The 14 Best Online Language Learning Resources for Kids
Looking for online language learning programs for your kid(s)?
Whether you’re a language learner yourself or just an awesome parent/caretaker, giving children access to the joys and endless benefits of being bilingual is one of the best things you can do for them.
Read on for a look at the best language-learning apps for kids!
Contents
- 1. Little Pim
- 2. MUZZY
- 3. Duolingo Super Family
- 4. Dino Lingo
- 5. PetraLingua
- 6. Mango Languages
- 7. Languagenut
- 8. PBS Learning Media
- 9. Unuhi: Bilingual Books
- 10. Studycat
- 11. Gus on the Go
- 12. Mondly Kids
- 13. Teach Kids Languages
- 14. Fun Easy Learn
- When Is the Best Time to Start Learning a New Language?
- 3 Characteristics of a Kid-friendly Language Learning Program
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1. Little Pim
Recommended age: 1-6
Available languages: Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, Italian, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and English/ESL with English or Spanish.
Price: $9.99/month, $69.99/year
Adults might run for dear life at the sight of a bear, but kids think they’re cute and cuddly.
Little Pim, a lovable panda, can be your children’s video guide to learning any or all of the 12 languages on offer. What used to be recorded on multiple DVDs can now be streamed or digitally downloaded. You’ll still get that Little Pim cuteness and goofy goodness that won the program over 25 awards.
Their learning system, the Entertainment Immersion Method, was developed by top language teachers and neuroscientists. It employs repetition, play and child-friendly themes to tap into toddlers’ natural love for learning. The videos are a combination of animations and live-action clips that introduce topics like colors and numbers. They run for only five minutes to accommodate their young audience.
The program has a single subscription for all languages, which also includes offline activities and printables, as well as more resources and learning tips. You can also access the companion guides to each lesson for free for a visual representation of the language taught in the program.
2. MUZZY
Recommended age: all ages
Available languages:
- Online: Spanish (Latin America or Catalonian), French, English (British or American), German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese and Korean.
- On DVD: Spanish, French, English, German, Italian and Mandarin Chinese.
Price: $14.66/month. Semi-annual and annual plans available. Risk-free trial period and payment plan with the DVD set.
MUZZY is the BBC’s answer to language learning for all ages. This immersion program, described as “The World’s #1 Language Course for Children,” is centered around animated characters and stories in video “episodes.” The episodes are designed to naturally build on one another, enabling your child to learn through an engaging, interactive method, rather than traditional “teaching.”
You can watch the videos wherever is convenient, whether that’s on the website or the apps, or through an on-demand service like Roku, FireTV or Chromecast.
The program will introduce your child to 600+ vocabulary words and cover everyday topics like telling time, talking about food, transportation, occupations, basic tenses (past, present and future), asking questions and more.
Since Muzzy BBC is effective for all types of learners and is meant to let your child learn the language naturally, it’s a great low-pressure way to expose kids to a second language at any age.
3. Duolingo Super Family
Recommended age: all ages
Available languages: 39 languages (some in beta), including unique options like Navajo and Scottish Gaelic, as well as fantasy languages like High Valerian and Klingon.
Price: $119.99/year for Duolingo Super Family, $6.99/month for Duolingo Super individual plan. Free for basic app.
Duolingo is one of the most popular language-learning programs online. It’s so successful because it’s (mostly) free, and it gives adults permission to learn like little kids!
The app divides lessons into bite-sized game-like experiences. It uses repetition and different interactive activities to embed vocabulary into your mind and keep it fresh. Learners are given little tasks. The idea is that the more of these teenie tiny tasks they do, the better they’ll remember the target language.
Learners may be asked to choose the translation of a word from the given choices. Sometimes, the translation needs to be typed. Sometimes, the task goes the other way and learners are given the English translation and asked to supply the target language equivalent.
Duolingo repeats the tasks, goes back and forth between languages, mixes and matches previously learned words and keeps learners on their toes. It also does a good job of remembering the words learners have difficulty with so they can be offered for review.
Duolingo also uses audio prompts and pictures, as well as cartoon characters to keep things fun.
This combination of fun and learning makes Duolingo an excellent option for kids as well as adults, so you can easily participate in it with your child. In fact, Duolingo makes this easy with their Super Family plan.
