I’ve been hearing about some people using Twitter for language learning lately. While I’m very skeptical about anyone’s ability to adequately acquire a language using a “140 characters at a time” medium, turns out there really are people attempting to use that social platform for helping others learn foreign languages.
For the most part, what I’ve seen are interesting secondary learning sources. You know, feeds that offer services like “word of the day” or “ask the language expert.” These are nice additions to any learner’s language suite. Don’t expect them to be helpful as a primary learning material, though — they aren’t designed for that.
Here are some ideas for extending your Twitter use as a language learning tool:
- Tweet in the target language. A couple tweets a day spouting a foreign phrase you learned is a fun way to apply new language items you pick up. Who knows, a fellow language learner might catch it and even start a Twitter conversation with you in the target language.
- Find other language learners. Search tags and other facilities to find other people interested in learning your target language. There are probably more people you can connect with than you’ve ever imagined.
- Subscribe to feeds from native speakers. At the least, this will give you instant material to practice reading skills in the target language. You might even end up making a friend or two.
Related posts:
