Assignments, exams, not to mention the other cares of life often get in the way of one’s language learning goals. If you don’t have the time or wherewithal to take an English course at your local Volkshochschule, one worthwhile measure might be Altissia, a language learning platform currently available free of charge to FernUniversität students.
Elise Renson, an Account Manager at the Brussels-based company, gives us the low-down on the highlights.
In a nutshell, what is Altissia?
Altissia is a Belgian company active worldwide, that provides an online language learning platform with courses in 25 languages and level tests in 29 languages.
We strive to teach not only the language itself, but also the cultural and social aspects required for effective communication. Using technology, we want to make language learning accessible to all. At Altissia, we believe learning languages brings people closer together by creating harmony and mutual respect.
What are some of the universities that use Altissia?
Technische Universität Dresden, Université Paris 8, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Kedge Business School, Ecole Centrale des Arts et Métiers de Bruxelles (ECAM), Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Universidad de Burgos and Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.
What sort of feedback have you received to date?
The feedback that we receive from our clients and from users is usually very positive!
We recently carried out a survey which revealed that 92% of our clients would recommend Altissia to other organisations.
Is there an underlying philosophy to the way Altissia approaches language learning and teaching? If so, what is it?
Altissia firmly believes in the power of language and education. We want to connect people through language learning, which is why we aim to put people at the centre of our approach – the learners who use our platform to learn a foreign language but also the teachers who use our tool in their courses.
We have a whole pedagogical team working with teachers – who are native speakers – to create high quality contents that can be used in self-study or integrated in a course. These contents guide the users through the learning process in a coherent and motivating way thanks to relevant and pedagogically-sound lessons, and are based on the Common European Framework (CEFR) to ensure integration and comparability with other tools and programmes.
In terms of pedagogical principles, we base our contents on the communicative approach, which aims at learning how to communicate effectively in a contextualised situation. The “missions” that we create on the Altissia platform represent linguistic objectives based on real-life situations. Grammar and vocabulary are taught based on the needs and objectives of a communicative, real-life situation.
Some more free licences have been released for students eager to improve their English. Sign up right away by following the instructions on this link.
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