English Bento is a highly interactive language learning tool for the 21st century. It is an LMS, a platform and an English language app that was designed for your classroom. The teacher uses the online dashboard to create classes, set assignments, and track students’ scores and progress. The student uses the app to learn English on their devices. Choose the language content like you would a textbook and watch your students’ English fluency soar.
Use the app inside or outside of the classroom. English Bento uses micro-learning, feedback, progress tracking, scoring, and game based learning to help your students improve their English speaking, comprehension, fluency and more. English Bento was designed in the digital age to teach the way your students learn.
At the heart of English Bento are the activities. Currently, there are 10 activities with 10 content types. Each activity trains a different language skill such as listening, fluency, lexicogrammar, etc. Each content type emphasizes a different form of English from dialogues to articles to practice sets and more.
In the age of micro-learning, mobile devices and short attentionps, English Bento delivers a mode of learning that is in sync with how students behave and learn.
Designed with the teacher in mind, the teacher chooses their English content (ebook), creates classes, sets in-app assignments, and track students’ progress from a web dashboard.
If you can’t find the content you like, then contact us and we will work with you to add your existing content or create what you need.
You can use English Bento inside of a class as a separate task or outside of a class as homework. As the teacher, you can set assignments, track students’ progress and receive summaries by email or from the web dashboard. There are 10 different activities which train 10 different language skills with 10 content types. All combined there are 1000s of ways to learn.
At the moment, no. The only way to use English Bento is to join a class. The single user version will be coming soon.
This app is not a flashcard app. It is not a trivia app.
English Bento is a powerful digital tool for English teachers, content creators, schools and language centers.
This app will strengthen your students’ English fluency. It was designed at the sentence level. This includes dialogues, idiomatic expressions, articles and more. Lexicogrammar is taught in the context of a sentence. The app mechanics are designed to train the user to process language like a native.
The user will learn to process language faster, smoother, and process language like a native English speaker. Students will improve their fluency, vocabulary, speaking, comprehension, grammar, idiom and confidence. The teacher can track scores and progress at every step of the way.
Content is arranged in courses. Each course is like a digital textbook with chapters, lessons and activities. Each chapter consists of lessons, which is one piece of content such as a dialogue or a blog article. The learner then engages with each lesson through a set of activities that focus on a specific English language skill. The Listen & Say activity trains speaking and listening. The CompQ activity trains comprehension and understanding, etc. You get the picture.
Yes. There are several starter ebooks for kids. The Phonics series starts with letters and moves to words, then short sentences. The content includes the Dolch and Fry list of sight words. This program is a great way to supplement any existing children’s program with digital practice and micro-learning. This format is perfect for the times we find ourselves in. Trick your kids into learning with English Bento.
Yes. Each ebook course comes with PDF downloadable workbooks. For additional practice, or for those who want to practice writing, there are downloadable PDF workbooks. When you convert the content from just one ebook course into paper worksheets, quite often you get over 400 pages.
We recommend using the app for maximum training because some activities cannot be converted to paper equivalents. However, because we know that there are many different learning styles, we offer PDFs for those who want it.
Activities are the core of the app. That is where the learning happens. Each activity emphasizes a different language skill. The activities, taken together, give a comprehensive learning experience.
1-3. Listen, Say & Record (LSR)
Three activities rolled into one
Listen to human recorded audio
Practice speaking with speech-to-text technology
Record your voice for additional practice
4. Texting (TX)
Practice responding to text messages for contextualization and appropriateness
5. Build (BD)
Build your grammar and vocabulary
6. How Many (HM)
Repairs your interlanguage and improves your fluency
7. Definitions (DF)
Helps you recognize vocabulary and idiom
8. Comprehension Questions (CQ)
Strengthens understanding and comprehension
9. Quiz (QZ)
Tests your knowledge
10. Video (VO)
Builds contextualization and appropriateness
Each activity focuses on a different language skill. Taken together you will not only learn the 4 skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking, you will also learn language fluency, lexicogrammar, pronunciation, cultural understanding, idiomatic expressions and other sociolinguistic aspects of language.
Yes. In a nutshell, the teacher creates a class and tracks their students’ progress. It’s that simple.
The long version includes five steps. Steps 1 to 3 are done only once at the beginning. Step 1: The teacher creates a class. This usually parallels the physical classroom. Step 2: You choose the ebooks you would like to use for that class. Step 3 includes either pre-enrolling your students if you know who they will be or have them enroll themselves when they come to class.
Steps 4 and 5 are now repeated throughout the term. In step 4 the teacher sets up assignments for their students. This includes an assignment name, start and end times, and the in-app lessons. Some teachers like to plan everything out at the beginning of the term and this is easier after you are familiar with the platform; and some teachers like to create assignments on the fly as needed. Either way is fine. Do what works for you. In step 5, you track your students’ progress and score. Progress is like effort and their score is their English ability.
Since this is a learning platform and not a testing platform, students can redo activities as much as they like. The system is actually designed for repetition. The more they try to improve their score the more contact they get with the language. If you assigned 100 questions and they complete all of them then they have a 100% progress rating. But assuming they did not get perfect on each question. Their score, then, gives you a measure of their English ability.
Another simple way to think about progress and ability is that progress tells you whether they attempted the questions you assigned and score tells you how well they did. Progress is the first step in learning. It tells you whether they made an effort towards the task you set for them. The second half of the equation is knowing how well they did. That is where scoring comes in. Scoring works on an algorithm of both time and accuracy. You can get the questions correct but if it takes too long, the user cannot get a perfect score. Conversely, you can speed through the questions quickly but if you do not get the correct answer, naturally you will not get a perfect score. So, in order to get a 100% score on a question, the learner needs to answer the question in a reasonable amount of time and accurately.
Look through the list of existing ebooks tagged by English level, keywords, content, table of contents and other metadata. If you cannot find the content you want. You can either work with us to add your own content to the system, or we will make it for you. We are constantly adding to the ebook library. So make a suggestion if you can’t find what you want.
The teacher pays nothing - ever.
While we are in the beta phase, nothing.
Yes. Contact us and we will set you up.
Yes. Contact us and we will set you up
The app can accept almost any format of English. Below is a list of content types.
Yes. Contact us and we will set you up.
That depends on you. If you have existing content, then with a little reformatting, we can have it in the system in a few weeks. However, English Bento requires audio files, so if the contents needs to be recorded, it may take longer
Yes. However, if you do not know how to produce your own high-quality audio, we can work with you. Contact us and we will work with you.