Can you talk with your computer? (1st Spanish Version)
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.
Developed in Scratch, right? I’m intrigued as both of my kids are in dual language (K and 1st grade). I’m wondering how doable something like this would be for kids a little older to develop or add content to? That would certainly help them work on their language skills and practice as others added to the database…
Comment by Jerram Froese — October 5, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
Jarram,
Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately, this isn’t developed in Scratch. I used Xerte. I love Scratch but the ability to search strings for substrings isn’t there (or, at least, I can’t find it).
I do think that there are a couple of options for younger kids:
* Younger kids could do a project in Scratch similar to my post “Scratch in the foreign language classroom”, but add recorded audio (you can record audio from within Scratch).
* This project is table driven. The kids could pic the picture (some sort of context for the conversation) and put together the phrases and audio and let an adult add them into the program. If you would like the source file for the Xerte project, let me know and I’ll send it.
Have a great evening,
Kent
Comment by kchesnut — October 5, 2009 @ 5:47 pm