is that non-native
speakers of English will understand are bizarre translation of
“sorry” as an apology, and they will be left wondering why we are
apologizing for something that we did not do. The Chinese version
comes across, to me anyway, with more of a sense of “buck up and
don’t let it get you down because everyone dies eventually and you
can’t change fate anyway.” Not very sympathetic, is it? So, even
though I know what the Chinese version is, it is difficult to image
that my proficiency in the language will ever get to the point where
it wouldn’t be weird to say to someone,节哀顺变.

In Portuguese, probably my strongest foreign language, when

someone dies, a Brazilian will say “meus pêsames.” This is roughly
equivalent to “my condolences.” However, Brazilians also say,
“sinto muito…” which for me closely resembles the English sense of
saying that I feel sad too. “Sinto muito…” means “I feel a lot…” The
Brazilian “sinto muito” captures all of the sense of empathy for
another’s feelings without using a phrase that can misinterpreted as
an apology. Way to go Brazilians, you captured the sentiment
perfectly.

So, sorry if this blog posted was boring for you. And sorry if you
didn’t understand. But, I’m not sorry that I wrote it. Just be careful
when you translate it into another language!

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Use of Innovative Technologies in
Language Teaching

June 29, 2015

This week I was asked to submit a description of how we can use
innovative technologies in the teaching of foreign language. The
write up should appear as part of a handbook for teachers. Here are
the contents of that write-up. Some of the examples are specific to
Portuguese language, but I imagine that some readers will find the
content useful. It is a bit longer than my usual blog entries, but
hopefully not too much longer.

Language Learning In A Digital World

Orlando R. Kelm, University of Texas at Austin

Introduction

Language learning is messy, this despite the fact that our pedagogy
traditionally strives to clean up the mess. Portuguese is no
exception. We try to clean up the messiness by controlling and
structuring our courses. For example, teachers generally present
gender and agreement before learning the subjunctive, because
somehow that is seen as an appropriate built up. If we were to be
brutally honest with ourselves, however, much of this control is
motivated by our need to manage students and classes, more than
our belief on what is really helpful in language learning. A language
supervisor at a large university once told me, “Our methodology
may not be the best way to learn a language, but it’s an effective
way to teach the language to 5,000 students.” A large part of our
methodology is centered on convenience and practicality.

Nowadays, we have a new challenge. Our traditional methodology

is confronting the reality of our digital age. Instant access to
information, video, audio, chats, conversations with people from
anywhere at any time, communication and information flows, all of
these potentially change our approach to education and learning. It
is partly for this reason that we sometimes look at technology and
social media as a hindrance to our language learning pedagogy.
Why? Because all of our efforts to make language learning less
messy seem to crumble as technology exposes learners to hundreds,
no thousands, of new ways to communicate with others and access
information. The result is that we sometimes feel like we are losing
control of the classroom, the students, and the learning
environment. Given this, there is a push back. Some forbid students
to open their laptops in class, others do not allow mobile devices at
school, and others still discourage learners from accessing online
resources, because, after all, who knows what kind of incorrect and
incomplete information is out there. And this is true without even
fanning the flames that suggest that technology will someday
replace teachers!

There are additional challenges as well. Even if we want to

incorporate more technology and social media into our language
learning, these are moving targets. Every day there are new options,
new sites, new applications and new programs. How do educators
make a decision about how to incorporate technology and social
media into foreign language learning when faced with the real
issues of cost, quality, scalability, copyrights, time commitments,
accuracy and age appropriateness? It becomes overwhelming. Let’s
be honest, the school or university is going to make a broad decision
to use a specific content management system, and we will go with it.
The department is going to make a broad decision to use a specific
textbook, which comes with ancillary online materials, and we will
go with it.

Still, even if we “go with it,” inevitably there are students, often the
self-motivated independent ones, who approach language learning
differently. These learners finds ways to read news updates and
articles from anywhere in the world. They use translation
technologies to enhance their understanding. They find ways to talk,
in real time, with native speakers who are thousands of miles away.
They download music, talks, lectures, grammar exercises, podcast
lessons, movies and videos.

With all of this in mind, the object of this part of the manual is to
provide some ideas on how to use technology and social media to
enhance the learning of Portuguese. For learners of Portuguese,
labeled with the famous acronym LCTL (Less Commonly Taught
Language), this is especially important because there are simply
fewer published materials for language learning.

The premise and starting point for this essay is the following: Look
at how technology is used in society in general, and build on that for
pedagogical purposes. If people use a program or application for
communication purposes, how can we modify that for language
teaching? If people share information with others in a certain way,
how can we adjust that for language learning purposes? If in
everyday life we access information in certain ways, how can we
replicate a part of that in teaching and education? In other words,
observe what happens in real life and figure out a way to tweak that
when learning a foreign language.
Background Stories To Set The Stage

Let’s begin with two brief examples that illustrate how technology
and social media have changed the way we interact with students,
and how they learn foreign languages. Recently I introduced our
Portuguese language students to HelloTalk, a free app that allows
learners to use their mobile device to chat, record, correct, and edit
language with native speakers. During class one day I told that
students that almost every Brazilian will have heard of the poem,
Minha terra tem palmeiras by Gonçalves Dias. At that very instant a
student named Kris pulled out is mobile phone and asked his
Brazilian contacts on HelloTalk if they had every heard of that
poem. It was not even two minutes later when Kris raised his hand
to let me know that he had just asked a few Brazilians and indeed
they had all heard of the poem, but no, none of them really knew it.
It was an amazing, and slightly intimidating experience. First, it was
impressive to see how quickly students were able to confirm what I
was simultaneously talking about in class. Second, the experience
served as a catalyst for lots of new ideas on how I could integrate
classroom activities and immediate Brazilian input.

