In honor of the International Arabic Language Day, students from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have developed an application to help Israelis who study Arabic with Madrasa, a social, technological, and community-oriented initiative that advocates for better communication in Israeli society through spoken Arabic courses.
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With over 100,000 registered students, Madrasa promotes language learning through a platform that includes free online courses, extensive activity through digital channels, and various other collaborations.
"During our seven years of operations, we have seen the need for people to practice their speaking proficiency while learning, and heard the same question from students over and over again: 'What about an app?" Gilad Sevitt, founder and director of Madrasa said.
This question led to the collaboration between Madrasa and Technion students – from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science – to create an application that features a voice recognition component that will support tens of thousands of students.
"Working with the students was very effective and helpful," Sevitt said. "They came on board and contributed greatly to our project and we enjoyed working together on both the linguistic and technological levels.
The component will be integrated as soon as possible in the courses alongside all videos, games, and exercises, and will be a kind of conversation bot through which students can practice their proficiency of spoken Arabic."
Technion students created an infrastructure for learners to have conversations with voice recognition components. Such bots "converse" in spoken Arabic and teach students to pronounce words and discuss various topics.
The app will upgrade the students' learning experience, provide alerts, and serve as the basis for other developments, such as mobile games. A trial version of the app will be released in the coming months.
The United Nations' World Arabic Language Day is commemorated annually on December 18, which is the anniversary of a resolution passed by the UN General Assembly making Arabic one of its official working languages.
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