One of the biggest challenges we parents face is how to encourage our children to speak more Chinese at home, especially because Oral is 25% of the PSLE exam (aka the biggest and arguably most important section). If you want your English-speaking child to speak more Chinese at home, read on.
We launched our Voicebot, where students win digital rewards by speaking Chinese with our cute shark mascot Mangsha. In the last two months, students have had nearly 4,000 conversations with Mangsha, or nearly 175 hours of speaking practice entirely conducted via AI.
In fact, the Voicebot was recognized as one of the Transformation Award winners from the AI Trailblazer programme by IMDA and Google, highlighting our commitment to using cutting-edge technology to help students speak more Chinese.
Why Daily Speaking Practice Matters
Everyone knows that getting children to speak Chinese at home is a major challenge.
Yet the benefits are clear.
Research shows that learners who are consistently exposed to a language in real life achieve a higher level of proficiency compared to traditional learners and that daily speaking practice is particularly effective as it forces active usage of the target language.
That’s why teachers often encourage parents to designate one day every week where the entire family speaks only Mandarin. This advice, while logical, is very impractical since the majority of children will simply respond in English.
Something surprising: many students are more willing to speak in Chinese to an AI bot than their parents because it’s less pressurising, especially if the process is engaging. That’s why we built our Voicebot: to make daily practice effortless, engaging, and effective.
How the Voicebot Works：
Each day, students engage in a short 3-5 minute conversation with our AI Voicebot about PSLE relevant topics such as:
• The importance of reading (2024 PSLE Day 1 topic)
• How to improve your health (2024 PSLE Day 2 topic)
• Helping others
To make Voicebot more like a game, we took inspiration from Scrabble. Students are given an array of keywords, and the more keywords they use correctly when replying, the higher their score.
Our system automatically prioritizes words from the MOE curriculum, so not only are students improving their Oral skills, they are also improving their core language proficiency. 一石二鸟 – killing two birds with one stone.
A Parent’s Perspective: Real Improvement Through Daily Practice
One of the most rewarding parts of launching the Voicebot has been hearing from parents who see real progress in their children’s Chinese speaking abilities. A parent recently shared:
“Btw, he really loves your AI speaking game. Apart from the days that he has been sick, the past month he has been wanting to play that game specifically almost every day. Thank you for creating that because he needs practice speaking in Chinese!”
“My son’s reading/recognizing Chinese words has really improved under your app — now he just has to work on his speaking. He also loves the stories, which now he finally has time to listen to.”
Our mission is to make language learning engaging, and we are delighted to see students excited to speak Chinese daily instead of seeing Chinese practice as a chore.
The Power of Daily Consistency
Language learning is not about cramming—it’s about consistent, daily exposure and practice. Many students struggle with speaking simply because they don’t do it often enough. Practicing for just 3-5 minutes every day:
✅ Strengthens speaking confidence over time
✅ Helps students think in Chinese instead of translating from English
✅ Reinforces vocabulary and sentence structures
✅ Builds muscle memory for natural speech
✅ Reduces last-minute stress before PSLE
The Results So Far: 4,000+ Conversations and Counting!
In fact, since launching just two months ago, students have had nearly 4,000 conversations with our Voicebot. That’s over 175 hours of speaking practice that might not have happened otherwise. The results speak for themselves.
Want to see how our award-winning Voicebot can help your child? Sign up for a FREE Trial today: https://learn.vocabking.com.sg/login or contact us at +65 9820 7272 for more information.
No responses yet