Blended Learning

What we refer to as blended learning integrates technology into traditional face-to-face curriculum programs to improve learning efficacy. It allows for greater flexibility in engagement by allowing students to study anytime, anywhere by taking advantage of technologically enhanced study aids. Critical Language Service students use technology to study smarter, not harder.

Arabian Sinbad, Android and Apple Apps

Young students learn best from playful, eye-catching and fun materials. The basis of our curriculum for students aged 10 and under; the Arabian Sinbad Program matches that description perfectly. The program is a series of animated DVDs, CDs, computer games, learning activity books and more. it is designed to educate and entertain at the same time. Students young and old truly love it. Because the Arabian Sinbad cartoons are so entertaining students enjoy completing their flipped classroom video homework by watching Sinbad episodes.  

Apps are wonderful teaching tools for students of all ages. Critical Language Service staff and teachers constantly scour the app stores to find the best apps for teaching Arabic. Well designed apps help students take the knowledge gained from passively watching videos and turn it into active knowledge. Our younger students learn to write the alphabet through trial and error and instant feedback from apps like Cute Arabic Alphabet with Baba Ali and Ana Aktub. More advanced students test their reading comprehension via apps like AML Arabic. Apps play an important role in many Critical Language Service classes.

 The Companion Website for Al-Kitaab 3rd Editions

Most homework drills and exercises from the primary textbook, for grades 6 and up, are completed online via the textbook's companion website.  Our teachers are then able to more effectively pinpoint and identify patterns in students’ mistakes and to give quality feedback on individual questions and exercises. When a teacher has detected the root of an issue or mistake, the student will then be sent an explanation, a link to a website, or even a custom-made video to address the error. The student can then attempt the exercises again, aiming for the 80% accuracy exercise standard. This gives students the ability to effectively see, understated, and correct their mistakes. Such personalized engagement and attention offers each student an experience similar to having a personal language tutor. Help is only an email away, and the teacher often reaches out to a student with advice or assistance before the student even realizes he or she is struggling with a concept. Our goal is to support and help students achieve mastery of the material.

 High-Tech Homework Review

Reviewing homework has also been given a tech-savvy boost in our program. For such complicated exercises as rewriting sentences, analyzing and answering questions about a text, or oral comprehension and reading proficiency drills, detailed explanations of the correct answers and common mistakes are provided via online videos. These can be accessed after the exercises have been turned in to the teacher, allowing students to understand not just where they’ve made certain mistakes, but why. They can then go back and review the material at their own pace. This technique of self-analysis has been proven to dramatically improve reading comprehension scores in foreign language courses.

Online Grammar Videos

Engaging, colorful, and curriculum tailored grammar videos called “screencasts” walk students step-by-step through the Arabic grammar covered in their textbooks. Each lesson has two to ten screencasts that are between one to ten minutes in length, and provide detailed explanations of the grammar by taking students through examples one-by-one. The screencasts are also available online—students can access them to study or review grammar anytime, anywhere.

Connecting Through Edmodo

Blended learning is not just about drills and computerized grading. Our courses utilize the online learning platform Edmodo. Through Edmodo, teachers and students practice Arabic by participating in online written discussions, collaborative exercises, projects, and real-time whole classroom chats. Teachers and students post pictures, videos, and other media, thereby adding an additional dimension of engagement to their language learning and practice. Students can ask questions publicly or privately—teachers can easily share important information with a whole class or certain subgroups—and students' work can be recognized via virtual rewards. By encouraging communication between students and teachers outside of the specified class time, we facilitate students to learn, engage, and practice anytime, anywhere.