Tablets: Disciplines in Education

Living Language - Chinese

This app is both engaging and fun! You can practice vocabulary and grammar in a variety of different ways, and most of the phrases you lean are useful everyday phrases. The games are created so that they build in knowledge as you learn more Chinese. It includes many different lessons at an essential level, intermediate level, or advanced level. There are many interactive games, vocabulary flashcards, grammar notes, and you can even have dialogues with native speakers! When using the flashcards, the native speakers say the words to you. I think this would be especially helpful for language learners to use since they would be able to practice repeating it as they hear it said. There are other languages offered, so I think it would be helpful to have this in an ESL classroom so that my ELL's could learn about the languages of their peers in the class.

iTranslate

iTranslate is actually an app that I use quite frequently. It allows for you to choose one of 92 languages, type a word or sentence, and then translate it into another language. It allows you to listen to native speakers say your word or phrase! Another great feature that I think is useful in the classroom is that it lists different phrases that are similar to the one you chose. For example, if you want to translate hello into Spanish, it will say "hola." It will also give "buenos dias" at the bottom which is a phrase for "good morning." Students can learn new words as they are translating!

Latin Hangman

All students love playing hangman! Why not play hangman while practicing Latin? When you begin, you can choose how difficult you want your game to be. The game has over 15,000 Latin words and definitions! These could be used during independent work time, or played with a partner. I like the "Heads Start" mode because it automatically eliminates a few letters before you even begin playing which makes it a little easier. 

Google Earth

Google Earth is not necessarily the best language learning app, but it definitely helps the students learn about the countries where these languages are spoken. I think this would be incredibly fun to use in an ESL classroom with older grades (maybe high school). Students could give virtual tours of their city where their family is originally from and show their classmates the different landmarks in their country. You can even go to street mode and find your house! This would be a great app to hook up to the main screen where all students could see. If I taught Spanish, students could see the places we were studying in class and learn to say their Spanish names.

Play2Learn Chinese

This app is much more appropriate than some of the others for teaching younger ages. There are all sorts categories such as jewelry, computer, colors, shapes, human body, family, house, fruits, vegetables, animals, clothes, toys, etc. You can point to any object and listen to a native speaker say the word. There is also a mode where you can listen to the word said and then try to point to that object. My favorite is that you can turn labels on to see the spelling of the word. This is helpful for students who are visual learners. It would be fun to have a quiz using this app where students listen to the native speaker give ten different words, point to the object, and count how many out of ten they got correct.