Language learning on the go with Memrise

In our 12 Apps of Christmas blog series, we shared some of our favourite apps and online tools for teaching and learning. Memrise featured in Week 3, and this blog post explores in more detail how it is being used in our University Language Programme (ULP)

“My students are very eager to use technology in order to support their language learning, but they tend to overuse Google translate and find the lack of contextualisation very confusing. With Memrise, I can guide their learning, control the content and pace and see their progress – just as they can see theirs and measure it up with their peers’. It is very easy to add new content and organise it in different units. I upload my own recordings and attach these audio files to the vocabulary words that I want my students to learn. Memrise shuffles them and offers very quick and fun exercises, accessible from various devices. It is very easy to learn how to use, most students use it fairly regularly and said that it helped them expand their vocabulary and improve their pronunciation. With the help of our knowledgeable support staff, it was quick and fun to create, and I am already thinking about creating another Memrise course.”

– Chantal Cointot

Memrise is a very popular free tool for learning over 200 different languages with content rich courses created by expert linguists and native speakers. Its award-winning Android and Apple apps make it easy to learn on the go, anywhere and anytime.

It’s easy to find Memrise courses to use with students, or to create a new one aimed specifically at the vocabulary they need for their module or course. Chantal Cointot from Arts & Humanities created her own Memrise course to use with ULP students.

A great way to get to know Memrise is to try out a language yourself, it’s free to create an account and even 10 minutes on the bus can be an opportunity for learning if you download one of the apps.
If you’re interested to see which other apps and tools made it into our favourites list, check out our 12 Apps of Christmas posts.