IPA phonetic notation is easy to read for linguists, but to those less experienced it can be confusing. Luckily, Mr Armstrong created multimedia IPA charts, containing consonants (pulmonic and non-pulmonic), vowels, diacritics, suprasegmentals, diphtongs and triphtongs.

The International Phonetic Alphabet is used in many well-know dictionaries, such as Oxford’s, so students of English language will find Suprasegmentals Table extremely useful: it shows and plays the recorded speech that demonstrate stress, vowel length, syllable break, linking, as well as tones and word accents (level and contour).

IPA is a system for phonetic notation. It was created by the International Phonetic Association and represents sounds of spoken language. Many thanks to Mr Anderson for creating his website that is very useful to all interested in fascinating world of language and phonetics.

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1. Top Five English Phonetic (Phonemic) Charts
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3. Phonetic Reader – Improve Your Pronunciation and Prosody

Internet is hefty media and we have witnessed its power unleashed in vast world of social sites, visited by millions of users daily. They are bases on new concept called Web 2.0 and introduce great amount of pictures, sounds, videos, comments and communication. Some of the concepts are used in Bosuu.com and we are here to give you an overview of how this service can help you learn new language.

Busuu.com is created as an online meeting place around interactive courses, lessons and exercises where you can talk and collaborate with natives speakers.

Let there be Tree

When you register you will have your own Learning Garden that list all languages you learn as trees which grow gradually as you progress through the courses. It is a great visual tool that motivates younger learners but those mature as well. You will be rewarded with small tokens that symbolize your progress. It is also possible to take a look of other peoples’ threes and see their progress.

Languages on Busuu Tree – French, Italian, German

Four languages are available at this moment: French, Italian, German and English and the staff announced plans for adding more, even the elusive Busuu language the site is named after.

For each language there are several ways to go through the lessons. You can do them one by one, by choosing the level of difficulty or by selecting the grammar sections or topics that interests you.

Busuu main page with Language Tree

New words are presented with an image which helps in acquiring, especially for visual types of learners. Of course, you can hear the word spoken by native speaker, and if you are a premium user, you can hear it in the context (an utterance). This will greatly help you master your pronunciation and get sentence rhythm.

Premium users can download lessons in PDF, print it and work offline – this is not available for common users.

It would be more interesting and of more benefit to have different lessons for each language: here the content is the same, only in different language. This negatively affects motivation in some users, wile others will appreciate familiar context. However, acquiring foreign language is also learning about culture and differences, and users all over the world would appreciate diversity in this globalized society. It would be very refreshing to learn about Maria from Sicily or Amelie and Jacques from Paris…

Test and mistakes

After the vocabulary training and short texts you can work on tests and see how well you are doing. The things that you find more difficult will be saved, so you can review later.

The name of the site comes from the Busuu language of Cameroon, which according to an ethnological study from the 80ies is only spoken by 8 people.

Multiple-choice comprehension test, one of many test teypes on Busuu

Hidden value and native speakers

One of the best things about Busuu is the interaction between native speakers and learners of foreign language. This “linguistic productivity” and communication is essential for successful acquisition of a new language.

In some lessons learners have to write on a topic in the language they are learning. This is not daunting as it seems because useful phrases are available and “students” must be creative and work on their own. Learners’ written work is then available for native speakers to edit and show mistakes. This great interaction can further be enhanced by voice chat and webcams – chat windows even contain useful phrases for conversation.

We really hope that this interactive “native speakers – learners” system will further be improved because of all its potential.

Go for it!

Would we suggest Busuu.com? Definitely. Go and meet people, share views and talk – in foreign language. Gauge your progress in Busuu Garden, and let friendly commnity of native speakers help you in your learning.

Busuu.com is a free online community for learning languages. Users have access to audio-visual learning material covering several topics. Additionally, language skills can be directly improved together with native speakers from around the world. Users connect via an integrated video-chat with other users of the community while at home. Each user is not only “student” of a foreign language but also a “teacher” of his own mother tongue. The start-up was founded in Madrid at the beginning of 2008. The company has been nominated Official Project of the UNESCO during the International Year of Languages. - from Busuu.com.

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Beginning and salutation in formal letters

If you are writing to someone whose name you do not know, especially in British English you can put:

Dear Sir
Dear Madam
Dear Sirs
Dear Sir / Madam
Dear Sir or Madam.

In American English this form is used, but not in British:

To whom it may concern.

If you are addressing to someone by name, use their title and surname.

