LearnEnglish Elementary: podcast app for Android

Podcasts are a lot like radio shows, only that you can download or stream them to your devices instead of having to listen to the shows while they are on air. LearnEnglish Elementary is an Android app that combines podcasts with exercises to teach English learning students elementary concepts of the English language.

The podcasts require a certain level of English to begin with as they make available 20-30 minute long dialogs between multiple native speakers. If you have had several years of English in school you should have no difficulties following what is being talked about in the dialogs.

The first advantage over audio podcasts is the display of transcripts right on the mobile phone's screen. This supports learners by providing them with another option to follow what is being said. If you do not understand a word, you can look it up on the screen to see if you did not understand it because of the way it was pronounced or because you do not know it.  An option to look up words is unfortunately missing in the app. It may therefore be a good idea to have a dictionary at hand in case you need to look up words that you do not know.

You get the option to download each podcast episode to your Android phone or stream it to the phone instead. I'd suggest to download the episode when you are connected to a wireless network to have the episodes available even in locations where an Internet connection is not available at all or so limited that you can't stream the podcast episodes properly. The transcript is also only in sync with the audio if you have downloaded the episode to your Android phone.

You can switch to exercise at any time to answer multiple choice questions about the dialogs. It is not exactly rocket science but provide you with a quick test if you understood all that has been talked about in the conversation.

The podcast is all about listening to English dialogs and reading comprehension. If you prefer a down to earth English learning app I suggest you take a look at Learn English with busuu.com!, an Android app that is providing you with 20 complete learning units that cover vocabulary, dialogs and interactive tests. Note that the remaining units are only available if you purchase them.

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