Hi
Here we will help you find free mobile apps which can further help you with your IELTS preparation. The apps mentioned below are available on the google play store and possibly also on the IOS app store. Before we go onto the best apps for IELTS we should know what the test expects from us. If you look into the band descriptors for IELTS you would know that Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resources, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy are the four core areas for marking the IELTS test. If you want to know more about these then you should take out some time and watch my YouTube video on IELTS Band Descriptors. Beware, this is a long video(about an hour), so if you choose to read ahead then don’t worry, I’ll try and make you understand!
VOCABULARY
Let’s begin with Vocabulary; you learn a new word and in a few days, you forget it.
Well, that’s the usual course with most of us! If you recognise this issue then one of the best app for you is Knudge.Me. You need to get onto one of the free vocabulary courses – basic, intermediate or advanced. It will begin with few word meanings and sample sentences. The best thing about this app is that it sends you notifications asking you word meanings, which you learnt recently on their app. This ensures that you don’t forget the new word in a couple of days. I have personally tried this app, the vocabulary courses are quite indulging and helpful. Moreover, this app also won Google Play Best of 2017 award. I think that’s enough selling, check it out.
LISTENING
To perform well in IELTS listening you need to understand British accent.
While there are plenty of IELTS listening apps with practise IELTS tests and mock tests, I would like to mention other relevant apps which can help you improve your general listening skills. Most of your IELTS listening tasks would cover a British accent and occasionally have an Australian or Canadian accent. Thus, it would be a good idea to start listening to BBC News; it follows a British accent. The best part is that if you listen diligently, then you would slowly start picking the main topics. In a couple of days, you would start catching their accent. Moreover, it would give you a larger context to speak about current affairs. All the more reason to listen to the news. Check out the Live BBC World Service Radio option on the app.
Another great app for listening and learning different accents is Radio Garden. Now, this awesome app fetches radio stations from around the globe. It also has an amazingly simple interface, just keep sliding the globe, zoom in and listen to a random radio station. I’d recommend you check out Australian, Canadian and British radio channels. At first, it may be difficult to understand but as they say, practise make one perfect; you should be persistent and surely you would start to follow.
SPEAKING
Clarity of speech is found in a select few – well, that is just a myth.
With an app like Elsa speak, you can choose your native language during the initial configuration and it adapts to your accents. It is quite a tool to lead you from your accent to a native English one. There are topics that you can choose from, such as daily conversations, where you need to repeat the prompts on screen and the apps give you feedback on pronunciation and help you correct them. If you are struggling with clarity in speech then this is the app for you.
WRITING & GRAMMAR
This last app is great for IELTS writing and grammar, especially if you have a lot of grammatical errors.
Grammarly is an auto-correction keyboard which uses AI-powered servers to check for grammar and structural mistakes in your writing, it also suggests synonyms. This app is also available for your PC or Mac and it’s much better there. I would suggest that after you write an essay or letter/report, copy and paste it in the app and it would suggest revisions on your sample. For synonyms, just select the word and it would show relevant synonyms in a pop-up message.
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