Effective Use of Twitter in Learning English

Today, English is an essential language to learn and to be taught. The main reason behind this is the simplicity to learn and ease of grammatical structure. Any novice person can learn to read as well as write in English within few moths if he/she is truly determined and properly motivated.

Importance of English

The 21st century is the age of global communication. Though to achieve this approach we have to communicate with each other by using one common language so the majority of people can understand, share their ideas and able to learn, fortunately “English”. Nowadays, communication in the banking sector/commodity market/real estate etc. is done in English.

Benefits of Social Networking websites

According to language experts at SolidEssay.com, which is a reputable college paper writing service, the main factors behind learning English are hidden in improving your ability in reading, writing, listening and speaking. It can be achieved by watching English movies, news channels, reading newspapers, etc.

The social networking sites have played a major role in improving English as a language. We can get lots of materials and sources for preparation from a single platform and Twitter is one of them.

Twitter - The way to get inspired

Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone founded Twitter on the 21st of March, 2006. At that time no one thought that it would revolutionize social media arena. The principle of the platform was simple; to share ideas between different people. But now there are many roles of it and one of them is learning English through entertainment.

Share your ideas with the community

The concept of Twitter is to run the chain reaction, which means you can be followed by the number of “Followers” either your own colleagues, siblings or friends. In Twitter you can join the community, groups, celebrity pages as well as share your ideas in the form of “tweets”.

So you can tweet your acquaintances by writing in English using the set of vocabulary. When you get a reply from your friends, you’d probably find new words that you don’t know. And then again you can retweet them searching new words and meaningful phrases. So by practicing, you can write meaningful sentences as well as enjoy the conversation.

Negotiate with your friends and family in English which would help you to think quick and make you responsive.

Follow the tycoons

There are many people in this world who achieved success in their particular profession likewise business, media, finance, tourism, journalism etc. So whatever field you are interested in, find the right people and follow them. Visit the page created by him/her and read the tweets. If you observe the constitution of the sentence carefully, you would be able to learn how to write it and find new words which will surely enhance your vocabulary.

Make it as a habit to note down at least 6-7 new words every day and also refer the previous words to nourish your memory.

Watch the videos

In Twitter, you’ll find lots of video: news, documentary, song albums etc. Listen to it carefully with good quality headphones and try to catch as maximum words as you can. Pay attention to the accent and intonation of different people while they’re speaking. Catch the words by observing the lip’s movement of areporter while watching the news.

By doing this you can improve your listening ability and also evaluate how fluent you are.

Try to take as less pauses as you can while you are speaking. Remember, the speed of your speech doesn’t matter but fluency and consistency of your speech matters.

Join the news channels

There are several pages of news channels that one can find on Twitter like CNN, BBC, etc. So make a choice and follow one. You’ll get two benefits from the news channels. First, you can stay updated with the activity of the whole world and second, you’ll find plenty of words which people use in their day-to-day conversation. The reason why it’s a good idea to read or watch news channels is you will get updated on a regular basis and be able to remember words and set of phrases used by commentators.

Above, some of the tactics and basic ideas of improving English have been mentioned. Though it would take a lot of effort and determination, by following different dedicated people on social networking sites like Twitter, you can make it easy to learn English.

Listening makes you perfect in Speaking while Reading makes you perfect in writing.

Author bio: Jeff speaks three different languages fluently and he is currently employed by SolidEssay.com, where he teaches students how to write different types of essays in English. There are some tips on how to write a contrast essay which is just an example that can be used as a guidance.

