What Is This Thing?
The Language Dialer is a language lab for your phone! You use the Language Dialer to develop speaking and listening skills in a controlled environment set up to mimic real-world conversations. These conversations are divided into 10 different scenes. You choose a scene you want to practice - like buying fruits at a market in Spanish - and then you call the Language Dialer. Enter the
CODE for that scene and you will hear a Spanish voice taking your order for fruits at a market. Talk to the voice, order your fruit - your conversation will be recorded so you can review yourself. If you
register you can also email someone - we call it your "Tutor" - who speaks your second language who will also review your conversation. All of this happens over the phone!
Who Is It For?
The Language Dialer helps students of second languages acquire the language they are studying. Used alone, the Language Dialer would not work.
It is not a teaching tool. The Language Dialer helps you practice a language you are currently studying.
Do I Have To Be Registered To Use It?
No! You can use the Language Dialer to practice any available scene if you are registered or not. There are benefits to registering - you can invite a tutor to review your calls, you can store all your past recordings on a personal Home page - but you do not have to register to use the Language Dialer.
What Are Scenes?
Scenes help explain the conversation for you. If you pick the Hotel Registration scene for example, you can use that context to decipher meaning from words you may not have studied yet. Scenes help control the conversation, keep it short and on-topic so you can catch up. There are 10 different scenes, divided into three groups: beginner - intermediate - advanced. When you are ready, find and click your second language in the language bank to preview these scenes.
Where Do Scenes Come From?
The pre-recorded audio samples are provided by Tutors. When you Register with the Language Dialer, your target langauge is automatically added to the Language Bank on the home page. If you are studying a language currently not in the Language Bank, you have to invite a tutor who will call the Language Dialer to record some scenes for you. There can be up to 5 different versions of the same scene in the same language.
How Do I Get My Tutor To Record A Scene?
There is a button on each scene page that sends an email to your tutor, asking for a new scene recording. All you have to do is enter your PIN number and press the "Submit" button. An email will be sent to your tutor with detailed instructions about that scene in your second language. As soon as your tutor records the part any student can use it to practice.
What Do I Do If One Of My Scenes Is Bad?
Coming soon! You can rate scenes - is one scene easy or hard? Is it difficult to understand? Too loud or soft? Does it stray too far from the scene's theme? You will be able to rate these characteristics very soon - in the meantime, if you come across an inappropriate scene, please email the Language Dialer immediately at:
questions@languagedialer.com
What Is A Phone Pal?
Phone Pals are collaborative sessions between you and another registered Language Dialer. Phone Pals are related in their native and target languages - if one Phone Pal is learning Spanish and is a native German speaker, the other Phone Pal is learning German and is a native German speaker. If you are interested in becoming a Phone Pal, check its box in the registration page.
Still Have Questions?
Email them here:
questions@languagedialer.com In the meantime, sign up and help your Student!
