There are a lot of iPhone applications available today and for language learners, there is a new app that you can use to improve your language skills. The Byki software by Transparent Language has lessons for language learners who use iPhones and iPod touch units.

Byki creates flashcard vocabulary lessons and it has also added a Twitter search that users can see native speakers’ Tweets and find out how people online use the words and phrases in conversations.

The manager of user experience for Transparent Language, Christopher O’Donnell, says that “By using social media, a human face is put on language and takes people away from the textbook sort of trite and authored phrases and makes it more like real life and it makes language more accessible.”

Transparent Language began its services in 1991 and provides language-learning software for government agencies, educational institutions, consumers, and businesses. Their developed Byki software stands for Before You Know It, and is based on learning any of seventy foreign languages by employing spaced interval repetition, which is also known as the flashcard method. The languages currently offered by Transparent Language include French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, and Spanish. Recently introduced languages include Swedish, Polish, Norwegian and Tagalog.

The Byki iPhone app allows users to learn languages through its flashcard method and with the Twitter add-on; users can click an icon on their screen and see in real time how the words and phrases can be used colloquially. For example, a certain Portuguese word has a common definition but then it is used in various ways by Portuguese speakers from different locations. The type of language learning a person undergoes is not only of the formal type but also of the colloquial ones. After all, everyday talk involves more colloquial terms in the language instead of the formal ones.

Language learners might enjoy this app, but then it’s not available for free! The Byki software application can be downloaded on the internet for $7.99 per language and is available at the Apple iTunes Store and can be stored on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 11:43 am and is filed under Languages and Medias. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.