We are always surprised (and delighted) to hear from members using EnglishCentral in ways other than to learn English. It goes to show that good technology, smart ideas reach much further than their first purpose. Here are a few other ways others are using EnglishCentral as a study tool.

1. As a way to improve speech and a speech therapy tool. Speech pathologists, the deaf community and others use EnglishCentral as the perfect technology to help them overcome speech impediments. Stutterers too (and here is an interesting NY Times Review of Books article on this subject).

2. Public Speaking. Student record and gain valuable confidence in pausing correctly and imitating some of the world’s greatest public speakers. See our Famous Speeches course for some example videos.

3. Vocabulary building. In general education, many students fall behind not because they aren’t intelligent or capable but because they haven’t acquired the vocabulary needed to succeed in school. EnglishCentral gives students the opportunity to build their academic vocabulary through our special quiz application and learning the words in the context of the video. For example, see this list of words for studying about politics (level 6)

We know there are many other ways EnglishCentral is being used to help students around the world. If you use it in a unique fashion, we’d love to hear from you!

Are you struggling to build a powerful vocabulary? Need to succeed at TOEIC or TOEFL? Want a powerful tool for teaching vocabulary that shows the variety of actual use and context of the word?

Look no further – use the Vocabulary cliplist for a word on EnglishCentral. A cliplist is a series of lines of video that show a word, expression, idiom in use. Students get exposed to the many ways the word is used in normal communication and also gain valuable “functional” insight into the word and the English language.

It is easy to access. Just go to Vocabulary, choose a category and then select a word to study by clicking the video icon. Or search for a word on our search page and do the same. You’ll get a whole cliplist of that word in use which can be both watched and spoken.

Here’s a brief screencast showing you how to do all this. Good luck studying and teaching using this powerful tool – our video corpus!