Apart from being great for entertainment and connecting with
other people, one of the greatest assets of smartphones is that they allow us
to greatly expand our knowledge on a number of different subjects. Learning a
new language is one of the most useful and rewarding skills that you can
acquire, and it can be greatly facilitated by finding the right app for the
job.
We have tried to mention the most convenient and popular apps of this type, but if you really want to find something that suits your particular needs and favored learning style, you should only consider this list a jumping off point and be prepared to do some research of your own.
Even though this app may be only a demo of the very well known and acclaimed Amazon’s Rosetta Stone service (which, even though very effective also comes with quite a hefty price) it does give you some interesting options and can greatly help with the acquisition of a new language. The app comes with a support for a wide array of languages, but it is rather simplistic in its approach to language teaching. Mostly, the lessons in it revolve around matching images and words, and gender exercises – for languages that have articles for male and female genders. However, the app is also able to correct your pronunciation mistakes, which can be quite a valuable asset. Even though it is far from a complete resource for language learning, it could help you expand your vocabulary and work on your pronunciation.
Even though it is basically free, you’ll still have to pay a subscription if you want to use the most beneficial features of this app. However, it has a great system which can really help adopt different aspects of language with ease. The app lets you read texts, while also reading them to you. Each word that you don’t recognize can be clicked on, which will provide you with its definition, and add it to your personal dictionary. This means that every next time you come across the word it will be highlighted, until you decide to mark it as ‘known’. With the unpaid version of the app, you can only read texts, and not be able to listen to them being read out, and you are only allowed 100 word entries into your LingQ list. Likewise you don’t have access to native speakers willing to correct your mistakes, or to the flashcards that come with the paid version.
A very interesting free app that gives you a number of options and approaches to learning a language. Duolingo comes with an extensive set of grammar and vocabulary lessons and exercises, which gives you a rather complete overview of the most basic aspects of a language. After completing the more basic parts of the instruction set, you are also give the option of helping translate different online materials the world over. Your translations are then reviewed by native speakers of the language in question and you are given useful pointers on your grammar and vocabulary use.
Author: Marta De Angelis, italian journalist and blogger in the mobile phone sector, editor and writer for web store MobilniShop websites.
We have tried to mention the most convenient and popular apps of this type, but if you really want to find something that suits your particular needs and favored learning style, you should only consider this list a jumping off point and be prepared to do some research of your own.
Rosetta Course
Even though this app may be only a demo of the very well known and acclaimed Amazon’s Rosetta Stone service (which, even though very effective also comes with quite a hefty price) it does give you some interesting options and can greatly help with the acquisition of a new language. The app comes with a support for a wide array of languages, but it is rather simplistic in its approach to language teaching. Mostly, the lessons in it revolve around matching images and words, and gender exercises – for languages that have articles for male and female genders. However, the app is also able to correct your pronunciation mistakes, which can be quite a valuable asset. Even though it is far from a complete resource for language learning, it could help you expand your vocabulary and work on your pronunciation.
LingQ
Even though it is basically free, you’ll still have to pay a subscription if you want to use the most beneficial features of this app. However, it has a great system which can really help adopt different aspects of language with ease. The app lets you read texts, while also reading them to you. Each word that you don’t recognize can be clicked on, which will provide you with its definition, and add it to your personal dictionary. This means that every next time you come across the word it will be highlighted, until you decide to mark it as ‘known’. With the unpaid version of the app, you can only read texts, and not be able to listen to them being read out, and you are only allowed 100 word entries into your LingQ list. Likewise you don’t have access to native speakers willing to correct your mistakes, or to the flashcards that come with the paid version.
Duolingo
A very interesting free app that gives you a number of options and approaches to learning a language. Duolingo comes with an extensive set of grammar and vocabulary lessons and exercises, which gives you a rather complete overview of the most basic aspects of a language. After completing the more basic parts of the instruction set, you are also give the option of helping translate different online materials the world over. Your translations are then reviewed by native speakers of the language in question and you are given useful pointers on your grammar and vocabulary use.
Author: Marta De Angelis, italian journalist and blogger in the mobile phone sector, editor and writer for web store MobilniShop websites.
No comments: