Chinese Learning Pen gives wings to the Chinese Reading and Writing series, and helps students learn better and achieve more.

Over the years, the Chinese Reading and Writing series has proved to be highly successful. 

This series is for students to build strong Chinese reading and writing skills through learning 320 Chinese characters, and to start preparing for being in a real Chinese environment. When in such an environment, students are exposed to Chinese texts everywhere, such as signs and notices, which they must negotiate the meanings without any external help. This is where the Chinese Reading and Writing series strives to take students, get them essential Chinese reading and writing skills, so that they can be comfortable within such an environment. Therefore, Chinese texts are prioritised over individual Chinese characters. Complete texts are presented from the first book, and the level of complexity and difficulty are gradually increased. By following the series, students gradually yet rapidly build up solid Chinese reading and writing abilities with a small number of frequently used Chinese characters. 

However, we also realised that the Chinese Reading and Writing series needs audio. Many students have expressed that they wish they could also listen to the texts, just as they listen to the Mandarin Express series. And we agree that it is important to have sufficient audio input even when the focus is on learning how to read and write Chinese. 

The problem is that, unlike the Mandarin Express series, it is difficult to find the right format of audio output which can enhance the texts and fit the learning path of the Chinese Reading and Writing series. This problem is solved by Chinese Learning Pen.  

As an addition to the Chinese Reading and Writing series, Chinese Learning Pen can play any part of the text. In doing so, the Pen also brings an interactive feature to the textbooks.

The biggest advantage of Chinese Learning Pen is its flexibility. It can play any part of the Chinese texts at will and at ease. This accurate audio output is a huge help for students to connect the images of Chinese characters with their phonetic sounds. 

As any learners of Chinese knows that, unlike phonetic languages, such as English, Chinese characters do not give clues on their pronunciations, there is a huge divide between the phonetic sounds (listening/speaking) and the graphic images (reading/writing). And Chinese Learning Pen is the perfect tool to bridge that gap. 

When students use the pen to touch a single Chinese character at the beginning of each lesson, they hear the audio output of that character, and when they touch an index number in an exercise section, they hear all the sentences under that index number. This activity increases the level of association between Chinese characters and their sounds. Moreover, listening to the texts gives students opportunities to discern the pause between words, and the slight change of pronunciation happened to some characters. This authentic language input helps students develop more acute listening skills. 

Students can also repeat after the audio. This simple listening and repeating exercise helps students speak Chinese in a more natural manner. 

After students fully understand the texts and are able to clearly pronounce all the texts in the book, we can say that Chinese Learning Pen has done its job for that book. While moving on to the next book in the series, the old book can be kept and used for review practices from time to time. 

With or without Chinese Learning Pen, a book remains a book. Taking a look at the previous lessons occasionally always helps greatly.