Latifah Arabic Flash Card Software

For many who study Arabic, vocabulary building is a fearsome task. As a software designer and a student of Arabic myself, I was surprised by the lack of good computer programs to help me in memorizing Arabic vocabulary. Flash card software that was available was clumsy to use and lacked basic features to make it really helpful. That is why I created Latifah: A vocabulary-building tool for Arabic that works a lot like flash cards but is more versatile, powerful, and fun.

Here are some of the features that make Latifah a valuable study aid:

  • Three ways to study: List mode, Quiz mode, and Game mode.
  • In List mode all the words and their main forms are show in columns, and the student can elect to hide any column. The student tries to recall the word in the hidden column, then clicks it to get the answer.
  • Quiz mode works like the old-fashioned flash cards, but with a twist: Latifah uses the student's performance in quiz mode to keep track of the "mastery level" of words. This makes it easy to focus on those words that need the most review.
  • Game mode lets the students compete with each other or with themselves to make matches between English and Arabic words. As the pairs are matched up, a hidden Arabic word is slowly revealed underneath. The first one to translate the hidden word wins.
  • Type in your own customized lists or use one of the ready-to-use word lists that come with Latifah. There is a master list that includes a large list of the essential vocabulary commonly required in Arabic courses. This list can be edited to hold only the vocabulary of interest to you. There are also separate, ready-to-use lists for some popular Arabic texts. Ready-to-use texts currently supported are Al-Kitaab (vol 1), and Elementary Modern Standard Arabic. Others may soon be included. If your text is not specifically included, most of the words will probably be found in the master list of common words anyway. Or check with me, because it may be supported soon.
  • Sort the list according to many criteria to optimize a study session. Sort by English, Arabic, Arabic root, part of speech, mastery level, group ID (e.g. chapter), or random word order.
  • Turn on and off Arabic vowel marks with a click.
  • Program installation and interface are intuitive and easy-to-use.
  • System requirements: IBM compatible running Windows. Windows Arabic keyboard support must be enabled. Disk space required: About 3.8 Meg.

Special offer to school and university Arabic instructors: As a limited introductory offer, one copy of Latifah is free to school and university Arabic instructors. Please give the name of the school and your position when you place your order.

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