Korean + English = Konglish Baby

Before baby comes...
...learning Korean and researching Korean-language resources in order to raise baby as a bilingual.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

New language learning DVD for kids: Dino Lingo

Today, I came across a language-learning DVD series specificaly for babies and kids called Dino Lingo.  It appears to be a relatively new program with Korean version recently released this summer among its 19 other language formats. I'm intrigued by the "science" and research behind how they developed the program as I would never have thought about things like animism, high-pitched femal voices and neonate faces as being helpful elements in engaging babies in learning language. "Dino Lingo helps kids build confidence in target language by simplifying the process. The program uses only the top 200 words for babies and top 500 words for kids."
I think multimedia DVDs, movies, shows etc. are a great tool for learning, but comes with concerns about too much screen time in our heavily saturated tech world. The parents guide address this concern with practical tips for parents on interacting with their child as they watch the DVD. In addition, their blog discusses the question: Can DVDs teach kids languages?
From the website:
The Science behind Dino Lingo Method

1 - Full Immersion All of the instructions in Dino Lingo are presented in target language. The children naturally learn foreign languages from Dino Lingo videos because they hear common phrases and vocabulary hundreds of times without any interruption.

2 - Contextual Variation Each word in Dino Lingo programs is presented in at least 4 different contexts. Additionally, unlike other programs, Dino Lingo repeats words intermittently, not consecutively.

3 - High-Pitched Female Voices Scientific studies show that babies and small children prefer female and high-pitched voices, thus we used only these type of voices in our videos.

4 - Vocabulary Songs Each Dino Lingo program contains 12 specially produced vocabulary songs that are loved by small children.

5 - Dinosaurs Dino Lingo features 6 adorable and colorful dinosaurs to make target languages more likeable.

6 - Gradual Interval Recall All words in Dino Lingo are presented in different intervals (E.g. the word car being presented in the 5th minute, 10th minute, and 60th minute).

7 - Optimum Combination of 3D/2D Animation Recent studies have shown that children prefer to watch animations over real-life footage. 80% of Dino Lingo videos are either 3d or 2d animations.

8 - Native Speakers All of the phrases in Dino Lingo are voiced by native speakers only, necessary for the children who are sensitive to detect subtle changes in accents.

9 - Neonate Characters Dino Lingo uses animated characters that have baby-like faces. There are no monstrous, scary or wild characters in Dino Lingo products.

10 - Animism Research shows that small children tend to believe all objects are alive (e.g. talking and dancing cars). Dino Lingo features many lively objects that capture the children's attention.

11 - Subtitles in Both Foreign Characters and English Alphabet At Dino Lingo, we know that most parents want to be able to read the captions in both the local characters of target language as well as the English (Latin) alphabet.

12 - Sudden Surprises To capture the little ones' attention, Dino Lingo uses some scientific techniques such as sudden appearance and disappearances, sudden pans, zoom-ins and unfamiliar sounds.

English Animals Song for Children Kids ESL from dinolingo on Vimeo.


I haven't purchased the program, but if they wanted to give me a free copy of it to review it, I'd be more than happy to oblige! If you've tried it, let me know!

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