Lingual Media Player is a free software for learning languages with the help of movies and YouTube videos that have subtitles. Its main goal is to help learners of foreign languages improve their listening comprehension skills.
This program is very comfortable to use. E.g., you could use a one-click button to stop and repeat every next passage, or switch the film dubbed in a different language, or use subtitles in two languages - your native and the language you learn. No restriction as to the choice of YouTube clips or movies – the point is to have subtitles in a language you want.
Lingual Media Player is available in two versions: online and fully-functional version for Windows.
Understanding spoken language is extremely important in language learning. It is the key to both successful communication and good grades on language exams. Furthermore, ‘Listening’ is one of the major components of all widely-recognized tests of English language (such as
that are necessary for entering colleges and universities and obtaining work permits or immigration status in English-speaking countries. Listening comprehension is also important in most official exams for other languages
– for German,
Lingual Media Player is not a part of a specific language program and can be used as an aid with any language course or software (for example, Rosetta Stone) or as an independent learning tool. With LaMP, you can learn any language from Arabic to Zulu. The only necessary condition is having quality subtitles for the movie or the YouTube video you would like to watch.
The main principle behind successful language learning with Lingual Media Player is watching videos with subtitles in the language of the video. For example, if you are learning English, the subtitles have to be in English as well. Learning Spanish will require Spanish subtitles, if you are learning German they have to be in German, etc. At the same time, it may be advisable to use additional (secondary) subtitles in your language especially if you are just starting to learn that language. For example, if you are learning French and are watching a video in French, use French as the language of the main subtitles and select your language for the secondary subtitles.
The effect of subtitles of language learning has been extensively researched already in the 1990s. Gary d’Ideval, a Belgian psychologist, discovered that we automatically read the subtitles from the screen. Whether we understand what is being said or not, we pay attention to the subtitles and compare them with what we hear and see in the video. In 1996 the SLS (Same language subtitling) method of teaching reading was formed (see Wikipedia). Initially, SLS was used to teach reading to predominantly illiterate poor population in India. Later, researchers started to investigate the relationship between the subtitles and foreign language acquisition. It turned out that both children and adults who watched videos with subtitles in the target language were significantly better than the ones who used subtitles in their first language or didn’t use them at all. It was also proven that we are able to differentiate local accents in foreign languages just by watching videos with the original subtitles!
Lingual Media Player is an instrument which makes it easy to use SLS for learning foreign languages and improving reading skills. The player has a unique interface which allows scrolling through videos phrase by phrase, repeating the last phrase or stopping at the end of each phrase. LaMP also makes it possible to use two sets of subtitles in different languages, quickly switch between audio-tracks, and use other tools such as online dictionaries and translators.