LEARN NEW LINGO GLUED TO
Easy lessons on telly
DAILY STAR, Tuesday, March 5, 2019
NETFLIX is getting set to transform Brits into language experts.
A new online tool will help viewers learn foreign words as they watch the telly.
Language Learning with Netflix shows a foreign film or series with subtitles in both English and the programme’s original language.
The guide even stops automatically to let students absorb what they have just heard.
Linguists are hoping the online course can reverse the sharp drop in the numbers of youngsters learning a foreign lingo in school.
Since 2004 foreign language GCSEs have been optional, and last week it emerged that the number of children studying German and French has dropped by about two thirds since then.
Katharina von RuckteschellKatte, of the Goethe-Institut in London, said making language more fun by using “fantastic” tools like LLN could now reverse the trend.
She said: “If I had had all these possibilities when I was young and learning French, Spanish and English I would have really loved it.”
But some teachers fear it could stop people from learning how to interact in a new language.
Mickael Pointecouteau, from the Alliance Française in London said: “You need a real teacher to speak to. It’s a bit passive and focuses only on one skill.”