A seventh-grader at the all-girls Tokyo Joshi Gakuen shows the screen of Nintendo DS game console to a teacher during an English class in Japan on Thursday. – AP

TOKYO (AP):

The Nintendo DS isn't just fun and games anymore for English students at Tokyo's Joshi Gakuen all-girls junior high school. The portable video game console is now being used as a key teaching tool, breaking with traditional Japanese academic methods.

A giggly class of 32 seventh-graders used plastic pens to spell words like 'hamburger' and 'cola' on the touch-panel screen - the key feature of the hit console - following an electronic voice from the machine.

It's a sort of high-tech spelling bee. When the students got the spelling right, the word 'good' popped up on the screen, and the student went on to the next exercise. The first five students to complete the drills were awarded colourful stickers.

"It's fun," said Chigusa Matsumoto, 12, who zipped through the drills to get her sticker. "You can study while you have fun."

Favourite among kids

Like many other Japanese youngsters, she has the DS at home and plays DS games like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. But she insisted her favourite was her English class software.

The DS boasts a series of brain-teasers and puzzle games, designed to improve maths and other academic skills, as part of a larger effort at Kyoto-based Nintendo Co to appeal to newcomers, older people and women. The company's Wii - with its baton-like 'Wiimote' for fishing, tennis and golfing games - has also been a huge hit.