Australia Using
Technology to Preserve its Languages
In this
article by US News, language researchers from the University of Queensland and
the ARC Center of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, have developed a
robot that can assist indigenous children aged 2 to 10 in learning indigenous
language. Australia has over 100 different indigenous languages—all of them are
under threat of disappearing due to lack of learning interest and limited
learning resources. The robot is called “The Indigenous Language Opie” and is a
wooden figure that stands 2 feet tall and carries two digital tablets. One
tablet has eyes that follow the child’s movements and the other has memory
games using stories and pronunciation guides written in indigenous languages. The
robots will help to assist human instructors in teaching indigenous languages.
It is part of a wider movement amongst Australia’s indigenous peoples in
rediscovering their culture and heritage. In order to better integrate the
robot, the local indigenous culture, the robot was designed and painted with
the assistance of indigenous artists. The robot also records traditional
stories told by different members of the indigenous community. The robot was developed
by two postdoctoral researchers, Scott Heath and Grant Durantin in 2016. It is
currently helping to teach indigenous languages to the children of two
indigenous communities in Australia.
Overall,
I found this article an extremely insightful and interesting read. Languages
are fascinating and are actually very similar to species of animals. Some
languages are ubiquitous—like English or Spanish. And others are endangered or
extinct, like Latin or various indigenous languages. And like endangered
species—endangered languages should be protected and preserved. They are a way
to connect with a culture and they’ve been around for thousands of years. The
Indigenous Language Opie is a wonderful piece of technology that I hope
succeeds. There are only so much human teachers can do in teaching a language.
And it is a known fact that the best time to learn a language is as a child and
within a family of fluent speakers. So, while some indigenous languages may
have a shortage or decline in fluent speakers to teach their children—robots
could help to fill that gap and to expose children to the language on a daily
basis. I hope to see similar robots implemented in saving other endangered
languages—like the many Native American languages here in the US. However, like
all technology—I do see several shortcomings that should be addressed. As
helpful as these robots would be in assisting language learning—it is always
imperative for language learners to be able to practice speaking their language
through conversation. I do not believe that these robots can fill in a role in
a typical conversation. So I agree with the article in that these robots should
provide a supporting role for the human instructors—they should not replace the
human instructors!
Article link: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-10-30/australia-is-using-technology-to-preserve-indigenous-languages
2 comments:
When i saw the title of this skimming through the list of blog posts it caught my interest, however the first thing i though of, was how can this technology be applied outside just teaching kids in Australia languages. The first thought that popped into my head is bringing them to schools everywhere, since learning second or third languages is such a under appreciated tool, bring extra helps into schools could make this process a lot smoother. Speaking from experience of having struggled with my foreign language classes, the times i learned the best was when i was doing hands on activities instead of simply writing sentences or translating paragraphs, however, there is only one teacher so this isn't always possible. Having robots being able to survey and watch would also be like bringing in extra teachers into the class room. However, these robots cannot fully substitute a teacher yet, and for this reason I think it would be a very good use of resources to develop this robots, and make use the the recent developments in machine learning and possibly apply them to these machines.
Another place is see this being helpful is possibly in the business world at companies. Say you run a large branch of a bank who has a lot of business deals with a foreign language speaking country, you could possibly rent or buy these machines and set up classes for your employees who would like to learn or freshen up on their foreign language, and companies like this who have deep pockets will most likely be willing to pay a pretty penny for a convenient service such as this. Not only would having employees being able to speak with their costumers without the use of a translator save money on translators, but it would also help build a stronger bond between the employee and their costumers.
I would also very much like to see some versions of these machines develop a way to actually talk with the students, since speaking a language is such an important way of learning a language
This was an interesting article because I am surprised that language mobile applications (such as Duolingo or Rosetta Stone) have not incorporated more languages like these. I have used both Duolingo and Rosetta Stone and they are both fantastic apps. These apps make it feel like learning the language is a game: I can match terms to their pictures, fill in the blanks with the correct term or phrase, etc. These functionalities are paired with showing my progress. I am also able to speak into my phone and my phone can listen to see if I am speaking the word or phrase correctly. I am guessing that what distinguishes the Opie robot from these mobile applications is the fact that Opie only has the indigenous language that is being taught to the children. Additionally, instead of one mobile application (like a smart phone or tablet), Opie uses two tablets. Having two tablets with one acting as the “face” of the tablet will probably help with getting the children to engage more because it is replicating human features.
I had commented on another article titled “Should Technology Replace Teachers?” and I can relate what I wrote from that article to this article. I completely agree with you in that these robots should only provide support to the students and teachers and should not replace human teachers entirely because human conversation is needed. I was born in the Philippines, but I was raised here in America. I was able to speak my native language when I was a child. However, when I started going to English-learning classes, I began to stop speaking fluently in my language because I was surrounded by people (including teachers in my English-learning class) that only spoke English. Now, when I try to learn how to speak in my language again, it is very hard because I have no one at school to converse in Tagalog with. Even when Rosetta Stone has a Tagalog option, the app is not engaging with me with full conversation. So, I agree that these robots don’t have the human conversation capability which is almost required to become fluent in a language. Additionally, human conversations aren’t always grammatically correct, and some English words can’t translate to other languages and vice versa. I think the robot would be more focused on helping children to learn terms and phrases in grammatically correct sentences.
This is a great idea though. I think the Opie robot resembles a kiosk. It would be interesting to see kiosks turning into interactive robots. For instance, at the airport, the kiosks where you can check in your bag and get your ticket can look like Opie, so that the experience may become more personal; the kiosk can speak in the native language of the person.
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