Quizlet is a useful website to help students to acquire new vocabulary words. It helps the students to focus on the words that are most difficult to them. Also, students will have instant feedback which is beneficial for their cognitive process. In my opinion, teachers should advice this website to their students, but should not force their students to use it because a fun activity that is prescribed is no longer a fun activity. I would suggest teachers to present it in class and let students if they will use it home. This website can also be used as a filler or a reward for good work in class.
This website is easy to use. The creation of quizzes take only a few minutes. With my new German-English list, I was ready to play the games. In the Flashcard application, I was able to skip words that I already knew, study the words in a shuffled way, see both sides at the same time (word and definition), and I was able the « star » the words I wanted to come more often. In the second game called Learn, the word was written in German and I had to write it in English. There was an option that could be checked to have to word read out loud. This option I believe could boost a student acquisition of the vocabulary words. When I entered the answer (wrong or right), I saw the image I selected when I created my set. Adding a picture was easy, I only had to click on the picture button, and many choices of images were offered by the website (I had to show you how cute the dog was ).
What I liked about this game was that when I got an answer wrong Quizlet kept giving me the same word for me to try again. The game was not over only I got it right. The other game was the Speller. In that game, my words were read in German, I had the English translation beside (yes, it is exactly the same game when you select the option to read the word in the previous game…) I had to write it. Again, after extensive repetition, I was able to write the words correctly. The fourth game is called Test. What is new in this game is the possibility of playing with true or false, multiple choices, and matching questions. The cute pictures I chose appeared in that game, which, of course, made me enjoy it even more.
The fifth step is an association game with time. The words are sorted randomly on the screen and I had to match them. It was easy and entertaining. I even catch myself redoing the associations to beat my own score… Honestly, the sixth game stressed me out. The goal was to write the translation before the picture (or the written word only) coming from the left side of the screen hit the other side of the screen. I enjoyed that game. As I said before this why teachers should not force students use Quizlet because it would be sad to waste this fun game.
How to use it:
- As a teacher you must create an account.
- Create a “class” where you can invite your students one-on-one or send then the link. and they can enroll to the class themselves and you can accept their request one-on-one.
- You can create a list of words you wish you students to get familiar with.
- Choose a list a words already made that you can modify.
- The name of the assignment
- The list of words
- Its definition
- Add images
- Add voice over (ONLY WITH THE PREMIUM ACCOUNT 15$/YEAR, I believe that it is exaggerated to ask to pay 15 $ to be able to add my voice over the vocabulary words that can already be read out loud automatically by the website…)
- You can share the assignment with the classes you want (useful when you have more than one class).
- A teacher can prepare all the assignment on the website without sharing them to his or her classroom right away.
- When the students do the assignment, the teacher can automatically see how he or she had been doing.
Personal opinion:
I will definitely use as a teacher because it is an easy, interactive, and fun way to make students review vocabulary words. Even if there is a possibility to see if students used it and how, I would leave this tool as a choice or consider giving bonus points to students using it since I believe that students must realize that learning is first of all a personal process. I would add that intrinsic motivation is the best motivation a student have to learn a language. This website is the perfect way to boost it because the student who wants to use Quizlet for their personal improvement (not only because a teacher asked it to do it or for a grade) can do it in an interactive and fun way.
Will I use this website to improve my German skill? Of course, I cannot wait to try the already made lists of words Quizlet has to offer! (In this video, I learn that I could use someone else’s lists)
sophieanneslteacher 