Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2016, 4, 85-91 Published Online July 2016 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/jss http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.47014 How to cite this paper: Pemba, D., Mann, V., Sarkar, T. and Azartash, K. (2016) Learning English in China: A Tablet-Based App Using the Voices of Native Speakers. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4, 85-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.47014 Learning English in China: A Tablet-Based App Using the Voices of Native Speakers Dhonam Pemba 1 , Virginia Mann 1,2* , Trina Sarkar 3 , Kaveh Azartash 1 1 Kadho, Inc., Irvine, CA, USA 2 Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of CA, Irvine, CA, USA 3 Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Received 5 May 2016; accepted 18 July 2016; published 25 July 2016 Abstract This paper concerns the acquisition of English by two groups of five-to-six year old children living in China: 1) Those taught by the traditional classroom methods using non-native speakers of Eng- lish as teachers and 2) Those taught by a new computer application designed by Kadho, Inc. to train children in the perception of English consonants vowels and suffixes produced by native speakers of English. The data consist of judgments of children’s accent in mimicking English sen- tences, at the onset, 1, 3, 6 and 10 months into treatment. Children who received the computer app were judged to have significantly better accents from the first month of training onwards. Keywords English Language Learning, Computer-Based Training, Primary Education 1. Introduction: Age and Source Factors in Second Language Acquisition China is a country that is rapidly adopting English language instruction into its school and universities. However the ever-increasing numbers of Chinese people being exposed to English as a foreign language are attaining va- rying degrees of success. Although many achieve a high command of written vocabulary and grammar, most are unable to achieve native-like fluency in speaking and listening. The accents of Chinese Mandarin speakers try- ing to speak English can be traced to two factors. Those individuals who do achieve native-like fluency all tend to share an early age of exposure; and an extended exposure to the speech of native speakers of English. Research has shown that the earlier an individual begins learning a second language, the better their pronun- ciation becomes [1]-[3]. As the age of acquisition increases, the child’s eventual chance of native-like fluency linearly decreases such that it becomes virtually impossible for adults to acquire native-like pronunciation in a foreign language [4]-[9]. That is because, although every child is born with the ability to learn and produce the sounds of any human language [10], unless he or she is engaged with stimuli from other languages, the first language (L1) develops and matures, but the potential for acquiring sound systems for other languages (L2 and beyond) withers with increasing age. As a child ages, this loss becomes more significant, ultimately leading to a * Corresponding author.