The British Council launches new app LearnEnglish Kids: Playtime to help children build confidence in English speaking
Over 50 quality video songs and stories for children to learn English
The British Council is launching the new LearnEnglish Kids: Playtime app this month to help children aged 6-11 build confidence in English speaking and improve spelling and understanding of vocabulary.
Primarily focused on improving listening skills, the app includes over 50 quality animated songs and stories that are grouped into themes such as Fairy Tales, British Tales and classic Children’s Songs. Each video comes with an engaging listen–and-record activity to encourage children to speak, as well as challenging games to improve understanding and spelling of words from the videos.
On the videos and games, Tracy Dumais, Young Learner Consultant for English learning apps at the British Council said, “We designed the games to support and enhance the language the children hear in the video; it allows them to explore a little bit more than simply watching video would. The listen-and-record activity encourages children to experiment with saying new words and phrases and compare their pronunciation with that of the narrator.”
The app also features a parents section where parents can get clear feedback on their child’s progress in the app. “We listened to what parents wanted to see in the app and created a progress area to help them understand at a glance how their children are doing in the four key areas: video, speaking, spelling and understanding.” said Neil Ballantyne, Mobile Learning Manager for English learning apps at the British Council.
The LearnEnglish Kids: Playtime app will be available on iOS tablets and phones from November 14 2014 onwards. The app is free to download with 20 videos and more videos are available through in-app purchasing or monthly subscription. More animated songs and stories will be added in the future.
As the world’s English expert, the British Council offers a collection of 13 apps written by English teachers and language experts to help learners of all ages practise and improve their English. The British Council’s apps have had over9 million downloads to date and cover a wide range of English learning areas including grammar, vocabulary and listening practice. Learners can visit http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/apps to find out more. English learning materials for children are also available at http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/.
More information about the app is available at: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/parents/apps/learnenglish-kids-playtime