Second example, in another recent course there was a

miscommunication with the university bookstore and the textbook
did not make it to the bookshelves. Serendipitously, there was an
electronic version of that textbook. However, when we tried to
access the textbook through our university library, it was not
available for our students. As the instructor, I went to the library to
see if there was any way to obtain access to the electronic version.
The official answer from the library staff was no. However, some of
our students clicked on one or two new search options and they
found that the electronic version was indeed available, and
legitimately so, through a different portal. Not even the staff at the
library was aware of the other option. Had it not been for the savvy
searching of the students, we would have been without the textbook
at the beginning of our semester. Again it was an amazing
experience. Students were literally able to use technology to keep
our class progressing, even when the library and the teacher did not
know what to do.

What Is Out There And How We Can Use It

In this section we will look at some of the “tools of the trade.” These
are programs, applications, websites, etc., that can all be used to
enhance language learning and foreign language teaching. Please
notice the use of the word “enhance.” If a person asks, “What
should I do to learn Portuguese?” the answer is never found in just
one thing. There is no single best and only way to learn a language.
There is no one textbook, or no one podcast lesson that miraculously
covers all aspects of language learning at all levels of proficiency.
The same is true with everything that I will show here. Some items
work well to organize time, others work well for students at
beginning levels, some work well to improve reading ability, others
work be er to improve oral fluency. The point is, there are
hundreds of things that we can do to improve our language
learning, but each are valid within their own area. It is unfair to
criticize, for example, an audio recording because it doesn’t help a
learner to spell difficult words correctly. Almost everything that is
shown here works as an ancillary, but nothing covers for all aspects
of language learning.

1. Tools To Organize Materials and Sort Presentation

One of the challenges that we face as teachers is the wide assortment
of tools we draw from, often in class. Sometimes we move back and
forth between text, photos, video, audio, PDF files, URL links,
textbooks, handouts, and any other variety of items.

It is easy to get lost. Here are four tools that assist in organizing our
materials and our presentation.

1. Padlet.com (h p://padlet.com) Padlet is an online wall, similar to

a bulletin board, where individuals or groups can post all sorts
of content: images, videos, text, documents, pdf files, URL links,
etc. It is easy to customize the wall, control who has access and
moderate student interactions. The basic version is free, and the
learning curve to learn how to use Padlet is probably less than 30
minutes. It is a powerful tool to post notes, create portfolios, and
to add ancillary materials. It is also effective as a tool for students
to build their own walls, that also includes their notes, portfolios,
and the results of their own search and research.
2. Blendspace.com (h p://Blendspace.com) If you have ever had
the frustrating experience where a lesson plan or presentation is
difficult because you find yourself bouncing in and out of
multiple digital recourses, Blendspace will make your life much
easier. Blendspace is a platform were users can gather, sort,
annotate, and share almost any digital resource. Blendspace
makes it easy to draw anything from google searches, flickr,
educreations, upload any media, copy from Dropbox, or add
from Gdrive. It simply allows you to sort and organize by a
simple click and drag. The learning curve is again something
that will take you less than 30 minutes to learn.
3. Wikispaces.com (h p://Wikispaces.com) Wikispaces, or about
any other wiki format works well when you want to create
something, especially text related, that results in a finished
 product. That is to say, if the contents continually change over
time, I recommend that a blog format will serve be er. However,
if the objective is to build something (either individually or as a
group) which will then serve as a final product, a wiki works
well. Of course it may be that your school or university is using a
content management system (like BlackBoard or Canvas) that
allows you to create wikis, but for educational purposes,
Wikispaces is among the easiest to use, the most flexible in
development and presentation, and the most compatible with
other online tools. The learning curve takes a li le longer, but
once you have the concept of the wiki, it is easy to build and
modify.
4. getkahoot.com (h p://getkahoot.com) There are many online
resources to create polls (e.g., poll everywhere, survey monkey,
etc.), but Getkahoot is one of the best for classroom integration.
What makes it unique is that the poll questions and multiple-
choice answers are show on a central screen. The poll takers (i.e.,
the students) then use any online device (laptop, tablet, phone)
to link to the poll and choose their answer. This creates a group
activity where everyone needs to interact with the questions on
the central screen and the clicker from each individual. I mainly
use Getkahoot as a way to introduce a topic, to get initial
opinions about topics, or to be a teaser to generate initial interest.
To write the poll, go to getkahoot.com. To join a poll, users will
go to kahoot.it and enter a game pin number.
5. YouTube Channel You may not think of YouTube as a tool to
organize materials, but when a person creates a YouTube
channel, that person can then develop playlists of videos. This is
a powerful way to sort and organize videos that you refer to
often. For example, suppose that you want students to view
videos related to Brazilian history, music, movies, politics and
art. You could create a playlist for each topic. Then, as students
 p y p
go to your YouTube channel, all of the videos are already sorted
by topic in the playlists.

