“Nǐ hǎo!” pipes a little animated character in Mandarin, with more words announced as the children tap the tablet screen.

The tablet, and program delivered by an array of apps, are part of the Australian government Early Leaning Languages Australia (ELLA) program, giving preschoolers and day care centre pupils a first taste of a foreign language.

“It’s fun, the kids love the apps, and said some of the children have picked up a bit of the language. “Like hello, how are you, simple things,” Catherine Campbell manager Evelyn Harrington said.

Piloted in 2015 to a limited number of services, Inverell and District Family Services Catherine Campbell and Kindamindi preschools successfully secured the program last year. This year is a national rollout, with delivery of Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese or Spanish courses.

IDFS chief executive Nicki Lavender said the service’s Little Sprouts Learning Centre would deliver ELLA with Catherine Campbell, which plans to teach French in 2017. She said some of their other programs Will apply after the holiday. “It's incredibly valuable, again, children naught to five, their thirst for knowledge is amazing and they learn so much, so if they can start a second language now, it's valuable for the long term," Nicki said.

Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham said the Turnbull government hoped to see a model of the ELLA App expanded to the early years of school, as life-long learning begins in the youngest years. 

“Following the success and popularity of ELLA in child care centres and pre-schools, the Turnbull Government hopes to see expansion of the app into classrooms to promote young students’ interest and life-long love of languages,” Minister Birmingham said.

“Naturally, any such expansion would require the support state and territory or non-government school authorities. Even where young students may not continue into school with the language they learned in preschool, research indicates that they will enjoy real cognitive and developmental benefits from learning another language in their earliest years.”

Evelyn said employment of ELLA has shown positive results, with children demonstrating a heightened understanding of English, language structures, reading performance, language confidence, and a developed a larger view of the world.