Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog.

My name is Alison O’Brien and I am studying Applied Languages. Since I started studying here in Limerick I have became very interested in Spanish grammar and Spanish culture. I have been studying Spanish for 7 years now and along the way I have became familiar with a variety of Spanish learning websites and channels.

For my first blog I am going to review a few of these websites and Youtube channels that I feel are helpful and profoundly beneficial when it comes to learning Spanish.  Nowadays, linguists are leaning more towards online courses to learn languages (Harris, 2017). Personally, I prefer videos as a way to improve my Spanish as I find myself to be a virtual learner.

Firstly I will review a YouTube channel that I have visited on numerous occasions since I started learning Spanish. The channel is called ‘The Spanish Dude’. The name for the channel is strange considering the man who runs it, Jordan, is American and he received an ‘F’ grade in high school Spanish. However, he took it upon himself to immerse himself in the Spanish language and culture and I can confidently say that his channel has helped me immensely during exam periods. His channel features a series of up-beat, colourful and highly interactive videos that make learning Spanish easy and fun. This is most definitely my favorite Spanish learning channel and I would highly recommend it to anyone reading this who is studying Spanish.

For years now I have found myself returning to the translation website ‘Spanishdict.com‘ quite regularly. This is because I find the verb conjugations that you can find on the website extremely helpful. Of course, you can also search for definitions etc but personally, something I dislike about the website is that some of the direct translations that they give you can be incorrect.

Thirdly, as I said before, I am a virtual learner, so in order for me to take to a website/channel it must be interactive and eye-catching (perhaps uses vibrant colours). A channel that I find perfectly fits this criteria would be ‘Spanish.com’. I like that this website provides a section on pronunciation and varies grammar pages. Moreover, I enjoy their in depth ‘grammar drills’ section. Saying this, membership isn’t free and you are a lot more limited if you don’t purchase membership.

Lastly, to anyone who has the same criteria for a language learning website or channel, I would heavily recommend a channel I found while researching for this blog called ‘123Teachme‘. This website provides a varies of different learning sources including grammar grids, games, tests, and much more (123Teachme, 2018). So far I have used the grammar grids on a few occasions and I find them so easy to follow. Also, they have a ‘Spanish Word of the Day’ section which I think some of you would find beneficial when it comes to your vocabulary.

I hope you find the sources in this blog useful at study/exam times, I truly believe all four are worth researching with regards to improving your Spanish.

Until next time,

Alison

Bibliography:

Harris, A. (2017). ‘Can you learn a foreign language online?’, The Irish Times, 30 May, available: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/can-you-learn-a-foreign-language-online-1.3094856 [accessed 25 Sep 2018].

LeBaron,F. (2018). ‘Critical Evaluation Skills in CALL: outcomes  & tools, L14113: Language Technology, available: https://sulis.ul.ie/access/content/group/2910a102-7c6f-4958-883b-13b26b229c5f/Labs/Lab%2B2%2BTasks-1.pptx [accessed 25 Sep 2018].

123teachme.com. (2018). Study Spanish Free Online. [online] Available at: https://www.123teachme.com [accessed 27 Oct 2018].