Running head: Najoom Educational™ Najoom Educational

Running head: Najoom Educational™
Najoom Educational™
Mohammed Alharthi
University of Texas at San Antonio
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Najoom Educational™
When it comes to learning new languages, it would be quite hard to be able to
acquire Arabic language especially for learners who have no time to be in Arabic
classroom and want to learn in a short time. Winke, Goertler, & Amuzie (2010) stated
that the learners who learn Arabic language through online course would benefit better
than being in a classroom. Shaalan (2005) revealed that learning Arabic through a
computer based language- learning course would offer essential elements such as sound
and graphic with which students can benefit and effectively learn. Najoom
Educational™ website has integrated all media’s features in order to help non-Arabic
speakers to gain the Arabic survival phrases.
What is Najoom Educational™ about?
As Najoom Educational™ members, we take the initiative to design this course
because we felt that it would be most valuable for those who actually want to learn the
Arabic language for different aspects such as personal goals. This hybrid course will
provide a great opportunity for non-Arabic speakers to gain the basic survival Arabic
language and to be able to communicate with Arabic speakers. Najoom Educational™
website is basically designed to comply with users’ wishes and go along with their
desired. For example, it has been designed in an easy and attractive way in order to grape
learners’ attention because the usability of the web site plays a significant roll in
attracting new users. According to Nielsen, Coyne, & Tahir (2001), “a great Web site
services required a deep understanding of the way users approach their tasks” (p. 43).
Learners will gradually construct their knowledge through the web site. Flavell
(1979) reported, that through the usage of the web site the learner would progressively
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acquire the knowledge as long as they are being active participations of the learning
process. Mainly, the site has four chapters and each chapter consists of several lessons
that rely on the pervious chapter. The fundamental content is divided into three Chapters,
which are phrases, short sentence, and conversation. There is also a chapter for the
listening part, which is mostly a short review to equip the learners for the final exam.
The main graphic header for all the pages was designed in Arabic tradition,
which is at the top of each page. At the left-hand side of each page, there are the
navigation buttons through which the learner will be freely able to access each lesson.
Technically, our designers intend to apply the flexibility in our web site in order to
reinforce the users and keep it simple. On the home page, there is a brief explanation
about our course and there are also some instructions shows how the users can go through
the lessons properly. For instance, learners must successfully pass each assessment before
they can move onto the next lesson.
Figure 1, Shows the introduction page of the course.
Moreover, the home page incorporates a short video clip that welcomes the
learner and explains some facts about Arabic language such as the way that Arabic
language is both written and read from right to left. Such this video might work as
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motivation for a second language learner to be exposed to facts needed to explore more
about the Arabic language. Through lesson one to five in chapter one the learner will be
exposed to the slideshow, which covers a variety of topics that would be useful for them.
For instance, once the learner clicks on lesson one, she/ he will be presented to six
slideshows about Arabic greetings. These slideshows provide the learner with a visual
picture about the words and the Arabic pronunciation written in English that would assist
the learner to appropriately pronounce the given word. The slide is also linked with
dcorresponding audio, which enables the learner to read and pronounce the word at the
same time. Shaalan (2005) stated that the greater the sense of involvement the students
feel when the computer program, when more beneficial it would be. Such this audio
empowers student to correlate the listening and the reading skills. The learner will be able
to go back for each slide and easily review it before the exercise. Learner in chapter one
will be asked to match between Arabic pronunciation and English transition for the sake
of moving to the next chapter.
As a regard of chapter two, the learners will be exposed to English sentence its
Arabic audio translations such as asking for help. There is also a multiple choice exercise
where in the learner is required to listen to the audio and then select the correct answer,
otherwise the learner would not be able to move onto the next chapter. Chapter three and
four will contain a variety of conversations related to our daily life with the Arabic audio
translation as well. As a manner of the final exam, the learner has to play the Arabic
audio and then chose the English transition from the given multiple choices.
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Whom we design this course for?
Our Najoom Educational Company decides to design this particular web site for
non-Arabic speakers. It is obviously designed for those who want to travel to Middle East
whether the learner will go for a duty or for a business trip or other personal purposes.
This online course will help the learners to overcome the situations that may cope them
when they go through the processes of being in an Arabic nation. This course will
provide the fundamental Arabic phrases that will ensure the learners would be able to at
least to pronounce the survival Arabic words, and be able to properly use Arabic words,
when needed and being easily understood when the learner need to communicate with
others. This course, therefore, will be a useful tool that might serve any group of people.
`
Where can it be needed?
This hybrid course can be utilized everywhere as long as the learner have access
to the Internet, otherwise the learner will not access to it. At the beginning, the learner
will have two browsers’ choices, which are Safari and Firefox. Consequently, the learner
can access to the course whether using mac or PC. This online course can be used for in
different situations in our daily life such as the airport. For instance, by the end of this
course, the learner will be able to ask for a taxi and directions. Thus, this online course
would be perfectly available for people who will be in Arab nations.
When do we need this course?
This Arabic language online course will be available anytime needed and it can be
used at two phases. First of all, the learner can use this course before they will be
engaged in any Arabic country. In other words, this course will display the basic survival
of the Arabic language to enable the learner to be prepared. Secondly, the learner can
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benefit from this course while they stay or residence there because the learners can
review this course whenever needed. Therefore, there might be other phases this course
can be conducted depending on what purpose this course will be used for.
How can we use this course?
The nature of the course itself is designed in a way that is simple and easy to
follow. The learner would not encounter any difficulties while they are dealing with the
web site. For example, the learner will be guided step by step as soon as they log onto
the course. This course will take proximately 20 to 25 minuets to be completed. The
learner will go through this course starting with a short introduction video and then the
learners have to involve in three chapters. Thus, the layout for this online course will
refine the learning process and promote the understanding and facilitate the acquisition of
English.
Figure 2, Shows an example of slide from one of the lessons.
Why did we choose Najoom Educational’s online course?
Santos, S. L., & Suleiman, M. F. (1993) stated that the Arabic language is one of
the greatest languages in the world comparing with others language. People are always
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looking for a simple way thought which they can acquire a new language especially those
who want to travel to meddle East. Usually, people do not have much time to go to
classroom to learn Arabic; However, Paiget (1955) reported that the learner would
benefit better in environment that stray away from the traditional classroom.
Consequently, Shaalan (2005) revealed that using the computer program to learn Arabic
is importantly useful because it will facilitate the learning progress and the learner would
learn individually and would be able to use what they have learned independently in
different situations. Thus, designing an online course was our purpose to give the
opportunity to non-Arabic speakers to learn the basic phrases in a short period of time
and in a simple way through the technology in order to be more effective and beneficial.
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References
Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area
of psychological inquiry. American Psychologist, 34. 906-911.
Nielsen, J., Coyne, K. P., & Tahir, M. (2001, February 6). Make it usable. PC Magazine
1. 1-6.
Nielsen, J., & Tahir, M. (2000, December 15). Keep your users in mind: incorporating
feedback at several stages into an ongoing design process will help a site to
thrive. Internet World 6(24). 43-44.
Piaget, J. (1955). The construction of reality in the child. In M. Cook (Ed.), The
construction of reality in the child (pp. 1-386). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Santos, S., & Suleiman, M. (1993). Teaching english to arabic-speaking students:
Cultural and linguistic considerations. 173-180.
Shaalan, K. F. (2005). An intelligent computer assisted language learning system for
Arabic learners. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 18(1). 81-108.