Freshman athletic training major Kayla Fletcher uses Mango Languages to sharpen her foreign language skills.
The program can be accessed through the library’s website found on selu.edu 
Students can use Mango anonymously, or they can create a profile to log their progress.
The Lion's Roar/Karson Sharp

Students can now have their foreign language learning experience brought into the 21st century. 

This is due in large part to Mango Languages, a new piece of educational software that is offered through the library. The service offers students instruction in over 70 languages from around the world, as well as over a dozen courses in English for non-English speakers. Many aspects of the program are still under development, so it is continually expanding. 

The program is free for students due to a large tech fee grant. Department of Languages and Communication Department Head and professor Dr. Lucia Harrison believes the program is beneficial to students.  

“The grant was important to make it available to everyone on campus,” said Harrison. “Students, faculty, staff. It might be used for class purposes, or a foreign language class, or for a personal interest. Also for students and faculty interested in study abroad.”

The software will also be helpful to foreign students who are learning English as a second language.

“We have some foreign students who need extra help with English,” said Harrison. “It’s a very good product because it has different languages, let students learn English grammar in their own language. It’s very user friendly for foreign students on campus.”

However, Mango is not simply a vocabulary-building course.  Its unique teaching method uses conversational phrases in examples, as well as foreign films. The films are subtitled in English and Spanish and contain a number of languages. The purpose of the films is to educate students about local culture for native speakers of a language. Mango administrator and professor Angela Dunnington focuses on the importance and benefits of the interactive software.

“It’s not fully developed yet, but it does have different films from Italy, from France, from Latin American countries,” explained Dunnington. “Then you have the opportunity to learn the language within the feature film with an interactive module. Within the dashboard of the product, you can click on the films and it shows you a list, 21 right now, and the database is ever changing. It gives you interaction with the [native] language, and the language you want to learn, and it’s full featured international films.”

Students can use Mango through the library website by making free accounts to save their progress. Alternatively, a mobile app of the program can be downloaded, allowing students simply buying a cup of coffee or studying far abroad to brush up on their chosen language.