你現在通過什麼途徑學習英語？老師面對面教授的課程？手機應用程序？很多人認為手機應用程序給學習者提供了一種可以替代在教室裡學習的選擇。讓學習者按照自己的節奏，在日常生活之餘隨時隨地學習外語。但手機應用程序是學習的最佳工具嗎？本文討論用智能手機學習的利弊，以及它是否預示著傳統課堂教學模式將從此一去不返。
Vocabulary: learning 詞彙：學習
We know it’s good to learn another language. It opens doors, makes you more employable, helps you make new friends, and it’s fun too. But to improve our linguisticskills, many of us have to endure hours of school lessons or evening classes, with our heads buried in textbooks. It’s no wonder then that technology appears to be providing a better and more accessible way of learning.
There is certainly a huge demand for language learning, and having a smartphone means you can have a virtual teacher with you wherever you go. Many app developers are keen to cash in on the demand, and there are numerous learning apps available – including our own, free, BBC Learning English app! One of many popular apps, Duolingo, offers 91 courses in 30 languages and has more than 300 million users.
Some educational apps offer languages not popular enough to be taught at evening classes, or at most universities. And others offer ‘invented’ language courses inEsperanto, Elvish and Star Trek's Klingon – lessons you might not find in a traditionalclassroom. Whatever you want to learn, apps allow you to go at your own pace and fit learning around other commitments. But they’re not perfect – you might not get your head round the grammar and will lack the peer support you could get in a classroom environment.
So, does technology spell the end of traditional classrooms and teachers? Guy Baron, head of modern languages at Aberystwyth University, thinks not. He told the BBC that apps should be used alongside classroom methods, not to the exclusion of traditionalteaching. And he adds: "The apps are very conversational... they're not designed fordegrees, but they could be additional resources."
Certainly technology is going to help in and outside the classroom. But attending a real lesson, facing a real teacher, probably forces you to be more committed.
Motivation can be a problem when using an app. But if you have a genuine and practical reason to learn another language, you will no doubt stick with it.
詞彙表
open doors 打開（各種機會的）大門linguistic 語言的evening class 夜校textbook 課本，教科書accessible 容易獲取的，可得到的virtual teacher 虛擬教師cash in 從……中撈到錢財course 課程Esperanto 世界語classroom 教室，課堂get your head round (something) 理解、弄懂（複雜的事情）peer support 同學之間互相支持spell the end 預示某事結束teaching 教學degree 學位resource 資源committed （態度）堅定的，投入的motivation 積極性，動力stick with it 堅持下去
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