Dear Dr Smith (BrE)
Dear Dr. Smith (AmE)

Note the usage of full stop after the title in the American English version.

Do not write full name and (or) the title:

Dear James Smith
Dear Dr. James Smith

Ending formal letters

In American English:

Sincerely
Sincerely Yours
Yours Truly

In British English:

If you have mentioned person’s name: Yours sincerely;
If you started the letter generically with Dear Sir / Madam, etc: Yours faithfully.

• Invoice or Overdue Notice
• Dispatch Note and Acknowledgment Receipt
• Order Information
• Offer, and
• Enquiry

After the click on the template you will see common parts of the business letter (salutation, the first paragraph, subject etc.), with several options, followed by spaces for information to personalize your letter.

Creating custom business letter intro by using the template

Created letters can be exported in textual and rich-text format (RTF). Here is an example of completed letter:

Business Letter - Offer (Auto-generated by a template)

Letters auto-generated from templates are interesting and useful mostly as an illustration of the form. However, it is better to learn how to write them and improve your correspondence, which is, after all, business-like and professional.

Listening problems in EFL

What are the problems regarding listening in language acquisition? We will use the list from an article Barriers to Acquiring Listening Strategies which states that major listening problems are:

1. Lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak ,
2. not being able to get things repeated,
3. the listener’s limited vocabulary,
4. failure to recognize the “signals,”
5. problems of interpretation,
6. inability to concentrate, and
7. established learning habits.

Benefits of using Reader and recorded narration

By using reading materials and recorded narration, learners can address some of the problems. For example, the learners can gradually train themselves to read faster, they can repeat the recording when they like and as often as they like. Further, learners are not under pressure to know unknown words, as they can at their own time work on the text and then again on the listening.

A CD accompanying Macmillan Reader

The listening material is very important in dealing with the proper pronunciation, stress, accent and sentence rhythm. This is great way to acquire pronunciation, especially if learners can record themselves and then compare their own reading with the narration on the CD.

Introducing Macmillan Readers Series

Without any wish to promote it as the best available, we will in short describe Macmillan Readers series. The series consists of booklets with CD that contains recorded material spoken by professional actors. It is published at six levels, and each level has structure and vocabulary that suits learners’ ability. More difficult words are explained within text, or shown in the pictures. According to the publisher, the texts are “retold versions of popular classic and contemporary titles as well as specially written stories.”

Back cover of the book indicating a level

The number of words is different at each level:

Starter, about 300 basic words
Beginner, 600;
Elementary, 1100;
Pre-intermediate, 1400;
Intermediate, 1600 and
Upper, about 2200 basic words.

The readers contain a glossary and comprehension exercises as well. You can visit Macmillan Readers
on a bookstore site for further information. Feel free to suggest similar products in the comments bellow.

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After registration you will be welcomed by uncluttered home page from where you can choose tutorials and exercises. Because Babbel.com is a modern site, it is loaded with pictures and good voice samples (“listening material”) by native language speakers.

Vocabulary sets and learning unknown words

Here you can learn words related to a specific topic, such as meeting people, art, weather, food, music etc. After choosing the vocabulary you are guided through the tutorial in several stages. The site will present you in more than one way the words you are learning, and after that you can solve simple and amusing test. If you opt in for the e-mail notifications, you will get a remainder to review your more challenging words.

Learn words related to specific topic

Learn – Real-life language, Grammar and Exercises

Steadily growing number of tutorials available in Learn section of the site is useful in getting an overview of basic grammar and in seeing how the language functions in real life. The section is presented through mini lessons which consist of language material (audio and pictures) and, again, different tests where you can see how successful you are acquiring your new language.

Interactive language lessons (Tutorials)

Community and Language Learning

The site is still being developed, but community plays one of the major parts. You can see what users are online, what languages they are learning and so on. There is an option to get in touch with “learning partner” and improve the learning by working together. However, it is obvious that this needs more work, from technical aspect and available content. It would be good to have voice and video chat, and more multimedia content to motivate learners.

To connect with other users you can also use Chat and Board, available in French, English, Italian, German and Italian (at the moment when this article is being written).

Language learning platform with potential

Babbel.com is a platform with great potential, and being free it is worth trying. We hope that the team behind the site will work more on interactivity within context. It is obvious that learners need more exposure to the language, more content with target language, especially topics related to the culture of the countries where the foreign language is spoken. Also, it would be great to see how potentials of community can be used not only in an interactive part, but in the creation of the content as well.

