Language immersion is one of the most important features of effective language learning. Duplicating real-life contexts that manage to put students into everyday situations, allowing them to act the same way a native would, is fundamental for natural and effective progress. That’s why language immersion through mobile apps is so important. Applications for mobile devices can help ensure that students are immersed 100% in the language by allowing students to practice anywhere, at any time of day.
The objective of language immersion through mobile apps is to accelerate the learning process, especially speaking and listening (communicative) skills. Students are meant to progress through experiences.
Asia Society devoted an entire chapter to language immersion in its study “Chineses Language Learning in the Early Grades” that has been analyzed and reviewed by the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA), Minnesota University. This study, carried out for almost 50 years, exposes some of the benefits and difficulties of language immersion. Among the latter, the study highlights that “Designing, implementing, and providing ongoing support for language immersion education is no easy task”. Thanks to their online and offline apps and varied activities, Dexway solutions are the best option for a truly effective immersion.
The material from the additional sections of Dexway’s online courses allows 100% language immersion through mobile apps and includes vocabulary activities, videos, podcasts, series, advertisements, books and karaoke, which are available to students at any time of day. All these materials are accessible to students from the virtual campus, only in the language they are studying, giving them the opportunity to fill their free time with interesting content that will in turn help them advance in their goal of learning the language.
Additional activities for language immersion in Dexway courses
To achieve full linguistic immersion through 100% app-based learning and enable student interaction with real-life contexts and situations, Dexway online courses offer additional activities for practice at any time of the day.
- Vocabulary flashcards with illustrated images, pronunciation and the translation.
- Grammar: Review grammar seen throughout the course for more in-depth study of the language (in the course, grammar is subliminal).
- Dictionary: Collins Dictionary to search for definitions of words and their translation.
- Aditional Reading: Fragments of real works for exposure to real literature (The Little Prince, Sherlock Holmes), advertisements, articles, short stories, etc.
- Magazines: Access to the Dexway Magazine, sorted by level.
- Videos: The most relevant course videos so you can watch them again and again directly, without having to go through all the activities.
- Pronunciation videos: Videos to improve pronunciation by comparing words or similar expressions.
- Online Community: Message threads, conversation groups, forums.
Gamification: extra motivation for successful immersion
In addition to all the additional materials, Dexway online courses use a gamified assessment system that challenges students to do the best they possibly can in their courses so they can attempt to get the highest score on the leaderboard. This forces them to pay attention to the course and keep progressing in all activities so they don’t get left behind.
With a system that combines stars, medals and trophies, there are many types of incentives of varying difficulty levels available to students so they can score points and be ranked on a general leaderboard with the rest of their group. Progressing through the course at a good pace, completing it within the established timeframe, earning grades on the exercises, participating in extra activities in the community or in conversation groups – everything counts and adds up to stars and trophies.
The medals system, however, is a unique incentive, a tool for teachers and tutors to provide a more personalized way to congratulate a certain student for excelling, participating, etc.
Multiplatform Dexway Apps
To make language immersion easier, Dexway apps are available for download on PC, Mac, iOS and Android. These multiplatform apps work both online and offline.
In the offline version, the course keeps track of students’ progress so they can study anywhere, without having to connect to Wi-Fi or use data. The gamification leaderboard will be updated the next time the course is opened with an internet connection.
For both the additional activities and the gamification system, Dexway’s e-learning language solutions offer 100% language immersion for your students, guaranteeing a successful learning experience.
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