The Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF) announced on Wednesday the launch of ‘Alphabet Journey,’ a free mobile application that aims to promote reading and writing in the Arabic language among young children.
Encouraging learning through play, ‘Alphabet Journey’ is the third addition to the Karim and Jana educational app series, launched in 2017 by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. The series provides free, high-quality interactive learning experiences to Arabic-speaking children ages three to six, increasing their school readiness and helping parents bridge the educational gap caused by kindergarten and school closures in lockdown earlier this year.
Based on the preschool curriculum framework developed by the International Academy-Amman (IAA), ‘Alphabet Journey’ builds on children’s learning by making sure they know how to distinguish letter sounds based on their diacritical marks.
Using a gamified approach, the application focuses on critical areas within emergent literacy, such as phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge. Children will develop these skills through fun and engaging activities that explore word sounds through rhyming and letter recognition. Additionally, the app offers parents a set of tools to track their children’s linguistic development.
This newest addition to the Karim and Jana app series builds on the success of QRF’s other two mobile apps. ‘Karim and Jana – Numbers,’ launched in 2017, focuses on developing children’s numeracy skills through the interactive adventures of friendly characters, while ‘Karim and Jana - Our World,’ launched in 2019, aims to develop children’s socio-emotional skills. Since 2017, the Karim and Jana app series has been downloaded over 500,000 times and has been used more than 3 million times by children across the region.
Commenting on the launch of the latest app, QRF CEO, Bassem Saad said: “Given the COVID-19 pandemic and the educational obstacles it has presented to parents and their young children, it became imperative for us to transform challenges into opportunities. Every child has the right to a quality education in the classroom or at home, online or offline – wherever they are. That is why we are directing our efforts to offering free educational resources in Arabic that not only bridge the educational gap, but also bridge the Arabic literacy market gap.”
Prior to the launch, QRF convened groups of mothers and Arabic language teachers to test the app and to ensure that participants’ needs are aligned with the application’s content, which received positive and constructive feedback.
Manal Jaradeen, a public school teacher at Al Eais School who created a summer school program for revisions that helps children experiencing learning loss, welcomed the launch of the new app, saying ”this application will be integrated into the program, as it is not only interactive and fun but also educational, and that will resonate with our students.”
Other educators who welcomed the launch of the app, including Huda Kilani, Arabic language coordinator at the Modern Montessori School, explained that “with the pandemic affecting the ways in which children are being taught, this free mobile application will act as an important interactive learning and revision tool.”
‘Alphabet Journey’ is available for free download on Google Play for Android and on the App Store for iOS.
Google Play: https://bit.ly/2X2QSyP
App Store: https://apple.co/2X624Lr
For more information:
www.karimandjana.com/alphabet-journey