FabuLingua - Learn Spanish

Fabulingua is a very well-presented app with a clearly organised selection and progression of interactive stories aimed at gradually and naturally raising your familiarity and knowledge of the Spanish language.  Aimed at the 3-11 age group, each of the stories is a charming tale that introduces the reader and listener to a variety of characters in age-appropriate adventures.  When kids use their Learn Spanish app, they'll also practice good pronunciation, work on their listening skills, and round out their knowledge of the Spanish language with short grammar lessons.  

As a piece of software, it offers relevant, immediate interaction whereby you will read along with the Spanish storyline and have this supported by it being read to you in both Spanish and then English.  This software is not centred on formally testing and evaluating vocabulary and/or structure retention.  It is an app that is intended to be enjoyed, with progression and improvement in the language being more gradual, natural, and subconscious, if you will.  Fabulingua intends for the user to start or continue their Spanish language-learning journey by losing themselves in a story and, over time, growing in familiarity with it.

From the start-up screen, users will register with Fabulingua via email and, subsequently, begin their adventure.  The app divides its lessons into character-focused stories that are mostly animal themed.  From here, you will explore the world and escapades of the various characters thanks to the visually pleasing and interactive animations.  The tactile nature of the graphics will keeps the kids engaged as they absorb the language. To coincide with this, the storyline and graphics are interwoven with bi-lingual narration – which the developer call ‘Magical Translations’ – to further help you to immerse yourself in the plot in a very effective way.  Some opportunities to freely explore help your child to interact with the language and new cultures, while reinforcing knowledge of Spanish as well.  As your complete the various parts of each characters storyline, more fun games and challenges will be unlocked, culminating in your practice and imitation of the story and, finally, retelling the complete story yourself.

Progress is, essentially, tracked through various levels that you unlock thanks to the amount of content and challenges you complete and your accuracy in some of the vocabulary games.  As parents and/or carers you can dictate the content that your child will access by turning on PIN-protected ‘parent settings’.  What is otherwise a very comprehensive and well-devised app, a potential area of difficulty will be with the seeming lack of explanation of some vocabulary elements in certain games, as the storytelling approach aims at subconscious reception of the language as opposed to formal instruction and explanation – for example, sorting vocabulary into whether it takes the masculine or feminine definite article (“el” or “la”) may, initially, be beyond some students.  However, with repeated exposure students will begin to see patterns and, so, denote and implement these into their learning.  Consequently, it is better that several storylines be explored at one time, in order to maximise exposure to the language and thus allow the natural understanding process to take place.  As I have previously mentioned, the more you access the content, the more aspects of the game you unlock.  With each ‘zone’ completed, you will be awarded “calcomanías” (stickers), which are a very clever add-on for their age-appropriate language content.  Through these stickers, students can design their own storyboards – potentially, with the ultimate goal being that they can narrate what they have designed across two languages.

The overall premise of this app is that of repetitive reinforcement of learning – not dissimilar to how you would learn your own language – by regularly interacting with vocabulary and structures, the user will gradually develop competence and understanding.  Obviously, this premise of independent learning requires the user to regularly experience what has been previously seen and heard and Fabulingua does this well.   From an educator’s perspective, the relevant, tactile, and interactive content means that this represents a very useful addition to the primary language-learning classroom, with clever and charming storylines showcased in entertaining, engaging, and varied ways.  The progress retention and opportunities to tell the stories for themselves brings a practical and effective element to the app.  The audio is recorded clearly and by native speakers and, all in all, Fabulingua is a good looking, well-designed app.  The range and variety of exercise types are age-appropriate in that they are well-rotated and suitably engage and motivate learners.  

In conclusion, as a supportive app for initial steps into Spanish language-learning or reinforcing varied vocabulary knowledge, it is an engaging and motivating piece of software, with varied and appropriate exercises.  Fabulingua is suited for the 3-10 age group, with the potential of this app being what you make of it; yet those aspiring for an in-depth knowledge of language nuances will find that this app does meet those needs – that being said, this is not the intention of scope here.  It is a storytelling app that wants to help you explore the language in a natural and gradual way, with the real purpose being enjoyment.  From a personal perspective, I will recommend this app to my fellow primary language teachers as an endearing accompaniment to the curriculum, which could be hugely effective if it is considerately embedded.  The ultimate benefit will be seen in having young learners frequently experiencing a new language and completing activities in their own time, when their language retention skills will be at their most receptive.