Room: LANGUAGES LORIS

Pros

* FutureLearn tries very hard to maintain an open, supportive culture, and this is for the most part a glowing success. People empower each other, don’t take credit for each other’s achievements, and work together effectively. They also tend to be enormously talented at their jobs.

* There are good career development and learning opportunities. Free access to FutureLearn courses, learning hours, good training budget. Learning is – perhaps obviously – a big priority.

* HR are incredible beyond belief, not only in supporting daily operations but in their work to develop and maintain a positive culture and improve policies, and improve diversity & inclusion. The policies on flexible working, parental leave etc. are also great as a result. The work-life balance is generally amazing.

* The company has immense potential to transform access to education, and it’s built a solid foundation for doing so. Working here is working with an actual purpose.

Cons

* Being a small company, progression opportunities are limited after a certain point. This has led to valuable, experienced people leaving as there was nowhere to go.

* The company is data-driven, rather than data-informed, to an excessive amount at times. Thinking big is one of its values, but the strategy is limited by a prescriptive view of data and insights.

* The gender pay gap continues to stagnate, with largely unsuccessful efforts to diminish it. The ethnic pay gap is not reported, probably because it’s so abysmal.

* The leadership team is not diverse at all, which influences the above. The composition of the leadership team also informs the general lack of diversity in ideas, perspectives etc. Decision-making continues, despite efforts, to bottleneck at the top – another symptom of the lack of big thinking and trust placed in employees. However, there are also amazing people on the leadership team, who really “get it”.

Features of FutureLearn

• Take classes online using a variety of devices
• Over 700 courses, programs, and degree options available
• New free and paid classes, programs, and degrees are being added on an ongoing basis
• Courses are taught by university faculty

FutureLearn offers rich, diverse, and flexible learning opportunities for anyone that is at least the age of 13 and has a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop computer to view and interact with course material. All courses are taught by instructors from over 80 top academic institutions around the globe.

With the click of a button, students can join free courses and begin their learning experience. Some courses have specific start dates and others can be started at any time. Course lengths vary from weeks to months. Subjects offered include:

* Business & Management
* Creative Arts & Media

* Health and Psychology
* History
* Languages & Cultures
* Law
* Literature
* Nature & Environment
* Politics & the Modern World
* Science, Engineering & Maths
* Study Skills
* Teaching
* Tech & Coding

Courses are delivered via video, slides, courseware, and other means that can translate well through connected devices. FutureLearn also provides options so students can get the most out of the platform, including a learning guide packed with study tips, available support with each course, a feedback tool, and more.

Overall, FutureLearn is a great platform for a learner to absorb a variety of subjects from some of the best universities in the world – for free. Some may be deterred with the new pricing model that requires students to upgrade in order to receive a course completion certificate, but others who are looking to just complement their existing knowledge shouldn’t worry. It still is an excellent tool for ongoing learning.”

PROS / This is a good program to use if you are on a time crunch and have to learn French quickly.

CONS / The app is currently only available on iPad and iPhone.

 VERDICT / While it is nearly as expensive as Rosetta Stone with fewer features, Living Language is a good option for those who enjoy visual aids and game-style learning and need to learn French fast.

Living Language is a language learning method that was developed to help US State Department employees attain fluency in multiple languages. The online application and companion mobile app have a variety of reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar exercises. This is a good learn French program if you’re on a time crunch because of the subscription-based fee that you can cancel at any time.

A subscription to the comprehensive online service gives you access to the mobile app and the entire catalog of beginner, intermediate and advanced lessons. We did notice the intermediate and advanced lessons don’t increase much in difficulty, but you start to learn more useful topics, like how to order food and shopping for clothes at the mall.

The mobile app has the same lesson content, looks similar to the online application, but is currently only available for iPad and iPhone. If you prefer to learn on the go, we suggest considering a program like Duolingo or Fluenz with more audio content, and because they are available for Android devices too.

Most of the learning content is visual, including our favorite exercise in the curriculum, the sentence builder. It asks you to translate an English sentence by choosing from a selection of French words and putting them in the proper order. This exercise teaches you a good combination of reading and vocabulary skills while forcing you to learn the differences in sentence structure between the two languages. Unfortunately, there aren’t any timed exercises in the Living Language curriculum, which help force your brain to react quickly during conversation and comprehension lessons.

There are flash card vocabulary exercises in each lesson that associate an image with a French word, and when you tap on the flash card it flips over to reveal the English translation. Flash cards are a good resource for people who prefer visual aids to audio-based learning, but we found these exercises were boring after the first few lessons due to the number of terms you’re expected to memorize. Some vocabulary exercises have more than 40 terms, so we found ourselves constantly referring back to them while trying to complete the grammar and conversation exercises that follow.