Top Twitter Accounts to Follow to Help You Learn English

While there will always be traditional avenues available to help you learn English, such as self-help books, classes, and different types of computer programs, there are also some less traditional ways that you can immerse yourself in the English language to help you gain a better grasp on the language. One of these ways is through Twitter. There are countless different Twitter accounts you can follow to help aid in your quest to learn English, but these seven are some of the best:

1. english247 - @english247 gives its followers different lessons, activities and resources to help interested people get a grasp on English quickly. And a bonus: the resources it provides is free for followers!
2. English Tips for You - @EnglishTips4U, like the name suggests, offers helpful tips to anyone who is beginning to learn English as a second (or third, or fourth!) language. The account holds Twitter classes where it explains the meaning of words, grammar, punctuation, etc. with the hashtag #EngClass.
3. Teaching English - @TeachingEnglish is brought to its followers by the BBC to help anyone and everyone learn English. It offers helpful tips, tricks and tools so that people are able to master the language quickly and efficiently.
4. Rosetta Stone - @rosettastone has become one of the most popular ways to learn a new language, and they’re methods have withstood the test of time, helping hundreds of thousands of people master a new language every day. The Twitter account offers updates for all of its users so they stay on top of any changes they need to be aware of for the language they’re learning.
5. Livemocha - @Livemocha isn’t just around to help people learn the English language, the account also focuses on helping people learn 38 different languages. Livemocha gives its followers friendly advice, brain teasers, and a place where they can come and discuss any problems they’re having learning a particular language.
6. Peter Travis - @English_Phrases is a great account to follow for anyone who is pursuing an advanced understanding of the English language or for anyone who is teaching English to others. They also give daily quizzes on English, which is a fun way for people who are learning the language to test their knowledge.
7. Successful English - @SuccEng is a Twitter account that is designed to help people not only learn English but also understand the reasoning behind different English language rules. Since English can be such a confusing language to learn, this is helpful for anyone who is struggling to comprehend different concepts.

Social media is a great way to pick up tons of friendly tips and tricks for mastering the English language, so anyone who is interested in full immersion should follow these different Twitter accounts.

Jason Miner plays a vital role for www.blogcarnival.com. He is an expert in writing topics of different categories. He is helping the carnival team to grow & working on making this an even better place for bloggers.

4 Tricks Using Social Media to Help You Learn English

The World Wide Web is redefining the way we as a society communicate, learn, and disseminate information. With just the click of a button you can have access to millions of information and educational databases almost instantaneously. The internet is especially beneficial for individuals of which English is their second language. Social media sites have become especially useful for learning English. There are several ways that social media sites can be useful in your quest to learn English. We have listed four of the best tips/tricks to improve your experience below.

1. Join a reputable social media site. There are numerous sites around the World Wide Web. Be sure you do your research and read the terms, conditions, and fine print of any website that requires a registration to determine if that site is best suited for your unique needs. Some social media sites may not be as beneficial as others to help you learn English. The goals of each site may vary so research will allow you to make the best decision.

2. Become a fan. Social media sites are the home to many organizations that teach English to foreign speakers. Be sure to become a “fan” or “like” the pages of these organizations. This way you will be able to receive updates about special promotions and offers that the company may be running through their social network page. As a fan of that company, you will be kept up to date as they post to their homepage.

3. Update your page. Once you become a member of your social media site, be sure to post goals, aspirations, and comments to your homepage so that your followers can assist you in your experience.

4. Expand your network. Become social media friends with as many people as possible. As you become exposed to more people, you will make more connections and be able to learn about different aspects of the English language.

Social media sites are a great way to supplement your English language education. So, start your search now, join a social media site, and have fun as you immerse yourself in the diversity of the English language.

Sara is an active nanny as well as an active freelance writer. She is a frequent contributor of http://www.nannypro.com/.

Are you looking for a pen friend? Find one on PenPal Palace

As with many things in life, the best way to improve your level of English is by using it. The idea is simple, but putting it into practice can be difficult. If you live in a non-English speaking country, it’s difficult to find people with whom you can practise your English.

Fortunately, the Internet offers many opportunities to find online language partners. Pen pal or pen friend is a person with whom one becomes acquainted through a friendly, regular correspondence (like email or letter). You can even speak in English with this person using programs like Skype or Google Talk.



