GEMS Wellington Primary School introduces innovative ways to teach Arabic language

The initiative comes in line with the UAE Ministry of Education's emphasis on integrating technology with education and to complement the efforts to boost the efficiency of Arabic language training.

Four groups from Year 3 recently made a presentation about their learning experience. The presentation included learning the body parts in Arabic using different ICT equipment such as Nintendo DS, laptops, mobile phones, MP4 player and digital cameras. The learning experience was very successful and the school will soon apply the same learning approach to other classes.

Gihan Ahmed Mansoor, Arabic language teacher at GEMS Wellington Primary School, said:

"At GEMS Wellington Primary School, we are continuously exploring the development of teaching methods across the curriculum. Within the teaching of Arabic language, we want to make our teaching methods appealing to children and fun at the same time, therefore we adopted the idea of this project under the supervision of Stephen Cox, Director of Strategic Professional and Development at GEMS Education."

"Learning Arabic language using the latest ICT tools has revolutionized the teaching and learning practices. It has generated tremendous interest among non-Arabic speaking children. We encourage our students to leverage the advantages of technology because it is important, both as a teaching tool and as an increasingly important part in their lives," Mansoor added.

Cox commented: "The UAE Ministry of Education has, in many occasions, emphasized on the importance of using technology as an innovative learning tool, as it has proved its effectiveness in enhancing the students' interaction in classes. Through its Professional Development Programmes, GEMS is at the forefront of cutting edge innovation and learning strategies for the continued development of the Arabic teaching."

"The students bought in their own technologies from home, collaborated and developed a digital story board which they shared. This 21st century approach to learning reiterates our commitment to creating a unique technology-rich and forward thinking learning environment," Cox added.

Sahel Bahman, a year- three student said: "This is a wonderful learning experience. We prepared on the laptop pictures about parts of the body using Word Paint. Other groups of students took pictures using their mobile phones and sent them via Bluetooth to the laptop. We also composed songs about the body and recorded them using our mobiles. Now the Arabic lesson is one of our favorite subjects."

Maheen Shariff, a year-three student said: "I learned the body parts in Arabic using my Nintendo DS. I did this by drawing them on the DS then capturing them using a camera. After that I sent them to the laptop using the Bluetooth. I can now learn Arabic and technology at the same and I am really enjoying it!"