Going Back to Basics - 3 iPhone Children’s App for English Learners

You may very well be over the age of 30, but sometimes when you want to learn a language, its best to go back to the basics—we’re talking about using children’s picture books and games to help you achieve your goal. The apps listed below are technically designed to teach young children how to speak English; however their fun and interactive platform can really be beneficial to beginning adult English-learners as well. And the best part? They’re completely free. That said; to learn some iPhone and iPad apps that can help you perfect your English skills, continue reading.


English First High Flyers

The English First High Flyers app is a great way for you to improve and expand your vocabulary—the best part is that you’re having fun with it through games instead of just writing down the words and memorizing them. There are five games in total, each include audio flashcards. Once you master each set of flashcards and earn the appropriate points, you can then move on to the next level of the game. Each level gradually get’s more complex as you move on.

Download English First High Flyers for iPad


English for Kids

The English for Kids app is a little bit more mature than the one mentioned above, but it’s still a fun and aesthetically pleasing way for you to perfect your spelling and pronunciation of simple English terms. Subjects include the human body, food, numbers, colours, and the personality / characteristics of certain people just to name a few. The app is also equipped with a native English speaking “helper” that will notify you when you’ve selected the wrong answer.

Download English for Kids for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad


Reading Monster

Like the name suggests, the Reading Monster app is designed to improve one’s reading and comprehension. This app is best used for those who are comfortable with vocabulary since learners will build on sentence structure. Although the curriculum of the games and stories are for elementary school students, it can definitely ease off the pressure of trying to comprehend extremely complex sentences.

Download Reading Monster for iPad

Yes, the apps mentioned above may seem quite juvenile for a few individuals, but it’s a good way to ease people into learning English—after all, when you learned your native language you started the same way. Naturally, once you’ve mastered the “fun” portion of learning the English language, you can definitely move on to more advanced and “serious” learning applications.

This is a guest post by Kimberly Wilson. Kimberly is from accredited online colleges, she writes on topics including career, education, student life, college life, home improvement or time management.

Two Great Apps for Your Phone - Podcasts and Vocopedia!

Learning any new language is a difficult process, and many people consider English to be one of the hardest languages to learn. Not only is English proficiency important for strictly English majors today, but it is also important in many fields of work ranging from information technology to medical transcription.

But technology is a wonderful tool that can help you learn English more quickly and effectively. With most mobile phones allowing development of apps, and popular internet browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome doing the same, there are now more tools than ever available to help you learn English. Here are some of the best ones out there. As a bonus, all the apps listed are free - just download and get started!


LearnEnglish Elementary Podcasts

The British Council's Learn English division has numerous apps for mobile phones and Facebook targeted at English language learners. The free Elementary Podcasts app is designed for elementary English learners, and helps increase spoken and written English proficiency.

Each podcast is 20 minutes long and features two speakers who ask the listener questions about English. The listener can answer the questions as the podcast progresses. A written transcript is also provided in real time alongside the audio, allowing the listener to read alone with what is being spoken. If the learner is confused, there is an option to contact the podcasters via Facebook directly from the app so their questions can be answered.

Download LearnEnglish Elementary for iPhone and iPad

Download LearnEnglish Elementary for Android

Download LearnEnglish Elementary for Nokia

Download LearnEnglish Elementary for Blackberry


Vocopedia

For English language learners of all proficiencies, from those who are just starting out to advanced speakers, the free Vocopedia Android app is a great vocabulary builder with many interactive features that will add an element of fun into your language learning.

Over 3900 English words of varying difficulties are presented on flashcards, alongside their synonyms, their part of speech, and examples of their usage in real sentences. You can bookmark flashcards and save specific flashcard sessions to go over later. Also included is a hangman game that features words from the flashcards. This app is useful not just for English learners, but also for those studying for tests such as the SAT, the GRE, or the TOEFL.

Download Vocopedia for Android

These apps aren't designed to completely replace all the other elements of your learning process (classes, books, and one-on-one lessons), but when used alongside them, they are great ways to start enjoying the process of learning English. The days of learning without technology are long gone now. These days, your phone and computer are some of the most important tools you have to make your goal of learning English a reality.

This is a guest post by Marina Salsbury. Marina planned on becoming a teacher since high school, but found her way instead into online writing after college. She currently writes on a variety of topics, but always seems to veer back to education-related articles.

Learn English with your iPhone using the Free App from Babbel

There is no doubt the use of mobile phones is increasing every day and there are now many people who use their phones not only to talk or text but also to check their email or browse the Internet.

Moreover, with products like the iPhone and services like the Apple Store, there are more than 200,000 apps available to provide our phone with a lot of extra functionality. Babbel also wants to lead the use of apps to learn languages and that’s why they have released a free app to learn English using your phone.

This app has more than 3,000 words in total (with vocabulary from the basic to the most advanced levels) so you can improve your level of English at any place. One of the strongest points of this app is its speech recognition functionality that allows you to test and practice your pronunciation.



This new audio feature includes analysis of pronunciation in real time and evaluates all facets of speech. The technology works as follows: When a learner repeats a word or a phrase, an algorithm compares his or her pronunciation to that of a native speaker, and immediately gives an evaluation of the similarity on a scale of 0-100. If the pronunciation scores over 50, that means it is generally understandable. At the learner’s discretion, the pronunciation can then be repeated to perfection.

By the way, this app to learn English is also available for other products of the Apple family like the iPod Touch or iPad. Hence, it is not critical to have an iPhone in order to enjoy it.

Register for free at Babbel and download its wonderful app for the iPhone