DoodleEnglish

An understanding of the rules of the English language is an important component of a child's literacy education. Those having English as a first language have an instinctive understanding of the rules but the correct terms and the exceptions to the rules can cause problems. Regional dialects can too as, although, breaking grammar rules in speech might not sound wrong or can be easily overlooked, it becomes a glaring mistake in the written form.   Certainly, the tests that children need to pass expect English grammar to be fully understood and used correctly. DoodleEnglish uses Proxima, the same award winning technology that powers DoodleMaths and DoodleTables.

What's it about

DoodleEnglish employs a model tried and tested in its developer's maths app to provide tuition and practise in the rules of the English language for children. Following an initial set of tasks that help the app understand a child's strengths and weaknesses, learners are prompted to use the app for a short time each day. These short sessions of advancement and revision help children to develop their knowledge at a steady pace and retain what they have already learned.

Until the day's task is complete, children cannot use the other features of the app such as the revision section, word search, and crossword puzzles.  At the time of writing this review, near to Christmas, there is also a seasonal quiz so it is likely that other activities appropriate to the time of year will appear at relevant times. These are quite simple activities but suit the rest of the app well, work effectively, and reinforce some of the learning.

Within the main challenges set, children are given new understanding and presented with questions to answer or sentences to manipulate.  These tasks might be highlighting words of a certain type or ones that perform a certain role within a sentence.  They may also include spotting inappropriate uses of punctuation marks or identifying what is needed to make up a certain type of sentence. 

The variety of knowledge tested is matched by the range of different question formats. This app does not rely purely on a multiple-choice format as do so many other apps. Children will use the on-screen keyboard, a highlighter mechanism, drag-and-drop letter tiles, and other interactions to give their answers. These each suit the question type that they are covering making it more difficult for children to guess their way through questions.  The variety also helps to maintain interest.

Children using language learning apps are often in a difficult position. They are using the app because their literacy skills are still undeveloped but the apps require reading to be used. DoodleEnglish uses the device's accessibility facilities to provide a synthesised voice for all instructions, questions, and help.  This can occasionally use an unexpected tone or pronunciation but, in the case of this app, this is not usually a problem and the correct word is identifiable without confusing the learning taking place. The app shows users how to adjust this voice if they would prefer a different one.

There is a broad range of English grammar knowledge taught and tested in DoodleEnglish. The different types of words such as conjunctions, verbs, and nouns are covered as are types of words used for artistic or creative effect, such as alliteration and rhyming. Tenses, punctuation, clauses and other topics round out this app into a comprehensive teaching and revision guide for developing strong English skills.

The app does touch on spelling but the associated DoodleSpell app by the same developer and built upon a similar model covers this in much more depth and should be considered for a fuller coverage of the English curriculum.

All of this can be tracked within the app on a time and content basis.  Tasks are recorded according to the days on which they were carried out and how well they were completed is marked alongside them. Additional revision and interaction with the supporting games are also listed.  Parents who have set up the app can easily view a detailed set of data and schools who use it and are linked to the child can also track it.  This communication can also harness children's competitive spirits by allowing classmates to compare and compete in a race to be best at English.

As each child who uses the app has a separate account, the app is easy for both schools and parents to employ. A single device can accommodate multiple users who can take it in turns to access their own account and carry out their own activities.

Doodle English is of a similar quality to the other apps in its series:  excellent. It has clear goals for learning and uses an effective and easy-to-use model to achieve them.  

Further Reading:

English Learning Apps for Kids

You can download DoodleEnglish on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the DoodleEnglish app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.