Vocabulary website review

The first site I have reviewed is http://www.vocabulary.com/.

This site is fairly extensive and has four different sections that you can use. The first is root word lesson plans which are divided into 3 levels of difficulty. In their words: "These free interactive vocabulary puzzle and activity sessions use Latin and Greek "roots and cells" to help unlock word meanings. There are eight exercises into each session and include: Interactive Puzzle, Fill-in-the-Blanks, Definition Match, Synonym & Antonym Encounters, Crosswords, Word Finds, True/False and Word Stories."

In addition to the root word lesson plans, there are thematic puzzles (which groups vocabulary into different subject matters/topics); word lists (which contains "alphabary" lists [not sure what "alphabery" means to be honest] in different subject matters like "Animals" or "Fine-Arts"); and test preparatory/assessment (which contains random lists of words that might be found on the SAT or ACT in particular but I'm imagining could be adapted to perhaps TESOL testing).

I found the site fairly easy to navigate and also pretty extensive in terms of the types of vocabulary available. It seems like a good resource when you are working with people who have a specific interest (say sports or literature) and you want to teach them vocabulary that deals with that interest. There are also business terms and so it could be used as a vocabulary resource for an ESP class.

A couple of negatives though are that this website doesn't seem geared specifically for ESL learners and is more general in nature. There also aren't any real opportunities for deep processing or making concordances. In short, it's a good site for general vocabulary use, but you would have to do some planning yourself on how best to introduce the vocabulary and/or use it in a class. It could simply be a website you give to students as a resource for their own personal use and outside study.