Also, if you want students to record their own videos, those videos
can be uploaded to your YouTube channel. (To do so, click on the
YouTube account se ings and choose “Overview.” Listed in the
overview is an address for mobile uploads. Anybody who a aches a
video to a message sent to that address will then have access to that
video on the YouTube channel.) This feature makes it possible to
allow students to post to your YouTube channel, without having to
share the password to the channel with others.

Finally, another advantage to YouTube channels is that the Video

Manager has a powerful editing feature. This allows users, for
example, to enhance any video with additional annotations and
subtitles. There are both Brazilian and Continental varieties of
Portuguese, and both are surprisingly accurate at speech
recognition. Alternatively, if you already have a textual
transcription of a video, it is easy to insert that into the video, and
with slight modifications in timing, you end up with easy-to-make
subtitles. This even supports multiple tracks, to add subtitles in
multiple languages.

6. Facebook Groups and Twi er Feeds It almost goes without

saying that both Facebook and Twi er serve and excellent
resources for organization. Once a group is created, users can
join and share text, photos, links, and video.

Tools to Enhance Individual Language Practice

In the past couple of years there has been an explosion of online
options for language learners, both free and by subscription. Of
course they are not all created equal, at the same time, do not simply
ignore them as an ineffective waste of time. Furthermore, your
students know about them, often use them, and will want your
opinions about them.

1. Memrise.com (h p://Memrise.com) Memrise is a wonderful

application to assist in vocabulary memorization. The program
uses a log rhythm to recycle vocabulary review. Words that the
user already knows are reviewed less frequently and words that
the user gets wrong are reviewed more frequently. There are
options for multiple languages, including lots of Portuguese
language options too.
2. Mangolanguages.com (h p://Mangolanguages.com) Mango
Language walks students through specific language learning
lessons, including Portuguese. Especially interesting is the use of
color on the screen (laptop, tablet, or phone). For example, when
syntax between English and Portuguese differ, Mango makes it
easy to see how the parts fit together. Mango also does a nice job
of recycling phrases and vocabulary from one lesson to another.
Mango also has a video feature, built as a capstone at the end of
lessons.
3. Chat With Native Speakers This is another area that has
exploded with new options: Hello-Hello.com, Duolingo.com,
Busuu.com, Livemocha.com, FluentU.com, LingQ.com,
HelloTalk.com, OpenLanguage.com, etc. Each of these is similar
in that users can chat with other native speakers, who can then
assist with advice and practice. And each also differs a bit in the
actual lesson structure and focus. In most cases, the benefit is
found more in the interaction with people and less in the actual
lessons. LingQ is unique in its approach to vocabulary and how
 words are stored in the memory bank. FluentU is unique in the
integration of video and subtitles, which allows for a
personalized database of vocabulary words. HelloTalk, one of
my personal favorites, has an innovative speech to text feature
and a correction feature that is also very effective. In the case of
HelloTalk, there are many Brazilians in the system, so anyone
who wants to practice Portuguese will have lots of options.
OpenLanguage.com is where we make our audio Língua da Gente
podcast series available as premium content. Their mobile act
allows for extended practice, repetition, recordings, and
interaction.

Tools to Enhance Classroom Activities

There are a number of digital tools that were not created specifically
for foreign language purposes, yet work will in the foreign language
arena. Often these tools become excellent resources in the classroom.
Let’s look at few examples.

1. Aurasma.com (h p://Aurasma.com) Aurasma is a digital tool to

create virtual reality. In simple terms, users create a “trigger
image” that works with an “overlay” to create an “aura.”
Suppose, for example that as your students walk into a
classroom, there is a photo on the wall of Neymar playing
soccer. As students hover their tablet or phone over the picture
of Neymar, suddenly a video clip begins of Neymar’s most
spectacular goals. Or, suppose that the students hover their
mobile device over the word “árvore” that is wri en on a table
in the classroom. Suddenly a video clip about trees of Brazil
appears on their screen. In other words, a trigger image causes
something to happen, which can be a link to a website, a movie,
an image, or a host of other things. And it might also be that the
 students are the ones who recorded the original video clip,
which in turn they save as an aura. Subsequently, as others
hover over the trigger image, they then view the student video.
There are incredible possibilities for language learning in the
application of virtual reality, and Aurasma is one of the easiest
applications to get started.
2. Vyclone.com (h p://Vyclone.com) Vyclone is a social video
platform that allows users to co-create a video from multiple
angles. Imagine, for example, that 5 of your students are
simultaneously video-recording an event. Later, the students
combine the video into one clip, alternating views from each of
the five cameras that originally made the recording. If you ever
ask students to make video recordings to practice Portuguese,
Vyclone gives you a whole new dimension to enhance the
experience.
3. List.ly (h p://List.ly) Despite the weird URL, list.ly offers a way
to make online lists, which are then sorted and ranked by users.
Suppose, for example, that you are going to travel with a group
of 15 students to Salvador. In preparation for the trip you post 20
photos of different locations in town. The 15 students then view
the list and rank the places they most want to see. As each
student ranks the list, li le by li le you will see the group
preference. A teacher can also make lists of sentences with
grammar features, or vocabulary features, and again the
students will rank all of the entries. List.ly is free to use and
again the learning curve is short.
4. coogle.it (h p://coogle.it) If you are looking for a digital tool to
assist in brain storming, coogle.it will provide you with easy
access, group participation, slick sharing capabilities, and a fast
learning curve. Imagine a site where ideas can be shared by
simply adding another branch to a tree. I have seen students
who used coogle.it to practice verb conjugations, post pictures
 g p j g p p
from a trip, sort vocabulary by topics, and outline ideas for class
presentations. Coogle.it is the ideal example of a digital tool that
was not created with foreign language in mind, but at the same
time can be adapted to language learning situations.