You find most of the audio material in the conversation exercises. These exercises ask you to listen to a short conversation in French, but don’t include any interactive elements besides clicking on the phrases to reveal the English translation. The grammar exercises also include short bits of audio material in the form of a native speaker reading short phrases. Neither of those exercises are interactive nor do they let you record your voice like the grammar and conversation exercises in Rosetta Stone. The lessons are also available on audio CD with an accompanying textbook if you don’t have internet access, need more time to study and don’t want to pay for a subscription.

The app then helps you remember those phrases using a flashcard system powered by spaced repetition – something I’m a big fan of.

So, in other words, you learn new phrases, and then you memorise them.

Nothing new, you might say.

True, there’s nothing new about useful phrases, flashcards, or space repetition, but the reason MosaLingua is very effective is that it gets the basics right.

What you’ve got here is an app that teaches you well-chosen, useful phrases that you’re actually going to want to use.

Then inside the app itself, you’ve got everything you need to practise and learn them:

• a good flashcard system that is user-friendly and works well
• audio
• images
• …and complete control over which phrases you study and don’t

I completely accept that flashcards are not for everybody. I usually even recommend making your own digital flashcards, so that you can have more control over your learning.

But the thing about apps, is that when you make them well, and they do the job they set out to do, they can be incredibly convenient as a portable language learning aid that you can carry anywhere and study throughout the day.

Let’s dive in and look at some of the features.

Level Assessment

When you first launch the app, you’re met with a basic level test that gives you a rough assessment of your level. Now, you can always change this afterwards, but it’s a good example of how the creators really make an effort to ensure you’re learning the right stuff, and not waste your time on phrases that are too easy or hard.

Once you have selected your level, the app then creates a personalised plan for you based on your results.

There are quite a few advantages that MosaLingua has as a Spaced Repetition App. The website gives you all of the science behind it but, science aside, I much prefer to judge an app on how useful it is, how easy it is to use, and whether or not I want to use it every day.

So there are lots of useful features…

• It always uses full sentences rather than individual words.
• By default, you study 5 cards at a time, but you can click more to increase this by 5 more cards, giving you control of the level.
• Within the app itself you have the option to record yourself on the card too and directly compare your pronunciation with the native speaker. You can re-record as much as you like until you get it perfect.
• Each card is presented to you in various different ways. As a card with a sentence in either English or Spanish, a card where you write the phrase, or a jumbled up sentence where you select the words. You also have the option to self-assess where you select how easy or difficult it was.
• You can also back up into the “Useful Lists” section, where you can view all of the cards you are currently learning or, if there are specific sentences you want to learn, then you can also add your own.
• Adding a card is simple, just click “Add Card” and then enter the phrases both English and Spanish, set the level – and you are done. The app will also automatically add the audio for the sentence if available.

Now, would you actually use all these features?

Who knows…

But what’s impressive is that they’re all well-chosen and practical learning aids, which I think demonstrate the creators know what they’re doing when it comes to language learning.

Bonus Materials

In terms of the content itself, you begin with straightforward language based on the results of the level test.

As you continue to progress through the app, you gradually unlock more materials like Proverbs, Fun Sentences and Things of Interest. These introduce more and more everyday vocabulary that you
might not get with a traditional course.

Conclusion

Remember, no one single app is going to be a complete language learning solution, so you will need to supplement Mosalingua with all the usual advice I give on this channel, on the podcast and on the blog.

But because Mosalingua allows you to choose what you study by topic (restaurants, conversations, transport etc.), it really does prove to be a good complement to learning with more traditional methods.

All in all, Mosalingua is mightily impressive, and I definitely recommend you give it a shot if it sounds like your kind of thing.

The full version costs a measly $5, which is cheaper than a large Starbucks, and you get full lifetime access. Pretty good!

Innovative Language – (LanguagePod101)

Online, Innovative Language is most well known for their LanguagePod101 series. They focus on audio and video podcasts for 34 different languages! Making them one of the giants when it comes to learning a foreign language online. Well, they have been offering their products to us since 2006.

You can make use of their free resources or explore the paid learning material which is extremely beneficial for all language learners. Throughout our innovative language review, we will mainly focus on their languagepod101.com offering as for us this is by far their most popular product.

 

Cost of All Products

Basic

• £6 a month
• £45 a year (works out to be £4 a month, saving you £24)

In the basic package, you will receive access to all lessons and notes on your chosen lanuagepod101 website and mobile app. Engaging beginner through to advanced audio and video lessons. PDF notes for each of the lessons that you take.

Premium

• £19 a month
• £140 a year (saving 40%)
• The premium package has a few extra additions which include outlined transcripts and a vocabulary list to review each of the lessons. A whopping 2000 word list, that are the essentials used in daily conversations (website only).For us, we would have to go to japanesepod101.com to see this extensive list. Finally, what innovative language call ‘smart flashcards’ which is their use of spaced repetition learning, what most language learning apps are built on.

