Educators use apps to teach languages
While pupils these days could be less inclined to pick up a book or read any text-based media, Singapore educators are hoping to tap various mobile applications — some not even designed with supporting language learning in mind — to improve their language skills, specifically in Chinese where it is at times challenging for teachers to raise pupils’ level of interest in the subject.
While pupils these days could be less inclined to pick up a book or read any text-based media, Singapore educators are hoping to tap various mobile applications — some not even designed with supporting language learning in mind — to improve their language skills, specifically in Chinese where it is at times challenging for teachers to raise pupils’ level of interest in the subject.
At St Anthony’s Canossian Primary School, Primary 1 and 2 pupils use a mobile app on their iPads to learn Chinese by tracing the strokes of characters. The app also provides writing tips.
Meanwhile, their Pri 3 seniors learn about Malay weddings through slides, pictures and videos put together by their teachers via the Keynote app. They will then use another app, PhotoWall, to create a photo montage with captions.
“The key point (of using these apps) is to enhance Chinese language learning,” said the school’s Subject Head for Chinese Language Huang Shansi. She added that pupils can also be “self-directed” in learning the language.
At CHIJ Kellock Primary School, Chinese-language teachers use the Blurb app during lessons for Pri 4 and 5 pupils. The app allows users to compile photos, videos and audio to create visual stories.
The pupils are asked to work in pairs to talk about places they visit frequently. Through the exercise, they learn oral skills and practise sentence construction, among other things.
App developers who are aware of the trend are also getting in on the act by creating dedicated apps for parents and teachers to improve their children’s Mandarin. Some are also designed as games for children to play on their own.
The Qooco Talk Platinum app, for example, teaches students how to pronounce words based on Chinese characters and Pinyin. It uses a speech-recognition engine to allow users to improve their pronunciation.
According to the developer, the free app — which comes with in-app purchases — is based on the Ministry of Education’s primary-school Chinese curriculum.
Qooco CEO David Topolewski said that, so far, the app has “a few thousand” downloads.
“Kids can use this. It’s very intuitive ... everything is gamified, so they learn quite quickly how to use it,” he added. AMANDA LEE