ICT and polyglot

Author: Ali Amjad

To be a polyglot (speak more than one language) had never been so easy; thanks to the potential of ICTs. Now students/ learners interested in becoming polyglot can make use of ICT tools for learning and practicing a language without joining any formal language learning centre and without paying high tuition fees or without cost; except time and energy.

In ICT every technology has its own importance but computer with an internet connection surpasses other technologies because it is the most powerful tool to access and share the information. It is absolutely a good teacher also; a teacher who is available around the clock, ready to give information on any topic and of course master of many languages; polyglot.

Learning languages using computer is a great fun, exciting activity and good use of time. Once you are online you are in your “e-classroom” there are many websites to give language lessons and help and guide you to improve your present proficiency of any language.

BBC is providing free of cost lessons on 36 languages. These lessons have been designed for beginners with very basic and essential phrases and reach up to higher levels. This website provides all basic ingredients to make language learning possible; text, audio, video and grammar. For some languages it also provides support material for tutors as well. “Test yourself” is one more feature of BBC Languages, here you can take a language proficiency test in given language and at the end of the test you will receive guidance and counseling. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Another free source which is very helpful for self learning is “How to learn any language”. This website gives you guidance, tips and tricks to speed up your learning and to enhance your capabilities. This language website has ten moderators and 12000 members. The multi-level language forum of this site has more than 174,000 posts. http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html

Are you looking for a resource hub with a broad range of choices? Word2Word website might be interesting for you. Once you are at Word2Word, then you don’t need to go anywhere else. This website is a gift for those new polyglots, language students and teachers who are interested in exploring more resources to quench their thirst of knowledge. Word2Word has attempted to place as many online courses as possible at your disposal by giving hundreds of links to other language websites. These websites contain lessons to help learning one language from another. The courses vary in quality and the quantity of material presented. http://www.word2word.com/coursead.html#english

You know that it is not possible to learn a language without practicing reading, writing and speaking. Hence Polyglot Club is a great resource where you can practice your language of interest with other members like you. This will work like a magic wand to improve your competency in language that you are learning. http://www.polyglot-learn-language.com/

Every learner or even expert of the language needs a good dictionary. Wordrefrence.com is an excellent online dictionary due to many reasons: It is multi-lingual (more than fifteen languages), it gives synonyms, it produces conjugations tables, it is available for iPhone and iPod, furthermore it has a number of tools i.e. plug-ins, modules and "gadgets" for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google. http://www.wordreference.com/

What did you say? You need more! O.K, let me put last card, hopefully it will quench your thirst. Google provides an excellent real time online translation tool which is fast, easy and free. Google Language Tools can translate your text into more than 127 languages - yes 127 living languages! The quality of the translation, in terms of accuracy, is unbelievable. A tip and trick; by typing single word in the given box for text, you can use it as a dictionary also. Now you are waiting for what? Rush to http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=EN and translate this page in your language of choice or into your mother tongue. Enjoy this, share it and say to the whole world: Hurrah now I can speak to the world!