LANGUAGE LEARNING WEBSITES
Introduction
There would be up to 6000 languages spoken all over the world and according to the UN, « 1 percent of all the languages are used for the communication of 99 percent of the humanity ».
One of the most important barriers of the humanity could be destroyed by learning new languages.
It was said that « If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart ».
Thus, learning new languages seems to be a necessity.
The work which is asked is to compare two websites aiming at learning English. For this work I choose to compare « anglaisfacile » and « Babbel ». These sites have the same purpose but they are very differents.
What is Babbel ?
Babbel is a service available on some platforms like internet (« babbel.com ») and an app for smartphone (« +Babbel »).
This offer created in 2008 is managed by professionals and teachers. Thanks to many exercises , it allows you to learn 13 languages which are : English, German, Spanish, Indonesian, Italian, French, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish and Turkish.
This service became famous by the important communication of its publisher. Among these means of communication we have the TV commercial, some articles in newspapers like the « Figaro » and « le Parisien ».
Babbel has a careful and intuitive design what facilitates a lot the ownership.
What is AnglaisFacile ?
AnglaisFacile is a service which is only available on the internet such as the website « anglaisfacile.com », it allows the learning of 8 languages which are: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Norwegian, Japanese and Latin.
This website is managed by professionals and teachers such as Babbel but the community has an importante role because anybody can create lessons, exercises and evaluations and everybody is allowed to use them. If this plateform is still alive today it is thanks to its important community.
Contrary to Babbel, this website is a little messy and not really intuitive.
What services are offered ?
Babbel offers working method to facilitates the learning of languages. As a result, it brings a set of dynamic exercises requiring as well the listening, the writting, the speech and the viewing.
This method is based on the repetition of exercises through differents perspectives (writing and listening) that allows to learn the vocabulary and the pronunciation.
Futhermore Babbel established a system of voice recognition allowing its users to do some speeches exercises to improve there pronunciation. Moreover it have a system of daily challenge for its users.
Concerning Anglaisfacile, this website provides some exercises online with lessons and corrections. This offer brings some briefing notes concerning some fields like IT, medical, etc.
Futhermore if you suscribe to a free subscription, this website sends you a new lesson every week.
Something that could stop some Babbel users is the monthly subscription which can reach 10€ per month. Contrary to its counterpart AnglaisFacile which is absolutely free.
My point of view
I consider that the offer proposed by Babbel is more adapted for the learning of a new language. Indeed, in addition to exercises, lessons and evaluations, this tool offers a monitoring of the progression. With this service, the apprenticeship of a language is made by stages and in a logical and progressive way. Futhermore, the accesibility to Babbel with some plateforms (internet and apps) allows to these users to pursue their learning wherever and whenever they want.
The offer Anglaisfacile is more adapted to people having a good level in a language and wishing to acquire more vocabulary in a precise field. Contrary to Babbel where there is a real monitoring of the user’s improvement, Anglaisfacile leaves a free access for all users. They can do some specific researches on the website.
Conclusion
To conclude, Babbel is more adapted to beginners because it allows them to acquire the bases of a language and to strengthen them. Anglaisfacile is more adapted to users already knowing a language and wishing to have a more elaborated vocabulary.