This week, Dr. Heidi and Victor talk about the rest of the new features in Version 3 of Vocab Victor, especially our new word list feature!
Watch this week’s video on YouTube below.
Read the text of this week’s video to check your understanding and practice your new words!
Hi Victor.
Hi Dr. Heidi.
So, let’s talk some more about Version 3. Last week, you told me about some great new features: It’s a little easier to finish tower levels.
Right.
You have a number of charms that you can earn and spend in the games for hints and so forth.
Yep.
We have medieval ranks that you can achieve, like Prince, Baron, Knight.
Yes.
I’m excited! This all sounds like a lot of fun! What other features are there? Well, people like to compete - they like to see how well they are doing compared to other people - so we added a leaderboard. What’s a leaderboard?
Well, it’s like a score board. It shows everybody’s scores, and the top of the board is the leader.
The leader is the person with the highest score.
Exactly.
How do you know what your score is?
You score is how many words you’ve learned. This is the same as the number of “words learned” you see in the Progress Room.
Got it. So, I’ve been wondering, how do you know if they “learned” a word?
Well, if they get the word right in the games a certain number of times, I count it as “learned.”
Okay, that makes sense. I think this leaderboard will be a lot of fun, because people can compete with their friends to see who can learn the most words! How do I get on the leaderboard?
You have to register.
Is that new?
No, the registration isn’t new. We actually want people to register because then if they lose their phone or something they can log back in with their new phone and they won’t lose their progress.
I’ll keep that in mind.
Version 3 has a new field, the nickname, which is like a user name, so that you don’t have to put your real name on the leaderboard if you don’t want to.
Okay I think I’ll be Superman.
No, you can’t be Superman because there’s only one Superman and it’s not you!
Fair enough. Okay, so I’ll just be Dr. Heidi.
No spaces or periods.
Okay, I’ll be Dr_Heidi.
Okay now you are on the leader board. Wow, you’ve learned a lot of words!
Well, yeah because I play it all the time.
So, Victor, what else is new? Se’ve got an easier tower. We’ve got charms. We’ve got a Daily Challenge game, and ranks, that’s a lot! And the leaderboard. Anything else?
Just one more thing but it’s actually kind of a big deal!
What’s that?
Word lists.
Wow so a list is a group of things, so a word list is a group of lists.
Right. So right now you can’t control what words you learn in Vocab Victor. But, a lot of times, like if you’re studying for a test, or if you’re studying to be in college, you might want to focus on the words that will help you the most.
So instead of learning random words, you can learn words from a list.
Exactly. We have some word lists you can choose from, then you pick the word list and the words on that list will come up for you in the game.
That’s great! Victor, I’ve got a great idea! I can put my word lists on there too, so every week when they watch a video, they can practice learning my words in the game!
That’s a great idea! Okay now let’s take a look at the word lists.
What are these lists?
Well, the NGSL is a great general list. If you are a beginner this is a good list to get started. When you open it up you see we made smaller lists, because there’s like 2,000 words in the NGSL.
Oh, I see, you made a bunch of smaller lists.
Right. There’s about 30 words in each of these lists.
How do they get the lists?
Well some of them are free that some of them may have to pay for them with charms.
Ah, again the charms! It’s like money in the game!
That’s right so if you don’t have enough charms you can buy more.
Got it that seems fair enough.
So after you buy a list you can see which words on the list that, and which words you have learned, just like in the Progress Room.
Wow that’s really nice, Victor! I like it! So when is a new version going to be ready? I’m excited for it.
Well, soon! Hopefully in a couple of weeks. The whole Vocab Victor team is working really hard to get everything done.
Well, I think that’s great, Victor. I think people are going to like Version 3. How will people know when version three is out?
Well, we’ll put it on Instagram and Twitter, but when version 3 comes out the old version won’t work so you have to update
Got it. That will make sure everything’s working on their phone. Well, thank you, Victor, thanks for telling us all about version 3.
Coming up, this week’s words.
Here are some web sites related to this week’s lesson:
no links
Here are the 20 words for week 20. You may know some of these words already. However, it’s very important with vocabulary that you practice the words that you already know in addition to learning new words. This is all good practice and will help your language skills. All these definitions are from the Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary, which is highly recommended for English language learners.
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| control | to have power over (something) |
| count | to include (someone or something) in a total |
| compare | to look at (two or more things) closely in order to see what is similar or different about them or in order to decide which one is better |
| random | chosen, done, etc., without a particular plan or pattern |
| space | a blank area separating written or printed words or lines |
| pay | to give money for goods or services |
| top | the highest part, point, or level of something |
| register | an official list, book, or system for keeping records of something |
| list | a series of names, words, numbers, etc., that are usually written down with each new one appearing below the previous one |
| period | a point . used to show the end of a sentence or an abbreviation |
| general | of, relating to, or affecting all the people or things in a group |
| thing | an object whose name is not known or stated |
| score | the number of points that someone gets for correct answers on a test, exam, etc. |
| college | a school in the U.S. that you go to after high school; a school that offers courses leading to a degree (such as a bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degree) |
| compete | to try to get or win something (such as a prize or reward) that someone else is also trying to win; to try to be better or more successful than someone or something else |
| lose | to fail to keep or hold (something wanted or valued) |
| test | a set of questions or problems that are designed to measure a person’s knowledge, skills, or abilities |
| feature | an interesting or important part, quality, ability, etc. |
| leader | someone or something that is ahead of others in a race or competition |
| bunch | a group of things of the same kind that are held or tied together or that grow together |
This week, practice speaking by making a new friend or by posting a “story” video in English! Be sure to tag vocabvictor so we can admire your efforts!
Finally, download our app Vocab Victor which is available for Apple and Android phones. This vocabulary learning software will help you build and strengthen your vocabulary. What does that mean? Build and strengthen. Build vocabulary means it will teach you new words. Strengthen means it will improve the knowledge of the words you already know. Play Vocab Victor for a few minutes every day to help improve your English! Read more about Vocab Victor at our page for students, Vocab Victor - Students.