Have you ever “binge-watched” a language?

There is nothing quite like the power of story. When I think about the language programs that I have enjoyed the most — nay, the programs I was actually addicted to — every one of them somehow incorporated an intriguing plot with twists and turns to keep me hooked.

If you studied Spanish in the nineties, you might remember Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish. INSERT LINK The learning was centered around its own TV series, which was essentially a soap opera, or telenovela that actually aired on PBS in 1992. The main character was working to solve a family mystery that took her to Spanish-speaking places around the world, adventures that fed my hunger for intrigue, travel, culture… and even a bit of romance.

I should have known that such a captivating method of language-learning originated from an expert. The textbook was written by well-known second-language acquisition specialist, Bill Van Patten. INSERT LINK Theories in Second Language Acquisition

In a similar way to Destinos, I found that the Roman-Photo video series in the French textbook series D’accord! INSERT LINK grabbed the attention of the high school students I taught in 2015. Although they liked to laugh at the dated clothing and questionable acting in some scenes, overall they were genuinely interested in following the plot, and they usually wished the episodes were a little longer…especially if that meant we could avoid verb conjugation drills!

As an adult learning a new foreign language, my current program of choice is ItalianPod101.com by Innovative INSERT LINK, which follows a similar (but simplified) pattern that we saw in Destinos and D’accord!. Each lesson features a scene of dialogue that continues from the last.

Learn more about why I think stories work for language-learning here. INSERT LINK TO ARTICLE

Have you found a particularly good language program with a storyline that got you hooked? I’d love to hear about it!