Open Access Portuguese Language Resources at the University of

Texas

Among the National Foreign Language Resource Centers that are

funded by the U.S. Department of Education, The University of
Texas at Austin is home to The Center for Open Educational
Resources and Language Learning (COERLL). The mission of
COERLL is to disseminate Open Educational Resources, meaning
that the Internet public offers foreign language materials freely to
anyone. These materials are also available with permission to re-
mix, improve, and redistribute under Creative Commons licenses.
There are currently a number of Portuguese language materials that
are available at COERLL. All of the Portuguese language materials
can be viewed at the Brazilpod homepage:
h p://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/
(h p://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/). Of course, there are many other
locations that have digital tools for Portuguese, but as a one-stop
shopping site, Brazilpod offer lots of options.

1. Portuguese Communication Exercises A compilation of nearly

350 brief video clips, together with a complete Portuguese
transcription and English translation of native speakers of
Portuguese from various locations throughout Brazil (and some
Portugal) who talk about 80 different topics. The clips are not
scripted. Some talk fast, some slow, some are interesting, some
are not, but you have access to real speech from real people. It is
 an excellent resource to hear how Brazilians really talk. The
topics are roughly divided by the level of the difficulty of the
task. Beginning level includes topics like introductions and
describing what you like to do. Intermediate topics include
things like talking about favorite foods, buying items and going
to the store. Advanced topics include stories about airplane rides
and auto accidents. And the superior topics include ideas about
how life would be different without electricity.
2. ClicaBrasil ClicaBrasil is a series of lessons for intermediate-level
students of Portuguese, where you will find topics that highlight
aspects of Brazilian culture. The materials include videos of
Brazilians from all walks of life as they talk about their lives,
their country, and their numerous activities. All of the lessons
integrate reading, writing, listening comprehension, grammar,
vocabulary, oral communication, and cultural activities, using
the videos and PDF files as a point of departure.
3. Tá Falado The 46 audio podcast lessons cover pronunciation and
grammar issues of Portuguese, specifically designed to help
those who already speak Spanish. The lessons are built around
dialogs performed by Brazilians that are then repeated in
Spanish, providing a direct comparison of the two languages. All
lessons include downloadable PDF files with the transcripts and
notes, mp3 audio files, and blog discussions. Additionally all of
the dialogs present cultural scenarios that illustrate differences
between North American and Brazilian culture.
4. Conversa Brasileira Imagine video scenarios where people are
interacting with each other. There are dialogs, questions, turn
taking exchanges, clarifications, false starts, hugs, laughter,
asides, just everything that makes up real conversation. Conversa
Brasileira is a compilation of such scenarios, but enhanced by
transcriptions, translations, and content analysis. Think of it like
a sportscaster’s analysis of a game or the director’s commentary
 p y g y
that accompanies movies. The roleplay scenarios provide
learners with a view of everyday exchanges, but especially with
a way to analyze its parts.

Conversa Brasileira also includes a print on demand textbook that is

available via lulu.com.

5. Língua da Gente This is the newest and ongoing audio podcast

series that currently has over 60 lessons, and new ones are
introduced each week. The focus is to provide language that
people actually use in everyday speech and it does this by
presenting brief, slice-of-life dialogs, which focus on some daily
situation, scenario, or task that we encounter every day. In
addition to the free podcast lessons, COERLL has partnered with
OpenLanguage.com, by subscription, to provide a full range of
complete online and via tablet language services. Users who
subscribe to the full-featured version of Língua da Gente at
OpenLanguage receive additional benefits (e.g. lesson exercises,
including matching, reordering, dictation, and multiple choice).

Final Observations

Since the object of this manual is to provide practical information

for teachers of Portuguese, our recommendation is that we
maximize the opportunities to implement innovative use of
technology into our language learning. Partly because Portuguese is
a less commonly taught language, the people who do want to learn
Portuguese usually have a high motivation to do so. They want to
learn, and they want the extra practice. This is precisely why we can
take advantage of what technology and social media have to offer.
There really is no reason to restrict, but to encourage extra practice
and increased interaction. Over time, of course, the specific
examples that we have shown in this manual will be dated.
However the concept behind them will always be valid. Look to see
how technology and social media are used in everyday life, and
implement a slice of that into our foreign language teaching.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Using HelloTalk to practice

language learning

May 20, 2015

(h ps://orkelm.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/img_1795.jpg)jīn yú zài
shuì lián yè zi xià biān yóu zhe ne. And for those of you who do not
read pinyin Chinese, “The goldfish are swimming under the lily
pad.” In the past few weeks I have been using an app called
HelloTalk, to practice my Chinese with others who use the same app
to practice their English. (And there are tons of other languages as
well.) So first of all, a shout out to some of my Chinese language
partners (Caroline, Vergil, Renae, June, Jocelyn, and Kimberly).
There are lots of ways that we can practice language via social
media and apps. The HelloTalk has been exceptional for me,
because of some features that I’ll describe below.

