Word game meets language learning in the new iOS app Mind the Gap

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Word game meets language learning in the new iOS app Mind the Gap - Published on 11/26/14

The German App label science-to-touch has released Mind The Gap, a new word game and English language learning app. Mind The Gap focuses on a holistic approach to language. It challenges its users to reconstruct word fragments in authentic English texts. The iOS app crosses the borders of word game and language learning tool. Mind the Gap offers crossword puzzle like texts that, besides being a challenge on its own, help its user to gradually improve his or her language skills.

Munich, Germany - "Mind the Gap" is a new language learning app created by the German label science-to-touch. The app intentionally links two genres: word game and language learning app. On the one hand it is a puzzle type word game similar to popular word guessing games. The main difference: Missing words are to be guessed from their authentic context. The app offers hints, and can be played without time pressure or in an arcade mode.

On the other hand the app is designed to improve the users comprehension ability and the competence to construct popular and authentic english language patterns. The app is based on a collection of over 500 hand-selected texts coming from different areas such as science, sports, art, music, literature and many more. The texts cover trivia and interesting facts from many different areas of human culture, life and science. The main task is to fill in missing parts of words and to reconstruct the original text by this. The percentage of destroyed words varies from 30% in the entry levels to 90% in advanced levels. Mind the Gap hereby enforces an idiomatic language use as it tackles almost all potential trouble zones of language learning from grammar to vocabulary.

"The app is a father-daughter co-production that originated from the desire for training material for so called cloze-tests, which are frequently used to test and train the language abilities of students. During development of 'Mind the Gap' we made the experience that finding the right insertions for missing words sometimes requires Sherlock Holmes like reconstruction abilities and can become a really entertaining task" says Professor Richter-Gebert, one of the two developers of the iOS app. As the author of several award winning software projects designed for the general public he has become an expert in combining authentic content with a fun, relaxing or challenging user experience. In 2012 Professor Richter-Gebert launched the creative geometry drawing app "iOrnament", which is rated 5 stars on the App Store in 14 countries.

The main features of the app include:
* Word guessing in authentic english texts
* Animated hints by removing letters form the keyboard
* Huge database of 550 texts
* Interesting trivia from all parts of human culture, life and science
* Arcade mode with idioms, proverbs and common sayings
* Automatic correction of results
* Built-in access to language dictionary
* Personalized statistics of success
* Full game center integration
* Color themes
* Integrated Help functions

"Turning a serious test scenario into a fun game was the greatest challenge. We included fun elements as for example a Tetris like arcade mode in which you must reconstruct idioms, proverbs and common sayings under time pressure. You must try to survive as long as you can and crack new high scores. Working on up to seven sentences at the same time really challenges your multitasking skills" comments Angela Gebert, second year English student and co-producer of the app.

Mind the Gap combines a fresh and motivating learning environment with an effective, casual learning method for every day. Each of the topics is decorated with hand drawn sketches, that create an atmospheric entry to the specific topic. "Mind the Gap is dedicated to all language lovers looking for a challenging high quality timekiller-app and to everyone who seeks for an easy way to improve his or her English step by step" concludes the app author Professor Richter-Gebert.

Device Requirements:
* iPad, iPhone and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 6.0 or later
* 53.3 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Mind the Gap 1.1 is $1.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the iTunes App Store in the Games category.

Mind the Gap 1.1: http://mindthegapapp.com
Purchase and Download: http://itunes.apple.com/app/id886666696
Preview Video: http://mindthegapapp.com/video.html
Screenshot 1: http://mindthegapapp.com/PressKit/ScreenshotsIPad/02.PNG
Screenshot 2: http://mindthegapapp.com/PressKit/ScreenshotsIPad/08.PNG
App Icon: http://mindthegapapp.com/PressKit/Logo/Logo_1024.png


Located in Munich, Germany, Science-to-touch was founded in 2012 by Jurgen Richter-Gebert, mathematics professor and expert in geometry and visualization. It is a collection of projects which are aimed at interactive visualization of science. The basic philosophy behind the project is that visualization and interactivity makes science accessible, understandable and fun. The iOrnament App is the first release of Science-to-touch. Science-to-touch tries to provide high quality content that helps to get in touch with various interesting topics. All projects should be equally creative, informative and accessible. Copyright (C) 2012-2014 Science-to-touch. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.


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