English, Fun & Living in HK, Japan and Taiwan

Can Vocaboly’s vocabulary software help reinforce this? Well, I decided to give it a try and download the trial software. It installed and removed easily enough, and the trial software worked well enough on install, not crashing the machine. Once setup and running (neither process was difficult), we entered the exercises and could choose between the different grades of vocabulary (TOEFL, GMAT, SAT, GRE) and away we went. There were a number of ways to learn, review and practice words that had made your hit list of words (in the flashcard section at the bottom of the screen). Take a look yourself:

There’s the word ticker which scrolls past each word you want to remember, recall mode allows you to practice remembering, and spelling mode that allows you to practice spelling some of your words. There are also numerous ways to tweak the settings, add words to lists, and a couple of test modes. So for the avid student who likes to acqiore and recall words in this fashion, this could be a valuable and effective way to combine learning and review. There are some additional books of words and tests available from the website, as well as additional support and software, including speech engines (did I say that the whole software is accompanied with Text-2-Voice capability giving students ample opportunity to hear words spoken clearly?).

There were two limitations that may give some teachers pause before recommending this software, especially if you’re teaching outside the US or in a non-US system.

• 1. a focus on US english at academic levels, there were no mentions of vocabulary focused towards any of the rest (and large population) of the English speaking academic system; so for students entering a US institution, these tests would be fine. If, though, you were teaching students headed to any of the other English speaking countries, you’d be out of luck. There is no mention of IELTS at all anywhere, nor indeed any other English proficiency exam common in those parts of the world. A word to the writers of this software: version 3 – make it deal with non-U.S. English (of which there at least one hundred million of us!).
• 2. there are actually no contexts for any of the vocabulary items. For example, if you look up ‘abdicate’, the meaning is clearly and concisely given, and a partial example is given. However, there is no complete sentence to highlight how the word would actually be used. It’s a pity: students learning a new word would love to see that. Providing a sample text and/or reading passage would be a good way to site these words in context and make retention easier. For a teacher using this software, you would need to supplement vocabulary practice with more traditional vocabulary books, lots of quality reading and a good dictionary, too. But then, that goes without saying.

If you have students who need additional supplementary vocabulary practice before heading to a US college for higher education, then this package seems affordable and good value. Combined with additional online support, it represents great value at $39.99 especially when you consider that there are more than 12,000 words, each with meaning, phonetic symbol and pronunciation included in the database, and email support and lifetime upgrades are all included! At the very least, it’s easy to try out by downloading the trial and installing it. Unlike most trialware, it’s not cripple-ware so teachers and students should find plenty to be able to evaluate it before buying!