Rikkyo University Academic Word List

     I have finally finished making vocabulary flashcards for the Academic Word List. The Academic Word List is a list of 570 words that appear frequently in academic texts at college or university. I think all my students at Rikkyo University should know these words and will hopefully find the flashcards useful.
     There are flashcards for all 570 words and these can be found at the Quizlet website. Just type 'Rikkyo University Academic Word List' in the search box and you will find 28 sets with 20 words in each set.
     Finally, a big thank you to Dr Charles Browne, Professor of Linguistics at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo who made the Academic Word List available in an EXCEL file at his eLearn Guy website as a free download.
    As a taster, try the first set (1-20) below:

English Dictionary App

I really think it would be great idea to put an English dictionary app on your phone. These days, almost all my students have a smartphone (usually an iPhone) but hardly any of them have an English dictionary app on it.

While many students bring a bilingual Japanese-English dictionary electronic dictionary to class, many students have no dictionary at all. However, I think that using an English dictionary regularly can be one of the best things you can do to improve your English. Indeed, I try to get students in my class to use their dictionaries for at least a few minutes every class. Only by looking up a word they don't know and seeing it in an example sentence can they increase the size of their English vocabulary.

My recommendation is the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary app. You can buy it from the iTunes store or Google Play depending on whether you want it for an Apple or Android phone. This dictionary is designed for learner's of English and has easy to understand definitions of thousands of English words (about 170,000). Importantly, it also has example sentences showing how a word is really used in a sentence. I have this app on my iPad and it is very easy to use.

I know that one reason students don't buy an English dictionary app for their phone is that these apps are quite expensive (this app costs 1,400 yen at the iTunes store). However, I'm sure that if you explain to your parents what the app is for, they will help you with the cost of buying it.

Just think how useful this will be. You take your phone everywhere with you. If you have the Cambridge Advanced Learner's dictionary app on your phone, then you will always have access to thousands of English words, definitions and example sentences. There will be no need to carry an electronic or paper dictionary to your reading or writing class anymore. Moreover, you will find that you begin to learn more and more English words. You will also become a more independent learner of English.

English Central

English Central is one of the best resources available for students on the Internet. It is a website that has created a special online learning environment with lots of videos and study features for learners. For example, as well as a wide choice of videos to watch, learners can see the transcript, do vocabulary exercises and even interact with the website through a voice recognition feature.






In many ways English Central is a bit like a special Youtube channel for learners of English. Click on the link to see a video introducing English Central: http://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishCentral

The idea of English Central is that you immerse yourself in English content by watching short videos of speeches, film trailers, TV programmes, interviews, documentaries and so forth. The aim is that, by immersing yourself in videos while studying the associated vocabulary, you will improve and empower your knowledge of English by increasing the size of your vocabulary. At English Central, learning English means learning new vocabulary.




Because English Central has hundreds of free videos for you to watch, you can choose videos that interest you. You can watch and listen to a video as many times as you want and learn by studying the vocabulary. You can also speak English and practice your pronunciation with English Central's speech recognition technology.





To get an idea of the video watching experience that English Central can give you, click on the link to see a video about a Chinese-British woman's view on Britain and food: http://www.englishcentral.com/video/12571/british-people-and-food

You do not need to register to use English Central but registering does give you access to a few more feature, so it is probably a good idea. For example, once you have registered, you can select the videos you watch according to the English level you choose, such as TOEIC 500.





To go to the English Central website, click on the link: http://www.englishcentral.com


Finally, a few more things you need to know about English Central. Some of the videos and some of the features are not available unless you pay a fee. For example, you can only speak 2 videos a month if you use the site for free and several video courses are not open unless you pay a monthly or annual fee. However, many videos are free to use and this should not stop from using English Central. My suggestion is that you try and watch at least three videos a week.

I have tried English Central with some of my English speaking and listening classes and they seemed to really like it. Let me know how you get on!

Apps for Quizlet

Some students asked me recently what app they should get for their smartphone in order to use their Quizlet flashcards. This is important as, while there are many flashcard apps on the market, not all of them are designed to work with Quizlet.

The first thing to remember is that, while there are a number of free flashcard apps available, they tend to limit the number of vocabualry sets you can download. Therefore, I suggest you buy an app for your mobile device, allowing you to download as many sets as you want. Having said that, most Apple users are lucky because there is a great free app for them.

Apple users should get the Quizlet app (specially designed by Quizlet for Apple products) which is free from iTunes.

Unfortunately, the free Quizlet app does not work with earlier Apple operating systems. Therefore, if you have an older iPhone, I suggest buying an app called Flashcards Deluxe. This app costs ¥350 from iTunes.

Quizlet are in the process of developing a free app for people with a smartphone using the Android operating system but, for now, you will have to buy one. I recommend an app called Quizard. Many students have told me that it works well with Quizlet. It is available from Google Play for ¥237.

I hope this information helps. Please let me know how you get on with these applications.

Using Quizlet

Quizlet is an online vocabulary learning website. In easy English, this means a place where you can make online vocabulary flashcards that you can use to help you learn lots of new words quickly.

If you need to learn some new words for an English class or TOEIC, Quizlet is a great resource. To learn how it works, just go to the website and play around with the flashcards already made. For example, type in TOEIC in the search box and you will discover thousands of TOEIC vocabulary flashcards already made by other learners that you can use.

Better still, sign up for Quizlet and make your own flashcards. If you are a member of Facebook, you can sign in using the Facebook login system.

If you have a mobile device, such as a smartphone or iPod Touch, you can download all your flashcards onto it and study the flashcards anywhere. Just download an app onto your mobile device. Apple users can get a free Quizlet app from iTunes, while Android users will have to pay around 200 yen for an app. There are several free apps for Apple and Android users but they limit the number of vocabulary sets you can download.

Students around the world are studying with Quizlet. Don't get left behind!

Here is the link: quizlet.com