At the moment, Babbel.com is great for intermediate users that wish to refresh their basic knowledge of foreign language, but we hope to see more content with in-depth language exposure that will benefit all learners.

Beolingus is not just another online dictionary with more ads than headwords; it is full-scale reference with useful examples. The project is created by the Chemnitz University of Technology and it has been online since 1995. According to the site, Beolingus offers 396,000 word translations German-English, 112,000 word translations German-Spanish, 42,000 word translations German-Portuguese. We should also mention 37,000 synonyms of German words and more than 14,000 English, 6,500 German, and 10,000 Spanish quotes and aphorisms. Many of these great things are based on other projects and seamlessly incorporated into the site.

Beolingus Dictionary - Homepage and features

What we really like and what we find particularly useful is German-English example sentences and German / American pronunciation. This makes definitions more interesting and easier to remember; and there are no uncertainties about the pronunciation.

Example search explained - sehen

However, this is not all. Beolingus offers:

• Special subjects – Expressions and words related to many specific areas such as Holidays, Family Members, Love, Games, Grammar…
• Grammar reference – simple Preposition guide and link to another project
• Abbreviations

Beolingus will assist you with German spelling, make your search easier with use of wildcards and offer an easy way to enter umlauts, in case you do not have German keyboard layout installed. You can even embed it in your own website or place in on Google Homepage, or maybe open it in small window so you can have more space for your work. Two thumbs up!

The address is http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/

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The visitors will appreciate Steps, full-scale multimedia language course for free. For example, Italian Steps is available as 12 weeks course grouped around everyday communication topics. Every lesson is summerised with useful revisions in form of Challenges.

A language test: multiple choice.

Welcome in Italian

No matter whether you would like to refresh you foreign language knowledge, learn new stuff or just for kicks sound Greek – BBC Languages is not to be missed easily because of its linguistic richness and modern approach.

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1. Macmillan Phonetic Chart

This tool is provided to us by Macmillan Publishers and we have selected it as one of the best phonetic charts online. The outlay is very simple and straightforward. After clicking on a symbol, the phoneme is articulated, followed by a full word in which the phoneme occurs.  Macmillan Phonetic Chart is available as offline content, in form of a simple program that comes in two flavors. The first version displays the phonemes in small window. The second, on the other hand, uses full screen, which is simply perfect for presentation (realia) in a class. One of the things we would like to see is written form of spoken example word. The software is free for use.

2. Phonemic Chart by British Council

The forerunner on our list is Phonemic Chart by British Council. This simple software uses clear outlay with nicely grouped and uncluttered vowels, consonants and diphthongs. After clicking on a phonetic symbol, the sound of the phoneme is played.

Phonetic Chart by Macmillan

We think that written word in which the phoneme is used or word read after the phoneme (like in Macmilan’s Chart)  would be more natural than isolated symbol. We place this tool on the second place because of its simplicity and the fact that download versions are available both for MS Windows and Mackintosh.

Chart by British Council

3. Sounds of English by BBC Learn English

The third place is reserved for BBC English. The most basic of all in the list, this tool is opened in a browser window and it is not available offline as a separate application. The chart itself is simple with clearly articulated phonemes. We have decided to select it because of quality content that is available on the same place if you decide to hang around – pages named Pronunciation tips. BBC is in the top of the game, with great lessons on English pronunciation. Each of the sounds is explained in a separate lesson, accompanied by video content. Another great site from BBC.

Chart by BBC Learn English

4. The Phonetic Chart by EFL Productions

On this site the phonemes are presented within the words, and isolated phonemes cannot be heard. It is great companion to previously mentioned charts, because it is possible to hear the phoneme in the context. However, the content is available online only. If you wish to use it on your computer offline, you will have to buy it. It would be good to mention that the software offers simple pronunciation quiz and phonetic diagram (both available online). The downside is somewhat strange voice recordings and not-so-friendly design for your eyes.

Phonemes by EFL Productions

5. The Sounds of English by Antimoon.com

This page is the least interactive of all listed here. When a user clicks on a word, the pronunciations are played as mp3 recording (whole words are read, and not the phonemes). We decided to include the site here because it offers American and British versions of the pronunciation. To more advanced students, extra explanations in plain English will be of use and great introduction to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The content is available online only, unless you are ready to save each file individually.

This closes our list for time being. Do you know of any great online phonetic charts? Feel free to share in the comments.