GSL Builder:

This application is designed to help learners and teachers make use of the highly regarded General Service List (GSL). The GSL is a free access open source wordlist.

The app contains simple tools to help you download, email and organize the GSL, as well as study tools to quickly and efficiently learn the words, keep detailed record of your progress and the ability to email your progress to yourself or a teacher.

Definitions are written in simple English, with part of speech, Japanese translation and pronunication of the word by a native speaker of English also given.

About the GSL:

The General Service List (usually referred to as the GSL) was published by Michael West in 1953, after more than a decade of detailed corpus work by he and a panel of experts. The GSL is a set of 2,000 words selected to be of the greatest "general service" to second language learners of English. Although there are over 600,000 words in the English language, these 2000 cover more than 80% of the words people meet in their daily lives. This list has had a wide influence for many years, serving as the basis for the development of graded readers as well as other second language learning material. A fuller discussion of the GSL, and word lists in general, can be found in Nation (2001) and Carter and McCarthy (1988).

About Intelligent Flashcards:

The app also contains an Intelligent Wordlist Maker and Intelligent Flashcard system.

The Intelligent Wordlist Maker helps you to quickly and efficiently pick only the words you don’t know for study in the flashcard system. Rather than force you to go through the entire list at once, Intelligent Wordlist Maker guides you through the list by frequency bands, allowing you to add words little by little, just as you need them or when you have time.

Based on the well documented science of “spaced-repetition”, the Intelligent Flashcard system systematically and efficiently helps you to review the words several times over a period of a month, giving you extra time with the words that are giving you difficulty.