Livemocha.com is one of the best websites I got to look into. Once you sign up, you have access to video-audio lessons, vocabulary starter and instant chat with native speakers. When signing up, you have the chance to set up your own profile (just like a Facebook one) and select the languages you speak and the ones you want to learn and tell why. Each level of Spanish includes lessons with video dialogues, vocabulary, reading, role play and writing. At each step it tests what you’ve learned through quizzes which can be reviewed from certified language tutors in exchange for tokens. Tokens are the virtual currency which allows you to buy features on the website. You can also earn tokens by writing submissions and reviews for other users. The cost for those is 800/$9.95, 1600/$19.95 and 2400/$29.95 which I find pretty reasonable especially compared to other websites with similar features. Each course has 6 units at the end of which you can take the “course test”. It offers SPAN 101 to 202 and lets you practice vocabulary courses, flashcards, writing and speaking while you “make friends,” if you wish, with native speakers of the languages you’re interested in. There’s also a culture section where users can post pictures with descriptions and comments. Overall, I really enjoyed exploring livemocha.com and found it well-organized, reliable and interesting and highly recommend it.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Studyspanish.com, as the title indicates, is only for the Spanish language. It basically advertises “Camino de éxito” which is a 15 audio CD set. Signing up is required if you want access to features like quizzes but if you’d rather not register you have access to their basic pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary lessons. Student membership options includes free, premium and complete conversation courses. The grammar tab consists of 9 units with more or less 10 topics for each: overall 104 topics, each of which offers a tutorial, all kinds of quizzes, tests, and a final exam for each topic. The vocabulary tab consists of 6 units or 55 topics in different fields as well as 2 sub-categories for each (the second one though is only for premium members). On a side note, it offers an oral exam, flashcards, matching games, quizzes and tests. There’s also a report card which keeps track of the quizzes and tests you’ve taken which I found pretty cool. And that’s only half of everything this website has to offer you. There are verb drills, and tabs for pronunciation and resources with lots of interesting features for you to explore. It is very well organized and everything is clearly explained, making it easy to understand. No wonder it’s one of my top choices.
Altissia.com is a website focused on 5 languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch). When signing up it gives you a 7-day-trial which starts with a 30-40 minute placement test (too long I think) consisting of fill-in-the-blanks and multiple choice exercises. The vocabulary section is separated into units and each unit into topics, animation videos (of which you can adjust the speed and language) and exercises including dictation/spelling, translation and comprehension activities. The grammar section consists of topics like verbs, adjectives, proverbs etc., for each of which there’s a well-structured and explanatory tutorial along with practice exercises. You also get access to following your progress in real time. Even though I didn’t get to fully explore the business section, I found the website quite professional-looking and effective overall, without an overwhelming amount of extra features to crowd it. Its high prices and the lack of games and more fun activities were the main reason altissia.com got four instead of five stars; $49/1month, $99/3months, $159/6months and $249/12months.
Palabea.net is basically a language exchange network. Registration is required and its main features include text/chat and voice/video call with native speakers. It’s for any languages and it’s a facebook type website where you edit your profile, invite friends and make comments. With “my palabea” you basically have your profile with options like docs, virtual classrooms (pretty confusing concept) etc. Once you “make friends” you can start the online language exchange, and also connect with teachers, get access to podcasts, videolectures and other features. There aren’t any tutorials, exercises or games but only interactions with native speakers. There are no costs and even though it’s impossible to start learning a language on this website I found the concept very fun and appealing for people who want to maintain their language skills while socializing with native speakers from all around the world.
spanishpod.com offers a 7-day-trial and even though it’s pretty confusing at first, its gives directions and tips to lead you through the process. The levels of language you get to choose among are newbie, elementary, intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced and there are different topics with sub-categories for each one. Each lesson consists of listening, discussion, dialogue, vocabulary, expansion and exercises (matching, multiple choice, listen and choose). It was fun and I enjoyed going through the website but I didn’t find it engaging enough.
bbc.co.uk/languages/ is a free-of-charge website which doesn’t require registration and offers Spanish for beginners and intermediates. It lets you “test your Spanish” with a placement test, which I found quite unreliable because it would stop the test on the first mistake I made and automatically assume I’m a beginner. It then recommends activities according to the placement test. What was suggested to me was an intermediate audio magazine, Spanish TV (to which you don’t have access unless you’re in the UK), BBC Mundo (which is an online Spanish newspaper) and Spanish crosswords with a few topics like health, proverbs and cuisine. To intermediates it also offered “sueños”, which are fairly small clips from TV series from 11 different learning units. The grammar section also has a few different units presented through dialogues and readings and then proceeds to some activities (matching words, putting the dialogue in order). I didn’t think the website was well-structured or organized and even though most of the features it offered looked interesting they really weren’t once I tried them. If you’re looking for a tutorial, then this definitely isn’t for you since it basically helps you maintain the level you’re at.
Digitaldialects.com is a free-of-charge website for any language with no requirements to sign up. Its features include games, verb sections, advanced topics (mainly vocabulary) and spelling. The vocabulary section is learning through icons which then turns into a text or audio game. After that it prompts you to a spelling game. I thought of it mostly as an interesting website with cute designs and a variety of fun games that help you learn and practice.
