Last week, Apple ran a promo on the Education section of the iTunes App Store, to feature several staff-selected apps that help people Learn a Language. Selfishly, we at Brainscape were a bit bummed that our that Learn Spanish app was not on this list, considering that (1) our app is consistently the highest-rated Spanish app on iTunes (by user reviews), (2) our app has been the 2nd-highest earning Spanish app, and (3) our app boasts the best application of actual language-learning science. Several similarly effective language-learning gems were also left off of Apples list including the top-selling Spanish app, iStart Spanish.
The reason for this exclusion is likely because Apple (understandably) has greater interest in promoting the sexiest, most promotion-friendly visual design and/or the best implementation of a new buzz-worthy iPhone feature(s), rather than the best actual learning experience. The apps in iTunes recent Learn a Language promotion indeed consisted mostly of fun multiple-choice quizzes and games like Hangman and Word Muncher.
Fair enough. Fun design makes for great marketing tools. Yet we Brainscapers cant just sit back and let people believe that these apps are objectively the best learning apps! We have therefore compiled our own list of the best three apps for learning a foreign language, based on actual language-learning effectiveness:
We at Brainscape particularly love the way Busuu handles conversation practice. Busuu plays you a conversation, immediately tests you on comprehension, then later challenges you to build the conversations sentences into the right order by dragging words into place. Learning to re-create real-world dialogs is an important skill for any language learner.
The only real disadvantage of Busuus language drill methods, from a learning standpoint, is that all of their activities are based on recognizing the foreign words & phrases (in multiple choice lists or the sentence-building activity) rather than asking the user to conjure up the words on their own. We at Brainscape have often argued that producing sentences from scratch is a necessary component of language practice.
That said, Busuus online community allows learners to hook up with each other for real conversations, which are the ultimate means of organic sentence production. Busuu thus adds a great social component to any language learning experience.
Brainscape
Each time you see a flashcard in Brainscape, the CBR system asks you to rate how well you knew the answer (and accompanying audio pronunciation) on a scale of 1-5. Poorly understood concepts (the 1s) will henceforth be repeated very frequently until you gradually increase your reported confidence level. Higher-confidence items (the 5s) will come up much less frequently, if at all.
By optimizing the age-old practice of spaced repetition in this way, Brainscape essentially guarantees that you will be spending your valuable study time as efficiently as possible. Weve even had reports that Brainscape users have been learning literally 3-4x faster than with traditional study methods.
Brainscape currently offers web/mobile apps for Spanish and French vocab & verbs; Chinese vocab; and a deluxe Spanish package that includes a revolutionary new language-learning methodology called Intelligent Cumulative Exposure, which introduces new concepts in the context of real sentences and annotates them with grammatical explanations in the learners own native language (as illustrated in the sample flashcard above). We also offer a single, streamlined Flashcard Portal iPhone application through which you can access all of your Brainscape subjects including many other Test Prep and General Knowledge topics, as well as flashcards you create yourself.
We hope that future Apple promotions of specific education apps will take better account of the learning quality that those apps provide. We also hope that Apple will continue improving its search algorithm to make it easier to find popular apps that are indeed the best in their particular categories. For now, if you are interested in learning a language on your iPhone, be sure to check out Voxy, Busuu, and Brainscape!
Brainscape is a web & mobile education platform thathelps you learn anything faster, using cognitive science. Join themillions of students, teachers, language learners, test-takers, andcorporate trainees who are doubling their learning results. Visitbrainscape.com or find us on the App Store
We at Brainscape particularly love the way Busuu handles conversation practice. Busuu plays you a conversation, immediately tests you on comprehension, then later
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