How Firefox Can Help You Learn Arabic
I'm finally at a point in my Arabic studies where I feel I can engage with the news. I have enough vocabulary that I can muddle through many articles, at least on websites that use crisp, concise MSA like BBC Arabic. I'm still experimenting with strategies to build my reading fluency, but I've developed a pretty good workflow. It makes good use of some powerful, free technology available online.
ONLINE LANGUAGE TOOLS I USE
FireFox is my web browser of choice. It is open-source, which means of thousands of people are involved in its development and evolution. Hundreds of powerful plugins are available, which allow users to extend the browser to perform various tasks. I use two plugins to help with my Arabic.
Quick Translate (qtl) is helpful for translating individual words. If you highlight an Arabic word with your mouse, a popup appears with a translation. The quality of these translations varies--qtl is dumb about recognizing conjugations, and you have to be careful not to select attached prepositions or pronouns--but it works much of the time, providing me instantaneous feedback on words I don't know. qtl has other features I haven't explored. It has a clunky interface, so I limit its use to single-word translations.
FoxLingo installs a language toolbar in FireFox, which is tied to most major translation websites on the Internet. It has two main functions. You can click the "Webpage" button, then select the translation engine of your choice to translate the entire page. Depending on your preference, it will either open in a separate tab or a separate window. You can also highlight text and click the "Text" button to translate the selection. The translation also appears in a separate tab or window.
MY NEWS WORKFLOW:
At this point, my goal when I read the news is not to translate an article 100% accurately, but to look for main ideas, identify words I know in authentic contexts, and maybe pick up some high-frequency vocabulary along the way. I work mainly with BBC because it's easier to understand than Arab media, although I plan to progress to Arab media as I build my fluency.
It's important to understand this context. I would not use these tools if my goal was a 100% accurate translation, or if I was doing most homework assignments. These tools should never be used to circumvent real learning. But used in this specific context--getting immediate, quick-and-dirty feedback while focusing on my broader reading comprehension--I think these tools are powerful.
Here's how I tackle a news article. I pick an article that looks interesting, then use FoxLingo to open a parallel English translation in a separate window. I work through the article a paragraph at a time. I initially read each paragraph without any technology aids, just to see what I can understand. After that, I make a second pass through the paragraph, making generous use of qtl to look up individual words I don't know (or should know, but have forgotten). After that, I check my understanding against FoxLingo's English translation of the paragraph. I actually bought a separate monitor, which I can plug into my laptop to get a dual-screen workspace: English on one side, Arabic on the other.
The benefit of this is that I can cover a lot of territory in a short amount of time. With my Hans Wehr dictionary, it might take me half an hour or an hour to plow through a single paragraph. With FireFox, translation feedback comes almost instantly, allowing me to cover an entire article or two in that amount of time. The velocity of learning is probably increased tenfold.
IN SUMMARY
Online language tools certainly have their shortcomings, and like any technology, must be used properly. Students must know both their strengths and their limitations, and they must be careful not to use the technology as a crutch. With that said, these online resources are powerful tools for any language student to have in his or her bag of tricks. As a person who is ruthless about managing my time and always searching for ways to be more efficient, I appreciate how much these online tools have accelerated my learning process.
ONLINE LANGUAGE TOOLS I USE
FireFox is my web browser of choice. It is open-source, which means of thousands of people are involved in its development and evolution. Hundreds of powerful plugins are available, which allow users to extend the browser to perform various tasks. I use two plugins to help with my Arabic.
Quick Translate (qtl) is helpful for translating individual words. If you highlight an Arabic word with your mouse, a popup appears with a translation. The quality of these translations varies--qtl is dumb about recognizing conjugations, and you have to be careful not to select attached prepositions or pronouns--but it works much of the time, providing me instantaneous feedback on words I don't know. qtl has other features I haven't explored. It has a clunky interface, so I limit its use to single-word translations.
FoxLingo installs a language toolbar in FireFox, which is tied to most major translation websites on the Internet. It has two main functions. You can click the "Webpage" button, then select the translation engine of your choice to translate the entire page. Depending on your preference, it will either open in a separate tab or a separate window. You can also highlight text and click the "Text" button to translate the selection. The translation also appears in a separate tab or window.
MY NEWS WORKFLOW:
At this point, my goal when I read the news is not to translate an article 100% accurately, but to look for main ideas, identify words I know in authentic contexts, and maybe pick up some high-frequency vocabulary along the way. I work mainly with BBC because it's easier to understand than Arab media, although I plan to progress to Arab media as I build my fluency.
It's important to understand this context. I would not use these tools if my goal was a 100% accurate translation, or if I was doing most homework assignments. These tools should never be used to circumvent real learning. But used in this specific context--getting immediate, quick-and-dirty feedback while focusing on my broader reading comprehension--I think these tools are powerful.
Here's how I tackle a news article. I pick an article that looks interesting, then use FoxLingo to open a parallel English translation in a separate window. I work through the article a paragraph at a time. I initially read each paragraph without any technology aids, just to see what I can understand. After that, I make a second pass through the paragraph, making generous use of qtl to look up individual words I don't know (or should know, but have forgotten). After that, I check my understanding against FoxLingo's English translation of the paragraph. I actually bought a separate monitor, which I can plug into my laptop to get a dual-screen workspace: English on one side, Arabic on the other.
The benefit of this is that I can cover a lot of territory in a short amount of time. With my Hans Wehr dictionary, it might take me half an hour or an hour to plow through a single paragraph. With FireFox, translation feedback comes almost instantly, allowing me to cover an entire article or two in that amount of time. The velocity of learning is probably increased tenfold.
IN SUMMARY
Online language tools certainly have their shortcomings, and like any technology, must be used properly. Students must know both their strengths and their limitations, and they must be careful not to use the technology as a crutch. With that said, these online resources are powerful tools for any language student to have in his or her bag of tricks. As a person who is ruthless about managing my time and always searching for ways to be more efficient, I appreciate how much these online tools have accelerated my learning process.
posted by Reach 364 at
9:32 PM
1 Comments:
this is an interesting blog. One thing I'd reccommend for studying Arabic if the goal is to gain the ability to read the Media is to go to Al-Jazeera.net and listen and read their progams.
Al-Jazeera provides the transcript and audio of every single tv program its runs, which is highly unusual. Im not aware of any other media outlet anywhere that does that. Its great for studying Arabic because your seeing and listening at the same time, and have the option of stopping, Fast worward rewind etc.
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