What role can online dictionaries play in e-learning? Finding just the right word to use, or understanding the true meaning of a word is often a matter of context as well as denotative meaning. Dictionaries can fall short because they do not always adequately present the full spectrum of meaning(s), and they are not flexible enough to engage deep learning. To offer a solution, Ultralingua combines technology with a philosophy of rich context and situated learning to build language knowledge and skills. Because Ultralingua offers monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, they support communication across cultures and nationalities. Welcome to an interview with Ashleigh Lincoln, Ultralingua.
1. What is your name and your relation to elearning?
Ashleigh Lincoln, marketing and communications coordinator. E-learning embodies what our company, Ultralingua, is all about. We provide accurate, simple and accessible education on the web.
Ashleigh Lincoln, marketing and communications coordinator. E-learning embodies what our company, Ultralingua, is all about. We provide accurate, simple and accessible education on the web.
2. What is
Ultralingua? What does it do? What
makes it special?
Ultralingua is a software company that makes monolingual and
bilingual dictionaries for people who love languages. Our dictionaries come
with advanced reference and learning tools, developed to address the verb
conjugation, vocabulary memorization, and grammatical challenges language
learners face. Ultralingua is not your average software company. We have a
passion for making easy and accurate software that people love to use. We take
every user comment seriously, and use feedback to make Ultralingua dictionaries
the best they can be.
3. What are the
learning theories that underlie the instructional strategy of Ultralingua?
At Ultralingua,
we believe technology can be a great asset to language learners, as long as
they pick tools to help them learn rather than shortcuts to get around the
challenge of learning. If a language learner is motivated to learn a new
language, they already have taken the first necessary step. We aim to make our
dictionaries the ultimate reference tool for people who are committed to
learning a language and have the motivation necessary to learn a new language.
Our software contains multiple translations with context and usage examples so
learners can distinguish between word choices themselves.
4. How
effective is the strategy that you use? Is Ultralingua equally effective with
everyone? What are the conditions that are required for learning to be optimal?
Language learners need context in order to choose the right
word, and our dictionaries were designed to make that context accessible.
Ultralingua is effective because we include so many additional tools and
resources with our dictionaries. We believe the key to learning a new language
this day in age, is balancing technology with teacher and native speaker
interaction. If the learner has that fundamental motivation, and possesses an
app like Ultralingua to use as a reference on them at all times, they have a
recipe for success.
5. Who has used
Ultralingua? Do you have any examples?
Generally our users are people in the process of learning
one or more languages. These users vary from students in high school language
classes, graduate and undergraduate college students majoring or minoring in a
language, teachers and professors, students and workers abroad, bilingual
people, language translators, homeschoolers, and self-language learners.
Ultralingua actively communicate with the Ultralingua users
and have been fortunate enough to interview a handful of them. Our users vary
across the world from a farmer from California who needed to improve his
Spanish speaking abilities, to an Esperanto-speaking world traveler, to a young
man studying abroad in France needing a fast and easily-accessible bilingual
dictionary. To check out some of their stories, visit our blog at
http://blog.ultralingua.com/.
6. What are
your plans in the future?
We just completed a complete redesign of our two most
popular products: Ultralingua for iOS and Ultralingua online dictionary.
