Ting xie becomes stressful when the only plan is “copy the list until you know it”. Copying can make a page look familiar without proving that a child can hear a word, retrieve the right characters and write them independently. Dictation practice should rehearse that complete journey.
01 · 听见，再写
What does Chinese ting xie actually test?
听写 literally joins listening and writing. A child hears a word, sometimes hears it used in a sentence, decides which meaning is intended, recalls the correct characters and writes them without seeing the answer. Several skills can break along that path:
- Sound: Did the child hear the syllables and tones accurately?
- Meaning: Did the example sentence identify the intended word or homophone?
- Character recall: Can the child retrieve the shape without copying?
- Handwriting: Are the components, stroke order and proportions secure?
- Memory: Will the same word still be available several days later?
Naming the missing step is kinder and faster than saying a child is “bad at Chinese”. If the sound is unclear, replay and say it. If the wrong homophone appears, use the sentence. If one component is missing, correct that component and write the word once more from memory.
02 · 十分钟练习
A five-step ting xie routine.
- Listen once.Play the word and example sentence at a natural pace. Do not show the answer first.
- Say the word.Let the child repeat it. This exposes an uncertain sound or tone before writing begins.
- Recall and write.Give enough quiet time to retrieve the characters. Productive effort is part of remembering.
- Compare precisely.Check the whole word, then identify the exact character, component or stroke that differs.
- Return later.Test the corrected word again after other items, the next day and shortly before the school test.
Split a longer list across several evenings, then finish with a mixed recall round rather than another copying round.
03 · 订正
Correction should preserve the mistake, not erase it.
When a child writes the wrong answer, the useful information is the difference between what they heard, what they chose and what the word should be. A clean rewritten page can hide that pattern. Keep the wrong form long enough to name the confusion: a missing radical, a similar component, a homophone or a tone that led to the wrong word.
Then ask for one fresh retrieval. Cover both forms, replay the audio and let the child write again. If the corrected word only appears while the answer is visible, it has been copied, not recalled.
Little Orchid's 错题本 records the target and the answer chosen instead. The memory view also keeps words separate, so the weak items can return without forcing the child through every word they already know.
04 · 跟着学校
Use the school's weekly ting xie list as the final checklist.
Schools may select different words, phrases or example sentences for a given week. Little Orchid's packaged P1–P6 curriculum cannot know the exact list set by your child's teacher, and never claims to — which is why a grown-up can now put that list in directly and have it drilled by the same engine. How 我的听写表 works.
The underlying characters come from Singapore MOE's official 《欢乐伙伴 2.0》 and 《欢乐伙伴》 character lists. This gives the app broad curriculum coverage, but the textbook, worksheet and teacher remain the authority for what will be tested that week.
05 · 我的听写表
Your own 听写 list, drilled by the same engine.
我的听写表 · My spelling lists holds the words your child is actually tested on this week. A grown-up puts the list in once; after that it behaves like any other list in the app — the word read aloud, 注音, a 田字格 pad for each character, grading, the 错题本 and spaced review.
There are five ways in, and only one of them is metered:
- 打字 · Type it in. One word at a time. Free, and no connection is needed to enter it.
- 贴上 · Paste it. Drop in the teacher's message from the class chat. Free, and read on the device.
- 念出听写表 · Read it aloud. Say one word, pause, say the next. Free and never metered. The app hands the microphone to your phone's own recogniser: your phone does the listening, and Apple or Google may hear it. With 自编例句 on, the finished word list is then sent to have its sentences written, and is not kept.
- 拍照导入 · Photograph the worksheet. Up to four pages an import, read one page at a time with a Stop reading button. Three pages a month free, 100 a month on Plus. This is the route where a picture leaves your phone: the photo is sent to Google to be read into words, on the paid tier that is not used to train its models — the app cannot keep it, and neither can we. What each connected feature sends.
- 分享 · A list from another parent. Sent as plain text through the share sheet and pasted back in. Free, with no account and no Little Orchid inbox in between.
The camera and the microphone sit behind a parent gate, and every route lands in an editor, so a mistyped or misheard character is fixed before a child sees it. An import merges into what is already there instead of replacing it, and reports how many words were added, duplicated or rejected.
