Listen and Spell

Listen and Spell Assim Deodia

Idea

The idea is to develop an application which would help children to learn new words, improve their vocabulary and pronunciation of words. The activity would speak out a randomly selected word from a predefined set of words and user have to spell the word correctly. For voice synthesis activity would be using Speech-Dispatcher adn for the list of words it will have a custom dictionary. This activity is an extension of TalknType.

Need

The bacis thing needed to learn a langugae is to learn its building blocks i.e. words and their pronunciation and how they are spelled. Grammar ofcourse had its preference. This project aims to provide an activity which would help children to learn new words, their pronunciation, the way they are spelled and to some extent its meaning also.

Use Case Scenario

A simple use case scenario of the Test Mode is as follows

• User opens the activity and enters the difficulty level of which he/she would like to hear words.
• A random word would be selected and spoken out from the corresponding level:word list.
• User is required to spell the word correctly. (Time limit can be optional)
• The activity would speak out each letter as the user types and the whole word as user submit the word.(This will help user to "feel" the difference between his spelling and the correct one.) This option can be disabled in case of group test(explained further).
• There would be an option to repeat the word and also for the hint.
• The hint option will either give user the meaning of the word or its usage in the sentence or image if possible
• User can quit or change the level any time during the game.

Proposed features

Following are the proposed features for the activity

1. *Word source:- The word source would be a expandable custom dictionary which would be using word list from Words activity. Words currently supports French, Geeman, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and of course english.
2. *Implementation of "Hint" :- This would be using http://en.wiktionary.org. I have explained this in following section.
3. Speech-dispatcher :- The voicing would be done using speech dispatcher which would evuentally be using espeak for syntehsis. Espeak supports more then 30 international languages.
4. User defined word list :- This would facilitate user to add their own word list which can help in conducting a small groupp test. Option to add words through mesh network would be help in large group/class test.
5. Multiplayer game over mesh network :- Users can challange each other over the network. One XO will then act as a server which would generate the word list for all the clients. All the users would receive same word list with limited retry option for each word after which next word would be given to user. The one who spelled most correct words in limited time wins. Option to speak each letter aloud would be disabled in this case.
6. Memory tool (A possible extension) :- A tutor mode in which activity repeats the word again and again until the spelling is absorbed into child's mind.

Other supportive features

1. Voice configuration: Option to edit voice configuration like volume, pitch, rate, language of the words and voice, gender of the voice etc.

Possible ways to accomplish this tasks

• For the word source an expandable ditionary would be implemented which would initially use the word list from Words activity. Newer words would be updated via manually or through mesh network.
• Speech-Dispatcher: Its RPM is under review process and going to be approved soon. I have already got approved its dependency dotconf RPM.

Resources

1. TalknType
2. Speech Dispatcher
3. Words Activity
4. Speech Synthesis
5. Screen Reader
6. Speak & Spell