Learning Other Languages

Using the keyboard in our Squeebles Spelling Connect app is simple, but a lot of people don't realise how flexible it is and how much you can use it to assist your child with learning languages other than English. Here is what you can do to turn the app into a language-learning tool...

Accented Characters

As well as the 26 letters of the English language, various punctuation characters and the numbers from 0 to 9, our in-app keyboard contains accented characters, so you can create your own custom spelling lists full of words that may require accented characters. See below left for an example of a simple spelling list we created, containing 5 accented French words and short phrases.

To access the accented options for any given letter (see above, right), simply hold down the "root" letter for about half a second and all the potential accented versions of that letter will appear. In our example above, we've held down the "e" key to bring up all the accented versions of the letter e so that we can add the word "frère" ("brother" in French). You can do this with both lower and upper case letters.

This works in both the parent / teacher zone and on the keyboard your children see when attempting a spelling test or homework. If a letter doesn't have any accented options associated with it, then holding it down will do nothing.

Recording Audio In Other Languages

Because you can both enter the spelling and record the audio in either the language your child is practising, or in another language, there is huge flexibility in terms of how your child can practise. For example, when learning French, you can create spelling lists where you:

• Enter the word in French and record the audio in French.
• Enter the word in English (or another language) and record the audio in French for translating from French.
• Enter the word in French and record the audio in English (or another language) for translating to French.

This flexibility makes Squeebles Spelling Connect a really powerful aide when learning another language or practising translation of words and short phrases.

Alternative Characters

As well as accented characters, our in-app keyboard also gives you access to numbers and a selection of punctuation characters, some of which are used commonly in languages other than English, so adding hyphenated words, or words with apostrophes is simple too. To access the alternative keyboard screen that includes these characters, just tap the blue .?123 key in the bottom left of the keyboard and you'll see what options you have. Tap it again to return to the standard QWERTY keyboard.

Feedback...

If you have any suggestions for our keyboard and how it could be improved to assist with learning languages your child is practising, then e-mail us and let us know!