A great website to find a language-learning partner is PenPal Palace. It’s free, quick and easy. With PenPal Palace you’ll not only be practising your English, but you’ll also have the chance to get to know new people and their cultures, as well as exchanging ideas with others.

Visit PenPalPalace.com

Use Social Media to Improve your Language Skills

To really understand another language, you need to get to grips with the way it is used by its native speakers. Learning a language using a textbook is a good way to get to know the basics. What textbooks don’t do is help you to understand how people use language in real settings.

Social media is a fantastic resource for language learners who want to get to know a language from the inside out.



What is social media?

Social media includes any kind of website that people use to connect with each other. That includes sites such as Facebook and Twitter, forums, blogs and anywhere else people talk to each other online. There’s also an increasing number of sites designed specifically for language learning. They allow language learners to talk to each other, and with native speakers, and often include language learning exercises to try. What all social media platforms have in common is that they allow people to create informal networks that are not bound by geography. That is what makes them so useful to language learners: they are informal, fun, easy to use, and allow access to a far broader range of experience than would be possible without them.

Things to do with social media

1. Find like-minded native speakers

Use Twitter and Facebook to talk to native speakers on their own terms. Think about your interests and activities, and try to find native speakers who share them. So, if you’re into mountain biking, find a page in French on Facebook aimed at French mountain-biking enthusiasts. If you’re learning a language with a view to move abroad, find pages related to jobs you’d like to do, or towns you’d like to live in. It’s a great way to increase your knowledge of specialist terms that are relevant to you, as well as to improve generally.

2. Find new tools

Use specialist social media sites for language learning. Many offer you the opportunity to try exercises and then chat to fellow language learners. They are like a virtual international classroom. While many people still want to learn English and other languages in a real classroom, many others are unable to do so because of time and cost restraints. So, if you want to improve your job prospects by taking business English lessons but you can’t travel to the UK or the US for whatever reason, free social media sites could make this possible.



3. Find solutions with fellow learners

Learning a language online rather than in a classroom could be a lonely experience. If you’re not careful, you can miss out on what is usually a social experience. Aside from the classroom-based learning, when you study abroad, your new city inspires you to immerse yourself in the culture. For example, for international students at somewhere like St Georges English school London can provide a vibrant social setting in which to learn a language. But when you are learning on your own, all those long evenings spent memorising vocabulary could keep you from interacting with others. Social media allows language learners to chat informally in their own language or the one they’re learning, picking up hints and tips on how to progress.

This is a guest post by Alice Cuninghame on behalf of Content Lobby. Content Lobby specialises in creating free, quality content for websites and blogs. If you’re interested, feel free to contact them at info@contentlobby.com.

Find out how Babbel can help you to improve your level of English

There is no doubt that the Internet offers new and exciting ways to learn English online. We have previously mentioned Babbel, as a revolutionary platform to learn languages online.

We’d like to present you with a testimony from a person that uses Babbel and who has told us what she likes about it and how it has helped her to improve her level of English.

1. How long have you been using Babbel in order to improve your level of English?

I’ve been studying English with Babbel for several months. I usually practice one hour every day rather than practicing a lot in a day and then don’t study again for some days.

2. During this time, do you think that you have improved your level of English and in what way?

From my point of view, I have improved a lot, especially on my vocabulary skills as I have improved them progressively.

3. What are your favourite features from Babbel? What is your favourite one and what is the one that you like least?

What I like about Babbel is that I can practice from my listening to my speaking skills, for example: you can configure your microphone in order to evaluate your pronunciation and that makes you to improve and perfect it. You also have the possibility to review everyday what you have learnt, what makes that you are always practicing and properly acquiring the new knowledge. Moreover, it’s a very interactive program; you can chat with people around the World and see different English expressions that they use.

As of now, I can’t say anything negative about Babbel, I think that the interface is very clear and easy to understand. I’d include some videos with conversations from an elementary to an advanced level, to practice more the listening skills. But in general, I can say that it’s a very complete website.

4. Have you tried any other product to learn English online? Do you think that Babbel is better than other products that you have tried?

