World of Words 1.0

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Showing someone a picture can effectively replace a verbal explanation – that would be one meaning of the old catchphrase. Another would be that when an English speaker sees an image of a dog he says “dog” while a French speaker says “chien”, while an Italian speaker says “cane”. There’s one image, and countless words that relate to it.

Showing someone a picture can also be an effective means of teaching someone the name of whatever is displayed in the picture. This is the premise behind the World of Words application which is offered by Discovery Educational Software. This is an educational application that aims to teach the user English by showing him

“World of Words teaches English words and spelling in an enjoyable and extremely effective way. Based on the concept that visual stimuli reinforce language learning, this program teaches around a thousand common English words through 35 topic-based picture screens, each with its own built-in testing of comprehension and reproduction,” explains Discovery Educational Software.

When you launch the game you will see a bunch of pages in the Menu. Click the Pets page and you will be presented with a bunch of images of pets.

Click Words, then click the image of an animal, and you will hear something like “that’s a pony” or that’s a cat.”
Click Sentences and you will receive explanations about what’s in an image. For example an image of a cat and a small kitten will appear; in the background you will hear “a kitten is a young cat.”
Click Quiz and you will be asked to find specific animals. For example you will be asked to find a hamster; you will have to click the image of the hamster.
Click Writing and you will be asked “What’s this?” – you will have to type in the animal’s name.

Please note that Word of Words is only free to try. In the demo version only 4 pages are available: Pets, The Body, The Classroom, In Town. Out of these 4 pages, only the Pets one has sound.

Pros

• Easy to use
• Educative game
• Multilingual support
• Progress report

Cons

• Free to try

About Discovery Educational Software
Founded back in 1998 and based in Scotland near Dundee, Discovery Educational Software specializes in the development of multimedia software for learners of modern foreign languages, including English as a foreign or additional language. AS Discovery Educational Software explained, its aim is to “put fun into learning languages, and we do this by using sound, pictures and games, which entertain as well as instruct.”

Fred Martin is the founder of Discovery Educational Software. Fred taught Modern Languages for 26 years before moving into Learning Support. He has been writing computer programs for his own pupils since 1984.

Additional information on Discovery Educational Software is available here.
Additional information on World of Words is available here.

World of Words has been reviewed by George Norman on 07 Feb 2011. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated World of Words 3 out of 5 stars, naming it Very Good