Chinese Zodiac for Kids

An interactive program to help kids learn the Chinese names of the animals in the Chinese zodiac. Six learning activities and games help kids recognize and remember the Chinese words. This is a great introduction to Chinese language and culture.

This application was designed using the latest approaches in learning theory and language acquisition techniques. It's age-appropriate and engaging for learners ranging in age from toddlers to adults. While it isn't the most "flashy" of learning activities, it is nevertheless engaging and interactive, and more importantly, is grounded on proven principles of language learning that are in use in universities and other language training organizations such as the US Foreign Service.

The activities progress naturally from presentational to interactive modes, and progress naturally in challenge and level of open-endedness.

Learning activities include:

1. Explore mode: click an animal to see and hear its name in Chinese. Use this mode to explore and review the words. This activity is the first step in language learning: connecting a new sound to an existing concept in the learner's brains.

2. Show mode: See the animals presented in random order. In this mode, the app is a presenter of information. Use this activity to review and reinforce the vocabulary.

3. Connect mode: click to hear a word, then draw a line from the sound to the picture. This mode is tactile and active. It appeals to different learning styles, and draws the learner into a more active state of engagement with the language.

4. Concentrate: This is a different kind of matching activity. After learners have an understanding of the words, this activity connects their short-term and long-term memories. This activity reinforces the language, and facilitates encoding the vocabulary into long-term memory, which is required for real language acquisition.

5. Speedy: In this activity, the program plays a word, and the learner must click on the correct picture within a given time limit. This activity promotes recall and "lexical recovery," a critical factor in language use.

6. Simon Says: This is the most challenging activity, and the most open-ended. The program plays a progressively long list of words. Learners listen to the list of words, then touch the pictures in the correct order. The longer the learners play the activity, the longer the list becomes. This activity also connects short-term and long-term memories, and reinforces the link between the sound of the words and their meaning.