With Duolingo Super Family, you can have up to six accounts on one plan. Plan members get an ad-free experience with unlimited lives and unlimited test outs, so you can move to the appropriate language level whenever you’re ready for it. Each member also gets personalized language practice sessions.
See our full review of Duolingo here.
4. Dino Lingo
Recommended age: 2-12
Available languages: 51 languages including popular languages like Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and German, and less popular choices like Danish, Pubjabi and Hawaiian.
Price: $14.95/month for four children to access one language, $14.95/month for each additional language.
Dino Lingo is an award-winning language program for kids, named so for the cute dinosaurs who introduce your kids to their target languages. The program gets children to learn new languages through games, songs, videos, worksheets and more. Languages come with a wide range of excellent resources created with kids in mind, like audiobooks and storybooks, flashcards and games, like memory games and word wheels (for vocab acquisition).
The program covers everyday topics such as household items, family, body parts, clothes, nature and actions. It does so in a colorful and fun way that’ll have your kids happily repeating these lessons over and over.
You can stream the program’s videos on your Smart TV. Parents can print easily downloadable worksheets and activity books, so you can not only work closely with your little one, but also get a window into the things that they’re learning. This way, you can gauge your child’s progress and give them a helping hand.
5. PetraLingua
Available languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, German and French.
Price: $7.99/month or $47.99/year for one online course. Complete sets are $89.99/language.
PetraLingua is a multimedia vocabulary builder. Each course has 21 lessons that teach a range of vocabulary, from colors and clothing to fruits and vegetables. You can check the list of topics covered before committing.
All told, each course features around 500 basic words, 80 animated language-learning videos, 11 songs, 140 interactive online games, a talking picture dictionary and a downloadable activity book.
Each lesson opens with an introductory video that identifies the vocabulary set of that lesson. This is followed by a parade of reinforcing activities, exercises and games that’ll help kids learn the new words. These include listen-and-repeat, listen-and-click and word-matching tasks that allow kids to experience the words in different contexts.
If you choose to purchase a complete physical set, it will come with DVDs, CDs, books, songs and games, plus a year’s access to the PetraLingua online program.
6. Mango Languages
Recommended age: 6 and up
Available languages: 70+ languages, from popular options to lesser-known ones like Dari, Igbo and Uzbek.
Price: $7.99/month or $79.99/year for one language. $17.99/month or $179.99/year for all languages, up to five Family Profiles and parental controls.
Your kids are going to need headphones for this one. The uniqueness of the program lies in its focus on conversational skills. If you want your kids to study in the morning and try out their newly learned phrases with the whole family in the afternoon, go with Mango Languages. It has that effect on children.
Each lesson starts by listening to a few lines of basic dialogue or conversation. The audio is accompanied by clear text of the whole exchange, and everything is color-coded so you can easily see which words correspond to their translations.
In the remainder of the lesson, the dialogue is deconstructed and broken down into lines, phrases and words. There’s a “Play” icon on every line so learners can self-pace and repeat the lines as often as they need. The learner is guided line-by-line and hears how each word is correctly spoken. Hover the mouse on a particular line to see the translation of it.
You can even try using your microphone to compare your pronunciation to the native version you just heard!
Parents will appreciate the tracking tools. You can see how your child is doing in their learning, and give gentle reminders when it’s time to study some more.
See our full review of Mango Languages here.
7. Languagenut
Recommended age: 5-14
Available languages:
- Elementary school learners: 23 modern foreign languages, including English, French, Spanish, German and Mandarin Chinese.
- High school learners: Spanish, French and German.
Price: Available on request. You may book a demo before committing.
Languagenut is the perfect vocabulary builder, pronunciation partner and spelling teacher. The program amply covers all bases and touches on all four key linguistic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The program has specific games that address each.
It’s widely used in schools in 32 countries around the world as a supplemental language teaching tool. But the program can be equally valuable for homeschooling families.
Languagenut may tackle the same topics (numbers, colors, greetings) as many other language programs, but it has some of the most graphically compelling interfaces on this side of language learning.
The elementary school program will teach your kids 440 words and phrases through 23 units. Target words are taught through 13 speaking, listening, reading and writing games. You’ll also find verb conjugation exercises, stories, songs and more.
There’s also specific content created for high schoolers who are learning Spanish, German or French. These programs take into account the learners’ age and provide engaging games, exercises and activities.
Plus, each program across its entire selection comes with 31 support languages—that means you can learn your target language through the comfort of your native language.
