There are three teaching methods that dominate the business of language instruction: the Direct Method, the Grammar-Translation Method, and the Audio-Lingual Method. Deciding which is the best method is difficult because each has strengths and weaknesses, and the nature of a student’s goals will determine which is best for that student. Although many language-training sources may speak about exclusive or unique approaches, with few exceptions they are using one of these three methods. We conducted extensive research on the subject of teaching methods for our online language training programs. Here is a description of the three primary language teaching methods along with our analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each one:

Read the rest of this entry »

Since the earthquake in Haiti, thousands of medical workers, translators, and interpreters have organized for specialized relief efforts. Translators Without Borders will soon offer a medical triage dictionary for use with Haitian Creole, and ALTA has enlisted our resources to translate and record Haitian Creole medical phrases for aid workers and volunteers. Based on selections from the Emergency Multilingual Phrasebook published by the Red Cross, we hope that the phrases are useful for those who want free Haitian Creole pronunciation practice.

Haitian Creole sometimes has more than one term or phrase to describe a medical condition or English term. In those cases, our translator was asked to choose the most common Haitian Creole variant in order to be understood by all speakers despite regional and cultural differences.

You can listen to them directly on our website or download them for later playback on any standard MP3 compatible device. Each sound clip contains a recording of the English phrase followed by the Haitian Creole pronunciation, and finishes with the Haitian Creole phrase repeated for emphasis. We hope that this resource is helpful and we welcome any feedback.

Haitian Creole Medical Phrases:

Read the rest of this entry »

Whether it’s a matter of difficult spelling or multiple meanings, these ten words pose a degree of difficulty to a great many English speakers. Below you will find their definitions, with a rundown of ways to make sure you will never have a problem telling them apart.

SYMPATHY and EMPATHY
The word “sympathy” has been used in the English language far longer than has its sibling “empathy.” For centuries, “sympathy” meant the ability to “feel with” another person – to understand and to be affected by his circumstances. In the early 20th century, “empathy” worked its way into English as a term utilized in psychoanalysis. Whether being empathetic helps or hinders the agent is up for debate, but having such a quality does imply a great deal more effort than merely being sympathetic. Being empathetic entails not only “feeling with” another entity, but also projecting oneself onto that entity to fully comprehend its state of being.

FLAUNT and FLOUT
Here we find another case of similar sounds and wholly different meanings. To flaunt a quality or object is to put it on display, to parade it around in order to impress others. To flout something is to scorn it and treat it with contemptuous disrespect. The latter has a surprising etymology, most likely form the Old English flouten, meaning “to play the flute.” Apparently the flute could make a fairly derisive-sounding whistling sound.

DISCREET and DISCRETE
Most of the time when we wish to utilize discretion, we mean the first term, Discreet: prudent, cautious, and not in plain sight. The second word, discrete, is typically used in the field of mathematics to refer to distinct and separate entities.

STATIONARY and STATIONERY
When you are standing in one spot, you are stationary. When you write a letter on fancy paper and stamp it closed with wax, you are using stationery.

VENAL and VENIAL
Though they sound similar, these words could not be further apart in meaning. A “venial sin” is a small peccadillo – pardonable, easily excused, and quite minor in nature. The word originates in the Latin venia, meaning “forgiveness.”

“Venal,” however, indicates something far graver and more reprehensible, stemming from the Latin, venum, meaning “sale.” This term came to indicate a person susceptible to corruption, who could be bought or bribed if the price was right.

Like many people, I’ve put in a good amount of time watching internet clips of cute babies/kittens/puppies/parrots/etc on YouTube. While the videos range from ridiculous to fairly amusing, I recently found myself totally captivated by a video featuring a baby who uses sign language.

What at first glance appeared to be yet another cute baby making faces video quickly took on an added dimension. I noticed this baby doing something with her hands. Over the next few minutes I came close to rubbing a bald spot on my chin because of my amazement.

Watch the video, I highly recommend turning your sound on.

The child in the video is a one year old girl and her parents started training her using sign language at an early age. The fascinating part is that, although she was able to say a few words, a good portion of the words that she was able to sign she wasn’t able to say.

In fact, according to the norms of child development, babies usually aren’t able to ask for foods by name until they’re 18-24 months old, but she does this in the video with signs. At a year old they have a vocabulary that can be counted on both hands. This is not for lack of cognitive ability.

It turns out that as children grow, their hand-eye coordination develops much more quickly and at an earlier age than their speech abilities. While there are many muscles in the human hand and arm, there are many more in the face and throat that are required for making intelligible sounds.

So because they’re able to exhibit comprehension at 12 months old, they’re also able to mimic giving commands or requests at 12 months old. While their vocal ability takes longer to develop, babies, it seems,have the cognitive and physical ability to communicate by making signs or approximated signs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Considering how long this wonderful blog has been around, I’m surprised I hadn’t stumbled upon it until recently. Most language professionals and language lovers have certain pet peeves when it comes to grammar and usage. The unnecessary quotation mark is definitely one of mine!

What are the rules for using quotation marks correctly? Well, here are some pointers so you can avoid being called out on the Unnecessary Quotation Marks Blog:

When quoting someone word for word, use quotation marks to show the reader exactly which words are being borrowed from a particular source.

Read the rest of this entry »

For people who speak English as a second language, several pitfalls may stand in the way of communicating fluently with native speakers. Even with a firm grasp of English grammar and a full arsenal of vocabulary, correct native-level pronunciation remains an obstacle for many language learners.

For people whose professions demand a very high level of communication with native English speakers (such as healthcare workers, airline employees, public speakers, call-center operators, and IT professionals, to name a few) a heavy accent could become a barrier to success.

For the native English speaker, difficulty understanding someone’s accent often goes unmentioned for fear of making a co-worker, a professor, a doctor, or a customer service representative feel badly. However, those people who consistently hear the words, “I’m sorry, what was that?” or, “Could you please repeat that?” know that despite their hard work in mastering English, something is missing. Enter the field of professional accent reduction.

Read the rest of this entry »

By guest contributor John Hubert

The Japanese Alphabet is an elegant system of writing that consists of two main scripts known as the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets.

It’s these two writing scripts that comprise the some 100 kana characters that are used to write and pronounce every sound in the Japanese language. Learning the alphabet has always been a difficult task for new students, as the characters often bare little if any resemblance to one another.

One of the best strategies that people use to learn the kana is to associate mnemonics with each of the hiragana and katakana Japanese alphabet characters.

Read the rest of this entry »

Conga lines, beauty pageants, happy hands, and great snack machines may not be among the first things that come to your mind when you think of call-centers, but they are for me. My work with ALTA Language Services has provided me with opportunities to visit call centers all around the world to train employees in accent reduction. Most of the call centers I’ve worked with are located in English-speaking countries such as India and Trinidad, but some are located in Mexican cities bordering the US where there is a heavy American influence.

Read the rest of this entry »

Arabic has proven to be a difficult language to test.

In Western countries, the intricacies of the Arabic language are not common knowledge. The idea of a diglossia, in particular, has little context in English and other Germanic languages and Romance languages. What is meant by diglossia is the co-existence of two separate versions of a language, often representing a hierarchical delineation.

Read the rest of this entry »