I don’t normally review educational software, especially those on the iPhone platform. I think it is mainly due to the demographics who use the devices on this platform.
I made an exception and took a look at the iPhone application, iPhonics, which teaches English phonetics.
This application takes the approach of addressing a young audience for a fairly complex subject, the learning of English pronunciation. The entire application accomplish this by treating the lessons as games.The student chooses either to learn By Letter or By Game.
At first glance the games are a bit difficult to figure out without going through the extensive Tutorial section within the game. These tutorials are in English, so student are expected to be able to read English although may not be able to pronounce or comprehend English audio.
Each time an item is clicked on within the application, both a visual and audio feedback results. Fortunately, for the more experienced students the latter can be turned off in the Options screen within the application.
Aside from the audio feedback for the controls within the application the Option screen also allows the enabling or disabling of the Game Music, which can get a bit annoying if played for extended period.
The games in the application are quite simple, which is great since the focus should be on learning the English phonetics.
Therefore, if you have a student who wants to learn English phonetics and you have an iPhone or iPod Touch this will be the application to consider, even though the USD2.99 that the developer is asking for on iTunes App Store is a bit steep.
