Pleco Chinese Dictionary: A CALL Software Evaluation

Founded over 15 years ago by an American living and studying in China, Pleco Software is a company dedicated to creating a robust set of tools for English speakers wanting to learn Chinese on their mobile devices. The company's first foray into the mobile device market resulted in the mobile assisted language learning tool for the Palm OS simply dubbed "Pleco Chinese Dictionary". Since then, the company has expanded their market reach to offer their app on Windows Mobile, iOS, and Android. The primary intended purpose of Pleco is to help their target audience, namely students, study and communicate in Chinese on the go via their mobile devices.

For this review, I downloaded Pleco’s free version for both the iPad and the iPhone to test its functions. The core feature of the software is a set of two free Chinese—English/English—Chinese dictionaries. These dictionaries include the open-source CC-CEDICT and Pleco’s own dictionary. Aside from the over 100,000 definitions in the CC-CEDICT that are updated regularly for the app, Pleco’s offers over 20,000 example sentences (with Pinyin included) for the nearly 80,000 entries in their proprietary dictionary.

Navigating the app is fairly straightforward on both the iPad and iPhone. There is not much difference between each version other than there is a menu tab on the iPhone that must be tapped in order for the menu to be viewed. Otherwise on the iPad, with its much larger screen, the menu can be permanently displayed on the left side of the screen.

The layout is pleasantly basic. With a white background, it is easy on the eyes, especially on the iPad. Words can be searched in both Chinese and English and the Chinese words all have corresponding audio pronunciations. The free portion of Pleco also saves searches in a convenient history section as well as allows you to bookmark words for easy access later. All of this free content is thoughtfully presented and seems to be an effective basic tool for their target audience.

Where Pleco really seems to shine for their target audience is the paid add-ons that are available for individual purchase or discounted bundles. Each of these add-ons are fully integrated into the app once they are purchased eliminating the need to navigate multiple apps. The following are some noteworthy add-ons that increase the usefulness of the app for the Chinese language learner (full disclosure—I did not purchase or try these add-ons):

Optical character recognizer- allows you to look up definitions to words from images. The recognizer will read PDFs, photos, and even read ‘live’ with the built in camera on your iPad or iPhone

​Full-screen handwriting- this gives the student the opportunity to both practice Chinese character handwriting as well as be able to look up words written on the screen. The company claims that the software is “mistake-tolerant” too.

Flashcard system- works in tandem with the dictionary software and gives the student advanced language practice abilities such as multiple-choice and SRS (Spaced Repetition System).

If these paid extra add-ons aren’t impressive enough, also available for purchase are more than two-dozen other Chinese dictionaries (such as the Oxford Chinese Dictionary) that can be further integrated into the app. Many of these dictionaries expand the translations to include languages other than English such as German, French, Spanish, and Italian.

Ultimately, Pleco appears to be very useful for Chinese language learners of all levels of proficiency. Beginners and advanced learners alike, from the first time traveler to China to the expats living in China to the person at home who just wants to learn a few words, everyone will likely be able to find at least one function of the software that is useful to them no matter what their ultimate goal(s) are.

Even teachers may be able use Pleco effectively as a teaching tool in their classrooms or for their students outside of the classroom. Teachers can use the “Stroke Order Diagrams” function that will allow their students to view animations showing the correct stroke order for 20,000 Chinese characters. Students can then take their devices home and use this function to practice their character strokes.

Aside from all of the benefits Pleco has to offer the Chinese language learner, there are some drawbacks and room for improvement. While the portion of Pleco’s free software is impressive, with its two free dictionaries, audio pronunciations, history, and bookmarks, the cost to purchase each of the extra add-ons can add up to over $100. This price tag is far out of reach of many students and likely a turn-off for the learner who has no need for 10+ dictionaries in one app. However, to give Pleco Software credit, they do offer discounted add-on bundles for multiple in-app purchases at once and offer each add-on individually for those who only want one function such as the $9.99 Full-screen handwriting software. So whether the learner is only interested in the free content, has ten dollars to spend, or has $100 in their pocket, there is likely something of interest for those who wish to learn Chinese words.

In addition to the hefty cost of the complete Pleco Software package, the other thing is that there is still room for improvement in its functionality. According to their website, Pleco prides itself in customer service. Since their inception, they have allowed their customers to migrate purchased software from one device to the next regardless of operating system and app version. This means that they still have some customers who are using their software after 15 years and have not had to pay anything extra even after multiple device changes and upgrades. While this is impressive and rarely seen in the technology industry, there are more functions I would like to see made available through Pleco that would make their app even more useful. In addition to providing customer support for the software itself, I think Pleco should invest in real time Chinese tutoring for their customers. The ability to directly practice and learn the language via native speakers would be a great addition. Also, a social network function would also be useful if it allowed customers to create profiles, meet each other, practice what they’ve learned, and help each other out.

In conclusion, Pleco Software is an innovative company that provides a plethora of mobile assisted language learning tools for Chinese language learners that natively run through its app. These tools offer a broad range of capabilities to meet the diverse needs of their customers. Although the sum total of individual add-ons is pricey for the average person, Pleco provides the option to purchase their add-on individually for those who only wish to use certain functions and this feature is one of many things that make it stand out from its competitors. In the future I would like to see more tools made available such as social networking and live tutoring. Until then, Pleco is still worth checking out if you are interested in learning Chinese or simply wanting to look up Chinese words and pronunciations.

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For more information visit: https://www.pleco.com

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