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.

10 minutes English - Podcasts

Do you have enough time during the day to make the things that you like? Would you like to learn English but don’t know where to get the time? Your problem is very typical; lack of time is experienced by many. You know, time is money, but in my opinion it’s more valuable than money, since how and where do we buy time? Leaving apart philosophical questions, in this post we describe some handy tips to make the most of your time and improve your English level by listening to podcasts.

To be honest, the idea of this post came to me the other day while reading an article about “10 Minutes Gym” and I thought that there could be many people that would like to learn English but who have very little time during the day. The idea is simple: try to learn English while you carry out other tasks. Two things at the same time, is that possible? Yes it is, and with podcasts it works out very easily.

A podcast is nothing more than an audio file (normally in mp3 format) that you can download from the Internet and copy to your mobile phone (if it reproduces mp3) or an mp3 player like the iPod or any other from brands like Creative, Sony or SanDisk. Once you’ve copied the podcasts you’re interested in, next thing to do is to start listening and enjoying them.

The value of this is that you can do many other activities while listening to the podcasts. Some examples are:

• While commuting: if you walk, travel by car or any other transport.
• While doing exercise: we tend to prefer music, but while we run or are at the gym, it’s also possible to listen to podcasts about topics we’re passionate about.
• While doing the housework: cooking, ironing or general cleaning.
• When connected to the Internet: while browsing, on Facebook, checking your emails and so on, it’s also possible to listen to podcasts or even some digital radio like for example the BBC one.
• Even while studying or working: only if you’re allowed to! :)

Why do podcasts help you to improve your level of English? Well, there are several reasons but mainly they can improve “your ear” and your comprehensive skill or listening. You can only improve your ear by practicing and listening once, listening twice and listening once more. Try to download podcasts in different accents: American English, British English, and Irish English... so that you ear gets used to these. Moreover, there are podcasts that contain grammar or vocabulary lessons so you’ll be able to improve your listening, along with other aspects of your English.

Where can I get podcasts? We could list hundreds of websites, but it’s better if you visit our podcast category and decide for yourself. Furthermore, if you have iPod and iTunes then you can subscribe to the podcasts and get updates automatically, it’s very handy.

Would you like to share another activity that you do while you listen to podcasts? Please let us know in a comment.

FYI, the preparation for this post took more than 10 minutes.

Spoken Word - Find the Best Podcasts

Would you like to listen to those conference sessions, lectures or debates that don’t have such a big public presence but whose topic is extremely attractive?

Many of these talks are very inspiring, but, where can these podcasts be found? There is already a solution to this problem, SpokeWord stores and makes them available for everyone.

On the main website of SpokenWord you have the possibility to see the daily recommended podcasts which are organized into different categories: Arts, Business, Comedy, Education, Games & Hobbies, Government & Organizations, Health, Kids & Family, Music, News & Politics, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Medicine, Society & Culture, Sports & Recreation, TV & Film and Technology.

It’s also possible to search for specific podcasts, see the highest rated ones and even submit a podcast. Moreover, if you register (it’s free) you’ll have available a collection where you can save all the podcasts that you like for future references.

SpokenWord is the place where you’ll find the best podcasts collections and you’ll be able to create your own one.

Visit SpokenWord.org

Grammar Girl - Learn Grammar and More

Would you like to improve your knowledge of English grammar? You might think that studying grammar is boring but it’s very necessary because it establishes the rules of the language. Therefore we are looking for a positive answer to the previous question! :)

Today we would like to introduce you to a teacher that teaches English grammar on the Internet; she’s known as “Grammar Girl” but her real name is Mignon Fogarty.

In Grammar Girl’s website you’ll find more than 100 episodes that cover many aspects of English grammar: Proofreading Tips, Subjunctive Verbs, Between Versus Among, and many other truly interesting episodes. All are easy to understand and have a clear structure.

Every episode contains the complete transcription as well as the podcast that you can listen to online or download to your computer. They are also organized into different categories so you can have a look at the ones that most interest you: General Grammar, Word Choice, Style, Punctuation and Humor.

There is no doubt that Grammar Girl is a must-visit Web page if you want to increase your comprehension of English Grammar.

Link | Grammar Girl

IdiotVox - Podcast Directory

Are you interested in podcasts about African music, the environment or wine? Don’t know where to find them? What if you were to look into a podcast directory?

Today we want to introduce you to a podcast directory that offers thousands of podcasts and videocasts, as well as rankings and reviews about them.

In IdiotVox you’ll be able to find podcasts in English about practically any topic that you can imagine. Apart from the ones already mentioned in the introduction of the post, you’ll also find podcasts about agriculture, animals, anime /manga, art, Asia and more than 50 other subjects that are sorted alphabetically.

If you don’t have time to dig into every category, you can visit the lists that contain the best podcasts (by user votes) and then listen to those with better quality content.

The truth is that the amount of categories is impressive and you’ll surely find some podcast that you like and that you’ll be able to listen to several times and by doing this improve your comprehension, as well as your pronunciation in English.

Visit IdiotVox