Transparent Language

Transparent Language Inc. is a language learning software company based in Nashua, New Hampshire. Since 1991, Transparent Language has been offering its products to individual consumers. They have expanded over the past decade into services for educational institutions and government agencies, ranging from MIT to the Department of Defense.
Methodology
Transparent Language’s products are developed based on the declarative method of learning. The human brain has two memory systems: declarative and procedural. The declarative system is responsible for remembering facts (such as words, phrases, or dates) while the procedural system learns skills (such as riding a bike). Language learning depends on both of these systems, as vocabulary is learned declaratively, and the associated grammar rules are learned procedurally by recognizing implicit patterns in the vocabulary and phrases learned. Backed by this linguistic research, the company holds the position that vocabulary is more fundamental to language learning than grammar.
Since declarative items are best learned through repeated exposure, Transparent Language programs track learning and employ an algorithm to repeat vocabulary at the appropriate intervals to ensure memorization, a practice known as spaced repetition. A vocabulary item must be repeated several times to be considered “learned”, and after a specific period of time, these “learned” items must be refreshed in order to be committed to the memory.
Products and services
Transparent Language partners with more than 12,000 K-12 schools, universities, and libraries to offer its language learning products to students and communities. These institutions integrate Transparent Language Online into their classroom instruction or provide access to the program in their resource libraries. The company also has a substantial involvement in government language learning programs.
The CL-150 Platform
For the government sector, Transparent Language develops the CL-150 Platform, which is licensed by a number of United States Government organizations, including several Department of Defense agencies. The CL-150 Platform is a centralized platform for the acquisition and sustainment of language for specialized government purposes.
Transparent Language Online
Transparent Language Online (TLO) is a web-delivered language learning platform that provides access to the full suite of products, including the Byki vocabulary lists, Essentials course, a grammar reference section including grammar videos and written explanations, and cultural resources including language blogs and social communities.
TLO is available for individual subscriptions, as well as school and library subscriptions.
Transparent Connect
Since September 2011, Transparent Language has been offering language courses through Transparent Connect. The language courses combine self-guided learning and personal instruction. Transparent Connect is available in 8 languages and in 3 different levels of instruction:
* Live classroom courses: Weekly courses taught by a live instructor and access to supplemental learning materials and the Byki Mobile app
* Self-guided courses: Access to learning materials and private coaching
* Online tutoring: Private coaching tailored to the student’s learning goals and proficiency
Essentials
The Essentials course is a language acquisition course designed to help users communicate in a foreign language in everyday life or while traveling. The 30 lesson course is available in 33 languages, and covers vocabulary and phrases relevant to topics such as going shopping, dealing with money, getting help in an emergency, and asking for directions.
Essentials courses are available as part of Transparent Language Online or Transparent Connect.
Byki
Byki was discontinued in 2017.
Before You Know It (known as Byki) was a flashcard-based language acquisition software designed for beginners looking to build a large vocabulary base.
7000 Languages Project
Transparent Language originally launched the Heritage and Endangered Language Program (HELP) to give back to the language community.
Through this program, Transparent Language offers free support to organizations to create software programs for less commonly taught or endangered languages. The company has partnered Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia to preserve the Native American language Ojibwe, and has worked with BASAbali to create a course for Balinese, a threatened language spoken on the Indonesian island of Bali. The program equips these partners with tools to continue teaching their language of interest, while also exposing the language to the entire Transparent Language user base.
The CEO, Michael Quinlan, explains Transparent Language's commitment to this initiative in this way: "We live in an age of global interaction. No language is so small that no one needs to learn it. If we could, we would provide learning material for all 7,000 languages in the world."
In April 2013, Transparent Language announced the launch of the 7000 Languages Project. The initiative replaces and expands upon the former Heritage and Endangered Language Program in an effort to provide the company's language learning technology and platforms to under-resourced languages, in conjunction with NCOLCTL.
In 2017, the 7000 Languages Project became an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization, still committed to the goal of preserving and promoting endangered and indigenous languages. Transparent Language continues to donate its technology in support of the organization's language courses.
Languages offered
* Afrikaans
* Albanian
* Altai
* Arabic
* Armenian
* Aymara
* Azerbaijani
* Bashkir
* Basque (only via government service)
* Belorussian
* Bemba
* Bengali
* Blackfoot
* Bosnian
* Brazilian Portuguese
* Breton
* Bulgarian
* Buriat
* Canadian French
* Catalan
* Cebuano
* Chamorro
* Chechen
* Chinese (Mandarin)
* Cornish
* Croatian
* Czech
* Danish
* Dakota
* Dari
* Dutch
* English
* ESL Portuguese
* ESL Spanish
* Esperanto
* Estonian
* Faroese
* Finnish
* Flemish
* French
* Georgian
* German
* Greek
* (only for organizations)
* Haitian Creole
* Hausa
* Hawaiian
* Hebrew
* Hindi
* Hmong
* Hungarian
* Icelandic
* Indonesian
* Irish
* Italian
* Japanese
* Kazakh
* Kongo
* Korean
* Latin
* Latvian
* Lithuanian
* Luganda
* Luxembourgish
* Macedonian
* Malagasy
* Malay
* Malayalam
* Mandarin Chinese
*
* Mirandese
* Mohawk
* Mongolian
* Nahuatl
* Nepali
* Norwegian
* Occitan
* Oriya
* Papago
* Pashto
* Persian
* Polish
* Portuguese (European)
* Provençal
* Quechua
* Romanian
* Romansch
* Romany
* Russian
* Samoan
* Scottish Gaelic
* Sepedi
* Serbian
* Shona
* Sicilian
* Slovak
* Slovene
* Somali
* Sorbian
* Sotho
* Spanish
* Swahili
* Swazi
* Swedish
* Tagalog
* Tahitian
* Tajik
* Tamil
* Telugu
* Thai
* Tibetan
* Tongan
* Tswana
* Turkish
* Turkmen
* Tuvan
* Ukrainian
* Urdu
* Uzbek
* Vietnamese
* Welsh
* Wolof
* Xhosa
* Yi
* Yiddish
* Yoruba
* Zulu

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