While searching Google for free language learning apps this week, I found recommendations for Learn English Grammar which is put out by the British Council and Byki Mobile, a vocabulary app designed to accompany the Transparent Language course. While both offer only portions of the course for free, they might be useful if paired with a textbook covering the same topics.
Learn English Grammar offers samples of the course at three levels: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The samples cover four grammar points each. For example, the advanced level offers a lesson on the simple past (hardly an advanced topic in my opinion), the present perfect continuous, mixed conditionals, and structures that express regret. At the elementary level, users are prompted to fill in blanks with the correct form of a word and given string of words to unscramble into logical sentences. A third task type requests users to type in their answers.
Learn English Grammar offers samples of the course at three levels: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The samples cover four grammar points each. For example, the advanced level offers a lesson on the simple past (hardly an advanced topic in my opinion), the present perfect continuous, mixed conditionals, and structures that express regret. At the elementary level, users are prompted to fill in blanks with the correct form of a word and given string of words to unscramble into logical sentences. A third task type requests users to type in their answers.
The quizzes incorporate listening comprehension in addition to reading and writing. At the end of each sample, users are asked if they wish to purchase the rest of the lesson pack which are offered at $0.99 each. There are two beginner packs, three elementary, two intermediate, and two advanced. At any rate, they are cheaper than the average language course and probably just as effective.
Byki offers flashcards for English in a couple dozen other languages. Some options are “English for Thai speakers” and “English for Korean Speakers”. All the samples I looked through used the same example phrases normally found in travel handbooks: airport, taxi, reservations, etc. The only exception was Latin which offered colors, animals, and family terms. The words are accompanied by pictures and authentic audio. Again the samples are limited but not useless as they would be good supplements to regular coursework. The nice thing about Byki is the variety of languages available.