#ContentForLanguageLearning

[languageslinguistics]

Finding good articles for language learning: 

When I teach English I try to find articles that match the student’s level and that help facilitate interesting conversations. When you’re studying a language by yourself it can be more challenging to find content that will help you along your journey. When searching, especially if you’re just starting out use Google translate - the extension is super helpful to understand what you’re searching for! 

National News Articles - One safe bet is to look at the National News outlets. Whatever the NPR is for your target language, there will be content that is relevant to what is going on today in the world. I also recommend checking cultural resources within these outlets. If there is a cultural section it can provide more relevant information than some boring stuff relating to politics. 

Hobbies & Blogs - A quick google search about say, knitting in your target language might bring up some information that is more relevant to you. Medium.com, although heavily English focused sometimes has articles that might be more specific to what you are looking for. I can also recommend Tumblr there are blogs, they are personal and you can see modern up-to-date versions of the language. 

Youtube Personalities - Stepping out of the box of “Standard” language grammar, and phrases we have youtube/tik tok personalities. I think they’re awesome since you can see real-ish interactions between people. Having the best grammar and vocabulary will only go so far if you sound like a News Anchor. Spaces online such as Youtube offer a glimpse at what the native speaker sounds like when they’re in their own world. Grammar rules out of the window all you get is the actual speaker. Many Youtubers have blogs as well which allows you to read for your ever growing vocab list. 

AI as a Tool- Gemini, ChatGPT, DeepSea any of these Live Language Models offer the chance to have a conversation with a computer in the hope of finding relevant articles and resources that match your language needs. I think this could be good to help specify your level and find resources that match that level. If you enjoy reading AI generated content, you can prompt AI to make articles for you. I have done this before by stating - “I would like to have an article that is 300 words about Whales in Antarctica, I want this to be in French for a B1 speaker, please include challenge words for this level put them in bold and provide a translation into English at the bottom of the article.” It is amazing because the Live Language Model is able to create something that you can learn from! It might not be the most authentic article, but it is something! 

I think that learning through articles is a really good way to improve on your language skillsets. I know that I included youtube, but that can be a pathway to finding blogs or other written content that can benefit your language learning journey. I recommend that if you use articles to always write down new and unfamiliar words. This way you can continue to improve and grow your vocabulary.