Learn a language with ‘The Talking Pen’

Here at Flowently our team is always on the lookout for new materials to support students in their language acquisition. Our latest find is the “Voorlezer” (the Talking Pen).

With this superduper innovative and very affordable gadget -the size of a bulky pen-students can work independently to expand their vocabulary, at their own pace, repeating as much as they want. It can be used by children and adults, non-readers and readers.

There are different ways to use the Voorlezer
The Voorlezer is linked to a series of (picture) books called NT2 Praat Mee.

1. It reads Dutch words and sentences under images, introducing vocabulary (nouns, action) and -implicitly- basic grammar (from included pre-recorded files).
2. It presents the language to students in image, sound and text – thus enabling different ways of learning and deeply solidifying the new knowledge by combining pronunciation, word image and object image.
3. The series consist of several books that are labeled for age groups from 4-15 years old. The drawings are neutral, which makes the books suitable for older or adult students (just skipping some obviously ‘childish’ content).
4. The books start from highly frequent core vocabulary and expand from there, lexically and grammatically.
5. In addition to the books, NT2 Praat Mee has worksheets and a personal dictionary. The books have a digital version.

The Voorlezer can also be linked to self-made recordings through ‘smart stickers’
You get 800 with each pen, which allows for many more creative applications!

1. The stickers can be attached to any object. This allows for exploring self-designed subsets of vocabulary (for instance: things in the office).
2. Each sticker can contain up to 5 minutes of spoken text.
3. With this feature the stickers can even be used to translate larger text segments or books.
4. The stickers can be re-used.
5. The student can record text themselves for the teacher to check, as a homework tool. Other languages
6. Last but not least, the Voorlezer can also be used for other languages, by combining the images in the books with the smart stickers!

The Voorlezer is available via Schoolsupport.nl @ € 49,50. More information and prices (in Dutch) on the sites below. Or call us to tell you more!
https://www.devoorlezer.eu

⦁ schoolsupport.nl/nl/artnr/snevrd151/de-voorlezer-reading-pen
⦁ schoolsupport.nl/nl/catalog/leermiddelen/nt2/groups/g+c+view
⦁ Watch the video youtu.be/wJ0AFVjC9Ws

Written by Flowently tutor Cecile Wijne