Learn English

Helping young minds master reading and listening skills in English.

Available for:
Alexa

Released on Jan 10, 2018 / by Moriah Evans

Inspiration

I am an English teacher and I am always looking for ways to help my students learn. There is never enough time to get everything you need to get done in a lesson and leveraging Alexa is way for my students to practice a skill (they need) independently when I am progress monitoring other students.

What it does

Learn English allows young minds to develop their reading and listening skills by using different word family groups in segmentation, deletion and substitution exercises. Segmentation is the process of breaking words into different phonemes and saying each sound. Deletion is the process of getting rid of a certain phoneme in a word and then saying the word without the phoneme. Substitution is the process of replacing a specific phoneme with a different phoneme and saying the new word.

Changing the World

Learn English is built on the idea of having young minds self assess by practicing English words and hearing the correct pronunciation, without getting shy or frustrated during their learning process due to negative feedback.

I am very excited to be able to go beyond my classroom and reach out to millions of young minds across the country, allowing them to continue improving their listening and reading skills while they are away from their English teachers! It is also exciting to imagine having Echo devices in libraries across the country, where young minds can gather to improve their English skills in a nation of learners!

How to use it

To get started, simply say: “Alexa, launch Learn English”.

The user will then be asked to choose between one of three types of exercise:

Segmentation: during segmentation, Alexa will say a word and then it is your turn to say each of the sounds in the word.
Deletion: for deletion, you will hear Alexa telling you to delete a sound in a word and you will say the word without that sound.
Substitution: during substitution, Alexa will tell you to replace one sound with a different sound and you will say the word with the new sound.

Additional features:

Finishing up: At any point the user can say “I am done” to let Alexa know you want to say good-bye to Learn English.
Contextual help: just say “help” at any point and Alexa will let you know how to proceed from there!
Say that again…: missed what Alexa just said? No problem, just say “repeat” and Alexa will gladly repeat it for you, just please pay attention this time ;-)
Easter eggs: no, these are not the type of Easter eggs the Easter bunny leaves behind… These are “hidden gems” in the Alexa skill. Can you find them?

Your feedback is really important to us!

Information contained in this skill was compiled by an English teacher with large experience in English phonics and is constantly being updated based on user suggestions and feedback, so please take a second to share your thoughts about this skill