A Different Approach on Vocabulary Learning: Mondly

As the app development industry improves each day, we are presented with so many apps to pick and choose to use in our language learning journey. Checking out the infinite number of apps suggested to me by Google Play, I decided to give Mondly a shot. Having used the premium version on and off for about a year now, I think I can do it justice reviewing it. Let’s start with the pros:

Easy to use surface The minute you sign up and choose the language you want to learn, you are given a detailed map about various topics, which helps you to see the steps you’ll be taking from the very beginning. It’s not very complicated to use it either. It also does make it a bit as if you’re playing an online game. Topics range As mentioned previously, the topics have quite a good range such as Core Vocabulary, Travel, Romance etc. So, whether you are trying to survive in your short trip to Madrid or just impress a potential love interest, you will be able to find key phrases and words to help you communicate. Repetition Just like Duolingo, Mondly provides many vocabulary repetition activity to help you internalise the words you’ve just learnt. The ‘’Conversation’’ Feature What really sets Mondly apart from its counterparts is that it has a feature where you will be given a dialogue at the end of each topic, which helps you see the words you’ve just learnt in context, and asked to repeat after the native speaker while you record yourself saying the sentences in the dialogue out loud. You can have a full-on conversation with yourself, if you would not be weirded out by that, or simply the app itself if you are looking for some company! Not only does it prepare you for an actual conversation, but also it helps you practice your pronunciation. Fret not, this is not an add sponsored by the app. I will now mention the stuff that I didn’t like that much: Bland Surface Although the surface is quite easy to use, it is also quite bland and to me it gives off the feel of a very old app. Not an eye-candy for sure. Constant repetition Although you are not given weird and useless sentences, the repetition gets wee bit boring after some point. As a language teacher, I know that repetition is quite important but mind you, I have used apps that can adjust the repetition frequency just right. I am afraid Mondly doesn’t pass on that part. Lack of emphasis on Phrases and Collocations If you are looking for an app to help you build your vocabulary in a foregin language, Mondly is a good option. But as every language learner/teacher would agree with me, seeing those newly acquired vocabularies in different contexts would give a better idea as to how to form sentences. Lack of Grammar Studies The app offers an interesting feature where you can see verb inflections in different tenses, it lacks grammar activities. I would have actually thought it expected learners to discover the rules by themselves implicitly, if only there weren’t any inflections shown. All in all, Mondly is a nice app to use for vocabulary building and thematic learning but lacks different aspects of teaching a language and therefore cannot be used as an only means of learning a foreign language.

Tagul: Cute way to teach vocabulary

Tagul is a word cloud tool which enable you to create word clouds with its template shapes and your own pictures. Using Tagul is really easy. You can use most frequently used words section from a document or website (if you are too lazy) or you can write your own words and adjust their size and color. Creating Vocabulary posters and and inserting pronunciation videos on those posters with Aurasma would be a really effective way to teach vocabulary. You can also use Tagul for grammar (Gerund & Infinitive, Prepositions,Conjuction word lists)and add your word clouds to your presentations and digital stories. Here is a word cloud I created Cloud 1 Here is a tutorial about how Tagul is used.

Virtual Field Trip

Virtual Field Trip is an online way to travel all around the word through your computers and smart phones.You can take your students a trip to an island to talk about its geology as if you were there. You can explore places and objects. There is always something/somewhere worth seeing.

In ELT, you can combine Virtual Field Trip with Reading,Vocabulary,Speaking and even grammar classes. Here are the best tools for Virtual Field Trip: Arounder, 3Dmekanlar.com, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Augmented Reality

In today's world, even using powerpoint slides for class is considered to be old-fashioned. Technology never stops improving and that improvement makes children more and mroe excited and easliy bored of classical teaching methods. Expecting students to sit during the whole class is now an utopia. These curious students demand techonogy and teachers have to improve their technological skills to draw student's attention. These days, teacher are savoring the benefits of Augmented Reality, which enable them to visualize their classes. Best tools for Augmented Reality:

• ColAR Mix
• Heart Cam
• Morfo
• Aurasma
• ESL Flashcards
• SnapShop

Here is a video about how it looks like:

Quiz Games

The new generation's children are easily bored and distracted during the class. They prefer not to sit during the whole time and listening to the lecture.Plus, they may even get bored of solving tests and problems. Writing or creating a quiz page with Word is old-fashioned and don't work for this millenium's hyperactive and techonolgy freak children. There is a really easy way to make everyone involved in class. You can use Quiz game tools such as Kahoot,Socrative and Plickers to draw your students' attention to the questions and make everyone have fun while solving the quiz! Believe me, that kind of learning is much mor beneficial than the one we are used to. So, let me tell you functions of these tools.



Kahoot: Kahoot is a game-based learning tool and really easy to use. Just create your account, add your questions and coloful shapes for answers. Get your game code with which students will enter the game and start playing. Kahoot is both suitable for childern and teenagers.

Socrative: Socrative does the same job that Kahoot does but it has more serious and less coloful design than Kahoot. Socrative may not be the best option for children. But you can use it at high schools or even college.

Plickers: You need Plicker cards and use these cards to response the lecture. Much more better than classical ''rising a hand''method. Isn't it?

Aurasma: Visualize Everthing!

Aurasma is a great app for augmented realityand it enables you to creat your own ''Auras'' on which you can upload items such as videos,graphics,images,audios. You can create posters and insert animations,videos to visualise the subject that you are presenting on posters. In Aurasma is widely used in educational technology and in ELT, you can use Aurasma for speaking,pronunciation,reading,grammar and vocabulary. For example, On a poster you can insert a picture of an animal and insert videos to show how words are pronunciated. Or you can publish your digital story's cover page and insert your video that tells the whole story. You can enlarge the usage of Aurasma and it depends on your creativity. To create Aurasma, you must log in to StudioAurasma and start creating posters. Here is a poster that I created to teach prepositions with Aurasma.

Make everything a click away: Use QR Codes!

Are you fed up with long and boring brochures? Are you complaining about the books that take too much place? Or do you want to insert and move the data everywhere? Here is the life saver solution for all these problems: QR Codes. 

You see them everywhere, sometimes you don't even realise them. These little codes are the perfect way to insert the data everywhere. In ELT, you can use QR codes to upload documents,stories,posters,audio,videos,answer sheets and anything that takes too much place. Students will enjoy scanning the codes and you can also make them create their own QR Codes. Creating a QR Code is extremely easy. You can download ''QR Code Reader'' app ,which is available for both iOS and Android, and create and scan QR Codes. There are also dozens of websites with which you can QR Codes. My favorite one is  http://www.qrstuff.com/

Here is a tutorial for creating QR Codes