Opinions needed on new website/ resource

[Helen Shaw]

We would appreciate some feedback on a website that is currently under development . This will be a free to use website.
We are thinking that it can have several uses and the main differentiator from other vocabulary websites is the sound files, which can either be downloaded to mp3 or listened to directly from the site.
From Primary teaching perspective, it can help non-specialists with pronunciation, Secondary school students can download vocabulary to learn (and teachers can easily give lists to learn) and adult learners will be able to bursh up on their vocabulary and pronunciation.
We are aware that there is no opportunity for language development, and this site is merely meant to be a vocabulary store with the opportunity to download topic based vocabulary.
This idea is still very much in the development stages and we are looking for feedback. The pages can have whatever vocab content people want, with sound files to accompany, and we would appreciate it if you could look at some of the existing pages to get some idea of how it will feel.
Many thanks

[Jo Rhys-Jones]

I'd be more than happy to have a look if you are happy to share the website address please? Any chance of images on it to go with the vocabulary please? And will it be in French or German and Spanish and other languaes too or is that a longer term possiblity?
Would it be ossible to group the vocab, particularly for primaries, into QCA units?
Jo x

[Helen Shaw]

Hi
it's www.learnparrotfashion.co.uk - sorry thought I'd included the link!
It's very much work in progress and we would like to develop something that is going to be useful, so any suggestions/ needs are welcome!

[Mark Purves]

I think the link should be www.learnparrotfashion.com

Looks very colourful! I like the button design on the front page.

The organisation of the phrases and sound files on the other pages seems to be a bit random though. Needs aligning better. As Jo said, for Primary it would be better to index relate to the QCA units and follow the vocabulary for these more closely. You probably need to decide to focus on one Language area and one Key Stage to begin with to be manageable. It is a bit strange to land on the front page which looks as if it is designed for Primary pupils and see headings for Adult learners.

The only other problem I can see for you is that a lot of the courses on offer in Primary Schools already offer this kind of support. The Pearson course Tout le Monde has all of this online for pupils. Their development budgets for these webpages are BIG. Have you been able to find out what is already out there?

I think you would have to focus more clearly who your target audience would be, especially if at some point you intend to charge people. If it's for children, then you will have to get into providing some kind of Flash animated games to practise the vocab they are learning and be able to possibly record their voice against the model and even see a visual comparison of how close their effort came to the original. You would also need native speakers, possibly children to record the files.

Good luck though! I am setting off on this website journey too with little previous knowledge or understanding. Picking all of that up is fun but intensive!

Mark