TingoLingo is an individualised online self-study course for learners and teachers of English who want to refresh their English grammar with fun!

The frame story: the ship-wrecked students are washed ashore on Easter Island, where helpful little avatar Ingo becomes their learning companion and guides them through his Grammar Mansion, a mysterious fantasy villa in which a lot of grammar knowledge and secret stories are waiting to be discovered.

Each object in the house represents an area of grammar which contains one or more learning modules. Each of the 38 modules consists of a riddle, a grammar chapter, self-tests on three levels of difficulty, feedback, a reward, and little surprises.

An entrance test reveals individual deficits and defines individual learning goals for each participating student. This approach is markedly different from that of traditional course books or grammar practice books, which provide the same input for every learner. Instead, TingoLingo provides an individualised learning programme for every student, depending on their individual strengths and needs.

When a student finishes a learning module successfully, Ingo removes the object from the Grammar Mansion and symbolically hands it over: the knowledge is now the student’s.

Complex subject matter is visualised by illustrative Flash-animations and backed up by glossaries defining grammatical terms and concepts.

Communication with a tutor and other learners is possible. Integrated chat, forum, and e-mail tools enable students to help each other in their learning progress if desired, and they can also ask their tutor for help. The tutor, in turn, can use tools such as progress checks, statistics, means of differentiation, or grouping, to administer to his learning group’s needs.

The highly imaginative narrative framing of the storyline raises curiosity, is fun, and keeps students’ motivation high. Additionally, all self-tests are humorous little stories revolving around Ingo and his family and friends, and of course the Grammar Mansion, and in the end a mystery is being revealed!

Devised as a revision course for students who are training to become teachers of English, this course will also be made available soon to anyone who wishes to refresh their English grammar “with fun”!