First, the sentence about the goldfish in my backyard pond. This

week I was trying to review how to use adverbs of location in
Chinese (next to, to the right of, to the left of, underneath, etc.). So, I
sent my Chinese language partners a picture of my backyard fish
pond, together with some comments about where the fish and the
water lilies were located. In the end I got help from a number of my
speaking partners, often reinforcing the same conversation with
multiple people. First we had to get through the difference between
lotus flowers and water lilies. Then we needed to figure out the
difference between lilies and water lilies. We even touched on the
difference between fancy carp and goldfish. And then finally I got
hints about how to talk about the relative locations. Literally dozens
of sentences were going back and forth with all of my partners. The
point is that I was practicing real language, using actual forms I was
hoping to focus on, and with help from native speakers of Chinese
all along the way.

Here are some of the features that I most benefit from with
HelloTalk.

1. Audio or Text. One can send messages either as audio or as text.

For users of WhatsApp, you will recognize the convenience of
sending messages either as audio or text. The lag time between
comments gives me enough time to digest the messages, look up
words and characters that I do not know, and figure out my next
comments too.

2. Conversion options. The audio files that Chinese speakers send to

me, if I do not understand them completely, can be converted in a
number of ways: Chinese characters, pinyin pronunciation, English
translation. I often find myself listening to the audio comments,
then switching to see the Chinese characters, then switching to
pinyin for those characters that I cannot read, and then switching to
English translation for those pinyin words that I do not know. It is
easy in HelloTalk to use any of those modalities.
3. Correction Features. HelloTalk offers a convenient way to correct
the previous comments from others, which are similar to the ‘track
changes’ and ‘review comments’ that one finds in word processors
like Word. It has been an easy way to review mistakes, or focus on
grammar, and to provide additional examples.

4. Exceptional Community of Learners. HelloTalk seems to do a

good job of making partners available who want to practice
learning. It hasn’t felt weird or artificial, and people seem to bond
quickly. There is a strong gatekeeping to make sure that people feel
safe talking to others.

There are other features as well (group chats, note taking), but these
are the four that I find myself taking the most advantage of. I
actually use HelloTalk in conjunction with several other online
applications, and for me it has been another part of my total
language learning package. Recently I shared HelloTalk with my
Portuguese students at the university. The next day I was teaching
a Portuguese grammar class and I mentioned that every Brazilian
knows the words to the poem ‘Minha terra tem palmeiras onde
canta o sabiá.’ Right in the middle of class one student turns on
HelloTalk and asks his Brazilians partners if indeed they had heard
of this poem. “Ah, Prof. Kelm, I just asked some Brazilians if they
know this poem. Some said that they had heard of it, but they really
don’t know the words all that well.’ Point for my students, and
point for HelloTalk, which became an instant resource in the middle
of our class.

Check it out, h p://www.hellotalk.com/ (h p://www.hellotalk.com/)

And here’s the app download link:
h p://www.hellotalk.com/#r:129932013531564298
(h p://www.hellotalk.com/#r:129932013531564298)

The basic service is free, and the premium service is very

inexpensive. I am happy to recommend that ya’ll give HelloTalk a
try.

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Language Learning and The

Mormon connection

March 9, 2015

As I write this blog, I am in Bogotá

Colombia. As I often do, yesterday I
a ended church. Since I am LDS, it is always
interesting to a end church in other
countries. It is also a great experience in
language learning. I sometimes feel sorry for those of you who are
language learners, but who are not LDS. Of course we can talk
about you becoming Mormon someday, but that would be a blog
for another time.
Mormons go to church every Sunday for three hours. Here in
Bogota, that meant three hours of listening to Spanish, talking in
Spanish, exchanging ideas in Spanish, expressing opinions in
Spanish. We sing songs in Spanish, we hear and give prayers in
Spanish, and there is an intensity to the amount of Spanish that is
heard and spoken and practiced. And because the Mormon church
is a lay church, that means that everybody participates. On one
hand, I heard Spanish from very educated, articulate individuals.
But I also heard Spanish from others who were less articulate and
less educated. I heard Spanish from li le children, and I heard
Spanish from the elderly.

I have now been in Colombia for two days. The first day I visited a
number of different locations, and saw a lot of things, and talked to
a lot of people. But I would also say that in the three hours that I
was at church, I was exposed to more Spanish than what I had
heard the whole previous day. Clearly, for me, one of the linguistic
benefits of yesterday’s church services was the amount of language
that I was exposed to.

However another benefit is the context in which language is used. I

am familiar with the way Mormons conduct meetings. I know the
topics that are discussed, I am familiar with the scriptural stories. I
know the agenda of the meetings, I know the way the Sunday
school lessons are taught. I know the protocol of how meetings are
conducted. All of these things provide me with a context for the
foreign language experience. This familiarity automatically
enhances my comprehension in a foreign language. If a non-LDS
person were to hear a lesson on the duties of a member of the
deacon’s quorum, it might be hard to follow. For me, however, it is
a familiar context.
And finally, yesterday’s experience was great for language learning
because it was real communication. Nothing was contrived, there
were no fake dialogs, no manipulated phrases to trigger the
subjunctive, and no artificial exercises to practice direct object
pronouns. A grammar focus has its time and place, but what I like
about real communication is the pace. Real communication flies by
fast, and you need to keep up with it. I learn a lot by having to keep
up with the pace of real communication.