Italki.com doesn’t actually consist of tutorials. Here’s how it works; the user buys italki credits, schedules a session with a teacher, the teacher teaches the lesson, the user confirms the lesson so that the credits get transferred to the teacher. The charge for a lesson varies according to the teacher. I saw teachers charging $0.10 and others $3 or $4. You can set up your own profile, make friends, “follow” them (just like at twitter) or even chat with them if you want. You can also post any kind of language questions on the website and get feedback from other users. I found the concept interesting and different from everything I had seen up to that point but don’t think I would trust a native speaker to just teach me a language since anyone (even you) can apply to be a teacher for the website. The cost is the following: $5 for 50 italki credits, $20 for 200 italki credits and $500 for 5000 italki credits which doesn’t include the processing fee.
Mylanguageexchange.com is a cute website for any language, offering lots of features like penpals, word games, text chat, translations etc. It primarily promotes interacting with native speakers. According to the website itself: "In this method, small mixed groups of native speakers of two languages spend half the time speaking in one language and half the time in the other language. Activities are structured to ensure all areas of language acquisition are exercised such as vocabulary, pronunciation and listening comprehension”. There are specific instructions for everything which really helps but in general I find the set-up quite confusing and old-fashioned. There aren’t actual tutorials or cool or astounding designs and this, along with its complexity, makes it hard to stay motivated and concentrated.
online – spanish – course.com is one of four websites I researched that were focused on the Spanish language. Shortly after I started exploring the website, I realized that its main focus was to build/improve the user’s vocabulary more than anything else. All the features focus exclusively on practicing Spanish vocabulary through flashcards, sentences with translating tools, and games with multiple choice and fill-in-the-gap exercises. There’s also a text analyzer feature, which works like a translator and text categories where you can read jokes, quotes, poems, proverbs etc. It’s a free of charge website, but you have the option of paying $5/month if you want to hear the pronunciation of the words. Overall, it’s a nicely organized database but it doesn’t seem to have a lot of potential since it doesn’t offer anything but vocabulary tutorials. If you’re looking for something more than just practicing your vocabulary then this definitely isn’t the website for you.
Babbel.com is for any language and its trial-options include matching the Spanish sentence to the English one and putting the parts of a sentence in the correct order. Its courses have features to help you practice your grammar, knowledge of numbers, listening, and Spanish idioms; there are also "express training" (short exercises to bring your passive knowledge up-to-date and ready to use), refresher courses, themes and situations, basic and advanced vocabulary, 1000 useful sentences, tongue twisters and writing exercises. I didn’t find its methods very effective mainly because of the fact that it didn’t have actual tutorials. It was more like a game which isn't worth the time or money. 1month-$12.95, 3months-$8.95/month, 6monts-$7.45/month
Languagesonline.org.uk is a free of charge old-fashioned looking website which basically consists of revision exercises on grammar and vocabulary in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Latin and French. It’s fun at first with all the games and crosswords, matching exercises etc., but it soon becomes boring. If you just want play around and refresh your grammar and vocabulary in a fun way that would be a good choice.
Learnspanish.language101.com is a remarkably expensive website ($527 for Spanish 1, 2 and 3) with a very short free trial which left me with mixed feelings. The creator of the website explains in much detail how it works and takes you through the steps. It seems to involve a lot of listening and repeating of what you hear as a single way of learning which I don’t think is quite helpful. Also is suggests spending 30 minutes on each lesson which depending on how long that is might be reasonable or not. A last thing that I found interesting was that it promoted self-evaluation for which I actually I almost felt like a got judged about. On a side note there is a 60second video on what the program is like on the homepage of the website in case you’re interested in checking it out too.
Linkua.com presents itself as a language learning guide. It’s for any language and its main concept consists of learning a language in a school or with a teacher. Basically it promotes peer-teaching without any tutorials which, as I’ve stated before, I don’t find promising or trustworthy. The average price for a class is $70 with the 1st one being free. Another fact that annoyed me about this website was how slow the pages would load compared to other websites.
Edufire.com which works as a classroom that meets on specific days and times. The cost for the 1st class was $10 for a 60min session but I found the concept weird rather than trustworthy or appealing. Just the idea of a peer teacher sounds unsafe/unsure to me because no one can guarantee me that he/she will be able to explain me the concepts, answer my questions in a manner that $10 will be worth it for 60 minutes.
Spanish. about.com is a blog with “browse topics” on learning Spanish. The “browse topics” are basically links to other blogs about “learning Spanish grammar, Spanish pronunciation, written Spanish, history of Spanish” etc. It’s free of charge and you’re not required to sign up but it’s rather useless since no tutorials or any other features are provided. It’s also lacking visual aids and attention-drawing extras. I do not particularly recommend it.
Friday, January 6, 2012
http://verbling.com/
Verbling.com seems to (still) be under construction. The concept is to instantly connect you with native speakers around the world through live video. To be honest, it doesn’t look promising or trustworthy but I’ll leave that one up to you.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
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