Language Learning Application

Team Name

Learning Machine

Timeline

Fall 2022 – Spring 2023

Students

• Syeda Hasan
• Komeel Abbas
• Muhammad Siddiqui
• Aditya Chaudhari

Sponsor

The name of the sponsors is Gloria Martinez, Maria Ipina and Sharlane Sierra. The sponsors of the project are high school teachers who wants students to learn Spanish language. They want to develop a game featured web application that is attractive to students trying to learn Spanish language.

Abstract

This section outlines the goals, intended use, and target user base of the Spanish Language Learning Application. The application is designed to serve as a platform for teaching users Spanish, with reading/vocabulary, writing, speaking, and listening features available for selection. The application will offer an interactive and engaging language learning experience through a game-like environment. Initially intended for use by high school students, the application is being developed to appeal to people of all ages, making it suitable for a broad public audience.

Background

The United States is home to various language-speaking communities, but Spanish and English are predominantly spoken. Knowing Spanish is valuable for effective communication, particularly in states bordering Mexico. However, students often forget what they have learned due to a lack of interest in the language. According to the United States Census Bureau, only 20 percent of Americans speak more than one language, whereas 50 percent of Europeans do. Additionally, our sponsors, who are Spanish teachers in the Dallas Fort-Worth area, have noted that Spanish classes can be dull and unengaging for students who are easily distracted by smartphones. Our sponsors will provide insights on classroom learning semantics and effective teaching methods to help us design an engaging language learning mobile application. We will start with English to Spanish translations, but eventually, we will expand to include other languages such as Hindi or French.

Project Requirements

1. The application must be a web-based platform that is accessible from any device with an internet connection.
2. The application must have a game-like environment that engages the user and makes learning Spanish fun and easy.
3. The application must have four major features: vocabulary, listening, speaking, and reading.
4. The vocabulary section must have questions of varying difficulty levels (easy, medium, and hard) and should include multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions.
5. The listening section must include audio clips of Spanish conversations and quizzes to test the user’s comprehension.
6. The speaking section must use MI and NLP to provide users with a chance to speak the words they are learning, which will help them better understand different pronunciations and how the alphabet varies from language to language.
7. The reading section must include articles and stories in Spanish, with questions to test the user’s comprehension.
8. The application must include a level progression system where users can progress to more challenging questions as they advance.
9. The application must be user-friendly and follow easy learning techniques.
10. The application must be customizable and adaptable to different user needs.
11. The application must be developed in accordance with the sponsor’s specifications and be based on their feedback throughout the development process.
12. The application must be properly documented for future improvements and development.
13. The application must be translated into other languages, such as Hindi or French, in later iterations to cater to a wider population range.
14. The application must have a monitoring and evaluation system to track user progress and evaluate the effectiveness of the application in enhancing Spanish language learning experience.

System Overview

A web application will be developed to teach Spanish with focus on vocabulary through easy, medium and hard difficulty levels. The application will feature interactive elements using MI and NLP to improve pronunciation and retention by allowing users to speak the words they are learning.

Results

Results text and demo videos go here

Future Work

In terms of future development, all the essential features of the web-application have been successfully implemented, including writing, speaking, and listening capabilities. While the vocabulary/reading feature is currently an extension of the writing feature, it is expected to be expanded and enhanced in the future.

Future teams can focus on implementing a UI/UX for login/sign-up using AWS Cognito to provide a seamless user experience. Additionally, the speaking feature can be extended to include Spanish recording to English, although this may require a paid service and can be considered for a future phase of development.

Further refinement of the writing section by adding more vocabulary to improve the user’s language proficiency is also a possibility for future teams. Nevertheless, the core functionalities of the web-application have been implemented and are fully operational.

Project Files

Project Charter (link)

System Requirements Specification (link)

Architectural Design Specification (link)

Detailed Design Specification (link)

Poster (link)

Demo (link)

Source codes (link)

References

1. Diagrams.net – free flowchart maker and diagrams online.
2. Software engineering: Architectural design, Dec 2021. 
3. Victor Dantas. Victor dantas, Sep 2020.