Elsewhere On the Internet: Verbalearn!
Thanks to a post from Learn English Online (a great blog with ideas to learn English for free over the Internet), I’ve found a website that promises to help you learn English. The website is called Verbalearn, and it looks like it will be good for advanced vocabulary learners.
Who Is Verbalearn For?
Verbalearn won’t be for everyone. It seems to be aimed at native speakers who are getting ready for the SAT or ACT tests. These are tests that American students-to-be take to show the universities that they want to apply at just how smart they are. And both tests have a ‘vocabulary’ section with words that even native speakers don’t use often. Unless you’re going to move to an English-speaking country, I don’t think you need to learn SAT and ACT vocabulary. And Verbalearn includes special sections for both tests.
On the other hand, Verbalearn might be good for English-learners who already have a good vocabulary and want to make it great. I tried the “general vocabulary” section of the website and it had a lot of vocabulary that I don’t think you’ll find in a ‘normal’ English course. If ‘normal’ courses don’t teach you much and you still want to expand your vocabulary, Verbalearn might be for you.
How It Works
For me, the interesting thing about Verbalearn is how it works: you take normal online vocabulary quizzes–like you can find here or on a thousand different websites–and the Verbalearn website remembers which words you didn’t know. Then, when you have a long list of ‘new’ words, you can either practice the words online, or download an MP3 file that Verbalearn makes with just the words from your list.
The online exercises are interesting–the ones I tried were all fitting the right word into a blank in a sentence–and were all multiple choice. The advantage of them, though, is that all the choices to choose from were words from the list of words I didn’t know! So, unless you learn the words you’re working on, there’s no hope of guessing your way through the exercise by process of elimination.
And the MP3 file that Verbalearn made for me was also interesting. The words were spoken out loud, and there is a pause to repeat the word, and then there’s the words definintion and an example sentence. I imagine that it would be good while you’re driving or working around the house.
Who Shouldn’t Use Verbalearn?
If you’re having a hard time understanding Bite Sized English, I think Verbalearn is too difficult for you. If you want another website to practice your English, I recommend Babbel.com.
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