8. PBS Learning Media
Available languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, German and Mandarin Chinese.
Price: Free. You may also create a free account to gain access to additional resources.
Although this program doesn’t offer as many languages as the others on this list, PBS Learning Media does well in tackling all the different language skills in their audio and video lessons.
The clips are divided by grade levels: PreK-K, K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. There are only 16 videos available across all the languages in the PreK-K section, but the rest of the levels have a substantial amount of content with around 200 videos.
The section for grades 3-5 contains almost 400 videos, so PBS Learning Media would be particularly useful for elementary-aged kids. This level is also great for adults who want to learn like kids but find the early childhood content too simple.
Other than language and level, you can filter your search further by audio, video, interactive or themed collection.
The audio clips tend to be short, mainly focusing on listening and speaking skills, while the videos are a mix of songs, conversations and standard lessons. The standard video lessons are quite handy since they also come with supporting materials for teachers, such as the lesson plan, video transcript, flashcards, assessments and more.
There are also interactive video lessons which are normally part of a series. These interactive lessons allow for the learning of new vocabulary through cute adventure games where you can explore with the arrow keys and select correct terms with the mouse.
9. Unuhi: Bilingual Books
Recommended age: 2-10
Available languages:
- Written: English, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese (Simplified), Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Thai.
- Audio narration: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Mandarin Chinese.
Price: Free for one e-book. Additional stories range from $0.99 to $3.99 for a bundle.
Meaning “translate” in Hawaiian, Unuhi is a remarkable app for teaching a foreign language to children. Not only does it allow your kids to learn in their native tongue, but it also does it through the art of storytelling. Reading is crucial for cognitive development, and letting the little ones read bilingual stories in early childhood will also form their ability to think in both of their languages.
To help them read out loud, audio narration by native speakers is available for some languages, with more options currently underway.
The stories are short, with each page containing only one sentence in dual languages, accompanied by beautiful illustrations to let the kids visually connect with new vocabulary words. To reinforce these new words, Unuhi has numerous sets of flashcards that you and the kids can practice with.
Once you open up the app, you’ll be asked to select your two languages. You’ll also have the option of removing the second one if you want to focus on one language at a time.
After you’ve purchased a book, you can download it directly onto your device so you can access the story without an internet connection.
10. Studycat
Recommended age: 3-10
Available languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, French and German.
Price: $14.99/month, $59.99/year. Seven-day free trial available.
Created by a language teacher, artist and game designer in 2000, Studycat was a small classroom program that became a hit among the students. Because it was so popular with the kids, the founders turned it into a digital curriculum that they could share with fellow language teachers, schools and parents. Then, in 2011, the app was born to reach learners across the globe.
Studycat is the virtual teacher and learning buddy that’ll guide kids through phonics, plus more than 500 vocabulary terms and grammar points which align with the Cambridge Young Learners Starters program.
But instead of Studycat taking over the lesson, kids learn through fun and play—specifically interactive games, original songs and relatable cartoon characters with different voices so learners can listen to the language in different accents.
And the best part of it is that you can use the apps offline, with no pop-up ads or external links for distraction-free learning.
There’s also the Studycat Club, which grants you access to a wide selection of resources, great for family and classroom learning, students and teachers alike. These additional resources help to balance screen time and inspire teachers to create their lesson plans and diversify their teaching methods.
11. Gus on the Go
Recommended age: 3-7
Available languages: 30 languages, from popular options like Portuguese to vulnerable tongues like Ingush.
Price: $3.99 one-time payment
Gus is a friendly owl that helps children explore the languages of the world through interactive exercises and adorable animations. Each language has its own app, so feel free to download as many languages as you want.
After every lesson, there’s a lesson review composed of fun exercises. Completing the review will unlock a cute game and trophies, which is very helpful in keeping the little ones motivated to learn more vocabulary words. The words taught in these lessons are very basic, themed around animals, food and colors, among others, making this a very good starting point for complete beginners.
Some of the languages also have free printables, such as flashcards and crafts, to supplement the learning in the apps.
And once you and your kids are ready to move past basic vocabulary, you can go on to their latest innovation known as Stories by Gus on the Go. As you can guess, this app lets you learn your target language through classic stories, brought to life with the introduction of new characters and audio narration so you can read and listen to the tale.