Yes, I’ve tried other products to learn English, but due to the complexity of the website, I’ve ended up using Babbel. With no doubt, Babbel is top quality and allows you to learn English in a fast and simple way, and especially, without getting bored.

5. Do you think that the price for a course on Babbel is reasonable and why?

Babbel prices are quite cheap, as for less than 9$ per month, you have access to many applications to learn a language in a very interactive way totally adapted to your needs. You can connect to Babbel at any time and not only from your computer but also from your mobile phone. This makes that you don’t waste any time as in a bus or train stop, you could be learning English.

Stop thinking about it, register for free and try Babbel today

Finding the Right Language Exchange Partner

A language exchange can be a very rewarding experience with many benefits, such as improving your speaking and listening skills in a foreign language, exploring a new culture, and building a friendship. I have done three language exchanges with native Japanese speakers and was able to not only practices speaking and listening in Japanese, but also got a better sense of the culture, popular culture and slang.

I strongly recommend a language exchange for any person learning a foreign language. A language exchange partner can be a pen pal, someone you text or instant message, or someone who you meet up with occasionally to practice one-on-one communication.

Finding a language partner can be difficult, because a language exchange works best with someone who is learning your native language is also a native speaker of the language you are learning. You take turns communicating in either language, teaching and helping each other along the way. It is also important to find a reliable language exchange partner with whom you can truly have a mutually beneficial learning experience.

What qualities should the right partner have?

The right language exchange partner should be as serious as learning your language as you are in learning theirs. You'll want to find someone who is reliable, respectful, and open to learning and teaching with you. Here are a few tips for finding the right language exchange partner.

Join a Language Exchange Community

I was fortunate enough to meet my language exchange partners through mutual friends. If you're a college student, you can visit your school's foreign language department and inquire about any language exchange programs. If you're not in school, the internet is a valuable resource for meeting language exchange partners. Facebook has a language exchange community that its users can subscribe to.

My Language Exchange has been around since 2000 and allows you to search for language exchange partners by country and offers text and voice chat, games and lesson plans.

LingoFriends offers a Mentor Program that includes online language lessons in addition to interacting with language exchange partners.

xLingo Language Exchange is a free community that also allows you to create flashcards and blogs, as well as participate in forum discussions.

Rosetta Stone Shared Talk offers voice and text chatting. Rosetta Stone is a well-known language-learning software company.

Find Someone with Mutual Interests

Yes, you are trying to improve upon your language skills, but you and your language exchange partner still need something to talk about. My first language partner and I shared an affinity for fashion and discussed it at length, while another language partner was willing to teach me some break-dancing moves, giving me a full, well-rounded learning experience. Finding a language partner is only half the battle; you should want to have conversations in more than one language with him or her.

Be Courteous and Consistent

I met two of my language exchange partners after my first partner recommended me. This can also work for you if you are courteous and consistent with your partner. Although this person may become your friend, you want to initially approach your interactions with professionalism.

Sometimes regularly meeting with someone in person or over the internet can be difficult to maintain if you have a busy schedule. If this happens, it's important to let your partner know the circumstances, because politeness and professionalism will go a long way. I would also recommend staying in touch with them by sending them messages or e-mails every once in a while. You may be able to pick up on the regular language exchange again in the future, or who knows? Maybe you'll travel to your partner's country some day and might need a place to stay!

Remember to keep an open mind when interacting with your language partner. There will be cultural differences as well as some things you'll find difficult to explain in either language. It is best to approach the experience as one that will not only teach you, but give you an opportunity to teach another person about your language, your culture and yourself.

Donna Reish, a freelancer who blogs about best universities, contributed this guest post. She loves to write education, career, frugal living, finance, health, parenting relating articles. She can be reached via email at: donna.reish13@gmail.com.

Skype and Live Mocha - Two Great Ways to Learn Alongside Learners

For those of you who have spent much time in the classroom (and who hasn't?), you know how boring it can sometimes be to have a teacher always telling you what to do. But the beauty of learning the English language (or any language), is that most of the learning happens outside of the classroom.