So for those of you who aren’t LDS, I hope you find a similar context
for your foreign language experience. For me, yesterday was a nice
reminder of how great church going can be for language learning.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Foreign movies with subtitles

and translations

February 1, 2015
(h ps://orkelm.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/img_0930.jpg)I have
heard people debate whether it is good or bad to see subtitles and
translations, when watching movies in other languages. For some,
they say never use subtitles and translations, as if it were to stunt
our growth. For others, they depend on subtitles and translations
forever. Myself, I believe that there is a level at which subtitle
translations help to understand the foreign language.
 Yesterday I watched a
movie that was in
Mandarin. Now I have
never claimed that my
Chinese is very good,
elementary and day to
day stuff is all I can
really do. And I
watched the movie
with English
translation subtitles.
What was interesting
to me, throughout the whole movie, was how much of the Chinese I
understood, because of the accompanying translation. That is to
say, if I had not had the visual translation in front of me, I might not
have understood some of the phrases. But, since I had the English
phrases in front of me, it was enough to recognize the Chinese
words as they flew by. At my elementary level, I was literally able to
hear and understand words that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

And sometimes the translations were different enough from the

original, that the hints were subtle. For example, at one point one
character was calling for another. The English translation was
“wait, wait” but the original Chinese was “jie jie” (older sister).
Clearly the context was the same, whether shouting “wait, wait” or
calling “sister, sister.” In another instance the English subtitle said
“take care” and the Chinese phrase was “xiao xin”. With my limited
Chinese, I had always associated “xiao xin” with “be careful.”
Somehow the phrase “take care” has expanded the situations in
which I can now use “xiao xin.”
All this is to say that at my elementary-level Chinese, the English
subtitles were not just a lazy way to understand the movie, but they
were a catalyst to being able to recognize more Chinese phrases. At
some point I may not need them as much, but for now it was a great
help.

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Shout out to language teachers,

especially those who teach
younger students

November 24, 2014

(h ps://orkelm.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/img_0300.jpg)I feel like

I’ve just been given a new gift (kind of like the flowers in this
picture). I spend most of my day with adult learners of foreign
languages. University students are part of my daily routine, and I
love to be with them. This past weekend I a ended the ACTFL
Conference, which brings together about 7,000 language learning
professionals. Today’s blog post is a shout out to the language
teachers of students in elementary, middle school, and high school.
Ya’ll are heroes, cu ing-edge-in-the-trenches-grade-A-awesome
fireballs! Thanks to you, I learned tons about language teaching this
past week end. Thanks to you I now follow Srta. Rodriguez on
Pinterest who has over 4,000 pins of Spanish language learning
materials. You go a check her site
out: h p://www.pinterest.com/srtanrodriguez/
(h p://www.pinterest.com/srtanrodriguez/)

And thanks to Shaun Johnson, I now know how to create those

goo.gl shortcut URLs to share my items that are saved on google
drive. You go a check out his blog posts
too: h p://profesorjohnson.blogspot.com
(h p://profesorjohnson.blogspot.com)

Others showed me how they are using wevideo, replay, powtoon,

memries. They have third graders using garage band, pixie, google
sites, Kahoot, a million other programs.

Truly, I was blown away all weekend long by the number of

creative, tech savvy, dedicated, and energy-filled teachers of
elementary school students, middle school students, and high
school students. A word of warning to those of us at universities,
we’ve got to step it up because when those students hit university
studies, they are going to look at us dinosaurs and wonder why we
can’t get with the times.
 Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Learning language like babies

September 23, 2014

(h ps://orkelm.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/img_1233.jpg)We hear
it all of the time, “li le babies learn language effortlessly.” In the
academic world there are lively discussions and research about
child versus adult language acquisition. During the supposed
“critical period” children learn language automatically, and after
that period, language learning becomes mechanical and difficult,
etc.
The problem is, I don’t actually believe it all. The photograph that
goes with this post is a fun shot of me with my grandbaby, Adam.
The picture was taken during a recent visit when he was 15 months
old. So, a few thoughts about child and adult language acquisition:

1. Effortless – No way. We have to recognize that li le children

learn languages while they are simultaneously developing cognitive
skills. Everything is new, everything is discover, everything is part
of piecing together life. There is a fantastic curiosity that goes with
cognitive development. When Adam was visiting, he inspected the
drawers, pushed every bu on in the house, looking in every corner,
touched everything within his reach. Everything around him was
new and exciting. He worked hard, and I mean worked and I mean
hard. There was non-stop intensity in all of that curiosity. Li le
children put gigantic effort into all that is around them. As to
learning languages, I simply do not believe that adults put as much
effort into discovering, looking, finding, touching, figuring out, and
searching. When cognitive skills are developed, we stop pu ing the
same effort into discovering what is around us.

2. Language is easy – No way. Just think how many times a child

hears words before he or she starts to use them. “Do you see the
ball? Do you want the ball? Do you like the ball? Should we play
with the ball? Can you say ball? Where’s the ball? Thousands,
there are literally thousands of times that children are exposed to
words, phrases, and sentences. Notice also that a child’s world is the
here and the now. We may ask the baby if she wants to play with
the ball, but we do not ask the baby what she thinks the political
ramifications of future US military involvement in the Middle East
will mean for conservative republicans. Adult language learners live
in a complex world that goes beyond the here and the now. As
adults we simply do not limit our language learning to the hear and
now. How often do we enroll our language learners in courses, ask
them read an article in a foreign language, and then ask them
analytical questions about what they think of the content. Really?
And then we wonder why adult language learners aren’t talking as
much as li le children do.

