Learning a second language can be one of the most beneficial things a person can do to further their education and their career. But the costs involved-both financial and time-wise-cause some to balk at the idea.
Online language learning courses offered by universities and private companies provide an alternative way to learn a language. Consumers have access to a wide variety of online programs and mobile apps designed to instruct potential polyglots in foreign languages, and they all have different barriers to entry- rom a $499 five-disk course from Rosetta Stone to free language lessons on YouTube.
Despite the increasing exposure of online language education, questions have been raised as to the effectiveness of online instruction in teaching people second languages.
Critics of online language instruction have pointed out that the lack of human interaction and face-to-face communication like a person would have in a traditional classroom could make it more difficult for students to learn.
William J. Thompson, chairman of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department at the University of Memphis, explained the difficulties students face while taking online language courses.
"Most of the faculty in our department would question whether online courses are as effective as courses taught on campus," Thompson said. "We don't have any hard data on this subject, but, anecdotally, we have seen that students who take an online course often have difficulties if they then attempt a traditional classroom-based course, probably due to the fact that with the online course, they are not receiving as much exposure to the spoken language, and, therefore, their oral and listening skills are not as developed."
But some studies of online language education programs indicate they are just as effective as traditional foreign language programs, and may have the edge in keeping students' interest.
A 2008 report by the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language determined that online language courses brought substantial benefits to the students who use them, such as the ability to communicate with native language speakers on the Internet, access to multimedia such as foreign-language video, audio and other media that could heighten a student's understanding of a language and a way for students to pool resources, an important consideration for languages that aren't commonly taught.
The report also highlighted some of the difficulties in teaching certain languages online like Arabic, a language with a multitude of different, often mutually unintelligible dialects, sounds that simply don't exist in English and a non-Roman alphabet that has letters that change shape depending on where they are in a word, making memorization difficult.
As part of the Tennessee Board of Regents' Online Degree Program, online language courses in Spanish and French are available to University of Memphis students, but instructors at other TBR institutions teach them.
Cosetta Gaudenzi teaches Italian at the U of M. She will be teaching an elementary-level Italian language course online in the summer of 2014. Though she uses online resources in her traditionally taught courses, this is the first time she will teach a course completely online.
"I believe that an online course in language can be done, especially at the elementary level," Gaudenzi said. "This is a field that is growing."
Despite his misgivings about online language education, Thompson is confident that students could succeed in Gaudenzi's course.
"The Italian course being offered online this summer is in fact being designed by our Italian professor, Dr. Cosetta Gaudenzi, and this is a case where we have more faith in the content and outcomes because it is one of our own faculty members who is responsible for the course, and who will be determining the student outcomes," Thompson said.
Gaudenzi said that she will use Skype to keep tabs on her students' progress. Though elementary level language education should be relatively easy, as students move forward in their education and more emphasis is placed on oral communication, a strictly online curriculum might pose some problems.
"At the intermediate level, it might be a little more difficult," Gaudenzi said.
The U.S. outstrips other nations in online education, with more than 7 million students taking at least one online course, according to a 2013 report by The Sloan Consortium. The same report states that 74 percent of academic leaders now rate online instruction to be on par with or even superior to traditional instruction.