While classroom learning can be useful, practicing every day with native speakers is the best way to pick up the way the language is as it is used in the real world. Sometimes, however, it may be difficult to find native speakers in your area. And that's where the Internet comes in. For me, the most helpful and convenient language practicing tools were completely free and available online. These are two of my favorites.

Skype

People around the world use Skype to keep in touch with their friends and family practically for free. But one day, I discovered that you can use Skype to practice speaking, listening, and learning another language, too. When you change the settings on your status for Skype to "Skype Me!", this enables people you don't know to talk to you. Because of the casual environment, you can learn in a very natural way.

Some of the best language learning experiences I ever had were chatting with strangers on Skype. If you don't feel comfortable using webcam or audio, you can always stick with instant messaging. This way, you'll learn how to abbreviate in the native language. And by doing so, you'll learn very important skills in keeping up-to-date with current Internet trends, which is critical to know in our world where we must always be connected online.

LiveMocha

LiveMocha is a relatively new, year-old website that gives you the best of both formal and informal learning. Although you can be a paying customer, you can also do a lot on the site completely for free. My favorite feature of LiveMocha is the part that allows learners to submit writing and speaking exercises to native speakers so that they correct the grammar, spelling, pronunciation, etc. As a learner, you are also asked to be a teacher and share your language knowledge with others by helping those who want to know more about your native tongue.

Another great feature of LiveMocha is that it fully uses social networking and is very similar to Facebook in its capacity to connect a community that shares common interests. If you haven't yet checked it out, LiveMocha is certainly a tool worth looking into.

With both of these tools, language learning is a shared experience. By immersing yourself in a community (as in LiveMocha) or simply speaking individually with individual speakers (as with Skype), you'll be more excited about learning. And you may just get to help others learn something, too. The even exchange of knowledge with fellow learners is what makes these two learning platforms so exciting.

Download Skype on your computer

Download Skype on your mobile

Visit LiveMocha and discover all its possibilities

This guest post is contributed by Olivia Coleman, who writes on the topics of online colleges and universities. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: olivia.coleman33 @gmail.com.

Lingo Match - A Forum for the Multi-Lingual

Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook cater to a generation that takes for granted the easy access offered by the internet. In the not-too-distant past, people who wanted to contact someone in another country had to, first of all, know someone in that country, then dial a ridiculously long number, deal with terrible connections, and finally, pay an arm and a leg for every minute they talked. It was either that or pen pals. Today, you can jump online and chat with someone halfway across the globe within seconds, provided you speak a common language. Lingomatch has filled a growing niche by merging social networking with the desire to connect on a global level.

Here’s what they offer: First and foremost, it is a Language Exchange Network, or a forum for people from around the globe to connect with others on the subject of language. Their slogan aptly offers, “Real People. Real Language Conversation.” In reality, Lingomatch offers a lot more. People who are learning another language (or languages) can post questions about words, phrases, slang, syntax, conjugation, or any number of topics that may be troubling them in their quest to attain fluency in a second language (or third, or fourth…). Further, they can search for others on the network that speak a certain language (or combination of languages) and contact them directly. It is an excellent tool for learning or practicing a new language and often, those who receive help are able to return it in kind, making this a truly symbiotic service.

It also presents an opportunity for those just learning a language to connect with native speakers, and in many cases, meet those who are living locally. Some people use it to start practice groups and recruit both learners and long-time speakers for immersive conversation (which is, after all, the best way to reinforce lessons learned in the classroom). Others seek or offer tutoring, while some, who may live outside their country of origin, are looking to connect with fellow countrymen in their new home. However, the vast majority of posts are written by people who are looking for a partner to practice with.

