A recording session where voice actors help create downloadable MP3s for
a worldwide audience of Mandarin learners. Photo courtesy Adam Menon.

Free is Great, but...

The last few years have seen a huge increase in the amount of free online material for people who wish to learn a second language. However, such material usually takes the learner only to lower-intermediate level, covers the most obvious topics and does not provide any type of individual support. This is where many people find that they need to pay for what they require. Fortunately, methods of online course delivery have also increased and undergone enhancement. A current issue, is whether it is better to learn with a 'live' albeit, online tutor, as opposed to MP3 downloads, supplemented with PDF transcriptions and other materials.

Locally, there are some good choices covering both types of course delivery, for either expatriates learning Mandarin or Chinese learning English. Several websites are now established that offer downloads for English speakers learning Mandarin, while for Mandarin speakers learning English, there are at least five online live tutoring companies. It may be that while English speakers prefer to learn by downloading, Mandarin speakers like the added motivation of a living, breathing, online tutor. Of course, the market is still developing and when a Mandarin live tutoring business opens in a major Western country, we can start to make more in-depth observations. For now, this article offers an insight about the methods and thinking of people behind some of these online enterprises.

For four years, Adam Menon has operated an online Mandarin teaching service, which now has a worldwide customer base. He says, "I was still a student of Mandarin myself and noticed that everything online had been prepared by Chinese speakers. It had also been prepared the way they had learned Chinese, but not in a way that would follow the logic and taste of an English speaker. When I prepare material in conjunction with my native Mandarin voice actors, I am approaching things from the same perspective as my student, instruction and usability and so on... The end result is that there is a lot of student empathy behind my system and this has proven to be a unique advantage over others"... "How do you get empathy with students?" Menon quizzes the interviewer... He answers by saying that he simply designed a system that he would want to use himself, it's all about customer service.

Despite working with a different method, similar feelings are expressed by Debbie Turner, the HR and Tutor Manager of a prominent live English tutoring business. She relates some of her company's success to the shy or submissive nature of many Asian students, "Because the student only needs to talk, shyness is no longer an issue. But perceived shyness is sometimes really about group dynamics... Some students are very talkative, while others who are more confident or developed can inadvertently dominate. Asian students don't like to interrupt and are very weary of social status... While learning online can alleviate some types of shyness, the online tutor needs to be aware of standard classroom management, so that no particular individual takes over the group and eventually silences other members", Turner says.

While for Menon 'empathy' and Turner 'perceived shyness' are interesting characteristics of their respective methods, these are not chief selling points. Menon says that it is convenience that is his number one sales pitch. What he means by 'convenience' is a lot about 'portability' or 'mobility'. He says that his service will probably meet future 'live online tutor' competition, that could proclaim flexible schedules. But he rightly points out that his service has no schedules at all; - It is everywhere, at the gym, in the car and on campuses, such as Providence University, where he developed a customized version of his back-end database and search technology. For Turner, her killer selling point is another concept of convenience: time. She says Chinese learners of English have difficult employment or academic schedules to work around, so the ample flexibility offered by her company's method, means people have lessons during their lunch, before work and increasingly, late at night. She says that by 2011 at least half of the online adult schools will be offering tutors 24/7; this will be done by hiring staff across several English speaking continents.

However characteristics and selling points are not so pedagogical, being the actual practices involved in teaching. This is where Menon and Turner go their separate ways, according to the strengths and weaknesses of the methods they have chosen. For Menon, it is 'customization' that he seems to relate most to pedagogy, while for Turner, it is something closer to interactivity, what she often refers to as 'feedback'. These two associations are a little surprising... Menon's service, where everything is on download, would not immediately suggest a method that would create opportunities for customization. He fully realizes this limitation and, as detailed later, has been addressing the customization issue from multiple perspectives. We can be surprised about Turner relating to 'feedback' because, while the method used by her employer seems to fit very well the natural two-way telephone-like flow that could be expected from a live online tutor, the company does not appear to have done anything special to enhance this advantage. If anything, feedback is from company down to student, but not the other way round.

