Re: Learning Arabic applications

[Nadim Shaikli <shaikli at yahoo dot com>]

--- John Storrs <lme at storrs dot demon dot co dot uk> wrote:
> I'm interested in linguistics generally, and would like to develop some 
> generic open source tools for language teaching/learning. I've recently 
> started trying to learn Arabic, which has introduced me to Unicode and text 
> layout issues. Using C++, Qt and XML, I'm currently writing a simple 
> application to produce paper flash cards. That will lead on to an interactive
> multimedia tool. It's based on an Arabic/English dictionary in XML format, 
> currently very limited. I want the dictionary to have full diacritics.
> It should then be possible to generate western script transliterations 
> automatically, among other advantages. Hopefully I'll have something worth 
> releasing soon.

Great - if you are interested to host this project on Arabeyes don't
hesitate to let us know (this very much falls into things Arabeyes
and its volunteers would be interested in).

> I'm interested in the idea of acquiring foreign language skills in the same 
> way as children learn their mother tongue. If children's language 
> understanding at different ages was captured digitally, you could start at 
> the age of 3 say, and progress upwards at a decreasing rate as the vocabulary
> expanded. I intend to do some research about this here.

Wonderful - there are a plethora of kids I know that we can tap into to
get some feedback (so keep that in mind :-)
 
> I was interested to find out more about Arabeyes. Limited resources seem to
> be spread rather thinly. What are your priorities, and where do you most
> need help?

We had a list of various on-going external projects outlined on our Wiki,
but that Wiki is currently down (so I can't point to it).  In general
though what you describe above is a long held dream for many of us and it
would be an outstanding addition and something that is much needed (your
interest in the field is most certainly a huge plus as well).

Do please keep us updated on this topic (you might also consider subscribing
to the 'general' list).

Regards,

 - Nadim


		
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