Just a quick update on the foreign language conversation program I first discussed in March in my post ¿Puedes hablar con su computadora?. You can review the progress of the project (and its goals) in these posts: Can you talk with your computer? (Part 2) and Can you talk with your computer? The first Spanish version is now online here. A screenshot is shown below.
Features:
- Simple conversation engine looks for key words in the users input and tries to respond.
- Response is in textual and audio format.
- Vocabulary is limited.
- Spoken Spanish is rather slow.
Shortcomings:
- No vocabulary page yet.
- Conversation engine needs A LOT of work.
- Auto-selection of the text entry field does not work when program is started (from a web browser).
- My Spanish accent is pretty bad.
Notes:
- I received no reply on whether it was acceptable to use the Scratch media for projects such as this - so I decided not to. I have grown fond of my character and decided to use him… he looks kind of like me anyway (unfortunately).
I’m not sure how far to pursue this project. If any readers feel there is merit to continuing, I’d certainly like to hear about it.
As I discussed in my earlier posts ¿Puedes hablar con su computadora? and Can you talk with your computer?, I want to build a simple program that will allow foreign language students to be able to practice their new language by having some sort of conversation with the computer.
In a nutshell, you can practice reading, writing, and vocabulary by yourself. But you need a partner to practice your conversation. Now a computer will never replace the need for a human with which to practice communicating… but it may be able to serve as a partner when no one is available. This conversation needs to be within a specified context to make it more concrete.
Well the first version of my conversation program is online here. A screenshot is shown below:
Status:
- A simple conversation engine looks for key words and tries to respond based on keywords it sees in the student’s input.
- The conversation is in English at this point. I’m not sure if I’ll do the translations myself (the language will be simpler, but probably less accurate) or ask one of my kids to do it. Best bet would be to do the translation myself (I can control when it gets done) and then ask my oldest to review / clean it up.
- The program is text only (recorded audio is simple, but I didn’t want to record all the English… I’ll wait for the translations).
- I haven’t compiled the word lists yet; I’ll need to get the translations done first.
- I thought talking to a character might improve the authenticity of the activity. I’ve stuck a stick figure in there for now. I’d really like to use one of the sprites from Scratch, but I’m not sure if that would pose a copyright problem. I’ve put a query in on the Scratch forums to try to find out. See here.
- For some reason, when running online the focus is not in the text entry box when the program starts up. I’m sure this is fixable, but haven’t had time to look into it yet.
In the next week or two I’ll try to get the Spanish and audio into the program. Oh, and I’ll spend some time trying to improve the conversation engine.
As always, comments are always welcome.