Making gap fills with learningapps.org
Why I tried this
One of the challenges of learning Cornish is getting enough repeated exposure to key vocabulary. Reading a text once is rarely enough for new words to stick, so I was looking for a quick way to create interactive exercises from existing Cornish material. I came across LearningApps.org, a free website that lets you create a wide variety of simple learning activities. One of these is a gap-fill exercise, where learners complete a text by choosing the missing words.I decided to see how quickly I could turn a Cornish text into an interactive vocabulary exercise.
Demonstration
The screenshots below show a gap-fill activity based on a short Cornish text. Learners read the passage and select the correct words from a drop-down list to complete each gap.
The exercise can be completed repeatedly, making it useful for reinforcing vocabulary and becoming more familiar with common grammatical patterns.
What this shows
This experiment reminded me that effective learning tools do not always have to involve sophisticated AI. Sometimes a simple interactive activity is exactly what is needed. LearningApps made it possible to convert an ordinary Cornish text into a reusable vocabulary exercise in just a few minutes. It is particularly useful because learners can practise independently as often as they wish. The same approach could easily be used for other minority languages. Any teacher or volunteer with a short text could create an interactive exercise without needing programming skills or specialist software.
Technical notes
- Website: https://learningapps.org/createApp.php
- Cost: Free.
- Time required: Around five minutes for a simple exercise.
- Technical knowledge: None beyond using a web browser.
- Best suited for: Vocabulary revision, reading practice and reinforcement of common language patterns.