Antura & the Letters, for example, has been created with the intention of providing Syrian refugee children with a tool that can enable learning of Arabic even when they are in an environment where it is not taught in schools.
As an app that has come out of the EduApp4Syria competition which is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, children are able to learn how to read and write Arabic through a variety of captivating activities that diminish the feeling of traditional learning and instead introduces a fun story to keep children engaged. Developed by Cologne Game Lab, Video Games Without Borders, and Wixel Studios, Antura and the Letters covers the entire primary school curriculum for learning Arabic through a series of quizzes and games. In providing such a broad range of learning mechanisms including a story that takes place across different environments to the progressive discovery of letters, the game is ideal for children who desire to learn in a fun way. Furthermore, the implementation of such learning techniques are backed by researchers and psychologists in the space who ensure that the techniques utilized for teaching the children are highly effective.
As the app is 188MB, the only notable drawback is the memory that it requires relative to other language learning apps. However, this is a direct result of the high-definition graphics that the game renders which causes the file size to be larger than average. Although this is a substantial amount of storage, especially for Apple devices as memory capacity cannot be expanded, the quality of the interface recoups the memory requirements of the game.[sc name=”quote” text=”the game is ideal for children who desire to learn in a fun way”]
While Antura and the Letters is designed for the millions of Syrian children who are displaced as a direct result of the regional conflict, nearly any child can play the game in order to start learning Arabic. With the noble effort to provide Syrian children who have had their education disrupted by the conflict, all children deserve the right to an opportunity at education which the game provides. Supported by EduApp4Syria, a competition which aims to capitalize on the growing ownership of mobile devices as a vehicle for providing Syrian children with education who may not otherwise have immediate access to a classroom, Antura and the Letters is a must-have for learning the foundations of Arabic in an engaging way.
