LEARNING OGDEN's BASIC ENGLISH
Projects and References for Learners
Basic English Through Pictures - This fun project needs a leader to put it on the Internet or as a CD. vis
Learning Basic English - a Practical Guide for English-Speaking by Richards and Gibson.
Good, complete.
The Basic Teacher - A full and detailed course for European Students by L. W. Lockhart.
Good. complete.
Terada's Teacher's Guide for the Basic Teacher is complete.
Terada's New Home Page -- 8Apr2008
Terada's Newest Home Page -- 15Nov2011 - updated, now in one large file.
THE ABC of Basic English - a guide covering all the chief points in Basic English. by C.K. Ogden.
The original, complete.
Basic Step By Step - by which Basic may be made part of the teaching system. by C.K.Ogden.
Complete, except a few notes) Suppliment to The Basic Teacher. 
with webcast
- http://seesaydo.org/Basic-Notes-Home.html -- New server ; expanded site.
Lessons in Basic from Australia. Looks good. Spoken section has Oriental accent
About.com - English as 2nd Language.
Panopticon, Word Wheel, sentence builder, by John Derry. Version.03 is now available. Ogden's idea of a Panopticon,
word wheel, is to let the brand-new Basic learner see a reasoned way to put his thoughts into English sentences.
"This is complete in one file, oww.html. For this reason you are able to use your browser's Page Save to make a local copy, then it works just the same (this gives off-line viewing; use the File Open on your browser). -- JohnD"
There are two versions:
After you have made a sentence, use ReadPlease to hear it given voice.
Readings -- Books, chapters, stories and texts in Basic English ; over a thousand pages.
Translation - From full English to Basic English using the IDP Companion. Our translation
dictionary has greater than 48,000 words, derivatives, spellings and senses.
Pronunciation - Some of this exists on
the web, but to be of greater effect, this project needs a leader.
- Standard English words with Pictures
- VOA - Voice of America .
Special English is a simple English language used by Voice of America
in daily broadcasts. The news is read slowly and using a limited word list of about 1500 words.
Charles Kay Ogden suggested radio news be given in Basic
English with special radio-news words to be given approval.
Though put forward for giving news round the world, VOA Special English has the addition of good of giving learners starting English words and for pronunciation to be polished.
- Internet is ready to give voice at all times.
- Shortwave radio for VOA news in Special English :
times and frequencies. ( Shortwave radio time and frequencies change with the seasons.)
- Facebook -- http://www.facebook.com/voalearningenglish
- Twitter -- http://twitter.com/voalearnenglish
- Youtube -- http://www.youtube.com/voalearningenglish
- BBC radio World Service
- Individual Word Pronunciation is at hand on Merriam-Webster dictionary website , The Free Dictionary, Cool Dictionary, and others.
- Idiomatic Expressions are covered by these online dictionaries : (more)
- 100 important words -- many are Basic.
Youtube has links to other videos about English pronunciation.
Text to Speech Readers (TTS) -- With this software, you can hear text read out loud by your computer. Free for Windows. Use these to give hearing to works written in Basic English.
- ReadPlease -- take a look at discussion by
Saburo Terada. -- discontinued
- NaturalReader is another Text to Speech Reader. Download free version.
The Institute is now testing.
The free version of each uses a mechanical voice. Natural Reader seems to have more features, but otherwise is similar to ReadPlease. We will report later this week.
ReadPlease : To start using better ATT Natural Voices costs US$25 and each feature
costs more, $35 each..
NaturalReader : To start using better ATT Natural Voices costs US$40 with file save features. Or, with file editing features for $70.
- SmartRead by
Smartysoft Studio includes Simplified Chinese speech voice and English speech voice ( Sam). Various voices are available. We have not yet taken a look at this. Much of website is in Chinese.
- TextSpeechPro in an inexpensive text to speech software similar to the free plus ones above.
Online Pronouncing Dictionaries - one word at a time
- Merriam-Webster Online - among first and largest.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pronunciation
- Macmillan Online Dictionary with Audio Pronunciation
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/
- American Heritage Dictionary on Yahoo! Education
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary
- Dictionary of English Pronunciation
http://howjsay.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pronunciation
- Machine-like voice, but does full sentences.
http://www.cooldictionary.com
- More links at
http://ask.reference.com/web?q=How%20Do%20You%20Pronounce?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pronunciation
http://fonetiks.org -- ideas, many accents
-
And don't forget e-books as a source of listening.
English Word Frequency -- why Basic is clear.
Glossary for Learning Language - new
Spelling for basic Basic English
Spelling Intermediate Basic
Contraction and Possessive
Next Steps - to the 2000 word level
Basic in Other Languages
Playing Basic Games.
Here are some examples of Basic Word Games for your creative contributions.
After Basic English
There are a number of online programs to learn
full English. These will be given thought by the learner going forward after
having learned Ogden's Basic English.
Dictionary Aids
- The Basic Dictionary - Ogden's support of the fact that Basic is able to say everything at the "pocket dictionary" level of 7,500 words with only 850 words. Senses given for the words : run, 2 ; bow, 2.
- The General Basic English Dictionary -- a compact dictionary of 20,000 words in which all the definitions are in Basic English. Senses given : run, 45 ; bow, 9.
- The Collins COBUILD Learners Dictionary - a compact dictionary with learner helps in the "pocket dictionary" range. Senses given : run, 50 ; bow, 9.
- The Longman Basic Dictionary of American English
in which the definitions make use of the Longman vocabulary that is limited to 2,075 English words. The Longman list is used within a group of Longman education publications. This copy is at the 10,000 word level. Senses: run, 4 ; bow, 5.
- English Pronouncing Dictionary (With CD-ROM) [DVD-ROM]
Paperback: 628 pages. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN-10: 0521017130 .
ISBN-13: 978-0521017138
Reference Pages
Alternatives
WEB Links for the Twentieth Century -- a great expansion since the BEI was founded; many have teaching plans.
Specially for people with native language of:
New technology : talking e-books. Includes text, narrative, and sounding of individual words.
Back to the Basic-English Institute
Go to the VOA Special English home page
About this Page: Learn.html -- Menu to learning Basic English
online through pictures and pronunciation: projects and references.
Last updated May 20, 2010 -- expand VOA offerings
November 6, 2009 -- add SpotLight Radio
March 4, 2008 -- British Council "Learn English".
Dec 17, 2007 -- update translation dictionary and spelling.
June 17, 2006 -- add Blocked, NaturalReader
Contact us at
URL: http://www.basic-english.org/learn/learn.html