“Antura and the Letters”, a free mobile and computer game designed to teach children reading in Arabic, was recently launched globally through a collaboration between Cologne Game Lab at TH-Koeln, a German university of applied sciences, Video Games Without Borders, an international nonprofit organization and Wixel Studio, a Lebanese game development studio.
“Antura and the Letters” incorporates a series of games and assessments to teach children letter and sound recognition, decoding letter and word combinations, vocabulary and oral fluency. “Antura and the Letters” utilizes a stealth learning approach and game-based technology to make the learning experience fun and engaging for children between the ages of 5 to 10.
Emmanuel Guardiola, the designer of the game, commented, “Antura and the Letters was initially conceptualized and designed as an educational application for refugee children who may not have access to regular schooling or require extra assistance in learning Arabic.” Guardiola continued, “After implementing several tests in Turkey and Lebanon in addition to a third party assessment of pedagogical impact on students in Jordan, we realized that not only was the game being enjoyed by the children, they also showed significant improvement in their language proficiency and fluency.”
To ensure “Antura and the Letters” is creating a positive impact, All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) and Development and Digital Learning for Development (DL4D) took on the responsibility to fund and manage a field evaluation of the game. Integrated International, in partnership with New York University’s Create Lab, were chosen to implement the evaluation. New York University’s involvement was funded by UNICEF Innovation.
Guardiola added, “The results from our tests were so promising and effective that we decided to introduce this application to a greater audience that wants to improve their Arabic reading skills all over the world.” Guardiola concluded. “Antura, the character within the game, has become a fun companion for children on their educational journey. This is exactly what we are trying to accomplish by bringing innovation and entertainment into Arabic language education.”
The “Antura and the Letters” team of over 60 people is made up of an international team of scientists, entertainment game veterans and humanitarians. “Antura and the Letters” won the international “EduApp4Syria” competition and was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, the game won the Titanium Award for the Best Serious Game at the Fun & Serious Festival in 2017.
© Press Release 2018
