Duolingo - Supporting Language Learning

One of the keys to learning is practising the skill being acquired frequently. Ten minutes a day is often more effective than doing mega-sessions on an occasional basis. Forming habits of regular study is also very important.

There is an app which I have on my iPhone and iPad (and are therefore linked - so I can use either - and my progress is recorded and shared) - called "Duolingo". It's a free app - and there is no subscription. Now, the first thing I do each day is to do my daily practice. You can set your own daily target [Goals can be Casual (10 XP = 1 'unit'); Regular (20 XP); Serious (30 XP) and Insane (50 XP) - but you can exceed your goal - which I try to do - because I can be intensely competitive - ESPECIALLY with myself.] It is addictive - and after two days on a run, you are told how many days you have done. Achieving a run of 100 days was a goal I aimed at - and this motivated me. It felt great to get there. I've now got a new goal - and it keeps me going.

You can also compete against friends. A unit (which only takes a few minutes) earns 10 XP - and there are other ways to increase your score. You can invite friends to join the 'leaderboard' and again that can help by raising the challenge of competition.

You don't have to stick to one language - my main aim at the moment is to develop my French - but ahead of a trip to Hamburg, I want to learn a bit of German. It's easy to switch languages - so my current goals are to do at least three units of French and one of German every day. It doesn't take much time - but time passes, and I can see how my skills are improving. As I say, generating new motivation is key to the Duolingo tool.

There is a large choice of languages available - Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Esperanto, Turkish, Vietnamese, Norwegian, Ukrainian, and Welsh - and the developers are working on more.

Visit the website - https://www.duolingo.com or visit your device's 'app store'.

BBC Young Musician of the Year

Yesterday we went to the Barbican in London to watch the final of the competition. It was a fantastic afternoon - with three superb performances. If you are able to view on BBC iPlayer - I would thoroughly recommend watching - it is available at http://bbc.in/1TfxGTt . I won't spoil it for you by revealing the winner (although it was on the news headlines this morning on BBC Radio 4). Three very talented performers indeed! Details (in the order of performance) of each of them (from the BBC website) are below

Ben Goldscheider

Ben comes from Hertfordshire and has been playing the horn since the age of nine. Since a very early age, he has wanted to become a soloist and increase the popularity of the horn! He has played numerous times with the Philarmonia, was principal horn of the National Youth Orchestra and is also part of the International Music Academy for Soloists. Ben is studying Music and History at A level whilst teaching himself the piano and German. Aside from music, he enjoys playing a wide range of sports including football and tennis.

Jess Gillam

Jess is from Cumbria and began playing saxophone aged seven. She has made a guest appearance with Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, has been a concerto soloist with the Worthing Symphony Orchestra and in July, she was the youngest solo performer at the World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg. Jess also runs her own annual concert series in Ulverston where artists such as Courtney Pine, Snake Davis, The Apollo Saxophone Quartet, John Harle and Tommy Smith have performed.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Sixteen year old Sheku attends Trinity Catholic School in Nottingham. He holds the ABRSM Junior Scholarship to The Royal Academy of Music, where he studies cello with Ben Davies. Sheku plays in the Chineke! Junior and Professional Orchestra, as well as the JRAM Symphony Orchestra. He plays chamber music with the Kanneh-Mason Piano Trio and the Ash String Trio. Sheku plays a cello made by Frank White of Ladystone Violins. He also enjoys football.

We were thrilled to find that our seats were on the front row - and we sat next so some of the friends of Jess Gillam's who had travelled down from Cumbria for the competition. I love listening to the saxophone and her performance was electrifying. 

During one of the three intervals, the winner of the BBC Young Musician Jazz award, Alexandra Ridout gave a performance with her trio in the foyer. Another young lady to watch out for in the future. After the competition ended we stayed for another foyer event - this time a big band. 

The next competition runs in two years time.

How to Learn a Second Language

You'd think that I'd be good at learning other languages. After all, I was bilingual as a child. Though I was born and grew up in the West Midlands, my family were from South Wales - and my parents spoke both English and Welsh to me at home. Yet I've always struggled to learn languages. I don't have the ear for it - and the way we were taught French made it tedious and ultimately failed for me (lots of rote-learning - and writing out verb tables and vocab lists). In fact, while I just scraped an O-Level (my worst performance by far), I happily gave up French the day the minute the exam concluded.

It was a trip to Paris (won at a holiday show in Northampton), that ignited my interest in the language. Over time I learned enough for getting by on the holidays we took in France with the children. I came to enjoy reading it (my idea of paradise was, and is, to read Le Monde whilst sitting in the sun and sipping red wine). In fact, I followed the first year of a D.E.U.G. mention Droit (University course in Law at at Université de Poitiers) through attending the first week of each term, getting and buying the reading list, and studying at home. The exam was a disaster - I could read the question - know in my own mind what I wanted to say - but had very poor skills in writing French. (To be honest, I had almost none).

The trouble is, being able to read in a second language, doesn't help you communicate. So when I would pop across to France for a trip - the shopkeepers and waiters would regard me as any other hapless English visitor.

But learning french (or any other language) isn't impossible.

There are lots of books available - and CDs to listen to, but on their own they didn't work for me. I now attend weekly french conversation classes in Milton Keynes with Marie Da Silva. Marie is french, but has lived in Milton Keynes for some years. She's also keen to promote "real learning". She set up a meet-up group for speakers of French (and other groups for other languages - and has organised fun events bringing together people from many different language backgrounds. Recently she set up Lingo Mix. I thoroughly recommend her website - http://lingomix.co.uk/ - and the activities which she runs in Milton Keynes.

I'm finally making real progress. Having the opportunity, in a friendly environment, to practice speaking the language is essential. So whether it's the Tuesday conversation class - or playing Scrabble in French with teams including a wide range of language skill level (last Wednesday) - or a meal with patient French nationals - my skills improve. I had always concentrated on vocab - but Marie has helped me to appreciate how the structure of grammar aids (rather than hinders) learning.

I hope I can persuade Marie to share some of her thoughts in guest posts in the future.

As a teacher myself, I know that a learner can't delegate learning to the tutor. The learner needs to put in the time and effort themselves. So as well as class, and social events - I use other tools at home. I'll be sharing with you what works for me.