An app for Chinese spelling — the 听写 list, practised and marked
An app for Chinese spelling that does the part you can’t: it reads out the week’s 听写 list, tests your child on it, and marks a photograph of their handwriting.
Scan the sheet the school sent home — or type the words — and it becomes a list in the app. From there your child has three ways to work on it, and you get the marks.
Three ways to practise, then a test
- Write practice. The app says the word; your child writes it on paper the way they will have to in class; you photograph the page and Zen Reader marks each word.
- Say and repeat. It reads the word in clear Mandarin and listens to your child say it back — useful for the words they can recognise but not recall.
- Dictation test. The real thing: the app dictates the list, your child writes it, and the photo comes back marked with a score for the set.
The marking names what went wrong
A cross next to a character tells a parent who reads Chinese quite a lot, and tells the rest of us nothing. So Zen Reader says which part of the character was wrong — the radical, the component, the stroke that turned it into a different word — in English, next to the photograph of what your child actually wrote.
If a mark looks wrong to you, you can overrule it: your correction is what counts, and it is what goes into the report. You can also re-run the marking on a clearer photo, or on just the part of the page you meant.
English spelling lists too — and letter reversals
The same machinery runs the week’s English spelling list, so both languages live in one app instead of two. And because Zen Reader is looking at your child’s own handwriting, it notices the b/d/p/q/g and 3/5/6/9 flips that are normal up to about age 7–8 — telling you which letters to work on and whether it is improving, with a drill that practises one letter at a time. Nothing in that drill is scored or saved.
A mother tongue spelling app, or a language spelling app
Whether you searched for an app for mother tongue spelling, an app for language spelling, a 听写 app or a dictation app, this is the page you wanted. The languages it marks today are Chinese and English; Malay and Tamil spelling is not supported yet — the mother tongue page is explicit about what is and isn’t covered.
What lands in your report
- The score for the set, and each word marked right or wrong.
- The photograph of what your child wrote, kept with the marks.
- Which component or letter went wrong, in English.
- The same list over time, so you can see the words that keep coming back.
The rest of the homework, too
Zen Reader is one app. Whichever part of the week brought you here, the others are in the same place, on the same family library.
- Reading aloud, checkedAn app that listens to your child read and marks every character.
- HomeworkWorksheets, reading and lists — guided, marked and reported in English.
- Flash cardsCharacters and sight words as cards, a card game, then a test that listens.
- Mother tongue and language helpHow all of it works for mother tongue homework, and which languages it covers.
Questions about spelling and 听写
How does it mark handwriting?
Your child writes the words on paper, you photograph the page, and Zen Reader marks each word against the list — naming which component or letter was wrong rather than only marking it wrong. The photo is kept with the marks so you can see for yourself.
What if the marking gets one wrong?
You can overrule any mark, and your correction is what the report shows. You can also re-run the marking on a clearer photo or on just the part of the page you meant.
Do I have to type the whole list in?
No. Scan the sheet the school sent home and Zen Reader reads the words off it. Typing them is there as an alternative, not the default.
Can it dictate the list so my child can be tested at home?
Yes. The dictation test reads each word out in clear Mandarin, waits, and moves on — the same shape as the test in class. Write practice and say-and-repeat are the two gentler modes before it.
Does it handle English spelling lists as well?
Yes, the same three practice modes and the same photo marking. It also spots the b/d/p/q and 3/5/6/9 reversals in your child’s own handwriting and tells you which letters to work on.
Is mother tongue spelling covered for Malay or Tamil?
Not yet. Spelling is marked in Chinese and English today; more languages are on the way.
Get this week’s list marked for you
Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac — one family library, synced. Every plan starts with a free 14-day trial.