So far, however, Stories by Gus on the Go is only available in four languages: French, Greek, Hebrew and Spanish. Pricing for Stories by Gus on the Go is available in the relevant apps.
12. Mondly Kids
Recommended age: 5-12
Available languages: 33 languages, from popular choices like Korean and Spanish to less common options like Farsi and Afrikaans.
Price: $9.99/month, $47.99/year
Known for its innovation in language education technology, Mondly now offers gamified lessons for kids. In addition to the regular Mondly features (quick daily lessons and audio by professional native speakers), the Mondly Kids app has really kid-friendly illustrations and cool sound effects to keep them engaged with new vocab words.
And unlike the original app which includes a leaderboard, the statistics on the kids’ app are exhibited on a brain map. It’s a smart move to remove the competitive element of the original Mondly app, as having the little ones participate in this kind of competition might add unnecessary stress and pressure to a program that’s meant to be fun.
The Mondly app for kids is quite impressive in terms of the topics they cover. Other than the standard food, animals, colors, numbers and parts of the body, they also have categories such as buildings, leisure and professions.
On top of the free daily lessons, there are 77 premium lessons, with a total of 400 words and 75 new phrases to learn. There are also weekly quizzes that still follow that gamified format. The app is ad-free so that you and your kids can simply focus on language learning.
See our full review of Mondly here.
13. Teach Kids Languages
Recommended age: 2-7
Available languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Esperanto and Turkish.
Price: Free for three themes. $2.99/month or $26.49/year for full access.
The Teach Kids Languages app uses fun games to teach languages to children. With puzzles, memory games and quizzes, learning never needs to be boring.
The app starts from the basics so kids can learn proper spelling and pronunciation of common vocabulary words.
Vocabulary is a huge focus, and the words taught are mostly general terms that children use often, like colors, numbers, shapes, animals, clothing and more.
The animations are cute and use a soothing color scheme, which prevents them from being overstimulating.
The Teach Kids Languages app is free to download, while additional in-app purchases unlock more content.
14. Fun Easy Learn
Recommended age: 4 and up
Available languages: 62 languages, from popular choices like Spanish to less common ones like Slovak and Thai.
Price: Free. Premium, ad-free access available for $11.99-$129.99 (prices range depending on number of languages and length of access time).
Fun Easy Learn offers intuitive, easy-to-use language learning apps. These apps are designed for visual and/or auditory learners in general, but many of the images and features are particularly appealing to children.
Fun Easy Learn offers a great assortment of learning materials. Each app contains 5,000-6,000 words with audio spoken by native speakers. Words are logically organized in 15+ main themes with 140+ subcategories. Fun games are also available to keep you learning—and enjoying it.
The apps are organized into three difficulty levels, from beginning through advanced, so they’re appropriate for any level language learner.
There are Fun Easy Learn apps for all 62 languages on offer. With so many options, chances are there’s an app for whatever language you’re looking for.
When Is the Best Time to Start Learning a New Language?
It’s no secret that it takes significantly less effort for a child to learn a new language compared to an adult.
In fact, for a while it was thought that kids must start learning in early childhood in order to become bilingual. After all, past age 18, learning grammar concepts in a new language becomes increasingly more difficult.
That’s because adults have to make a conscious effort to not apply the grammar and pronunciation of their mother tongue to their target language.
This begs the question: what is the optimal age for learning a language to fluency? Is it during infancy? Does the probability of reaching native-level proficiency significantly decrease if a kid only starts learning a second language as a teen?
To be honest, the research results aren’t all that surprising.
Kids easily learn their mother tongue or parents’ native language because they’re constantly surrounded by it at home, school or both.
Children pick up languages quickly through these immersive environments, and they don’t spend much time analyzing grammar structures.
So the earlier your kids start learning their second language, the better.
While it is easier for babies to learn two languages at the same time, an MIT study from 2018 indicates that it’s highly likely for children to become fluent in another language if they start learning it before the age of 10.
Research does state a critical period for foreign language acquisition, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t become bilingual, trilingual or even multilingual as an adult.
It’s never too late to learn a new language!
Adults can also greatly benefit from immersive language learning. And maturity comes with the ability to do better with explicit rules and explanations of language concepts.
You don’t need to move to a foreign country to give yourself or your children an immersive language environment, either.
