BILINGUAL APPLICATIONS

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02/02/2011

Ana Lomba – Multilingual Storybook Apps for kids – English- French - Spanish - Chinese

 

Are your Kids Learning a Foreign Language?

iPad multilingual book apps, a great fun and interactive support to learning languages

The development of the iPad has opened so many doors to learning and education. With the right apps, the iPad can also become a great support for learning languages. We recently came across a great series of bilingual book apps fromAna Lomba specially designed for the iPad. The Ana Lomba digital storybook apps offer a new approach to learning languages and focuses on the use of storytelling to learn a foreign language. These apps are ideal for the young ones and great to learn and listen to a foreign language in a fun and entertaining way.

Studying a foreign language and helping your young ones through the learning process can be fun and entertaining. As your kids learn another language it is important that you read foreign books with them and interact. Personal interaction is important.  As a bilingual mom,French/English, I really think that promoting languages at a young age can be very beneficial. Young kids can be very receptive and the use of the iPad makes it even better. Flashcards and books can be of great help to study vocabulary but adding storytelling to the process will help kids understand how to use the words in a situation, see how sentences are built and how to pronounce these foreign words.  

 

Multilingual books on the iPad offer many features to help and support kids. 

 Reading multilingual books with your kids, you can listen, observe, try to understand and practice. I recently discovered Ana Lomba multilingual books for iPad collection which offers classic stories such as the Little Red Hen,  Jack and the Beanstalk, Thumbelina,the Ugly Duckling and Cinderella in English / French/ Spanish and you have the choice  English / French , English / Spanish but also Chinese /Spanish, Chinese/ French … (for more details see iTunes – Ana Lomba bilingual book app collection).

We tried the English/French and what we really liked with this bilingual collection is the quality of the app. The visuals are great and you are able to read and listen to the story in both languages. It is not one English book and one French book, it is one book. Once on a page you can switch from one language to the other just by taping the language tab, both the voice over as well as the text will switch to the language you selected. 

The best ways to use these multilingual book apps are:

• Take the time to sit and go over the books with your kids. Interacting with them will make the learning fun and effective. Personal interaction is a key element in the process.

• Start reading the story in the foreign language of your choice. These are classical stories so chances are your kids know the storyline. Listen, read, look and stop at each page. Ask questions, if you use the Little Red Hen for example take the opportunity to learn how to say "right foot", "left hand", “what time it is?”, “I want to sleep" as well as "cell phone" and so many other words.

• Encourage your kids to repeat words or sentences. Look at the illustration, choose an object and ask your kids the name in French, or Spanish or Chinese.

• Listen carefully and don’t be scared if your kids don’t understand at first. Go over and over again and they will learn. The best way to learn a language is “full immersion” so keep on going, the illustration and the story line will really help to understand. Learn one or 2 expressions at a time and make sure to revisit often. 

Ana Lomba bilingual storybook apps collection is really a great support. The apps are easy to use and follow. The voice over is done by native speakers. The friendly and entertaining tone of the apps will encourage and support your kids with learning a foreign language.

Make full use of the benefit of the iPad and turn it into a learning center!

Ana Lomba Bilingual Books collection is available for download via iTunes.

If you want to have a try, note that The Red Hen story is available for free in all the languages. Each book is a new opportunity to learn more words and more sentences.

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