iPad App Reviews

The first app I looked at was the Multi-Lang Dictionary by Denotes Mobile Technology LTD. This app was last updated on January 18, 2012. For free you can look up any word in just about any language and translate it into English or from one language to another. This app would work for my future classroom because it would allow for my students to translate a word much faster than it would for them to flip through a dictionary. I tried typing in a couple words in to test the translators ability and the translator worked very well from English to Spanish and from Spanish to English. This app was even able to translate a certain type of conjugation into the actual meaning of that words significance in English, not all translators, like Google Translate, are good at preforming such a task. If you pay so much money you can also have the translator preform text to speech. I did not purchase the app so I was unable to play with the text to speech section of this app. If my future students wanted to pay for the app the text to speech would help them learn pronunciation in Spanish.

The other app I looked at was Learn Spanish by MindSnack. This app was last updated December 19, 2011. You have to create an account, through Facebook, to play on this app and like most apps you have to eventually pay to unlock certain parts of the app. This app will also ask if you want to share your success on Facebook, which some students might find fun. After you create an account the app asks you to describe your level of ability in Spanish - Nonexistent, Jumbled without structure, or Intermediate. I went ahead and selected Nonexistent, because I figured my future students would be at that level. The app started me off with numbers and I could play two games for free. As you earn points you can unlock other games. The app first reviews the numbers with you (1-20). Then you can play the games. I played fish bowl first. In this game you are given a word in either Spanish or English and below you are given two options. You are to match the English or Spanish word with its meaning in the English or Spanish, for example the word ONE appears on the screen and below your options are UNO or ONCE. You would then press UNO and earn points. However you are timed. In the background there is a fish and the water is moving down around the fish, like your inside the fishes water bowl, so you have to pick the correct word to raise the water back up and if you push the wrong word the fish dies. If you pick the wrong word three times the game is over. This game takes into consideration your reaction time and how many you got correct to reward you points. The other game which I liked better deals with spelling. The setting is a moon where a word in English appears, and birds with letters on them are on a telephone wire. You have to spell the word that appears on the moon in Spanish correctly to earn points. You have a time limit and you can miss as many as possible without the game stopping. The game also shows you the correct spelling of the word before moving on to the next, so you can remember for next time and not just guess.

I could use both of these apps everyday in my class. Having an English to Spanish/ Spanish to English dictionary readily available is very important for learning a foreign language. Having students learn spelling and learn to recognize the meaning of words in both languages quickly are great skills I would love my students to learn. I could give my students 10 minutes at the beginning or end of class to work on those exercises and we could track their scores to see how they are progressing.