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Culture and technology in language instruction become more important, especially for young learners. This research develops an application containing Indonesian folktales with AI-generated visuals and reading to improve primary school students' English vocabulary and reading comprehension. Employing a DDR model, it proceeded through four phases: preliminary study, design and development, expert validation, and field testing. 92 elementary school students, 3 teachers, and 2 parents from Indonesia and Australia were purposively selected to participate in the study with their consent. The product was an application with 27 folktales written in English with AI-generated visuals, completed with voiceovers, and gamified vocabulary and reading. Two experts validated the materials' linguistic and cultural properties, while an interview with teachers and parents showed content's relevance and appeal. In addition to the good acceptance by the students and parents, the findings at the field-testing phase also showed that students improved their vocabulary, reading comprehension, and cultural awareness. This implies that schools could use this application in the English lessons and make optimal use of parents’ cellphones to help students learn at home. Since only limited number of folktales have been developed into the application, it is recommended that folktales from different regions to prevent stereotyping. As DDR could not show whether the folktales or the application that drove the learning gain better, it is recommended that future research employ an experimental or quasi-experimental design to determine which application use drives gains in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and cultural awareness.