The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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16 The Linguist Vol/54 No/3 2015 www.ciol.org.uk FEATURES Could educational apps be the new frontier in language learning for young people? Miranda Moore investigates Apps that are child's play AccelaStudy Japanese Danny, 12 AccelaStudy is not as smart as it claims to be. the user interface is not very friendly as there are no pictures to help with memorisation. the navigation system is not very intuitive and you don't have a sense of what you need to do to progress. Many words are not useful for a beginner, such as 腹 ('abdomen') or, in the animals section, 恐竜 ('dinosaur'). this app may be for learners trying to memorise some words but I found 'Learn Japanese easily' and 'Learning Japanese' much better. But at least I can now say 恐竜、腹部 ('the dinosaur's abdomen')! Renkara Media Group; 18 languages; all ages; iOS. Free; full version US$9.99. Learn Arabic for Kids Marina, 8 I think that overall it is an excellent app. there is a picture, usually a voice in Arabic and usually the word written in Arabic. the pictures and sounds definitely help. My improvement would be to add the word in english and how to pronounce the Arabic sounds. I found the numbers hard but later on I found out that the voice was saying the number and the object – like 'one hat'. this is a problem because it is hard to understand. But I totally recommend this app to anyone who wants to learn Arabic because it is really fun. INKids; 10 languages; iOS & Android. £1.30. PimTrack: Language Learning for Kids Jacob, 4 I like hearing how to say the words because it helps me know how to say them in Spanish. Me and my sister [aged 7] say the words and then we can put a tick when we know them. It's funny too because there's a bit when a dog wears these cool glasses. Jacob's mum adds: the basic app held their interest more than I expected, but they do seem to prefer the videos that the app is designed to support, and those are quite pricey, starting at uS$34.99. Little Pim; 8 languages; ages 0-6; iOS (Spanish iOS & Android). Free - US$3.99 (apps vary). u se the search term 'Learn French' in the GooglePlay store and more than 100 relevant apps come up, ranging from countless free courses, including the highly rated Learn French easy and Duolingo, to more expensive options such as L-Lingo Learn French Pro (£9.99). there is also an increasing number of child-friendly apps, with names such as Learn French for kids (£1.28) and French Learning for kids (free). Given that applications for mobile devices only took off in 2008, with the launch of the Apple App Store and several smartphones, the boom in language learning options has been astonishing – and no less so because it is part of a wider apps explosion that saw a 115% expansion in 2013 alone. 1 In that year, the apps industry was worth a purported uS$26 billion worldwide, even though 91% of downloaded apps were free. In 2014, ofcom reported that a third of children in the uk owned their own tablet and © ShutterStock