Last summer I took a short trip to Iceland. Before I went I tried to learn a couple of phrases (I wasn’t terribly successful, my mouth just wouldn’t make some of the sounds). This summer I’m taking a short trip to Costa Rica so I’m brushing-up on my Spanish vocabulary before I go. If you’re trying to learn a new language too, here are some free sites and apps that could help you.
Duolingo is a free language learning service and app through which you can learn Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. To learn on Duolingo you read, listen to, and translate words and
phrases. For example if I want to learn Spanish I’ll be shown Spanish
words with translations. I can can hear the words pronounced too. Then
to practice I type and or speak translations. The activities start out
with simple words and phrases. As I become more proficient, Duolingo
gives me more challenging phrases. To help me track my progress Duolingo
awards me point and virtual badges.
uSpeak HD
is a free iPad app designed to help beginners learn Spanish. The app
matches you with word lists and learning activities based on your
current level of knowledge of Spanish. Before you even register on the
service you take a quick assessment to match you to the appropriate
lists and activities. Once you’ve registered all of your progress is
stored in your uSpeak account. uSpeak’s
word lists are organized in webs of related words. Click on any web to
reveal the words. Then click on a word to reveal a web of in-context
uses of that word, images associated with that word, and synonyms and
antonyms for your chosen word.
Spanish Is Your Amigo
is a series of video lessons taught by Kristen Williams. The
lessons are designed for beginners. The short, upbeat lessons cover the
basics of things like letter pronunciation, numbers, syllabic stress,
verb conjugation, nouns and articles, and common Spanish phrases.
iMendi is a nice little site for practicing vocabulary in the languages you’re trying to learn. On iMendi you can practice vocabulary in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Russian, Arabic, and Czech. To use iMendi just select the language you speak and select the language you want to learn. iMendi then
gives you the choice of choosing a lesson (level 1, level 2, etc) or
trying a randomly chosen lesson. The “lessons” are really just simple
vocabulary matching exercises with a score and the correct answers
revealed at the end.
BBC Quick Fix
offers a selection of essential phrases for forty languages. The list
of phrases varies slightly for each language, but they all include
greetings and other essential polite phrases like “I’m sorry I don’t
speak Icelandic.” All lists can be printed. You can also hear all of the
phrases pronounced. The pronunciations can be downloaded as MP3 files
to take with you on your iPod or phone.
Hello World provides games and activities for students to develop their knowledge of foreign languages. Hello World
has games and activities in nine languages including Spanish, French,
and Mandarin Chinese. Not all of the games and activities are free, but
enough of them are free to warrant listing as a good place for free
learning activities.
Vocabla is a service
for learning English, Spanish, and Polish vocabulary. The service can be
used online or with the free iPhone and Android apps. The concept
behind Vocabla is similar to a lot of other language learning
applications. In Vocabla you can create lists of words and phrases that
you want to learn. Alternatively, you can select a list that was made by
someone else and shared to the Vocabla library. You can study each list
in a flashcard style until you feel like you’re ready to take a
practice quiz. You can earn digital trophies and badges for your scores
on the quizzes that you complete.
Pictolang is a
CAPL service that offers four image-based language learning activities.
The Visual Word Trainer is simply a flashcard activity that shows
students an image and the word or words that picture represents. The
Picture Match Game shows students one word and they have to find the
picture to match it. Word Match Game shows students one picture and they
have to find the word to match it. The Analyst Game
is probably the most challenging of the activities. The Analyst Game
shows students a picture and they have to identify where that picture
came from.
Forvo can best be described as an
audio wiki for word pronunciations. One of the problems with learning
to speak a language that is not phonetic is trying to figure out how to
pronounce the words. Forvo hosts
hundreds of recordings of word pronunciations by native speakers. Along
with word pronunciations, Forvo provides some basic demographic
information about each language. Forvo’s content is user-supported and user-generated. New pronunciations are added on a regular basis.
Surface Languages
is a free service offering flashcards and practice activities to help
students learn the basics of a new language. Surface Languages supports
38 languages. To use the site simply select the language that you are
trying to learn then select a set of words or phrases to practice. After
selecting a set of words or phrases you will be able to listen to the
pronunciations of those words or phrases. You can also flip through the
words and phrases in flashcard format.