And the number of searchable languages listed is astonishing. Sadly, many of them produce no ads when searched stateside (it was easy enough to find Spanish and French speakers, but nothing for Afrikaans, Norwegian, or Xhosa, for example), but that is bound to change over time as the network continues to grow and expand. Just the fact that there are forty-four languages to choose from illuminates the intentions of the site. Lingomatch clearly hopes to fill all of those categories with both people who speak the language and those who are looking to learn it. Users can also search by different cities and countries in order to contact native speakers (finding people who speak both English and Portuguese is a lot easier when searching Rio De Janiero than New York City), so you may have to do a little digging to find what you’re looking for.

People are becoming more globally conscious by the day, and while linguistics is not a big part of life for most Americans (we do the two or three years required in high school and then forget all about it), many people from other parts of the world learn a handful of languages as a matter of course. It’s not uncommon for Europeans to be fluent in three to five languages. So Lingomatch is a great way to come in contact with others who share your passion for language, as well as an invaluable resource for language-learning.

Visit Lingomatch

Guest post by Alexis Montgomery, Alexis is a content writer for Online Colleges, where you can browse through various online degree programs to find a college that suits your needs.

Find Your Ideal Language Partner - Language for Exchange

Would you like to practice English with native people? Are you moving to Britain and would like to know people in advance? Would you like to teach your first language to others?

Language for Exchange is a good place to start. It’s a simple Web page where you only need to register in order to access a wide database of people from all over the World that want the same as you: to learn a language.

It’s that simple: fill in your data and choose your language partner. A free service that seems to have quite a lot users; you can see their profile and in some cases, even their photo. There are people of all ages and countries, with whom you can talk and practise your English.

The website also has forums and blogs in different languages, where you’ll find resources to keep learning.

Have a look and go on and practise real English!

Visit Language for Exchange

Guest post written by Silvia, Silvia is a graduate of translation and is an official interpreter of English. She works freelance (full-time) and has more than 10 years' experience in specialised translation. Visit her blog "English for Professionals".

SharedTalk - Find the Perfect Partner for your Language Exchange

Tired of studying English on your own? Would you like to find a person with whom you can do a language exchange? If so, SharedTalk can help you.

SharedTalk is a Web page made up of a community of people (social network) interested in exchanging and learning languages. You’ll be able to find that native speaker with whom you can substantially improve your level of English.

Some of the services offered by SharedTalk are:

• Find language partners.
• Communicate and practise with your partner via email. You write in English and your partner reciprocates in your native language. Find the perfect pen-pal friend.
• Practise and talk online with other members (with no need to install any additional software) through private chats or public chat rooms.

Ah, and it’s free. Visit SharedTalk.com

Busuu.com - Excellent Language Learning Community

Busuu is a social network to learn languages (it’s possible to learn Spanish, English, French and German at present) with a very clean and easy to use interface.

This Web page is totally free and after the registration process and selecting your native language and the language(s) that you want to learn you can begin using it.

What can you do in Busuu.com?

One of the very first things would be to select some of the available units about different topics (About me, Daily life, free time…) that will allow you to practice different skills of your English. Every unit is made up of five sections:

• Vocabulary: the image-word association that speeds up the learning is used. You can also see a sentence where the new word is used in context.
• Dialogue: an English conversation is presented and then there are a couple of questions about the dialogue in order to test your comprehension.
• Writing: a variety of images is shown (the same images that were used in the Vocabulary section) and you have to describe what you see in the different images.
• Talking: you can make contact with an English native speaker that uses Busuu and practice the new vocabulary that you have just learned.
• Review: you have to do a small exam to evaluate what you have learned.

The amount of available units is pretty big (over 50) so there is wide diversity to choose from. It’s totally customizable; you select the units you want to work on.

As a social network, Busuu.com promotes collaboration and interaction with other members. You’ll be able to chat, talk, review exercises of other members and make new friends.

Something attractive about Busuu is the section called “My busuu.com language garden”. It’s an interactive image that represents your knowledge of the languages. You’ll see that for your native language/s you have a large tree, whereas for the languages that you are learning, the trees are small and are subject to a process of growth. By completing the units and showing that you are learning, these trees will increase in size. Moreover, if you show effort and willpower, you’ll get “presents” for you garden, such as dogs, rains … However, if you give up learning the language, the tree will reduce in size once more.



You can see that my “English tree” is pretty stunted and I have to practice to make it grow.

As matter of interest, we would point out that Busuu is a spoken language in Cameroon – according to ethnologic study carried out in the eighties, only eight people are able to speak that language.

Busuu.com is a social network to learn languages focused to users with basic or intermediate level of English. If you are an advanced user you might not find it interesting.

There is a video in YouTube with a tour about this online resource:



Visit Busuu.com

Last comments: If you are looking for more social networks similar to Busuu, don’t hesitate to have a look to our section about social networks and especially to Livemocha (both websites have a similar style). If you are interested in improving your English and have a basic level of English, you can use our guides to learn English from scratch and get some useful advices and free resources to help you.

Palabea.net - The Speaking World

Are you looking for people who you can practice your English with? That language partner with whom you can speak or write to in English? Palabea is the social network that will help you find them.

In this web page you’ll be able to chat and talk with people whose native language is English and who are interested in learning your mother tongue. Moreover, palabea offers very interesting material for learning English, such as:

• Documents, podcasts and videos. Along with the possibility of uploading your own resources.
• Joining a virtual classroom or creating a new one.

Not only does Palabea exist for learning English, but in this social network it is possible to learn other languages: Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Portuguese, etc.

Palabea is a very intuitive, easy-to-use and well organized web site. Summing up, 100 x 100 recommended. Do you palabease?

Visit Palabea.net

Yappr.com - Improve Your English Watching Videos

In this online resource you’ll be able to see videos in English sorted into different categories: recent, most popular, highest-rated, business, celebrities, sports, films and others. The videos have subtitles but they are not shown in the same way as “Yolango”; they are shown in a text box on the right of the video. Personally I prefer the option in “Yolango” because it allows you to see the video easily.

However, Yappr had the great idea of showing English subtitles in a text box, and also other subtitles translated into your own language. Moreover, it is possible to listen to the video at a slower pace, which is ideal for those words or sentences that are harder to understand.

Also the web page has a well-developed social aspect to it, which allows you to become friends with other Yappr members and you can actually see what they are doing. The Yappr community is very attractive and offers:

• The possibility of joining a live chat for talking to other people (and thus practice written English).
• A forum where we can raise doubts, opinions and other issue that we’d like to comment on.
• The opportunity to look for other members.
• "What's yappening?", a play on words from "What's happening?" in order to see what’s going on in the Yappr community.

A very interesting web page to improve listening, practise English and have fun!

Visit Yappr.com

Babbel - Excellent Social Network to Improve Your Vocabulary

Tired of not progressing with your vocabulary? Well, don’t worry because this time we present you a web page that’s really useful in this regard: Babbel. This resource allows you to learn new words in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

The operation is simple; we can choose different modules that contain words and sentences about a topic or specific situation. For English, we can choose from 62 modules.

For example, if we select the module related to the current Eurocup football championship, we can learn new words such as: “to be offside”, “to be on the bench”, “fan block”, etc. For each of these sentences we can see a descriptive image, listen to the pronunciation and find the translation in our own language. After learning these words, we can click on the “Play” icon that appears on the right and carry out different tasks that will test our knowledge on the newly-learnt vocabulary.

Another interesting feature is “My Vocabulary” where new words and sentences that we’ve already learnt are stored. So as not to forget our new vocabulary we can use this source for revision from time to time.

Increase your vocabulary!

Visit Babbel.com

Italki - Language Exchange

Today’s resource is called “italki”; it is a web page similar to “soZiety”, but with more functions that the latter.

It is possible to try to find a language colleague from whom we can learn English (or any other language that we are interested in: Chinese, Spanish, Russian, German, etc.) It is not necessary to install any external software (like Skype) to communicate in writing or to speak with a language colleague because the web page offers an application that we can use for this purpose.

