Conjuguemos - Let's conjugate

2000-2021

Lecturers
Students

Arts & Music
Tourism

Autonomous learning
Classroom Context

Italian

English

A1
A2
B1
B2

Animation
Activity/task
Audio
Game
Guiding resources (online course/book)
Reference resources (online Dictionaries/ grammar guides/phrasebooks)
Test

Vocabulary
Grammar
Prosody

Listening
Writing
Reading

Conjuguemos was started in 2000 by a Spanish teacher in Weston HS, (Weston, MA). He was not a fan of teaching verb conjugations and figured a computer program could do this task better than him and a bunch of worksheets. So, he started CONJUGUEMOS as a hobby and have kept at it for many years.
This site has about 3.5 million registered users and is used by hundreds of thousands of students a day to learn verbs. It is a community-sourced site: almost all the activities were created by teachers around the world and who have wanted to add to the site. Teachers approach him via the site, he makes the computer code, and they provide the word lists. Collaboration has been the highlight of the years working on this project.
This application has various games with which the students can have fun, using the same lists of words or verbs. Its use is quite friendly and intuitive, the teacher can easily add lists which match his/her target, especially in case of language for specific purposes at an elementary/intermediate level.

The resource was tested by a student of B1.3 level (CEFR). It was appreciated: the game activities were different from those usually presented in a language course and they were motivating, especially the crossword puzzle.
Language proficiency improved because it was a fun way to learn new words and to study vocabulary. ("It always works to use games for studying"). The programme, however, provided too common words and their quantity was also scarce. Also, the programme only allows one correct answer, although there would be more. There are no explanations of the errors (for example, it gives error even for a wrong accent and does not communicate it). As for the adjectives, one does not know whether to give the masculine, feminine or both forms; as for the nouns, one does not know whether to include the article, etc.; further, it is unclear whether points can be earned with exercises and, if so, what they are for. The rules of use should be explained more clearly to learn more effectively.
The resource could be motivating, because it offers different ways of studying vocabulary (a task that can be boring otherwise). It is probably especially suitable for very young students who often have more technical knowledge and are more interested in (video)games.
While it's not a never-before-seen product, it's quite innovative: it uses different and fun approaches to learn the same lists of words. However, some critical points were highlighted on a technical level. Among the different links to use, there was a bit of confusion: one did not work, the same one (shared with Google Classroom) did. Once the page was closed, it was difficult to find it again. On the platform it was not easy to understand its structure and all the functions and to access the activities.

The resource, as it is, can be used for general language course, but it is also possible to add lists of words or verbs created by the teacher. The ready-made activities are especially classical computer games which are accessible to the class or to the single student. Being specifically designed for learning vocabulary, the teacher can create a repository of linguistic corpora on different LSP sectors and adapt them to the learners' needs. Also grammar can be taught, by using the same games in the application. In the application, there are user's manual and faq.