۶ نرم افزار برای بهبود انگلیسی شما

(gentle upbeat music)

• Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy.

So you guys might not know this,

but I love tech, I love tech.

I always want the latest gadgets.

I always want the latest software.

I’m a little bit of a nerd.

In this video, I’m going to combine two of my passions,

technology and languages, to bring you

an amazing compilation of all of the very best apps

and technology to help you improve your language skills.

So, let’s get started.

(beeping tech sound) So you will have heard me say

a millions times before

that one of the best ways of learning English

and improving your language skills is watching TV shows

and movies in the language you’re learning.

In English, for most of your cases.

This is obvious.

It’s a no brainer and it’s also a really,

really fun way of learning.

However, the biggest problem that my students face

It is such a good way to access restricted content.

(beeping tech sound) Number two is Google Docs

and Google Drive.

Google Docs is honestly one of the best things

to ever happen to teachers.

Gone are the days of marking pages and pages and pages

of written essays that you can hardly read

that then get lost, the students don’t look

at the corrections, they throw them away.

Gone are the days.

When I was teaching I was pretty tech savvy.

I used to make my students write their essays

on a Google Doc that they had shared with me.

I could then see what they had written

and make tweaks so they could see what they had written

and how I had changed it, and my explanation why.

I could add comments, I could add those corrections,

meaning that they can always come back to it

and use the corrections for revision.

Let’s face it, when I was a student

I never ever kept hold of my essays.

I would lose them and then find them two years later.

If you can find somebody who can correct your work

ask them to do so on a shared document

and keep it neatly in a folder.

It will be your best revision resource,

honestly you will thank me for it.

(beeping tech sound) Number three,

this is something I have mentioned

in a previous video, but it’s so old now I think

I need to mention it again because it’s such a great tool.

It’s is the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary.

I am a qualified teacher, I have been teaching

for many, many years, and I’m telling you,

this is the best dictionary I have ever used.

And when I say dictionary, I mean online dictionary.

So why is this dictionary so, so good?

Well it basically ticks all of my boxes.

It’s designed with learners of English in mind.

And the most incredible feature in my opinion

is that every single word has the IPA transcription,

that’s the International Phonetic Alphabet transcription,

in both British English and American English.

That’s rare, there aren’t many websites that do that.

As well as that, for each word they also have

two audio pronunciations at the very least,

sometimes they do have extra accents,

like Australian or Scottish for example.

Another really cool feature is that when you search

for a word, you can add that word to your word list,

so you can create a list of all of the words you’ve ever

had to search for, and that is such a powerful resource.

I really would bookmark this website on your computer

and use that word list to your advantage.

If you use it consistently every single word you search for,

add it to the word list, it’s only one click of a button,

over two years you will have this huge glossary

of everything you’ve learned.

You will also hear how it’s pronounced,

you will see how it’s pronounced,

you will compare how it’s pronounced in different countries.

Oh, it’s glorious.

Aside from the pronunciation features

and the word list features, they also have

very clear definitions and just lots of other information

that might be useful for learners of English.

It’s top notch, whoever designed it deserves an award.

(beeping tech sound) Right, number four is Quizlet.

Quizlet is such a powerful learning tool.

It has taken off in the past few years

and it’s really, really incredible.

It’s basically a digital place to store flash cards.

It also offers so much more than that,

but at the very heart of it it’s a place for you

to write your own flashcards, whether it’s about English,

whether it’s about a subject you’re learning at school,

and then you can look back at them.

Teachers can also create flash cards,

and you can then learn from them.

However, now they’ve added so many features.

There are games, you can pay matching games,

you can play spelling games where you hear the word

and you have to write it out.

You can play writing games

where they give you the definition

and you have to write the word.

There are loads of options, and you can see resources

that other people have written for you

and that other teachers have written for their students.

Try searching IELTS.

Try searching Business English.

Try searching Photography English (chuckling).

There will definitely be something for you.

You should absolutely give Quizlet a go.

Flash cards have been used for years and years, decades,

if not hundreds of years, for language learning,

so it only makes sense that we can now do it online

and through an app.

And the fact that we can share our flashcards with the world

and have the world share their flashcards with us

is just a blessing.

I never want to hit anyone with a computer or a smartphone

say that they can’t learn English

because they haven’t got enough resources.

Everything is here for you;

you just have to educate yourself.

(beeping tech sound) Number five

is the BBC Sounds app.

This is the BBC audio app where everything audio

is just included in one app.

So that’s basically their music,

their radio shows, and their podcasts.

And when I say there is something for everyone, there is

(chuckling) something for absolutely everyone on this app.

BBC is a British corporation, so naturally, you’re going

to have a plethora of British accents at your disposal.

You know I recommend the Archers, that is available

through this app, but there are so many podcasts

and radio shows that will be interesting to you,

and will also help you improve your listening skills.

You can search by category,

so type in a word that’s interesting to you,

or something you want to learn about,

and see if a podcast or a radio episode comes up.

Listening to English music will also help you.

Definitely check out the BBC Sounds app.

(beeping tech sound) And the last one, number six,

is Google Translate,

and you might think (chuckling), “What?

“A teacher recommending Google translate?

“Is she mad?”

I don’t recommend putting all of your essays

and all of your homework into Google Translate.

I’m more interested in a certain piece

of software they have.

It’s been available for a couple of years now,

but I’m always amazed by how few people know about it.

You can use your camera on your phone

to translate things in real time.

Say you’re travelling, for example, in a foreign country

and you want to read the menu.

Instead of having to type out everything

into Google Translate, which in some places

might be impossible because it’s a different alphabet,

you can just put your camera over the menu

and Google will recognise the characters

and translate it into your language for you.

Now I wouldn’t say this is the best ever tool

for learning a language, but it will really, really

help you get by, especially in times of need.

And the great thing about it is

you don’t always need to use an internet connection.

You can already download the capability

of translating a specific language.

Right, that’s it for today’s lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

I hope you learned something.