Articles

Review: Vocabulary Website for English Learners

by Karen Stanley, ESL Instructor, Central Piedmont Community College
http://people.cpcc.edu/~skh6004e

Learning vocabulary is always useful, but sometimes memorization can be boring. A website like "Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun" http://www.vocabulary.co.il/ can offer a break from intensive memorization by providing vocabulary games designed for people learning English. The website seems useful as an individual learning activity, or as an activity to do with a friend.

The different games are:

Word Search - This has 2 levels of difficulty with a Timer option. The word search puzzle is at the left, with a list of 8 words to the right. Since the words are all there, either level is probably okay for most users. If you find you don't know many of the words, you can make a decision as to whether or not you want to spend time looking them up in order to improve your chances for learning new vocabulary.

Crossword - Here you again have a choice of two levels and of topic; the ones I looked at (Around the World and Cleaning at Level 1) seemed very difficult even for advanced students. 

Hangman - No choice of levels was possible, and I felt it might be too hard for most English learners. Under Animals, the word that came up was fawn and under Baby, teething, so if those are words you think you could guess, this game might be at a good level for you.

Quiz - consists of multiple choice questions; at Level 1, the questions seem good for students in an Academic ESL or EFL program; the exercises are only available as timed quizzes, but you can set the timer for 60 seconds, which is longer than it seems. If you have trouble with the level, you might want to do this with a friend.

Match Game - has a Learning option and a Play option. Learning includes a picture, the written word, and the pronunciation of the word. The Play part (which has an Easy 12-card, 6-item option) is the old card game in which you try to remember the position of both red 7s, black 10s, etc. (as a child, I called this game Concentration). The Play part *also* has pictures, words, and pronunciation of each item every time it is clicked on. I think this is my favorite game for learning new vocabulary.

Jumble - Selecting Easy along with the No Timer option created a level of vocabulary game that seems good for most beginning or intermediate English learners. In the Animal category, Easy started with bird (you drag the jumbled letters into a frame), Medium with kangaroo and Difficult with rhinoceros. This is also a game that could be played by two people working together if the level seems a bit difficult. Since all the letters are there and visible, and the letter "sticks" in the frame if you drag it to the correct place, anyone can eventually solve every Jumble even without knowing the word - as long as the No Timer option is on.

Although this website might be a fun reinforcement of a particular category of vocabulary, you can't be sure that the words you have already learned are actually the ones that show up in the game. It is probably also not useful as your primary way of learning new words. However, I would suggest it is useful for English learners who enjoy word games and who want to have fun adding a few words to their vocabulary.

© Copyright, Karen Stanley 2005. All rights reserved. This material is not to be republished or reproduced in any form without the express consent of the author.