Dictation is considered to be one of the most effective methods for learning a foreign language, and forms the bulk of your training on the Nintendo DS. It’s up to you to listen to the words or sentences and then write what you heard on the touch screen.

You start off by selecting the level of difficulty; at the easiest level you will be asked to spell out simple words like “Hello” and “OK”, or short sentences such as “Shall we dance?”. However, as you progress through the game’s different levels of complexity, you will soon be asked to write down much longer sentences.

What makes Dictation so practical in English Training is that you can really do it all in your own time. Using the stylus on the touch screen works incredibly well and feels just like using a futuristic pen and paper. The built-in language recognition software ensures that you can scribble in a continuous flow, as the DS will pick up your words letter by letter. (In the unlikely event that you are having trouble with a certain letter, check our “Handwriting help” guide in the menu on the left.)