As mentioned, for Menon, it is currently all about customization, no doubt connecting with the earlier characteristic of learner empathy. His support material is enormous; transcripts in both simplified and traditional Chinese, special vocabulary lists that cover colors, seasons and festivals, the production of extra lessons containing travel and business Mandarin... In terms of customization of technology he says, "The service has introduced features, such as transcripts that play on the screens of MP3 players, mobile flashcards reviewing characters and vocabulary - and there will soon be content compatible with the new generation of touch-screen laptops". In a sign that he is starting to offer serious competition to real classrooms, he recently introduced a service where subscribers can record and email their lesson dialogs for later feedback.

A Taiwanese student learns to speak English without ever leaving home.

For Turner and her Mandarin speaking English learners, it's all about feedback. She makes a comparison to MP3 download services and says there is, "no original thought being provoked, even if the MP3 had a question and the student answered it, they're not getting any feedback, so they don't know if their answer makes any sense; the MP3 students are not putting what they've learned into practice. Even giving very elementary material on MP3 can be really risky, because many people actually cannot hear basic vowel sounds, which can create really bad habits that are hard to break," says Turner. Regarding her company's method, she also thinks that because of the telephone-like interaction, students concentrate a lot more on pitch and intonation, compared to normal classrooms, where the teacher and students are often distracted by other factors, such as body language, facial gestures or even white-boards.

(Continued TOP of next column...)

The Methods - 'On the Job'

Structurally, Menon's course for learners of Mandarin has seven levels comprising 60 lessons in each. Lessons are usually completed sequentially, although students can access any of the content within the level they have enrolled in. Despite carefully planned structure, Menon says "You have to be really self-motivated to do language study, especially if the student is only doing downloaded material. We try to create circumstances to help. For example, sometimes in the material, I'll give the student an exercise that gets them to do things like introducing themselves, talking about their age and, as lessons progress, about their country habits and past-times". Students can either choose to self-assess to a higher level or, for an additional fee, can enroll with the provision of a mentor, who will provide feedback on MP3s recorded by the student. Students soon realize if they have moved too high too soon, as higher levels use more Mandarin 'classroom language' for instruction. Menon says that in methods that are less structured and assessed, such realizations can take some time, meaning the student can waste many months, before they realize they have not mastered the basic elements of the language. By the end of level seven, there is almost no English instruction, however when students forget words, there is an online wordbank, with definitions and references to where the word was first used in the course. He jokes that his wordbank "does an even better job than a live teacher."

Listening to the way that Menon speaks and the content of his lessons, it is clear that he is a very gifted person. He has a natural affinity with traditional teaching practices, but is also very aware of the point where things should be discarded or modified, in order to take advantage of current technology. It is also apparent that he has a passion for teaching; for him, this is not simply about making money (or technical wizardry) and he is never content enough to think that he has done all he can to make learning easier. This is an attitude that is easily recognized by his students and looking at the feedback on his website, as well as positive reviews on dozens of others, it is clear that he has developed a very good method. In a telling sign, Menon always refers to his work as a 'service', rather than a 'business' or 'company'.

Like most other MP3/PDF download language courses, Menon's has a wealth of 'realia', meaning there is no hesitation in covering topics from popular culture, the press and magazines. Recent American studies have given more credibility for increased usage of realia, particularly when teaching Western students, "We find realia helpful for the little things that people can use, so Chinese Valentine's Day would be a good example of this, we have also had situations where several students sent in feedback about buying computers, so we introduced the relevant language." Menon says that many ideas come from feedback found on the services forum and consequently, there is a type of 'on-demand' aspect that traditional textbooks cannot compete with. Most of these lessons are both optional and free extras, covering special events that, while not essential to a students progress, add substantial insight into contemporary Chinese society and culture. Menon's students are also not shy of grammar; not only are there additional grammar handouts for almost every lesson, there are also native speakers employed to answer students questions on forums. In terms of grammar taught in the download material, he says student feedback has led him to believe that he has struck a good balance with vocabulary and other learning aspects, "I like to teach a grammar point after the student is familiar with hearing how it has been used, just like the natural mother-tongue technique, there needs to be aspects of familiarity and concept," he says.

