Application
Velawoods English is a highly engaging and interactive experience. Using principles from gaming and film-making, the complete programme for learning the English language is brought to life through a storyline that you experience in the virtual town of Velawoods. As it puts the language into the context of real-life situations, it offers you with the next best thing to living in an English-speaking country. This makes it:
- Easier to understand the language
- Easier to retain the learning, especially new vocabulary and phrases
- Easier to keep you engaged and complete the courses
- Easier to prepare for the international qualifications you want to do
This is how it works:
- Download & install the Velawoods English application to your favourite device.
- Go through the lessons. In each lesson, you interact (through a camera view and speech analysis) with the virtual characters living in Velawoods using around 20 engaging activities.
- While you go through lessons and the story, you will be learning the complete English language programme and developing all your language skills in an engaging and interactive way.
- The system scores you on how well you do the activities. Completed tasks and lessons will show as green and if you score a high score they will have a star.
- You can practice by repeating lessons or going to your virtual apartment at any time to enjoy a range of interactive practice activities.
- You receive a Certificate of Completion when you finish all the lessons and pass all the tests in a course.
Speech Analysis
In every lesson, you will be asked to talk to the various virtual character living in Velawoods. To talk to them and have your pronunciation analysed by state of art speech analysis by Carnegie Speech, please follow these steps:
- Press/Click the red microphone button
- While pressing/clicking on the microphone button, speak in a clear and loud voice
- Stop pressing/clicking on the microphone button when you are done speaking
Note: It works in the same way as when sending voice messages with WhatsApp.
When you get the analysis, this is what it means:
Green: Good
Yellow: Almost
Red: Incorrect
You can repeat each phrase as many times as you want to get it right, you can press REPLAY to hear yourself again or press HELP to hear the phrase said by a native speaker.
You can also watch the video above.
White Paper
The ingredients of learning: interaction, immersion and instruction.
A white paper which illustrates in detail the key pedagogical learning principles of Velawoods English can be downloaded here.
A brief summary of this document follows.
Syllabus
The syllabus of Velawoods English is built on objectives linked to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages . The vocabulary syllabus was informed by English Vocabulary Profile , a major research project mapping how learners learn vocabulary at different CEFR levels. The language you learn in Velawoods English is manageable, useful, logically sequenced and appropriate for your level.
Second language acquisition theory
Velawoods English ensures that you:
- understand most of the language in the learning environment, but is challenged by an appropriate amount of new language,
- are well supported in using your own knowledge and skills to understand the meaning of new vocabulary and structures,
- feel comfortable and relaxed so that there are no barriers to the effective acquisition of new language.
A communicative approach
Velawoods English enables you to experience and actively notice new language in its natural everyday setting. You are guided to understand the meaning of this new language via a series of level-appropriate activities, before later using it in conversation. A successful communicative approach:
- emphasises the communication of meaning
- focuses on grammatical forms where necessary to clarify meaning
- uses the power of context to make linguistic input simple and comprehensible.
Interaction, immersion and instruction
Research shows that successful learning is often collaborative and operates within a social context; you can learn more with the support of others around you than you can on your own. This social context is central to the language-learning process (Kaufman, 2004).
Velawoods English provides such a stimulating social context. Its immersive environment offers a genuine, immediate need to learn the language and encourages motivation and progress. You experience this combination of immersion and instruction through interaction with a range of virtual characters and through the guidance of a virtual tutor. This tutor supportively explains new language and enables you to use it in real-life situations.
Feedback and assessment
In Velawoods English, learners receive continuous personalised feedback and progress reports. There are also a number of Tests available. There is a skills-based assessment at the end of each part of the course, and a more substantial Test at the end of each course that links to internationally recognised qualifications.