November 2014 – The British Council is launching the new LearnEnglish Kids: Playtime app this month to help children ages aged 6-11 build confidence in English speaking and improve spelling and understanding of vocabulary.

Primarily focused on improving listening skills, the app includes over 50 quality animated songs and stories that are grouped into themes such as Fairy Tales, British Tales and classic Children’s Songs. Each video comes with an engaging listen–and-record activity to encourage children to speak, as well as challenging games to improve understanding and spelling of words from the videos.

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On the videos and games, Nirupa Fernandez, Assistant Director – English Digital Partnerships at the British Council India said,“We explored the needs of children in India and designed the games to support and enhance the language the children hear in the video; it allows them to explore a little bit more than simply watching video would.

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The listen-and-record activity encourages children to experiment with saying new words and phrases and compare their pronunciation with that of the narrator.”

The app also features a parents section where parents can get clear feedback on their child’s progress in the app. “We listened to what parents wanted to see in the app and created a progress area to help them understand at a glance how their children are doing in the four key areas: video, speaking, spelling and understanding.” said Neil Ballantyne, Mobile Learning Manager for English learning apps at the British Council.

The LearnEnglish Kids: Playtime app will be available on iOS tablets and phones from November 14 2014 onwards. The app is free to download with 20 videos and more videos are available through in-app purchasing or monthly subscription. More animated songs and stories will be added in the future.

As the world’s English expert, the British Council offers a collection of 13 apps written by English teachers and language experts to help learners of all ages practise and improve their English. The British Council’s apps have had over 9 million downloads to date and cover a wide range of English learning areas including grammar, vocabulary and listening practice. Learners can visithttp://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/apps to find out more. English learning materials for children are also available at http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/.

Media Contacts: 

Shonali Ganguli, Head Communications East India at shonali.ganguli@britishcouncil.org

Renuka Reuben, Senior Manager Marketing and Communications, West India at renuka.reuben@in.britishcouncil.org

Rajeswari Pradeep Kumar, Senior Manager Marketing and Communications, South India at rajeswari.pradeepkumar@in.britishcouncil.org