Language Lizard launches a digital recording pen that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.
Basking Ridge, NJ – Language Lizard LLC, a leading supplier of bilingual books, announced the launch of the award-winning digital PENpal Audio Recorder Pen. The PENpal allows readers to hear content in over 30 languages by simply touching the pen to children’s bilingual books, charts, labels and other learning resources. The PENpal will help educators personalize instruction to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.
After downloading free, pre-recorded sound files from the Language Lizard website (languagelizard.com/penpal), kids, parents and teachers can turn many bilingual picture books into “talking books.” The PENpal can also be used to record messages, music or sound effects with recordable sound labels that can be affixed to practically anything. Teachers can record messages for students, and students can record and playback their own recordings. The PENpal is portable, durable, and switching between languages is easy and instant.
The PENpal Audio Recorder Pen is an ideal tool for reading, writing, and language development for recent immigrants, English language learners, foreign language learners, and learners with special needs. The PENpal can be used individually and in groups, and can be sent home to increase parental involvement, even with parents who are not fluent in the language.
Language Lizard has also created a number of interactive literacy sets that include the PENpal Audio Recorder Pen, recordable labels, a bilingual dictionary and a set of bilingual books. These sets, intended to support the development of English and home language skills among dual language learners, are currently available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Czech, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Lithuanian, Panjabi (Punjabi), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese.
Dictionary sets and bilingual books that work with PENpal are also available in Albanian, Bulgarian, Farsi, German, Gujarati, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Malayalam, Nepali, Romanian, Slovakian, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai and more languages. Other English-only PENpal sets focus on phonetic awareness and language development for preschool and early elementary English Language Learners (ELL).
All the sets and interactive materials align with Common Core standards in reading, writing, speaking, listening and language. They are particularly beneficial for teachers who are supporting diverse, multilingual classrooms.