Website statistics show that around 50% of visitors to arabiconline.eu access the site using a smartphone.
Researchers have said for some years that over time more and more users will log into the internet with smartphones and mobile devices rather than laptops or desktop computers. In fact, research shows that a quarter of smartphone users never use them to make a voice call. So the name ‘smartphone’ is a bit of a misnomer.
Nevertheless, modern smartphones are powerful and very convenient, especially for getting information, reading news websites and communicating with friends or relatives via social media. Last year, the British regulator Ofcom found the average Briton checked their mobile phone every 12 minutes. This is not surprising as smartphones are also an ideal device for ‘killing time’ when you are travelling in a train, commuting to work, playing games, waiting in a cafe for friends. How often have you seen people overcoming boredom with their smartphones?
It is also now widely acknowledged that many people use at least two or three devices during the day to access the internet: a smartphone and a laptop / desktop. People who travel a lot or are more ‘mobile’, also tend to use a tablet.
How has Arabic Online adapted to these developments?
The question that concerns many content developers and educators is, can you use a smartphone for more than just ‘killing time’? Can you use a smartphone, for example, to do something productive, suchas study or improve your language skills? Can you learn Arabic on a smartphone?
Obviously, the screen size of a smartphone restricts the amount of content that can be shown. But if learning content is designed specifically for a smartphone screen (and not just reduced from a desktop version), then you can work successfully with a language course and do more with your phone than ‘killing time’.
Subscribers to Arabic Online have access to a number of programmes that work well on a smartphone and enable users to use their time productively even when they are ‘on the go’.
With Essential Arabic learners can practise Arabic vocabulary with a series of flash cards. Arabic words in transliteration and Arabic script together with audio appear on one side of the card and the translations into English appear on the other. This is an ideal way to reinforce vocabulary.
Easy Arabic focuses on learning and practising important phrases and sentences in everyday situations, such as greeting people, introducing somebody, saying where you are from, saying goodbye. The dialogues are short enough to be easily read on a smartphone screen and the exercises are designed to focus on one activity. Again the emphasis is on learning or practising Arabic outside a formal learning environment.
Arabic Grammar Explorer, which is included in the Beginners to Intermediate Programme, is also mobile responsive and allows users to study basic Arabic grammar through a series of short interactive modules and activities. Each step is self-contained and focuses on one activity, which can be seen on a smartphone screen.
Why are not all the Arabic courses available on a smartphone?
The answer is simple. Content developed for a smartphone is usually referred to as ‘micro content’. That means only a small amount of content is visible and studied. With Arabic Online our main Arabic courses use complex interactions, adopt a more holistic approach and use longer texts and dialogues. All this requires larger screen sizes. Furthermore, if you want to study in peace and make serious progress, then you want to be in a quiet room with a laptop or desktop computer where you will not be disturbed.
By delivering Arabic language learning courses across multiple platforms and devices, Arabic Online has created a situation that strives to emulate a total immersion situation of language learning. This situation is defined as e-immersionplus®, a concept developed and a term coined by the Arabic Online team.
The e-immersionplus environment ensures that the content of the course is designed and customised in such a way that learning content is accessible on desktop/laptop computers,and also on smartphones, each of these technological devices complementing the others. This allows learners to have the contact time with Arabic that is needed for sustainable learning to take place. It also means that users can use their mobile devices for more than just ‘overcoming boredom’.
Thank you for visiting ArabicOnline.Eu. Our award winning interactive courses of Modern Standard Arabic have been developed for anyone with a genuine interest in Arabic, whether for private, educational or professional reasons and are specially designed for self-study. Our website and our language courses are free from advertisements and we don't share any personal details of our visitors or registered members with third parties. Nor do we sell data for targeted advertising. We believe passionately that learning should be free from commercial distractions. For this reason we rely on subscriptions to fund the development of our products. Click here to find out more about our Beginner to Intermediate Arabic courses.
