New Mediums for Language

And the message told through them

The concept of languages extend beyond having knowledge of the language. There is an idea that persists in language in that it applies to a medium — speaking, story, poetry, novel, music, and even mobile app. This idea is that you can only receive an idea through a medium.

Even just the act of speaking in another language (or being spoken to) is an educational experience. For languages, and for our work in language learning, it isn’t languages that we must understand to help teach but instead the medium through which that educational experience is expressed. No educational medium a whole is better than another, but different mediums have different ways of expression and are better at certain things than others.

Let’s consider our personas for intermediate language learners (all at the same proficiency); one learned in school, one learned abroad, and one learned on their own. These are all the same language, but because off the difference in medium are learned in very different ways. Now imagine taking that school teacher and have them design an abroad experience for language learning. This scenario leads to some dissonance — one which we see in language learning apps, where ideas that fit well into the medium of school based pedagogy are applied to mobile, self directed learning.

We have to approach new mediums for language learning knowing that technology (one that didn’t used to be accessible for language learners) is mediating reality — and naturally, we must operate as if those faculties are fully under our control.