Review of Technology – Readlang

One extra technology I am going to introduce this week is Readlang.

Readlang is a corpus integrated with translation technology that aims to help users with their language learning. Rather than merely focusing on English learning, Readlang actually supports more than fifty languages. Leaners can choose the the language they know and the language they are learning.

Here is how it works. After choosing the language and the topic preferred, a learners can start reading and highlighting any incomprehensible words. Readlang will instantly translate them into one's native language. Instead of translating literally word by word, Readlang modifies the translation based on the context a user highlight.

Translation can be done by a unit of word.

Translation is modified based on the context.

Although this feature is not new to most of us, its convenience does stands out to me, as users simply click on the word and move the cursor forward or backward to the surrounding context, and the translation will be shown immediately.

Also, Readlang will automatically constructs a word list that users have highlighted before. Therefore, for serious learners, the are able to review the words or phrases the did not understand previously.

A word list created by Readlang

Additionally, flash cards are also available for helping with one's learning.

In terms of language learning, this website can be useful for learners learning by themselves. However, in a classroom setting, this may not seem so practical since the corpus offered may not correspond to students' needs. Another important feature of Readlang is that it can be installed as a plug-in tool on a browser, so that users can use the translation feature in any websites they browse.

Convenient as this should look, the easy access of translation may cause students to overly rely on the tool. The free version support the maximum of six words in a row for translation. With paid version, the limit goes up to twelve words. One of the major concern from the perspective of language instructors is that the six-word version sounds even better for language learning.

To sum up, Readlang is a helpful tool for learners who are interested in learning a foreign languages themselves, and for those in need of understanding written foreign languages. Nevertheless, in a more formal language learning setting, this may not seem as helpful because lexicon learning involves other aspects including the form, and use rather than just receptive meaning.