Audio Script
Gesturing key part of language-learning app created by CU-Boulder students
Jan. 29, 2015听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Kevin Gould
听听听听听听听听听听听听 The latest research shows that speech is inherently linked to gesturing. With that in mind, two CU-Boulder doctoral students in cognitive linguistics have created a language game app combining gesturing and words with the latest technology that they say will make it easier to learn a second language. It鈥檚 called 鈥淣ano Nano,鈥� and co-inventor Kevin Gould says it鈥檚 a more efficient way to learn a new language.
CUT 1 鈥淲hen we talk about grasping a concept, it鈥檚 not just the language center of the brain that lights up but also the motor cortex of the brain that lights up as well -- the part of the brain that鈥檚 actually responsible for physically manipulating and grasping objects. (:12) So there鈥檚 a synergy between gesture and language and what we thought about was well why don鈥檛 we try to co-op that and use that to create a more efficient form of language-learning software that鈥檚 different and at the same time more effective than traditional paradigms like you鈥檇 would see in other language software, like, for example Rosetta Stone.鈥� (:30)
听听听听听听听听听听听听 Gould says one of the keys to learning a language faster is to associate certain words with certain gestures.
CUT 2 鈥淔or example, if I teach you the word 鈥済ive鈥� in Spanish 鈥� dar - and I teach it to you with this iconic gesture where you, for example, move your hand away from your body, you鈥檙e actually going to learn that word faster than if you didn鈥檛 have that gesture associated with it. So that鈥檚 the basic idea behind it.鈥� (:16)
听听听听听听听听听听听 Created with his partner Steve Duman, Gould鈥檚 鈥淣ano Nano鈥� is a story-based game with the main character battling a mad scientist who uses robots called 鈥渘ano-bots鈥� to destroy words. Faced with varying scenarios, the main character must decipher which words are missing and replace them with the correct words.
CUT 3 鈥淪he鈥檚 an inventor so she鈥檚 able to invent this visor that shows these little nano-bots taking away the words and her job is to stop these nano-bots from taking the words away. And we put her in all these very common sort of language use scenarios in a restaurant, in a bank, in a market, and she has to kind of save the day by saving languages, as it were. (18) People will be talking to her and there鈥檒l just suddenly be a word missing and you have to replace that word and use context and visual cues and stuff like that in order to find the right word to solve the puzzle.鈥� (:28)
听听听听听听听听听听听 So how do you actually gesture using this app? Gould says the language game app is designed to work with Apple devices like iPhones, iPads, tablets or other smart phones, which already have motion detection software on them.
听CUT 4 鈥淲hat鈥檚 unique about it is that no one has tried to do what we鈥檙e doing with gesture - for starters. This is pretty new. No one鈥檚 applied it to the technology that鈥檚 available now - the iPads, the iPhone, your tablets and your smartphones, which have gesture recognition built into them. (:16) They have these affordances like accelerometers, gyroscopes, touch screens, so we can use those in order to get people gesturing while they鈥檙e learning language and we can get people to associate words with gestures using kind of a game-based platform, which is the basic idea behind what we鈥檙e doing.鈥� (:32)
听听听听听听听听听听听 And because it鈥檚 a game-based platform Gould believes people will stay with the program longer than typical language learning software programs.
CUT 5听 听鈥淏etween the use of gesture and the use of a game we think this can be pretty good because a game keeps people coming back. One of the biggest issues that other language learning software鈥檚 platforms have had is that they have really high attrition rates. There鈥檚 no kind of extrinsic motivation. Whereas when you have a game what happens is the game keeps prompting you to come back. You want to achieve goals in the game. (:21) If you鈥檙e just learning Portuguese to learn Portuguese, you have to be motivating yourself to do it. So the game is something that provides people with a tool to keep going essentially. (:29)
听听听听听听听听听听听 鈥淣ano Nano鈥� is currently available in 听Spanish, but Gould says he and Duman designed the game to be compatible with multiple languages. They plan on English next and from there, converting the app into Mandarin Chinese, French and German. They also hope to make it available on Android devices.
听听听听听听听听听听听 鈥淣ano Nano鈥� is available for download from Apple App Store. 听
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