Mother tongue homework, when you can’t read it yourself
Mother tongue work comes home in a language a lot of parents cannot read. Zen Reader listens to the reading, marks the spelling, runs the word lists and guides your child through the worksheet — then reports all of it back to you in English.
In Singapore it is called Mother Tongue; elsewhere it is the second language, the heritage language, or just “the homework I can’t help with”. The problem is the same everywhere: the child needs practice between lessons, and the parent sitting next to them cannot tell whether what they just heard was right.
So whether you came looking for an app for mother tongue homework, an app for language homework, or simply help with the Chinese that arrived in the school bag, this is the page — and the next section is the one that tells you whether it will actually work for your child.
Which languages Zen Reader covers — plainly
This is the first thing to know, so here it is before anything else.
- Chinese — fully supported. Reading aloud checked character by character with Mandarin tones, 听写 spelling marked from a photo, character and sight-word lists, worksheet help, HSK reading levels, and the Singapore MOE syllabus level for the stream and 欢乐伙伴 edition your child is on.
- English — fully supported: reading, spelling lists, word lists and reports.
- Malay and Tamil — not supported yet. If your child’s Mother Tongue is Malay or Tamil, Zen Reader will not help you this term. We would rather lose the sale than have you find that out afterwards.
The app’s own menus are available in 14 languages, which is a different thing from the languages it can check reading in. More reading languages are being worked on.
The four things it does
- Listens to reading aloud and corrects it — every character marked, tones included, with a warm report for your child and an English one for you.
- Helps with the homework — worksheets guided with hints rather than answers, at a level of help you set.
- Runs the spelling list — dictated, written on paper, and marked from a photograph of the handwriting.
- Turns word lists into cards — flash cards, a family card game, and a test that listens.
Built around school, not around a syllabus of ours
Zen Reader has no course of its own. The books, the character lists and the spelling lists are the ones your child’s teachers set this week; you put them in, and the app does the language work in between lessons. With your permission a school or tuition teacher can be linked to one child and see that child’s reading reports — nothing else — and you can remove the access whenever you like.
What a parent actually sees
- Every result per child, in English: reading scores, tone notes, spelling marks, test results, comprehension answers.
- The reading level of each book, so you can finally answer “is this one too hard for my child?”
- Trends across the weeks, badges, and a count of the characters your child can genuinely read.
- One family library across Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac — and reading captured with no connection syncs when you are 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.
- Spelling and 听写The week’s list practised, tested, and their handwriting marked.
- Flash cardsCharacters and sight words as cards, a card game, then a test that listens.
Questions about mother tongue and language support
Which mother tongue languages does Zen Reader support?
Chinese and English are fully supported — reading checked aloud, spelling marked, word lists, worksheet help and reports. Malay and Tamil are not supported yet. The app’s own menus are available in 14 languages, but that is separate from the languages it can check reading in.
Is this a Singapore Mother Tongue app specifically?
It was built in Singapore by a parent with a child in the Chinese stream, so it understands the MOE syllabus levels and the 欢乐伙伴 editions — but nothing about it is limited to Singapore. Any family with a child reading Chinese or English at school can use it.
What does it actually do with the homework?
Four things: it listens to your child read aloud and marks every character and tone; it guides them through a worksheet with hints rather than answers; it dictates and marks the spelling list from a photo of their handwriting; and it turns character or word lists into flash cards, a game and a listening test.
Do I need to speak the language to use it?
No. That is the reason it exists. Pages carry pinyin and an English translation, the app reads aloud in clear Mandarin when your child is stuck, and every report comes back to you in English.
Does it replace what my child does at school?
No. Zen Reader has no syllabus of its own — it works on the books and lists the teachers set, and it makes the practice between lessons count. A teacher can be linked to a child, with your permission, to see how that practice is going.
When will more languages be added?
We are not going to give you a date we cannot keep. Chinese and English are what work today; more are being worked on, and the changelog records each release as it ships.
Try it on this week’s mother tongue homework
Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad and Mac — one family library, synced. Every plan starts with a free 14-day trial.