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Lyrics training: learn English by listening to your favourite songs

LyricsTraining.com‘s tagline says:

LyricsTraining is an easy and fun method to learn and improve your foreign languages skills through the music videos and lyrics of your favorite songs.

And it is easy and fun indeed: find the video of a song you like, select your “Game mode” (this determines how much of the text gets left out that you have to add), and start listening. The video stops when you stop typing, so you don’t have to worry that you can’t keep up with the music.

partial screenshot of lyricstraining.com
The main screen of lyricstraining.com

You can even replay any line as many times as you like. Your attempts will be timed and your score will also depend on how many words you skip.

The videos are marked easy, medium or hard, so you can choose your level.

No login or registration is required, but if you do so, you can compete with your friends and compare your scores.

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English Practice – learn English online

EnglishPractice.com helps you in many different areas of learning English: grammar, writing, correct usage, common mistakes and more. You can also find games and learning materials for children.

The site features help sections for students preparing for TOEFL and IELTS, but the materials are useful for any other exam type as well.

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Learning Chocolate

LearningChocolate.com is a website aimed at young learners, to help them learn new vocabulary in various topics.learningchocolate.com partial screenshot Within each topic, students can choose from a variety of exercise types and games. Each vocabulary item is reinforced with pictures and sounds. The dozens of categories will keep learners busy for quite some time.

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An online graphical dictionary: Visuwords

Visuwords is an original concept for working with words. When you enter a word, you get an image of the connections the word’s various meanings have:

Visuwords graph for "permit"The image above shows the word connections for “permit” – visit the site to get a better view.

The various colours represent different types of connections: “is a kind of”, “is a member of”, “opposes”, etc. It’s an excellent way to get an idea of the contexts a word is used in.

When you move your mouse over a node, you get more detailed descriptions and sample sentences. You can also drag the nodes and rearrange the image to concentrate on the parts you’re interested in.

It works not only as a dictionary but also as a writer’s tool – you can improve your writing by looking up any word you’re unsure about.

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Listen and Write

Listen-and-write.com is a simple but very useful site for learners of English. It’s dictation practice: you listen to a text and then you have to write down every word. Your work is checked in real time – you have to spell each word correctly. If you make a mistake, you can’t go on but have to try again until you get it right. You can stop and play the text again as many times as you like. There are a lot of different levels of difficulty, so everybody will find suitable texts. If you register on the site you can record your results and check your progress too.

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Test your vocabulary and help the hungry

A simple but addictive game: freerice.com. Choose the correct meaning of a word from four options – if you get it right, the next word will be a bit more difficult; if you get it wrong, it will be easier. After a few questions, you will see your vocabulary level, which will always change according to your answers. You can also listen to the correct pronunciation of the words.

Apart from practising your English vocabulary, you can also play with other languages and subjects.