The Right Word App Review
App Info
Price: $1.99
Overview
The Right Word offers several types and levels of practice with a huge list of word pairs and groups that many people find confusing. It includes a handy reference tool, and offers practice with various fill-in activities that force the user to use context clues to answer correctly.
Features include:
- Four games
- Three levels
- Reference tool
- Quick feedback
- Extensive content bank
Quality
The Right Word is an outstanding app that will benefit anyone seeking to improve English skills, including upper elementary students trying to improve English grades, high school students practicing for the high stakes tests, college students wanting to improve their writing skills, and any youth or adult working to learn English as a second language or improve their professional presentation skills. It includes around 200 sets of confusing words divided into three levels of difficulty, so it is very comprehensive.
The one problem noted with the app is that there was at least one error in a test item. While the reference for the words was correct, but the test item insists that the words be used incorrectly. This was the only error spotted, but there’s so much content that not everything was checked. It would be a good idea for developers to review items to make sure all are correct.
Education
It’s difficult to master the sets of words covered in The Right Word, and learners in many age groups and situations need practice. This app provides four games that will be appropriate for a range of ages, abilities and experience. In addition, there are three levels of difficulty and two modes that range from less to more challenging. It would be suitable for most upper elementary students through adult levels, as the “Hard” level is quite challenging even for collegiate levels. The app also will exercise student vocabulary, which in turn improves writing skills as well.
One way to make the app even more valuable for users in classroom or homeschool settings would be some sort of record keeping that shows sets of words that have been mastered and which are yet to be learned. A system to provide more targeted practice would be really helpful. It would also be nice to have access to the reference section when playing the slow mode of the games (or perhaps a third mode that combines WordFlow with access to the reference).
Entertainment
While not really meant to be an entertaining app, The Right Word manages to make a dry subject engaging with the format for practice. One option at every level is a speed mode where users are challenged to find the correct words as quickly as possible. This builds fluency and adds some excitement to the game. The slower mode, WordFlow, allows the player to keep practicing until three mistakes are made. Both modes keep high score records.
It also is a good idea to provide immediate feedback on success or correction, and The Right Word does that. When users complete the tasks on each screen, they instantly get information about which items were correctly solved and which were not.
Value
The Right Word is a good app for the money, since it is so rich in content and covers an area of study that many people need or have interest in. With over 200 sets of confusing words covered, it would take many hours of play to become proficient with all of them. In addition, the “fill-in-the-blank” methodology is a much more effective way to master the material than many other types of treatments.
Child Friendliness
The Right Word is intended for older children, teens and adults. For this audience, it is very child-friendly. There are no outside advertisements, no in-app purchases, and no links that open the browser. There is a contact link that can be activated by clicking the developers’ name in the bottom center of the home screen that opens a blank email for comments or questions.
