On the topic of language, communication theorist Walter J. Ong once said that language “forms unities on a large scale.” Certainly, it’s not difficult to imagine a situation where kinship can be established through language.
For instance, two strangers in a foreign country can become instant friends through the commonality of knowing the same language. Yet, while this sentiment is true, language can sometimes be a barrier to communication. Now, when these human problems arise, technology may be able to help.
Meet VocabNomad — developed at the University of Toronto’s Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab (TAGlab), VocabNomad is a mobile–assisted learning application that primarily aids adults in problems with communication.
The app can be used in a number of ways: firstly, it can be used as a prompt that would allow users to develop their vocabularies through searching an unknown word, or finding the words to the pictures they are searching for.
Secondly, it can be used to communicate with others through text-to-speech interactions
For example, previous users of VocabNomad have used the application in a situation where their accents were difficult to comprehend, such as when ordering coffee at Tim Hortons.
“Originally we started with a different application that’s used for the communication of people who had strokes or kids with autism where [they can use the application to achieve their communication goals]” says Carrie Demmans Epp, the assistant director at the TAGlab, and PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Department of Computer Science.
Reception towards VocabNomad has been largely positive.
The application was implemented at a Japanese high school for a full term, and the result was that students learned more when they were using the application. Also, the application was well received by recent immigrants in the Toronto area.
“I’ve had people [offer] to buy [VocabNomad] from me rather than me paying them for participating. So I would classify that as positive,” says Epp.
Nonetheless, despite the positive reception of the application, there are some areas that can be improved upon.
For instance, the app’s learning capabilities could be improved to make the technology more adaptive for the user.
Moreover, the persuasiveness of the application could also be investigated. Steve Tsourounis, a fourth–year undergraduate computer science student involved with the TAGlab, has been exploring this venue.
Researching gamification as a means of increasing user motivation and learning, Tsourounis created a trophy and feedback system for the application in which users could set their own goals and gain virtual trophies once they have achieved those goals. Also, Tsourounis developed 12 guidelines that can be used by system designers who are looking to make their language-learning applications more persuasive.
“A lot of the problem is that a lot of people weren’t using these mobile language–learning tools because a lot of them would copy what they do on a computer and just make it for smaller screens,” says Tsourounis. “We wanted to look at a way to motivate these learners and get them to actually use the application,” he adds.
Currently, VocabNomad is not widely available to the public and its usage has been limited to group studies.
“It may be available through the app store as a non-profit… I’m not a fan of [making a profit] on education,” says Epp, adding, “I would make it available if someone were interested in a very small limited capacity usage like for a classroom but I’m not in a position to support a wider deployment of it right now.”
