Language education
Process and practice of acquiring a language
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| 2025 |
Busuu
The original 2016 language learning study was refreshed and published on the private website of the lead researcher, now an Assistant Professor at University of Maryland.
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| 2024 | Dale Kedwards joins the department as a lecturer. |
| November 20 2024 | V. Thiruvalluvan concludes term as Vice Chancellor |
| November 20 2024 | K. Shankar becomes Acting Vice Chancellor of Tamil University |
| July 2024 | Memrise announced in a blog post that community courses will be removed from their new app experience and moved to a separate platform. |
| February 2024 | Memrise again separated community courses to a new website, making them inaccessible through the updated mobile app and removing offline download capabilities. |
| 2023 | Ben Guy becomes a lecturer in the department. |
| 2023 | UNESCO publication recognized the Memrise projects for Ume Sámi and Kristang languages as 'inspiring stories' in indigenous language documentation and preservation. |
| 2023 | Memrise integrates a GPT-3-powered AI Language partner into its official courses, aimed at helping language learners practice human-like conversations and overcome the 'confidence gap' in language acquisition. |
| December 8 2023 | Memrise closed its community forum as part of the transition away from supporting community-created content. |
| November 2023 | Memrise announced plans to 'sunset' user-created courses, signaling a shift away from community-generated content. |
| 2022 | Pimsleur offered its Ukrainian Premium course to support the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. |
| 2022 | Pimsleur released Voice Coach, a voice recognition tool with instant feedback. |
| September 2022 | Memrise completely removed the 'mems' feature from the site, a decision that generated significant negative user feedback in the official forum. |
| June 2022 | The ASNC Society launches a new updated website, modernizing their online presence and communication platform. |
| 2021 | Pimsleur introduced an All Access subscription plan containing all 51 languages. |
| December 13 2021 | V. Thiruvalluvan begins term as Vice Chancellor of Tamil University |
| November 29 2021 |
Busuu
Education technology company Chegg announced its acquisition of Busuu for approximately $436 million (€385 million), with the deal expected to close in early 2022.
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| October 3 2021 | G. Balasubramanian concludes term as Vice Chancellor |
| 2020 | Pimsleur added bonus content to its Premium courses and started selling courses via a subscription model in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. |
| February 25 2020 | In response to user criticism, Memrise reversed the previous decision by undoing the split and merging community course content back to the main Memrise site. |
| 2019 |
Busuu
Busuu launched third-party content by introducing lessons featuring videos and articles from The New York Times and The Economist, enabling learners to study language through real-life examples.
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| 2019 | Rory Naismith and Erik Niblaeus join the department as lecturers. |
| 2019 |
Computer-assisted language learning
IALLT officially merged its journal into The FLTMAG.
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| February 2019 | Memrise announced the creation of 'Decks' to separate community courses, planning to move user-created content to a different web-based platform without offline access. |
| 2018 |
Busuu
Launched a comprehension test for the Amazon Alexa platform.
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| 2018 | Pimsleur released its mobile app for iOS and Android, compatible with Amazon Echo devices, and replaced Unlimited with Pimsleur Premium. |
| 2018 |
Computer-assisted language learning
Fifth WorldCALL conference held in Concepción, Chile.
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| 2018 | The Institute on Collaborative Language Research at the University of California organized a workshop to teach participants how to use Memrise for teaching and learning endangered languages, highlighting its potential for language revitalization. |
| October 4 2018 | G. Balasubramanian begins term as Vice Chancellor of Tamil University |
| August 5 2018 | G. Bhaskaran concludes term as Vice Chancellor |
| 2017 |
Busuu
Launched a virtual reality app for learning Spanish, available for Oculus Gear and Oculus Go.
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| May 2017 | Memrise won the 'Best App' award at the second edition of the Google Play awards. |
| 2016 |
Busuu
Busuu collaborated with a senior lecturer at The Open University to research language learners' behavior on the platform, finding that 82% of learners confirmed the platform helped improve their language learning.
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| 2016 |
Busuu
Became a launch partner for Google Home Assistant, offering voice-activated Spanish lessons.
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| 2016 |
Busuu
Researchers from City University of New York and the University of South Carolina conducted a non-peer reviewed study on the efficacy of Busuu's language courses, determining that 22 hours of Busuu Premium learning was equivalent to one college semester.
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| 2016 | Pimsleur made its Unlimited product line available as digital downloads worldwide. |
| 2016 | Memrise became profitable, achieving a monthly turnover of $4 million. |
| May 2016 |
Busuu
Launched Busuu for Organisations, a language learning platform for universities and businesses, including personalized courses for companies like Uber.
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| 2015 | Pimsleur released Unlimited interactive software for Mandarin, Portuguese, and Russian languages. |
| August 6 2015 | G. Bhaskaran begins term as Vice Chancellor of Tamil University |
| February 9 2015 | M. Thirumalai concludes term as Vice Chancellor |
| 2013 | Pimsleur celebrated its 50th anniversary and launched the blog 'Pimsleur Speaks: On Language, Learning, and Culture'. |
| 2013 | Pimsleur donated 15 lessons of its Tagalog course to support aid agencies and volunteers after Typhoon Haiyan. |
| 2013 |
Computer-assisted language learning
Fourth WorldCALL conference took place in Glasgow, Scotland.
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| 2013 | Ben Whately and Ed Cooke discussed their strategic approach to creating mems, focusing on leveraging internet culture's fascination with cats and the potential cognitive benefits of 'cuteness'. |
| 2012 |
Busuu
Closed a Series A funding round of 3.5 million euros and moved its offices and staff to London.
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| 2012 | Pimsleur released Pimsleur Unlimited, an interactive software version of Spanish, German, French, and Italian courses. |
| 2012 |
Computer-assisted language learning
TCLT began publishing in-print supplement Series of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching with China Social Sciences Press.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Computer-assisted language learning, Memrise, Busuu, Pimsleur Language Programs, Tamil University & Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.