Multilingual gaming
Researchers and developers at the CSIR’s Meraka Institute have released a game in all 11 South African languages.
The game, called OpenSpell, is a spelling game that can easily be localised into additional languages and is targeted at entry-level school pupils.
OpenSpell was the inspiration of visiting researcher and linguist, Dr Madelaine Plauché, who has been working in the human language technologies (HLT) research group at the Meraka institute.
"Although computers are made available in rural areas and small community centres worldwide, it has
become apparent that almost no local language software exists," she says.
Plauché was responsible for the design and content list and she used the programming skills at the Meraka institute to develop the application.
The voice recordings for the multilingual game were done with various CSIR staff across the Pretoria campus.
The game, which is free for download, has two components: a simple, interactive game and an editor that allows a teacher to edit the keyboard and record sounds. "Anyone can use the software to
customise it to a language or dialect," says Plauché.
Version 1 of OpenSpell can be downloaded from http://madwiki.icsi.berkeley.edu/madwiki
The software is free and open source software and so can be shared without restriction.
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