Many online programs provide immersive language learning, so you can surround your family with your target language in the comfort of your own home. Take FluentU, for example. The program uses authentic video and audio clips to teach languages—fun that the whole family can enjoy.
FluentU has a wide variety of video clips that cover all language levels (from absolute beginners all the way to advanced learners), as well as all ages.
FluentU takes online videos and turns them into personalized, easily digestible lessons. You won’t have to drag your kids away from the TV to do their language practice, because they’ll be watching it in the target language.
Every FluentU video comes with interactive subtitles that allow you to get an instant translation of unknown words, as well as full dictionary entries for each word. New words can be practiced with personalized quizzes that allow for written and voice input.
Videos range from content that appeals to children, like cartoons, music videos and movie trailers, to content you can enjoy yourself, such as politics, news and TED talks.
You can help select content that’s appropriate for your child’s age, level and interests, which is a great opportunity for you to get involved in the language-learning process. In fact, you and your kids can learn both individually and together as a family.
FluentU offers language learning for English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese. It’s available on the web or as an iOS or Android app.
3 Characteristics of a Kid-friendly Language Learning Program
The best language learning apps for kids share key features. These are the three most important characteristics of a kid-friendly program.
Interactivity
Kids don’t see language learning as a linguistic goal made up of words and phrases. They think of it as an activity—a game, a dance, a song.
They simply engage in the experience, never mind the fact that they’re learning about language.
So, when teaching children, a passive lecture isn’t going to be effective.
Kids can barely sit still, much less keep their eyes on a lesson! Their short attention spans need constant stimulation. Using activities will keep them engaged in learning.
In most adult programs, the language lessons are explicit and in-your-face. But kids aren’t going to say, “Okay, today I’m gonna memorize 10 vocabulary words about food.”
A language learning program tailored for kids is highly interactive. It engages the senses and imagination and makes the kids an important part of the learning process.
A kid-friendly program gives children something to do—with their hands, their eyes, their imaginations. It doesn’t expect them to get through the whole thing without a fuss.
An online resource full of boring text won’t be a hit with your kids. If a language learning program is full of paragraphs, move on.
Instead, look for language programs that layer the lessons behind fun activities.
Creativity
I’m sure you’ve had the experience of asking your little one to do something they don’t want to do. You’re feeding them, for example, and they’re resisting you at every turn.
So you start getting creative.
You turn that tiny spoon into an airplane, doing backflips and somersaults in the air. Sometimes it’s a train “choo-choo-choo-ing” into their mouth.
Eating is an activity, but using imagination makes it way more fun and creative.
Memorizing a list of vocabulary words is also an activity. But it’s hardly creative.
A language learning program for kids has to rise to their level of imagination. That means it should have at least a few of these features:
- bright colors
- moving objects
- talking animals
- cartoon characters
- changing scenery
- storylines (rescue missions, interplanetary drama, etc.)
Your kid isn’t just learning about numbers, they’re counting gold coins in Czech so they can buy the flying pony they’ll need to rescue the princess.
Once the princess is saved, your kid gets to meet her family—the king, the queen, some rowdy uncles, etc. Along the way, they’ll learn about family vocabulary.
Now that’s a creative activity!
Variety
They say that variety is the spice of life.
If you do the same thing over and over, the novelty wears off. It’s not a challenge anymore. It’s not fun. It becomes a chore.
A good rule of thumb is that a great online resource for kids has at least five different types of creative activities.
Children don’t care if they learn the language lessons you want them to learn or not.
They don’t look into the future and think, “Being bilingual will raise my value at work.” They’re in the present, thinking, “What’s in it for me right now?”
Kids will only engage with material if it interests them.
They want something new, something unexpected.
A good online language learning program for kids knows this. It will teach the same lesson in different ways.
For example, a lesson about numbers can be taught as a song. It can also be taught as a story or as a game.
The language program can test the same vocabulary set in different ways with different skills. It might check pronunciation by asking the children to speak into a microphone, match word pairs or type in the answer.
It might even tap into kids’ competitive spirit and facilitate online language contests with other students.
Whatever it is, the program creators throw in plenty of different activities so the kids don’t get sick of the same lesson. Because hey, it’s not really the same lesson. (Wink!)
So, check out these 14 programs and test them for yourself.
Each program has its strengths and specialties, so choose whatever fits your situation.
And if you really want to make the best of it, learn a language with your kid. Two birds, one stone.
Good luck!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