Returning to Mandarin speakers learning English, some systems implemented by online live tutor schools usually shock both experienced and inexperienced foreigners who become tutors. They seldom speak with the same students more than a few times, therefore cannot expect to hear great leaps in student progress. Rather, there are a range of small victories, such as helping students correct common pronunciation errors or clarifying some usage that has puzzled someone for a few months. As Turner explains, "there isn't anything like lesson 1, followed by 2 then 3... Like most local real-life schools, what happens is an amount of lessons need to be done in a certain time, such as two months. What this means for the teacher is that they may have a student once and maybe, never hear from them again. This is all on prepayments or agreements, where the student is tied into the system for 12 months." Although there is no structure in terms of individual lessons, there are six levels. Turner says, once a student feels ready, they can request to be moved up to a higher level. There are no level names and also, no textbooks and no tests. Progress is determined on self-evaluation, although personnel within the business can advise the student that it would be better to stay at a lower level - and all classes are recorded that can help verify this, if need be. Turner explains, "there are no tests because there are no textbooks, this is advertised as a conversation school, there's no grammar training, but they're practicing grammar by simply doing it - and there's no writing practice. Apart from wrapping up, it's difficult to test on what they are actually learning." For people from Western education backgrounds, many of these practices would be difficult to accept, suffice to say the online live tutoring business is an extension of what happens at most local face-to-face adult language classes.

The 'structure' seems very much tied into a central goal of making a profit, with as little outlay as possible. Turner later hinted at this, when she said that the main reason why tests are not administered is because they take too much manpower and 'expense' to prepare. However to be fair, there are also major differences in student attitudes... According to Turner, most students, "want to see instant results; if it's not very clear what the result for that day is supposed to be, it's very difficult for them to be interested in the class. The teacher always has to do a wrap-up and tell the student what was covered that lesson, otherwise they can start to feel that it's not worth the money." she says.

In sharp contrast to the service offered by Menon, Chinese students learning English are not given any handouts that detail what will be, or has been taught. However, they do receive notification of the topic for the day. Turner says that no further details are given because, "a lot of Asian students have a tendency to memorize everything, they come into class and are not actually listening, because they're too busy rehearsing the script inside their heads... For Asian students, a feeling of cramming then closure is very important, so they want to cover all the material in the hour and get it finished... Like it or not, there is a rush-rush mentality in Asia and different cultures require different approaches." Turner says that the company does try to customize, but that this is most effectively done when students book face-to-face, one-on-one classes and provide the material themselves. This she says, is particularly common and relevant when people are preparing for job interviews with international companies.

General Advice

Expatriates living in a Mandarin speaking environment are at a huge advantage as they can practice at least some of what they have learned, no matter the method, by simply stepping outside their door and walking to the nearest market. Further, many expatriates have found that they have enough time to combine several different methods at once. For Chinese who are learning English, the above insights can be useful to formulate a plan that could begin with many of the free online resources, progressing to conversation practice and then structural reinforcement in face-to-face classes. This description is very close to what traditional classroom educators call 'blended learning', defined as a combination of multiple approaches. These may include self-paced, collaboration or mentoring. The delivery of services may include virtual and physical resources, for example combinations of technology-based materials, face-to-face sessions and print materials.

Overall, it is probably too early, in the continuing evolution that is the world-wide-web, to attempt an accurate guess about what online methods may bring the best results. There are also many other pedagogical and practical factors, such as personal learning style, online and offline convenience, student location and, perhaps above all, the costs involved. However in the examples examined here, even taking into account the aforementioned factors and differences in delivery, it does seem that learners of Mandarin are getting a better deal, with several online offerings. One thing is certain: as you read these words, educators and students are looking further afield, experimenting with handheld devices, wireless and many other technologies to enhance their language learning enterprises and experiences.