This is just one of the differences of “italki” when compared with “soZiety”. There are other interesting functions:

• Possibility of posing a question to all italki users, like for example: "What is the difference between sensitive and sensible?" And any user who wants to help us will be able to answer.
• Knowledge creation and consultation; the possibility of actually creating the content (wikis, pages) that we can then use to improve our English.
• File sharing (usually text files: .doc, .pdf, .txt), with more material.
• Resources with links to recommended web pages.

This web page is pretty interesting for learning and practicing English (and other languages).

Visit italki.com

Livemocha - Great Social Network to Practice English

This website is really good. It offers free online courses for learning different languages; at present: German, Mandarin, Spanish, French, Hindi, English, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Russian. What interests us is the English course.

The way to use this web page is quite simple; there are 4 courses for each language: 101, 102, 201 and 202. I enrolled on the intermediate level English course 202 (the highest one).

It’s not a wonderful way to become fluent, but if you only have a basic level you will see an improvement. Moreover, if you are thinking of learning Mandarin it will be of great benefit because you can do courses from 101 to 201 and at the end you’ll have a basic knowledge of this extremely complicated language.

Livemocha offers TOEFL preparation courses as well, and this can be interesting for many people.

Something very interesting about this web page is its “social” aspect. Exercises and tasks that we do throughout the courses are visible to other users (native speakers of English) who can correct our tasks and give us recommendations. We can help other members as well. There are prizes for the most supportive members. Let’s collaborate!

A 100 x 100 recommended web site.

Visit livemocha.com

Update: Livemocha has changed its platform and there are only two ways to be able to make its interactive courses: by paying or by actively helping other members of the community and earning mochapoints. If you’re looking for similar websites to learn English, you’ll probably find something that you like in our Social Networks section.

Soziety - Free Language Exchange Using Skype

The title of this web page is “Languages Exchange for free” and it establishes in a clear way its goal. After the registration process, we have access to a list of connected users that are interested in learning English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese … In the user’s profile it’s indicated what languages s/he speaks very well and what language(s) s/he is interested in learning/practising.

In order to use this web page you should install the “Skype” software on your computer. You can download it here; once downloaded, double click, and next next. You should create a new account (user and password) for Skype and then you are ready to go.

Now, what you have to do is start looking for people with whom you can do a language exchange. It this means someone fluent in the language you are interested in learning and also s/he should be interested in your native language.

From my experience, I can honestly say that it can be fairly difficult finding and getting to know native English speakers. This may simply be due to the fact that everybody wants to learn English and possibly because demand outstrips supply. It’s also the case that only through trial and error do you find somebody with whom you have a good rapport and thus you are able to learn from one another with relative ease. So be patient and good luck!

Visit soziety.com

Yolango - Improve Your English by Watching Videos

Not long ago I found out about this web page, which is in alpha version. However, I’d like to say that it works well and I haven’t had any serious bugs.

The idea is quite innovative: videos are shown with English subtitles. It’s a good idea because you can see whatever you don’t understand in written format. What is new is that the subtitles are clickable. This means that if, for example, you see the word ‘weird’ and you don’t know what it means, you can click on it and the translation (of the chosen language) appears, along with some examples of using the word.

Each video has 3 associated activities:

1. About Blanks: The video is shown with subtitles but some words are missing and we have to complete them.
2. About Questions: Some questions about the video.
3. About Definitions: Definitions about some words appear in the video.

There are so many videos (new ones are added continuously) and they can be filtered by many criteria: difficulty level, categories, scenarios, ...

There is another interesting part called “Scoreboard”, in which users are sorted by the points that they have gained by doing the activities associated with the videos.

With this web page we can improve our functional vocabulary, our listening skills and the way we express ourselves in English. A weak point is that we cannot practice any grammar or writing.

To sum up, this is a much recommended web page, with which you can have a great time while improving your English. Moreover, it’s free!

Visit yolango.com