The eighth-grade French class at St. Anne's-Belfield Schools have created an iPad app, called 2Lingua Kids, that can help you learn basic French phrases.
Christiaan Branche, an eighth grader at St. Anne's-Belfield, said, "It's really good for English speakers who want to learn a little French. It's a good kick start. It's a bilingual app to teach English speakers some French sayings without all the grammar and vocabulary."
Last fall, Karine Boulle, the Middle School French Teacher at St. Anne's-Belfield, challenged the students with the idea of creating an iPad app.
Boulle said, "I presented it to them and they were scared to death. Then, we broke it into pieces. There are a lot of components in it. So broke it into pieces and it took 17 classes and we finished it and they accepted it."
The app, 2Lingua Kids, incorporates an English and French dialogue that you can listen to and learn. The app doesn't teach just French. The dialogue guides you through a history lesson, as well.
Emma Krall, an eighth grader at St. Anne's-Belfield, said, "It's about the descendent of Thomas Jefferson and Louis the XVI and the meeting in Charlottesville and just their rivalry."
Boulle has made it a school wide learning experience by using the app for her younger French students.
Boulle said, "What I do with this app is that the story that my students have built. I use that in my 5th grade class. They put on a play for the 4th graders."
The neat part about 2Lingua Kids is that you end up learning more than you realize.
Krall said, "You don't seem like you learn a lot but then when you go here there's so much French"
The app is free and only available to iPad users. 2Lingua Kids has had more than 140 downloads, from 26 different countries, and 6 continents.