This post was written by Karen Schweitzer who kindly offered herself to contribute to this blog. Karen Schweitzer, Business School Guide for About.com, writes about online colleges for OnlineColleges.net. Thank you, Karen for this contribution!!!
"Incorporating hi-tech learning aids and applications into a study regimen can sometimes make it easier for language learners to learn and retain new information.
You can order many of these products for a cost from catalogs or from companies who provide such services. You can also find free options online. Most of the free options work just as well as the paid options and can be used indefinitely without incurring any costs.
This list provides information about 5 free online tools that can be used for language learning. ( I will be including more online tools suggested by Karen in future posts, don´t miss them ) :
1- FreeRice - Language learners can give free rice to hungry people by playing this English vocabulary game from the UN Food Program. For every multiple choice vocabulary question that's answered correctly the UN donates ten grains of rice to hungry people.
2- RIA - The Center for Language Education And Research at Michigan State University provides many free rich Internet applications (RIA) for language learners. The applications can be used to record, upload, mix, and broadcast audio.
3- Palabea - Palabea is a social language learning network where learners can chat with native speakers and improve their writing and grammar skills with hi-tech online tools.
4- SharedTalk - SharedTalk is a language exchange network that provides free web tools for language learning. Members of this free community can find language partners, voice chat, and text chat online.
5- MyHappyPlanet - MyHappyPlanet was created for language learners who want to connect with other learners and make friends online. Users can take free lessons online and find language partners all over the world.
Comments
Here's another great website for language exchange around the world: http://www.penpalparade.com/