Building a Language-Learning Game for Brazilian Indigenous Languages: A Case of Study

TL;DR

A first attempt to build a language learning game for brazilian indigenous languages and the challenges around it is discussed, including a design for the tool with gamification aspects and a process to automatically generate language exercises and questions from a dependency treebank and lexical database for Tupian languages.

Abstract

In this paper we discuss a first attempt to build a language learning game for brazilian indigenous languages and the challenges around it. We present a design for the tool with gamification aspects. Then we describe a process to automatically generate language exercises and questions from a dependency treebank and a lexical database for Tupian languages. We discuss the limitations of our prototype highlighting ethical and practical implementation concerns. Finally, we conclude that new data gathering processes should be established in partnership with indigenous communities and oriented for educational purposes.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Landing page of BILingo. It displays a linear progress trajectory of lessons and incorporates gamification aspects such as daily quests and daily streak.
• Figure 2: Exercise types in our learning language tool. Depicts scenarios where the student has answered correctly.