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 corresponding word list and user have to spell it correctly. Speech-Dispatcher would be used for synthesing voice and for the list of words, a custom dictionary will be implemented. This activity is an extension of TalknType.

Need

To learn any language spoken out in any part of this universe we firstly need to learn its building blocks i.e. words, their pronunciation and how they are spelled. By the side, Grammar ofcourse has 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.

Use Case Scenario

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

• User opens the activity and choose 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. e.g. "Spell Ocean".
• User is required to spell the word correctly (Time limit can be optional).
• The activity would speak out each letter as the user types in and the whole word as he/she submits the word (This will help the user to "feel" the difference between his/her spelling and the correct one). This option can be disabled in case of group test(explained further).
• There would be options to repeat the word and to show up a related hint.
• The hint option will either give user the meaning of the word or its usage in a sentence or image if possible. e.g. for Ocean the activity can either speak out its usage "The ocean is full of water" or can show its defination on the screen.
• 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.
2. Prefrences for choosing level of hint. i.e. to select from word usage or word defination or images, if possible.

Resources

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