Business English App Gives You Fresh Phrases for the Office

The new Business English Power Idioms app from Language Success Press teaches 100 idioms you can use

on the job. You'll understand you colleagues better and speak with more confidence with this new set of expressions. They were selected by business English author Amy Gillett, MBA. Expressions include:

• rally the troops
• play favorites
• get hammered by
• jump into the fray
• pale in comparison
• stick to one's guns
• stay the course
• hit pay dirt
• lion's share

The app has many handy features, such as flashcard functionality and interactive quizzes. You can tap the speak icon to hear native speakers say the idioms and examples aloud. The app also lets you study by category, which makes your learning more organized and efficient. This is a great tool for improving your Business English. The app is compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod. At only $3.99, it gives you lots of bang for your buck!

New ESL App Teaches Business English & Everyday English

A new iPad app for ESL learners -
a very handy tool for self-study

Wow, the new iPad app Say it Better in English really "packs a punch!" It teaches over 300 American English expressions, idioms and phrasal verbs.

The app is the perfect tool for those who need to improve their business English. The app teaches useful expressions related to participating in meetings, talking on the telephone, and dealing with everyday issues at the office. The app also includes hundreds of expressions related to daily life, in areas including shopping, traveling and socializing.

Lively cartoons show how each expression is used in real-life situations. When the learner taps the speaker icon, the cartoon comes to life with native English speakers reading the text aloud. Each expression has two additional usage examples that include audio. Interactive quizzes give immediate feedback with reward icons.

Users can customize their learning experience with the help of a study set feature. Users can add expressions they want to keep studying to the customized study set. A bookmark feature lets users continue studying where they left off.

Users can study by category, with the expressions grouped into categories include: On the Telephone, Travel, Shopping, At the Office, Socializing, Time, and others.

The app is designed to let users study English for as little as 15 minutes a day. That's about how long it takes to go through a block of 10 expressions and then take a quiz.

A lite version of the iPad app is available for free. The full version at $9.99 teaches 312 expressions, while the free version teaches 10.

The bottom line is, you get a lot of bang for your buck and learn a lot of useful English with the Say it Better in English app.

New Punctuation ESL app is a handy guide

Dots and Squiggles is a new iPhone app that offers a handy guide to English punctuation. The app covers all of the major punctuation marks: the obvious ones such as commas, question marks, and periods . . . but also the less common ellipses, brackets, and [square brackets]. Sentence examples are included to show you the punctuation in action. That is particularly helpful for those of us who sometimes can't remember the order of punctuation (do periods go inside or outside of brackets?!). The graphics are clear and simple, making the app easy to navigate. At $1.99, this is a very handy and worthwhile tool to store in any iPhone -- for native English speakers and for ESL students.

Dots and Squiggles on the iTunes store.