Prototype of the Language Learning Tool
Originally Posted June 23, 2011

At last we have a prototype for the drag and drop vocabulary learning tool (Okay, let's call it a game and make it sound like more fun). This was inspired by the map learning game I posted earlier, the game that took me from knowing vaguely where the countries of the Middle East and Eastern Europe are to being able to place them on the map with 100% mastery. 
     Thanks and congratulations to everybody involved, primarily Wang Xu, who did the programming, Ruth Anderson, Chen Fu (Frank Chen), and Wang Xuan (Panda) who joined me in recording the voices for the audio.

Click on the picture above to take our Chinese vocabulary board for a trial run.  The way to use this is NOT to treat it as a test.  It isn't a test.  Just place the words on the board by trial and error as fast as you can, then refresh the board and do it again.  The positions of pictures and words will randomize with each refresh, so you will have to try to associate words and characters with pictures rather than locations.  See how long it takes to get to the point where you can place them all without making a mistake. 
     Once you have words on a square, you should see two icons, a male and a female.  Click on either and you should hear an audio file of the words.  There may be a delay before it plays, depending on the connection speed.
     You may need to allow your browser to run Java script for this to work.  If you drag a word onto the board and it just sit there, that's the problem.

If you have a child who's learning to read, or a Chinese child who is learning English, have them click on the English version.  See how long before they can place all the words without making a mistake.
     The next step for us is to develop a web based platform to let anybody create a vocabulary board and add it to the community resource without needing any programming skills.  Stay tuned for that.

The Man in China archive index

The Man in China Home