My quest for apps was much more successful this week. I’ve bagged several good ones. The first, Phrasalstein, was designed by Cambridge and consequently has a strong British influence. Some of the combinations are uncommon or nonexistent in American English. As implied by the name, the whole app has a horror movie theme. Users choose combinations of verbs and prepositions which are then illustrated by a brief but highly effective animation. Main characters are Dracula, Frankenstein, and a mad scientist accompanied by few other miscellaneous personalities for variety. Some users may find the illustrations somewhat gruesome and I don’t recommend it for children under age 12. Dracula regularly drinks blood from a bottle to perk himself up.
Our second feature this week is English Monstruo, also designed by Cambridge in response to common spelling errors found on some 200,000 exams they had graded. Although it was specifically designed for native Spanish speakers, some of the games are good for people from any language background. It is a fun way to learn English spelling if you’re the competitive gaming type.
Number three on the list is primarily a listening app. There are one hundred free lessons with text and audio recording themed around basic survival English. Also included are sections on business and travel. The narrators have strong British accents and much of the conversation is also heavily British. The English in Context tab leads to YouTube videos on various subjects published by Anglo-Link. I watched a good one on making phone calls. The dialogues are written in blue and green font as the narrators are speaking making them easy to follow. At the end of the dialogue, the differences between the informal and formal registers are highlighted with key expressions. This would be an extremely useful app for anyone planning to study in the UK.
The last two apps I’ll be reviewing today were originally intended for children but may be useful for adults as well. They are titled “Comparative Adjectives” and “Action Words”. Both have a “listen and touch” design that shows several photos and a narrator says a word or asks a question about one of the pictures. For example, in the adjective app, the narrator may ask “Which is the softest toy?” The user sees a soft toy sunflower, a truck, and a robot. When the correct picture is touched, the narrator offers an encouraging word as feedback for the right answer and a big green checkmark appears next to the picture. While new vocabulary is explicitly taught, the pictures alone are an excellent resource and may be sufficient to learn the new concept.
Our second feature this week is English Monstruo, also designed by Cambridge in response to common spelling errors found on some 200,000 exams they had graded. Although it was specifically designed for native Spanish speakers, some of the games are good for people from any language background. It is a fun way to learn English spelling if you’re the competitive gaming type.
Number three on the list is primarily a listening app. There are one hundred free lessons with text and audio recording themed around basic survival English. Also included are sections on business and travel. The narrators have strong British accents and much of the conversation is also heavily British. The English in Context tab leads to YouTube videos on various subjects published by Anglo-Link. I watched a good one on making phone calls. The dialogues are written in blue and green font as the narrators are speaking making them easy to follow. At the end of the dialogue, the differences between the informal and formal registers are highlighted with key expressions. This would be an extremely useful app for anyone planning to study in the UK.
The last two apps I’ll be reviewing today were originally intended for children but may be useful for adults as well. They are titled “Comparative Adjectives” and “Action Words”. Both have a “listen and touch” design that shows several photos and a narrator says a word or asks a question about one of the pictures. For example, in the adjective app, the narrator may ask “Which is the softest toy?” The user sees a soft toy sunflower, a truck, and a robot. When the correct picture is touched, the narrator offers an encouraging word as feedback for the right answer and a big green checkmark appears next to the picture. While new vocabulary is explicitly taught, the pictures alone are an excellent resource and may be sufficient to learn the new concept.