Language Perfect (www.languageperfect.co.nz) is a website where you can revise vocabulary words in whatever second language you're studying. Some schools use this website quite a bit (like mine, for instance). This is just a little guide to get the most out of using this program.
Okay, first of all, do not make Language Perfect your be-all-and-end-all for language studying. Language Perfect is great for studying vocab, but you need a range of study materials to have a well-rounded knowledge of the language you're studying. Here's some stuff that you should try and get your hands on (apart from a dictionary, because that's kind of obvious):
- Books in whatever language you're studying. I suggest getting non-fiction books geared at kids because then the vocab is simple but the topics are still interesting. Another alternative is getting translated versions of books that you've read before in English. I have 小屁孩日记 (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and some 杰罗尼莫·斯蒂顿 (Geronimo Stilton) books in Chinese. Reading books allows you to see how sentences work in your target language as well as being a source for new words.
- Some textbooks have good example sentences. I find the content of many textbooks to be rather stilted, though. I'm currently working through a pretty decent Chinese textbook called 中文, which I think is targeted at kids learning Chinese in the weekend Chinese schools here (well, I know at least one of the weekend Chinese schools uses this book). Some of the stories are kind of annoying because they have an overly cheery atmosphere, but there are other interesting biographical stories as well on famous people like Newton and Beethoven. The example sentences in the books are also really good.
- Movies in whatever language you're studying so that you can get some listening practise in.
- And, of course, if you can find people that you can communicate with using your target language, that just makes the experience more rewarding!
Now that's out of the way, how do we make the most out of Language Perfect? Well...
First of all, I recommend nailing all your school vocab just to get it out of the way. My teacher uploaded lists for the class, but if you don't have a teacher that does that, add words in yourself, pulling words from your textbook or any other word lists that you may have received in class. (To create a list, click on the "Control Panel" link on the login screen, or click on "Create a List" at the top of the list of available lists for whatever "module" you're doing.) (Wow, a list of lists.)
If there are any entries in any of these lists that are giving you trouble for anything other than you are simply having trouble learning that particular word, for example if the English definition is spelled incorrectly or the Chinese characters cannot be inputted, don't waste time with that word. Instead, click on "edit list" and remove those words. You can also re-add the word with correct spelling or whatever if need be. If you are using a school-created list, Language Perfect will keep the original list with all words in it and then create a copy of the list with your changes, under the "My Lists" tab.
Once you've mastered your school vocab, you can also add lists for the new words that you're encountering in books and movies. I think that doing this is more useful than just going through other random Language Perfect lists that might not be relevant to you. You're not really going to remember a word if you're not seeing it in books and movies and in life.
Recently, Language Perfect has also included support for other subjects such as chemistry and maths. I haven't really experimented with these yet, but they might come in handy. Language Perfect's system would be great for learning those ions, for example. Oh, and those compound names that you're just meant to know, such as sulfuric acid, sulfurous acid and so on.
No comments:
Post a Comment