A pasted 1. 美丽 2. 森林 3、朋友 becomes three items. A line carrying clause punctuation is kept whole, so a full sentence stays one 听写 item rather than being chopped into words.
Each item is read the way a teacher reads it: the 例句 first, a short pause, then 写 + 词语 + 的 + 字. One 田字格 pad per Han character; punctuation is read aloud but never gets a pad.
Give a list its test date and it sorts itself. Afterwards 收起 takes it out of the 听写 tab without deleting it — not one review record is lost — and 取回 sits in the same snackbar. With two or more lists archived, 全部复习 drills across all of them.
A list holds up to 30 words, and an item up to 40 characters, which is long enough that a whole Primary sentence is a legal 听写 item. A sitting is 15 words, so a 30-word list is two sittings and 再来一次 serves the rest. Within a sitting the order is the one the curriculum already uses: due words first by due date, then the words never seen.
Saving a list has a recording made for every word the app does not already hold, four at a time. A word the app has never said before is sent on its own — the word, nothing else — to Microsoft's speech service to be read aloud, and the recording is then kept on your phone, so a list prepared on wifi works offline on Friday. If that could not finish, the card says how many words still need a recording. What each of those sends out.
A character with no stroke guide is named and skipped in the reveal, and the card warns how many before a child starts. A list read from a photograph is labelled “from a photo, check the characters”. And a custom word never grows the orchid or eats the day's curriculum budget, so extra homework cannot cost a child their lesson.
06 · Little Orchid 听写
How Little Orchid supports independent ting xie practice.
The curriculum's 5,160 Mandarin recordings sit inside the app, so the same word and example sentence replay with no connection. A word from your own list that the app has never said has a recording made for it once, and that recording then stays on the phone.
Each card connects the character to its pinyin, vocabulary and example sentence rather than drilling an isolated shape.
Stroke guides support correct order, direction and proportion for characters classified for writing.
A word returns according to recall instead of disappearing as soon as this week's test is over.
The packaged curriculum works with no connection. Three things need one: reading aloud a word the app has never recorded, importing a list from a photo, and, on Plus, writing example sentences. A grown-up starts the last two, past the parent gate; the first a child can start, by tapping 听 on a home word nothing has recorded yet. There is no account, no advertising and nothing that tracks your child, and your child's answers and progress stay on the phone. What leaves the phone, in detail.
Hear it. Recall it. Write it.
Try all six practice modes before starting the 7-day Plus trial.
07 · Questions
Common ting xie questions.
What is Chinese ting xie?
Ting xie (听写) is Chinese dictation: listen to a word, use the sentence for context, recall the characters and write them without copying.
How should my child practise ting xie?
Use a short listen–recall–write–correct cycle, then test the missed word again later without showing the answer.
Does Little Orchid import my school's weekly ting xie list?
Yes. A grown-up can type the list in, paste it from the class chat, speak it aloud or photograph the worksheet, and those words are then drilled with the same audio, 田字格 handwriting and spaced review as the packaged curriculum. Photographing is the one route that sends a picture: the photo is sent to Google to be read into words, on the paid tier that is not used to train its models, and neither the app nor we keep a copy. The school handout stays the final checklist for that week's test.
Can my child practise ting xie offline?
The packaged P1–P6 curriculum works with no connection: its recordings, cards, Chinese font and stroke guides sit inside the app. A word the app has never said before is sent on its own — the word, nothing else — to Microsoft's speech service to be read aloud, and the recording is then kept on your phone. So a list prepared on wifi works on the day of the test.
Can I put my child's weekly spelling list into the app?
Yes. 我的听写表 · My spelling lists takes a list five ways: typed in, pasted from the class chat, spoken aloud, photographed from the worksheet, or shared by another parent and pasted back in. Typing, pasting and sharing send nothing anywhere. Speaking hands the microphone to your phone's own recogniser: your phone does the listening, and Apple or Google may hear it. Photographing sends that photo to Google to be read into words, then deletes it — it is the only route that needs a connection, and the only metered one, at three pages a month or 100 a month on Plus.