Abu Dhabi students to play Scrabble in classrooms

Playing word game scrabble to develop one’s language skills is clearly a unique exercise. And it’s one that Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) is keen on introducing into public school classrooms to help students grasp Arabic language better and improve their vocabulary.

The project will be introduced for Grade 6 students as an extracurricular learning resource for the academic year 2013.

“Adec will roll out the scrabble project among Grade 6 students to coincide with the implementation of the New School Model in the same grade next year and the project will be expanded to include Cycle 2 and Cycle 3 schools at a later phase,” Dr. Karima Al-Mazroui, Adec’s Curriculum Division Manager, said in a statement.

He emphasised on how such diversified learning resources will go a long way in developing their language skills within a fun environment.

The concept got the go-ahead after the pilot phase of the Arabic Scrabble Project showed remarkable impact after it was implemented across six schools during the second and third trimesters of the current academic year.

During the trial phase, Arabic coordinators from six schools were trained on the game’s strategy and laws. It took into account “gender, region (Abu Dhabi, Al-Ain and Western Region) and the three cycles, in order to measure the impact of the game in improving students’ writing skills”.

Students had undergone two assessments, one prior to playing the game, and the other after months of practice to measure the impact of the game on improving their writing skills.

For the uninitiated, scrabble is a game that allows individuals to use alphabet tiles to form words that wins them points when placed on a board. Scrabble clubs were formed, and local competitions were held at both school and regional levels.

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