Super excited to relay that in less than a month, Voxy for Portuguese-speaking English-language-learners is the number #1 education app in Brazil and has been downloaded a whopping 30,800 times!

If you're a English Language Teacher based in Brazil, do check it out and share with your students:

Aprenda Inglês - Voxy

What is Voxy?

Voxy uses web-based and mobile technologies to create a fun, flexible, contextual and convenient learning environment, providing interesting supplementary materials which support the language learning experience.

Why use Voxy?

It's free... and all lessons are based on current real-world news stories. Learners have full control over the pacing and frequency of use and simple repetition games ensure students review the words they've encountered within articles they've read.

Geo-location based phrases provide relevant expressions they want in the moment they need to use them and camera flashcards help students to stay on top of words they're interested in knowing.

How can teachers use Voxy in the classroom?

1. Predict the Story

Choose a few words related to one of the articles on the Voxy website and put these up on the board/ IWB.
Before reading, ask students to guess what the story might be about.

2. Predict the Vocabulary

Choose one of the most recent Voxy stories that has been popular in the local media.
Before reading, get students to brainstorm the vocabulary which the story may contain.
After reading, ask students how many had guessed correctly and what words could also have been added.

3. What's the Grammar?

Choose one of the Voxy articles.
Ask students to analyze the different tenses used and discuss the reasons why these were chosen.
Can they rewrite the story using other tenses?

4. Choose a new picture!

Get students to browse through current Voxy stories and to choose one they are most interested in.
Can they find a different creative-commons licensed picture to go with this story?
Ask them to explain why they prefer the picture they chose.

5. Rewrite the headlines!

Get students to browse through current Voxy stories and to choose one they are most interested in.
Can they write a better headline for the story they chose?

6. Where in the world?

Using a world map in your classroom, encourage students to pin-up printed out Voxy stories which have taken place all over the world.

7. Track and update stories

Get students to browse through current Voxy stories and to choose one they are most interested in.
Can they create a timeline and continually update the story as it unfolds or develops?

8. Discuss and debate

Choose a controversial article and then divide up your class into two teams.
Tell one half they believe in one side of an argument and the other half believes something else.
Encourage them to debate the issue(s).

9. Roleplay

Choose a story with multiple roles
Encourage students to pick roles and to write up a dialogue (e.g. an interview, a conversation)
Get them to practice and role play the various events surrounding the situation in the article.

Have you got any other great suggestions on how teachers can use Voxy in their language-learning classrooms?

If you've already used Voxy in your classroom - what do your students think of our site?

Best,
Karenne
Disclaimer: I am an ELT-Academic Consultant for Voxy

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