Users who need to learn their foreign words today have a wide assortment of online services and software programs at their disposal. This includes the Vocabulary Trainer, the Vocabulary Builder, Words or five essential tools to learn a language.

Free Vocab Test is another program specifically designed for students studying for standardized tests such as the GRE, TOEFL and SAT but also useful for anyone else who wants to improve the vocabulary of a particular language.

The free vocabulary test software is pre-configured with three word lists for advanced and intermediate students of English. One interesting feature of the software is the ability to download additional word lists and tests from within the software. Available for selection are for instance GRE word lists, easily confused words or Barrons 504 absolute essential words.

Each new word list that is selected this way is automatically added to the program. It is furthermore possible to load word lists from the computer, to create a new word list and to edit an existing word list, for instance by adding new words to it.

The vocabulary program not only comes with options to create and use word lists, but also with testing options. You need to select a word list first and use the Test menu at the top to load the test interface.

The program lists the available words in groups such as never tested, unfamiliar or familiar. The counts change during a test. It supports both a multiple choice test and spelling test. Both tests ask you to pick an answer based on a word definition and synonyms.

Windows users can download the learning software from the developer website. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. (via)

The Firefox add-on Ming-a-ling aids in the learning of vocabulary of one or multiple languages. Its approach is quite unique, as it replaces selected words on websites with words from the language you are learning. The idea is to create a connotation between words in your native language and words in the language that you are learning.

The sentence “we need to cut down the Baum” is a basic example. The English word tree was replaced by the German word Baum in the sentence.

So how does it work in detail? It would be quite problematic if the extension would start changing words right away, or to many words, or words that you do not know yet.

The first step in making best use of the language learning tool is to add words from your native language. This is done by selecting words on the page, right-clicking them and choosing Add Phrase. It is then necessary to pick the source language and the destination language. The translation is shown and needs to be confirmed. The word will be automatically displayed in the language that you are learning whenever it appears on a page. The selection of the source and destination language is only necessary once, and then only if languages need to be switched.

The words are automatically highlighted on the page. You can move the mouse over the word to see its translation in a tooltip.

The extension places an icon in the status bar which can be used to access its preferences, to change the source and destination language and the frequency of translations on pages.

The add-on preferences contain options to disable or change the highlighting of translated phrases, disable add-on menus and to import and export data sets.

A left-click on the add-on’s icon in the Firefox status bar disables it, helpful if you need to work on something distraction free.

Ming-a-ling’s theory is interesting: People learn the vocabulary of a language easier if they can connect those words into their native language’s context. The setup may keep some users from utilizing the add-on to improve their vocabulary.

The developer should think about adding a stock of basic vocabularies to the add-on that can be activated directly, say the top 1000 words and phrases. It should be noted that this works best for languages that use the same, or a similar alphabet.

Interested users can download the Firefox add-on from the official Mozilla Firefox add-on repository. It is compatible with all versions of the web browser from Firefox 3.5 on.

Today’s children have more options when it comes to building their vocabulary. Computer vocabulary apps have improved in the last ten years, from basic dictionary style applications to comfortable customizable programs.

Vocabulary.net is a free vocabulary software for the Windows operating system. The program requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5, but has no other dependencies besides that.

vocabulary builder

The program includes a demonstration database that teaches English to Chinese users. Users who want to learn another language, or prefer definitions in their language need to create their own database of words.

The vocabulary builder makes that comfortable by using Google Dictionary information to fill out target language information automatically. All the user needs to do is to add a word, and let the program do the rest. The source and destination languages need to be selected on first use, but are remembered afterwards.

vocabulary

It is sometimes necessary to edit the data pulled from Google Dictionary, especially the phonetic field does not seem to be filled out at all.

The program supports three different vocabulary learning modes. The first is the least interactive, as it simply reads and displays words or phrases to the user.

vocabulary software

Users need to make sure that the right language is selected in the lower left corner, for the pronunciation to make sense. The pronunciation is pretty good, if the right language is selected.

The speed and other settings can be configured in the options.

Test mode is the second vocabulary learning mode. It hides all or part of the word, and only displays the description and pronounces it to the user. It is now up to the user to fill out the missing characters.

Practice mode is similar to the test mode, with the difference that the word or phrase is fully displayed, and that the user needs to write it completely in the interface.

Vocabulary.net is a lightweight program that can assist users in building their vocabulary. The main problem for most is the lack of existing databases, which means that first time users need to create a database of words first, before they can use the program effectively.

It is therefor best suited for class projects, where everyone contributes, or as a companion for beginners who add newly learned vocabularies to the program.

Vocabulary.net is available for download at the developer’s website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

The online service will compute a list of words that have been found in the text and categorize them in multiple ways. The words are for example sorted by relevancy and subject. A click on any word will also display the relationship to other words in the text, a definition of the word and example usage from the text.

A word cloud is displayed that is showing all words that have been discovered in the text. It is possible to filter words by relevancy or subject which can reduce the amount of words quite a bit. The subject filter is interesting as it displays word that fall into subjects such as math, science or art.

VocabGrabber has been designed to create a vocabulary list which can be a great help to understand and learn the text that has been pasted into the web form. It is currently only working with text that has been written in English.

It’s a basic trainer that displays a word and requests the answer to be typed into the answer box. The next page will display the answer of the vocabulary trainer and your answer so that it is easy to compare the result. Statistics can be enabled that display how many words have been correctly answered so far.

One option that is well done is to flip languages on the fly. Instead of translating Latin to German it is also possible to translate German to Latin. The author provides three vocabulary sets on his website, German-Esperanto, German-Dutch and German-Latin. The format of the files is relatively straightforward and it should not take long to create your own data sets.

The format of the vocabulary sets is always the same, it begins with the name in the first line (#Name) and lists all words and their translations in the other lines. The word(s) and their translations are separated by a “_” sign. The line for the English word car and the German translation Auto would look like this: car_auto. If several words have the same meaning they can be added with the “;”character. car;automobile_auto;automobile.

The main problem that most users will face is that VocabOne does not provide enough vocabulary sets which means that they have to be created before the user can use the vocabulary trainer.