Premium+

• £37 a month
• £230 a year (saving 47%)

Ok, so, Innovative Language 101 also has a premium+ package. This is quite a pricey monthly fee for any language learner, but it does come with awesome extras!

Firstly, 1-on-1 personal instruction and guidance through ‘my teacher’ section, they will also set you up with a personalised learning program. They will make sure that you overcome your language learning weaknesses. To top off the premium+ package, you will also get personal assessment reviews by Innovative Language teachers. This enables you to gain a certificate of proficiency in your chosen language.

Mobile

• 1-month £8 a month
• 12-month £55 yearly (saving 37.5%)
• Lifetime access costs a one-off purchase of £199
• The mobile package will give you access to the whole innovative language 101 app, so you will still receive the full audio and video lessons with the line-by-line transcript reviews and pdf notes. You will miss out on the 2000 word language essential list though.

Special Offers

The guys at Innovative Language know that people like special offers! If you have managed to sign up for their trial subscription, then I’m sure you’re already receiving promotional emails. If you like the product that you have been using, why not take advantage of it! However, if you aren’t a fan, I would strongly recommend unsubscribing to their email marketing as they can be quite persistent!

Teaching Method

As you already know from reading our innovative language review, their main teaching method is through audio and video lessons. That’s not to say that they don’t use other features, just that these two methods are their main focus. They also have the word bank, my vocabulary section and smart flashcards which focuses on spaced repetition.

Audio and Video Lessons

There are new, free audio lessons added fairly often which is great. If you are new to languagepod101 this gives you more learning material after your 7-day trial. In fact, all new lessons are free to use for 21 days for anyone that has an account.

In all of the audio lessons that we have used, there were two speakers, one native and the other in your own language who explains what is being said. We would have preferred if they spoke more in the target language, something that they can work on.

What we love about innovative language audio lessons is that they have added modern language learning. One of the newest lessons is ‘must-know Spanish social media phrases’. They run through comments from social media posts, not limiting you to just formal language. We think this is a great way of enabling you to learn words that are used by this generation daily.

PROS / This software has an extremely accurate voice recognition algorithm.

CONS / You must be connected to the internet to use this program and you can’t download the program onto your computer.

 VERDICT / Rocket Languages is an online course with an intuitive interface and a wide variety of situational learning content.

Rocket Languages is an online learn French application which features modules with interactive audio courses, language and culture lessons. Some sections have survival kit lessons with in-depth cultural tips and tricks along with situational vocabulary.Rocket Languages has unique pricing guidelines compared to other for-pay online applications we reviewed. You can purchase a lifetime license to all three levels for around $250, or buy each level separately for less than $100. All the other for-pay online courses we reviewed, including Rosetta Stone and Living Language, require you to pay a monthly subscription, which can be expensive if you have a long-term learning goal. Once you purchase a license to Rocket Languages, you can take the lessons any time you want, from any computer or mobile device that has access to the internet, and any upgrades they make to the curriculum or user-interface are free and available for life.The mobile app is available on Android and iOS devices and looks similar to the online application. Both applications keep track of your progress through the lesson plan, so you can start a lesson on your laptop at home and continue or finish it on your phone on your commute. The audio lessons are downloadable in the mobile app, which allows you to learn without using Wi-Fi or cellular data, and you can also download a PDF transcript of the lesson and read along if you want a visual aid. The voice-recognition feature differs slightly because iOS devices use a Siri-based algorithm Android phones and tablets use a Google algorithm.This program’s interactive audio courses begin with the Play it! section where you take part in a two-person conversation around the topic listed at the top of the screen. You listen to your virtual tutors, Paul and Marie-Claire, read the phrase first, then record yourself reading the same phrase and compare the two. The voice recognition algorithm in this program is one of the most accurate we tested and it allows you to set the difficulty level. If you don’t pronounce the word or phrase correctly, the program makes you repeat yourself until you do.The next section of the audio course is the Write it! exercise. Rocket Languages plays a word or phrase from the conversation and you type what you hear. Each module is followed by a five-question multiple choice quiz to help you recall the important topics of the lesson.Rocket Language is one of the few programs we tested with cultural lessons that are coupled with important vocabulary terms that coincide with the cultural topic. These lessons feature written instructions that reminded our reviewers of traditional language textbooks. The written instructions are followed by speaking and pronunciation exercises based on information in the module. For instance, the module that covers topics about making your way through a French town has a cultural lesson about a velib, which is a self-service bike rental found in Paris and other large cities in France.The survival kit lessons in Rocket Language take the cultural lessons one step further to teach you important words and terms associated with a particular topic, like French food, household items and shopping for clothes. The survival kit lessons are especially handy if you are using this program to brush up on your French before you travel for business or leisure.

Summary

Rocket Languages has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. The one-time fee for a lifetime membership to this service is a good value for someone with long-term language goals, and you can access your account from any computer or mobile device with internet access. The learning content and speech recognition tools in this program were among the best we tested.