Nintendo DS to Learn English (Japan)
June 26, 2008 – 10:26 pmTOKYO — The Nintendo DS isn’t just fun and games anymore for English students at Tokyo’s Joshi Gakuen all-girls junior high school.
The portable video game console is now being used as a key teaching tool, breaking with traditional Japanese academic methods.
A giggly class of 32 seventh-graders used plastic pens to spell words like “hamburger” and “cola” on the touch panel screen — the key feature of the hit console — following an electronic voice from the machine.
It’s a sort of high-tech spelling bee. When the students got the spelling right, the word “good” popped up on the screen, and the student went on to the next exercise. The first five students to complete the drills were awarded colorful stickers.
“It’s fun,” said Chigusa Matsumoto, 12, who zipped through the drills to get her sticker. “You can study while you have fun.”
