5 Web Tools for Language Learning

Vocabulary building is an essential aspect of language learning. Traditional dictionaries and tutorials are not the only way to go about doing it. With technology taking a groundbreaking role in any sort of learning, traditional language learning tools are gradually giving way to innovative tools and resources to aid in vocabulary building. Here is a list of some of the best language learning apps / tools:

Wallwisher

This digital tool allows users to make digital walls of sticky notes. These multimedia notes can contain images, text, videos and links. This can be of immense help to teachers, who can use it to create vocabulary walls that students can later contribute in. These collaborative walls can be embedded in blogs and webpages, and they will provide an integrated access to new words.

Flashcard Stash

This website is dictionary based. It allows teachers to save word lists for text. Users can get definitions, images to depict the word and example sentences. Teachers can then access a set of flash cards to help the students use and practise new words and understand them through quizzes and games. Students can access the word links without logging in.

Subcommune

This unique smartphone app provides a dictionary with video examples of the words. For every word that the user looks up, this app provides three options: the definition, examples from subtitles of videos, and the videos themselves. This helps in vocabulary building because the users can get real world examples of the words being used, their pronunciation and context.

Spell Checker Pro

This app makes your spellings error proof. Not exactly a vocabulary building app, this helps to strengthen your spellings, and thus, your vocabulary. Like online plagiarism checking portals, Spell Checker Pro lets you paste text into a space, so that spelling errors can be spotted and removed. The app highlights the misspelt words.

Mindsnacks

This free app uses gamification for vocabulary building. It provides the users with nine games to practise vocabulary. The app targets SAT takers, but GRE takers could use it as well. It has a database of over 500 words and phrases, as well as antonyms, and tracks the user’s progress to maximize learning.

These are only a handful of the apps and tools you can use to build and strengthen your vocabulary. There are a lot more of these out there. You must look beyond conventional approaches to enhance your learning experience, as well as to make it more inclusive.

Few New Words That Found Place in Dictionary Recently

Reading a dictionary is one of the best ways to expand your vocabulary. Almost every year new words get added to the latest dictionary editions. English has a tendency to absorb new words from other languages. The year 2013 also saw the addition of a few words to the ever expanding dictionaries. Given below is a list of a few of the new words, which have been widely accepted:

• Buzzworthy: It has been derived from the popular word “buzz”, which means general excitement and activity. Anything ‘Buzzworthy’ is sure to get attention and interest from the public. For example: The new novel is sure to be one of the most buzzworthy books for Pulitzer this year.
• Clunker: A clunker is referred to an old machine, especially an old car. A clunked represents something that doesn’t function well. It can also represent someone or something that fails. For example: I owned that clunker for over 10 years and want to sell it now.
• Flash Mob: This is a new term that is used to describe a lot of people who goes to a certain public place, performs, sings and dances, then disperses into the crowd. Social media sites or the Internet organises such mobs. For example: Flash mob recreates ‘Peanuts’ holiday scene in NYC.
• Geekery: This term refers to behaviours or actions typical of geeks. For example, Geekery can be used in the following context: Kim and Tom spent a lot of time together discussing about Star Trek geekery.
• Live blog: This new word is used to describe a blog that is used to make frequent, short posts to comment on some on-going event. For example – Sam live-blogged the schedule of the ongoing annual meeting of the college committee.

• Selfie: You must have recently come across this word in social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The word means a photograph that a person takes of himself/herself. It can be used in a sentence like – These days a lot of people post selfie on Facebook.

Words like these are emerging almost every day and thus, dictionaries are expanding.

Top 3 Apps with High Security Risk

Imagine a day without your smartphone! How will you listen to music? How will you call a cab in the morning or pay at the restaurant in the evening? Today, life truly seems difficult without a smartphone loaded with different apps. But do you know these applications are putting you at huge risk in terms of monetary loses? A report from Appthority states that about 83% of popular smartphone apps are associated with privacy and security issues. Here’s where the risk lies:

Given here is a list of three apps that are useful yet risky and need to be handled with utmost care (Courtesy – The Motley Fool)

• Facebook: Sounds shocking, isn’t it? FB is surely an app you can’t do without. The day Facebook started allowing users to store credit card details on the social network directly, it became a risky app to use. With this app you can auto fill credit card information when buying anything on Facebook.

Anyone who has access to your phone and can retrieve your Facebook login information can start misuse the information. This can result in fraud and identity theft. There is also the risk of your FB account getting hacked.

To save yourself from all these risks, you can do several things like logging out of emails and social networking sites when not in use and never storing passwords and credit card details on your phone.

• Starbucks: It is a lucrative app for all those who prefer to pay for their purchases through their phone. Anyone signing up or using the app gets various perks. The Starbucks app stores vulnerable details like passwords, usernames, and other sensitive information in the form of plain text. It is different from encrypted data storage, which adds a layer of protection to it.

• TabbedOut: This is an app that allows you to pay bills at restaurants or bars. It is possible to make money transfers to your friends. This app also stores credit card details on the phone, which is risky. Once your phone is stolen, be ready to get huge credit card bills if you do not lodge a stolen report immediately.

So, the next time you opt for an app in your smartphone, make it a point to see the flipside of it too.

5 Ways to enhance your ESL Skills using Mobile Apps

English Learning Apps – 5 Ways to enhance your ESL Skills using Mobile Apps

English Learning Apps

Knowing English is one of the most important skills in the corporate sector. So, if you are planning to search for a new job in some other parts of the world or thinking of immigrating to a country where English is spoken majorly, you must learn English first.

ESL or English as a Second Language needs a lot of practice and patience to learn. However, there are ways you can enhance your ESL English skills. The best way to learn to speak English is by using Smartphone apps. With a free Smartphone app you can avoid taking costly ESL English tuitions. That saves a lot of time! Given below is a list of 5 ways you can enhance your ESL skills with an app:

  

• With the right English learning apps you can watch, bookmark, and also save ESL videos. So, now you are not just watching an educational video, you can also keep it in your inbox for revision purposes. Teaching ESL students who are using such an app is easier for the teachers also.
• While choosing an application, you must make sure that the app allows subtitled videos. Often students fail to understand certain words or sentences in an educational video. Subtitles can help you to know the exact words spoken in the video. Moreover, you can check out the exact spellings of the words being spoken in it.
• There are certain English learning apps that let you create your own dictionary! Find an app, which doesn’t only help you to learn new words, but also lets you save those along with meaning for future reference.
• Find an app made exclusively for teaching ESL students that can help you subscribe to your favorite video channels, let you organize your saved videos and tutorials according to different categories.

You must make sure that the app you are choosing provides interactive video lessons that you can watch as many times you want, without downloading it to your mobile. That saves a lot of phone memory space.

English Learning Apps

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best English learning apps