Evaluating English Learning Apps for Chinese Preschoolers: A Multimodal Case Study

Abstract English learning apps have been receiving steadily growing attention in research on educational technology. Yet, few studies have considered the evaluation of English learning apps for preschoolers as foreign language learners. This article examines the extent to which the design of two English learning apps for young children popular in China, iHuman ABC and Khan Academy Kids , and discourses around them reflect research evidence on how young children learn English. Adopting a social semiotic approach to semiotic technology, we employ multimodal discourse analysis to examine how the two apps present English learning content and thematic analysis to explore how stakeholders (i.e., parents and teachers) evaluate them. Our data comprise the apps themselves, user reviews, and semi‐structured interviews with 10 English teachers in Chinese private preschools. Our findings reveal that the apps target different English language skills and associated competence levels, suggesting that iHuman is more oriented toward language teaching and appropriate for Chinese preschoolers, whereas Khan aligns more with literacy teaching. Although teachers commented on this difference, no such awareness was evident in the user reviews, which might have implications for Chinese preschoolers. This study contributes to evaluative studies of English learning apps for preschoolers by analyzing both the apps and stakeholders' discourses around them.