3. Language learning happens automatically – No way. Adam is 15

months old. Truth told, he can barely say “mom”, “dad”, and when
he kisses you he says, “muah.” After 15 minutes, if you taught me
some Korean, I know that I’d be able to say more than three words.
Truth told, li le children work hard to even get the most basic of
words, and it takes months of a empting, modifying, and trying
again.

4. Babies speak without studying – No way. Just think of the

feedback that we give li le children as they learn language. The
first time a baby says “mommy” the whole family breaks out in
cheers. Everyone dances around the room, cheering and celebrating.
No wonder the baby decides to say the word “mommy” again. As
children develop, there is a social side to all that they do. When
they learn the word for candy, it is not because they need to perfect
their pronunciation or understand the difference between masculine
and feminine nouns. When they learn “candy” it is because
everyone is celebrating life with one of our great pleasures, the
sensational taste of chocolate. Bring it on world, candy! Li le
children don’t use language to communicate, they use language to
socialize. The problem for adults is that we forget that, and decide
to learn language to analyze grammar, or to communicate
sentences. As adults we forget that socialization is what language is
all about. Babies don’t fall into that trap.
So next time somebody tells you that li le children learn languages
automatically without any effort, challenge that person to put as
much effort into discovering the world around them, to expose
themselves to input as much as children do, to talk about the here
and now, and to focus on language for socialization. And when that
person kisses you on the cheek and says “muah” shower him or her
with tons of praise and cheer like crazy!

Tags: Child language learning

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Heritage Speakers and Being Bilingual

July 20, 2014

(h ps://orkelm.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/img_4413.jpg)As I write
this post I have just returned from spending 7 weeks in Brazil,
mainly in Salvador, Bahia. I was serving as the faculty director of
our UT summer study abroad program. This year we had 17
undergraduate students from UT who participated in our program,
which includes home stay, morning language classes, afternoon
excursions, and service learning opportunities. It was a super
experience (and more so because we were in Brazil during the
World Cup).

As related to language learning however, I wanted to share some

observations about what it is like for Spanish-English bilingual
heritage speakers to be able to study Portuguese in a study abroad
program, in Brazil. Among the 17 students that were in Salvador,
almost all of them were heritage bilingual speakers of Spanish and
English, most of them with ties to Texas and Mexico.

Heritage bilingual speakers find themselves in a very interesting

position in that they often switch languages based on the situation.
That is to say, they may use English at school, at church, and at
work, but they switch to Spanish when they are at home, or when
they visit relatives, hang out with friends, or when watching TV or
listening to music. The interesting factor is that they
compartmentalize their language use, based on the situation. They
would almost never, for example, use Spanish at school, but then
they would almost never use English when visiting relatives.
Another factor is that their use of Spanish and English lacks any of
the meta-awareness of language. That is to say, they use their
language skills, but are less adept at being able to talk about their
language use (i.e., they cannot conjugate verbs, describe
grammatical features like gender and agreement, etc).

All this is to say that while in Salvador, I starting noticing (and

comparing) the way these students were learning and using
Portuguese.

1. Switch to Portuguese. Similar to the ways that heritage bilingual

speakers switch languages based on situation, the 17 students in our
program did the same in Salvador. I would observe them as they
spoke English or Spanish to classmates, but then suddenly switch to
Portuguese to order food from a vendor, or when speaking to their
host family members, or when talking to administrative staff at the
school. The non-heritiage speakers do not switch in the same way.
The non-heritage speakers put themselves in English mode or in
Portuguese mode, but they are less adept and switching back and
forth. The ease in which the heritage speakers moved from one
language to another was impressive, and it seemed to happen
unconsciously. It was as if their brain simply followed some cue to
move back and forth.
2. “When in Brazil, try to speak only in Portuguese” As a general
strategy, we often tell students that while they are in Brazil, they
should speak only in Portuguese. We use this as a language
learning strategy. We are telling students that they need to get their
brains into Portuguese-speaking mode, and this will enhance their
language acquisition. The problem is that I now question this
strategy a bit when dealing with the heritage speakers. This is not
because I don’t believe that we learn more language by practicing it.
However, in the case of the heritage speakers, their whole
experience in language choice is based on switching from one to
another. They never artificially stay in only one language. As a
result, I noticed that these students were less likely to stay in
Portuguese language mode in Brazil. But I also do not believe that
they were disadvantaged by this. They seemed to be able to
progress in Portuguese just fine, without having to resort to only
speaking in Portuguese. It is as if their brain was saying, “Why
would I speak in Portuguese to Daniela, that would be weird?”

