Let’s face it: not many learners have the kind of love for words that may lead them to grab a chunky dictionary every time they need to know the meaning of a new term. Some students start off their journey on a new language with the will to record new words in a systematic way; others just jot meanings down wherever they land, but most learners do have something in common: they want an easy-to-use, practical, portable aid to record and review vocabulary. These free Android apps for varied proficiency levels make the cut for their usefulness and potential to help improve vocabulary consistently in the long run, if used properly and frequently. Each one approaches vocabulary learning from a different perspective, which makes up for adaptability to different learning styles. Choose one and start boosting your vocabulary!
- Scan News
This app is sourced from a wide range of well-known news anchors and magazines, both general (such as CNN and the BBC), and specialized (such as ESPN and Cosmopolitan). Not only American or British anchors are featured, Asian, Australian, and European newspapers and journals have a spot. You will be asked to sign up and log in to customize the types of news (or the news sources) you want to see on your page. On your feed, you will be able to read stories from the website of the news anchor of your choice without leaving the app since the original sites keep full functionality within the application.
You may be thinking that vocabulary acquisition would obviously only rely on –and complement— reading comprehension since you’re dealing with newspaper stories, but luckily, there is something for everyone in this app. Auditory learners can watch video stories and podcasts from reputed sites, like TED or BBC Learning English, and read along with the transcript that the app provides. There’s a catch for the video and audio features, however, since simultaneous transcriptions only go for one minute, unless you purchase the premium version of the app. Oh, well… not everything is perfect! Paying to have full access to all the app features may well be worth it!
“Where is the vocabulary improving trick?”, you must be wondering. Well, the defining feature of this app is that you can tap on any word on the news articles or the audio transcripts, and a Word Reference widget will show at the bottom, providing you with the definition or the translation (from English to the default system language on your phone). Whether you get one or the other depends on your settings; choose English to get the monolingual dictionary and make sure the widget shows only definitions (more advanced learners are advised to use this modality, whereas intermediate learners might prefer to leave the settings in default mode, in which case they will get translations to their mother tongue every time they tap on a word). Tapping along on 100 words a day and reading their definitions wouldn’t really help most people master them, so the app allows you to keep a favorites list, where you’ll be able to go back to the words you bookmarked as many times as you want, and see the related dictionary entry. In addition, you can listen to the pronunciation and record yourself, which is really useful for auditory learners, and for everyone, let’s face it –would you really say you knew a word if you weren’t able to pronounce it?
Beyond the advantages of having an in-app dictionary and a built-in list-keeping functionality with a pronunciation practice feature, every learner must find a way to extend the use and scope of the app. Reviewing the list every once in a while is not enough to ensure that new vocabulary will enter your lexicon! My advice as a teacher is to use each bookmarked word in context (in sentences, for easy practice), and even “force” the new vocabulary into writing pieces if you have the chance to.
All in all, this app is very enriching. Not only will you learn new vocabulary curated by you, but you’ll also build on your general culture with up-to-date information in the process. Scan News deserves five stars!
- Knudge.me
If you are looking for a more playful approach to vocabulary learning, and you have a good intermediate to upper-intermediate proficiency level, this is the app for you. This app offers courses (sections with a specific vocabulary focus, such as idioms or phrasal verbs) presented in the form of challenges and games. Each challenge is rather short to complete, which helps keep the interest of learners who have a short attention span –or a long, busy day ahead of them. The app encourages you to follow through with one course before you start another one, but if you feel like skipping a particular one, you can pause it and move on to something else. For each course, you can customize the number of new items you want to learn throughout the day; the app will notify you so that you don’t neglect vocabulary learning even in your busiest days. You will be able to tick the box in each vocabulary item to assure you’ve mastered it, or bookmark specific words, which will show in a list. Just as advised with the previous app, you can extend on your vocabulary lists by using the new words in context, repeating them, or using them in your writing, instead of leaving them locked in the app forever. In the games section, there are several fun and valuable options, like a reading challenge that tests your reading speed and comprehension. The app is colorful and minimalistic, and words are represented in a very visually attractive way that will definitely be memorable for visual learners.
For its variety and practicality, this app is highly recommended! Completing the games and challenges is fun, and we all know that fun is really engaging, and therefore produces meaningful learning.
- Visual Vocabulary
Visual Vocabulary is an amped up picture dictionary. Why amped up? Because once you have taken a look at the pictures and words, you can train your associative skills in several ways: test, listening, flashcards, writing, and pronunciation. With this practice, you’ll achieve full association of the word: visual with the picture, auditory and oral with the built-in pronunciation, and written with the type-in exercises. The content of the app is divided into several categories for basic vocabulary, such as home or food, and each category is subdivided into several other pertinent ones. For each of them, all the previously mentioned practice modes apply.
This must-have app for beginners gets five big stars. Beginners will benefit the most from it, because of its simple yet well-structured vocabulary categories and reinforcement exercises. Intermediate and advanced students can use it to refresh their knowledge, and will most likely find that they are actually learning a couple words that had escaped them before. Visual Vocabulary is definitely worth it.
Choose the app that best fits your vocabulary learning needs, and download it from Google Play to enrich your lexicon. I will continue my search for the most useful English learning apps, and review them for you. 🙂
InEnglish 