Myngle announced two new partnerships with language learning providers through its Changes Bulletin recently.
The companies are SpacedEd, a social learning platform that offers a mobile learning solution and Language Bridge which is a non memorization, non grammar method in form of a software for learning a language.
I know both companies for over a year now and had some talks with Joe Pollicino, one of the early team members of SpacedEd and Arkady Zilberman, the inventor of the Language Bridge method.
SpacedEd
SpacedEd enables educators to build a set of questions / flashcards that will be delivered automatically to any student who signs up for the course. The method is built upon the spacing effect that will automatically repeat a question at a certain time, so that the information sticks in your brain.
This method or similar ones are more frequently used online education or mobile learning. Smart.fm uses it, MindSnacks Spanish which I reviewed recently uses it, Babbel has its algorithm and CoboCards will be implementing it shortly. So, that’s a busy space to be in.
As SpacedEd is pointing out on their website, it is a proven method. In fact the Leitner algorithm is known since the 1930s and already in 1886 Herrmann Ebbinghaus did a research on how memory works. But of course it needed a lot of discipline to learn with this method. You needed to keep track of your flashcards, keep a diary what to repeat when etc. In the app age everything change. All this work is done by the software or app and you just need to repeat the lessons you get delivered.
To get an idea of how memorization works the “traditional” way, watch one of my favorite people in language education, Alexander Arguelles.
The interesting part for teachers about SpacedEd now is that you can sell your courses easily via a subscription model similar to a paid podcast. Through the partnership with Myngle you will be able to offer your courses on the Myngle platform to your own students or even to students who don’t take live lessons with you.
Although not a partner of Myngle, smart.fm did a great video about the theory behind their system which I would like to share with you.
Language Bridge
Language Bridge is a patented learning method invented by Arkady Zilberman. Other than classic methods like the way you learn in school or with Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, Livemocha etc Language Bridge wants its students to learn a language subconciously and without active memorization or grammar drills.
This way Language Bridge claims that its students learn the language in a quarter of the usual time and that it teaches students to speak English without turning them into linguists.
I know, this sounds like a pretty radical approach to most language teachers (including myself) but nevertheless I think the method is valid. Arkady Zilberman taught hundreds of Russian immigrants in the US back in the 90ies with this method and it apparently worked. And if you think about it, it is basically the same way like a child acquires the language skills. For me, it is not the way I would learn a new language as I am interested in how a language works and hence the grammar is an essential part for me. But thinking of people who need to speak a new language fast and up to a decent level and don’t have the interest / need to cope with grammar and all the “behind the scenes” of a language this could be an interesting method to try.
Through the partnership with Myngle interested teachers will be able to attend free webinars about the product with Arkady Zilberman and students can purchase the Language Bridge software in the Myngle shop at a 20% discount.
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