3. Language is real. My observation here is that heritage speakers

already know that communication in both languages is real. In the
case of my students, they already use both Spanish and English is
real life situations. They have real emotions, real feelings, and real
experiences. Mono-lingual speakers study a foreign language
without the benefit of knowing that the other language is really
used in actual life. For the mono-lingual learners, there is a bigger
transition phase, or discovery phase. They simply have to resort
back to their native language at times. I believe that it is easier for
learners of a third language when they already have experiential
knowledge of communicating in other languages. Knowing that it
is possible, makes it just that much easier. This was also the
experience of our 17 learners in Salvador.
So, to my 17 UT students who were with me in Salvador, thank you,
thank you for the wonderful experience of being able to hang out
with you in Brazil. I loved your energy, I loved your excitement to
be in Brazil, I loved to observe how you maximized your experience
abroad. And for those of you who are heritage speakers of Spanish
and English, thank you for showing me once again some of the
nuances in language learning.

PS The photo was taken at the Escola Aberta, where some of my

students were working on a service project to add tiles to some of
the classrooms at a local community school.

Tags: Heritage Speakers

Posted in Language Learning | 2 Comments »

StarTalk Portuguese Teacher Training

June 7, 2014
Dear StarTalk Participants,

Celia Bianconi and Susan Griffin asked if I would be willing to share

some of the ideas and materials that we have created for the online
teaching of Portuguese. I figured that perhaps one way to do this
was to share these ideas here on my language learning blog. So here
we go!
1. Brazilpod: h p://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/index.php
(h p://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/index.php)

Here is our homepage of sorts, where we list all of the Portuguese

language projects that have been created with the support of the
Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning
(COERLL (h p://coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/)) at the University of
Texas. If you get lost, or want a one stop view of our materials, this
is the place to go. BTW, all of the materials at this site are provided
for free, with no password restriction.

2. Portuguese Communication
Exercises: h p://www.laits.utexas.edu/orkelm/ppe/intro.html
(h p://www.laits.utexas.edu/orkelm/ppe/intro.html)

Here is a collection of brief video clips where Brazilians discuss a

host of topics, all transcribed and translated. Our logic was to
provide a sample of various tasks, divided by level, where native
speakers would model the task. In the end it is a great resource to
see real people who talk about real things. I love how natural the
speech is, and it is extremely difficult to find teaching materials
where people are speaking naturally, and it is also reate to find all of
that transcribed and translated too.

3. Tá Falado: h p://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/tafalado/
(h p://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/tafalado/)

We created this series of audio podcasts with the idea of helping

learners of Portuguese who are already speakers of Spanish. It may
seem like a strange mix to combine English, Spanish, and
Portuguese. However, for those of us who teach Portuguese in the
United States, a large portion of our learners are native speakers of
English, who have already studied Spanish. They may not even
 g y p y y
have the most polished Spanish, but still these learners draw from
this knowledge as part of the Portuguese language learning
experience. Tá Falado consists of around 25 pronunciation lessons
and 25 grammar lessons, which all provide li le hints for learners of
Portuguese, using their knowledge of Spanish as a point of
departure. Of all of our materials, this is the one that receives the
most online traffic.

4. Conversa Brasileira: h p://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/cob/

(h p://coerll.utexas.edu/brazilpod/cob/)

I believe that as educators we are still trying to figure out how to use
video for pedagogical purposes. After we created the Portuguese
Communication Tasks, and although I really like them, it was clear
that those video clips did not show interactions, turn taking, people
responding to questions, or any of the other exchanges that happen
in natural speech. As a consequence of this, we created the Conversa
Brasileira series, which is comprised of brief video clips that show
typical slice of life scenarios. These video clips are enhanced with
optional transcriptions, translations, commentary, analysis, pdf files,
and discussion blogs. Of all the materials that we have created, in
my estimation, this one is the most creative. Conversa Brasileira also
helps advance the way that we can use video in language learning
situations.

5: Língua da Gente: h p://linguadagente.coerll.utexas.edu

(h p://linguadagente.coerll.utexas.edu)

Our newest project, and one that hasn’t even been officially
launched yet, is a new audio podcast series called Língua da Gente.
At some point we hope to literally have hundreds of lessons,
subdivided into beginning, elementary, and intermediate levels of
difficulty. The lessons all contain short dialogs, accompanied with
explanations and analysis in the audio podcast. The materials are
available for free. However, as a new twist, we also will offer a
subscription for a premium service. The premium service includes
a mobile device app, available through OpenLanguage.com
(h p://openlanguage.com), which offers a gigantic array of new
options for practice, including: line by line audio, individualized
flash cards, recording features, popup translations, etc. Over time, I
believe that this resource is going to be our largest online
contribution to the learning of Portuguese.

In addition to these five materials, I should mention that my UT

colleague, Vivian Flanzer, has also created a site called Clica Brazil,
which is also available on our BrazilPod site

6. ClicaBrazil: h p://laits.utexas.edu/clicabrasil/
(h p://laits.utexas.edu/clicabrasil/)

Online materials for intermediate-level learners that includes

exercises, videos, classroom activities, and a grammar bank.

And finally, although not part of the online materials, you may be
interested in seeing the Portuguese course blog that I maintain as
part of the my classes at UT

7. É isso aí: h p://kelmbrazil.wordpress.com

(h p://kelmbrazil.wordpress.com)

Class notes, study projects, and course assignments that are used in
many of my intermediate-level courses in Portuguese.
There you have it. 7 online resources that we provide for the
teaching of Portuguese. Perhaps this is a good moment to thank all
those who have gone to our sites, used them, and given us feedback
on things. Indeed, it is a pleasure to do so, and we hope to provide
even more materials in the near future.

Tags: Portuguese
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