Bilingual Books

The 'Mantra Lingua e-booklub' offers the largest range of bilingual children's books with audio. The books are designed for both parents and children to learn English, using exciting and well known stories. Although there are many 'workbooks', numerous studies have shown that learning through stories and storytelling is equal if not superior in its results. Hence each e-book comes with video, and different exercises to build vocabulary and comprehension.

The process is well tried. First listen and/or read the story in the home language (There are over 35 languages to choose from, including Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese...) This will give the reader a good understanding of the characters and plot. Next watch the video, which is made up of the brilliant pictures and text, all in English. The narration is by professionals, so listeners will enjoy the Oracy, an important skill in speaking. Then go through each page, slowly... listening to the English. As the text is spoken, the word is highlighted. At any time, the learner could try any of the activities at the end of each book, using the same words and pictures. So repetition is a vital part of the e-books.

The activities cover Flash Cards, Labelling the Pictures, Sequencing, Matching Words with Pictures and Video Questionnaires. Here, the video is stopped at several points and the learner can either try to explain what happens next or answer multiple choice questions. On successfully completing a book the learner would have added critical words to their vocabulary.

But that is not all. At the end of each book there is also a link to its specific webpage where there are further free resources built on the story to continue reinforcing learning from the e-book.

Currently there are 550 e-books in the library and by end 2016 there will be 700 e-books. They cover famous folktales, contemporary tales, myths, reference books, and more. With this rich source of storytelling and creative multi-modal usage, the library and ancillaries give the learner an exciting, creative learning experience. Learn English through Stories.