The Online Learning of Arabic Language - Essay Example

?RESEARCH REPORT FOR THE FINAL PROJECT College This report introduces the problem area which is the online learning of Arabic language, explains the proposed solution to the problem and the best means to achieve these solutions. A review of relevant literature related to the problem area to identify various tools and methods that were used follows. This equips the developer with various methodologies to choose from for use in the project. A methodologies section follows suit to explain how waterfall methodologies is instrumental to the realisation of the project goals. At the end of this report, useful recommendations from the whole research are made to ensure smooth creation of the project. Table of contents Title page..................................................................................................................1 Abstract....................................................................................................................2 Introduction...............................................................................................................4 Literature review.........................................................................................................6 Methodology ..............................................................................................................9 Table 1 ........................................................................................................................10 Table 2 .........................................................................................................................12 Summary ......................................................................................................................14 Bibliography .................................................................................................................15 Introduction Learning a new language is one of the many challenges that countless people are facing globally. Though the world has become a global village, where people can communicate with each other through dissimilar means, it is still a test to communicate with persons speaking other languages. Trade amongst people from diverse countries and culture, has increased the need for people to be multi-lingual. This has amplified the demand for people to learn and know other languages that they never knew from the start. In the past years, there has been an increase in the number of individuals engrossed in the knowledge of Arabic language. This can be pointed towards the increased trade between the western world and the Middle East. Many English speaking populace would like to know Arabic and communicate with the people from the Middle East effectively (Gleick, 1992). This is a project report absorbed on the online language learning project that I would like to create. I would like to build an online language learning website that would provide various English users with the essential tools for learning Arabic. However to start this project, a lot of literature on the issue is necessary to ensure that there is a correct understanding of the subject area. To start the project, it is necessary to follow all the steps in the system development life cycle. First of all, it was necessary to first start with the requirements analysis. During the analysis stage, several online language learning websites were used to know the user requirements necessary for the completion of the project. Searching for related literature to the subject was done through the use of Google search engine. The search was a success and yielded many literature related to the subject. However, only 10 of the literature which comprised mainly of peer reviewed articles were used. The articles were chosen based on their relevance to the topic of discussion and how effective they were to the realisation of the final project. To know the best methodologies to use in the report, it was necessary to look at all the methodologies that were available for use and choose the most appropriate of them all. This was chosen based on the time that each methodology needed and the effectiveness of each methodology. After deep analysis of all the methods that were available for the project, waterfall methodology for project management was chosen as the best. This was due to the fact that this methodology provided the best and most effective design that was key to realisation of a good project. However, since this was a language learning project, deep knowledge and understanding of the two languages was necessary to ensure that all the user requirements were met. Since I am an Arabic speaker, it was easier to incorporate this into the project and so reduce the cost of looking for an extra person to help in the project. Analysis of current websites was done. This was to find out the main challenges associated with them and how this could be improved with this new website. These challenges included the various interfaces that were available in the websites. This made it clear that a user friendly prototype was necessary for the project that I was creating. Finding the right tools for the design was also necessary. However, I found the use of use case diagrams, flow charts and DF’s very important in the design. This made it easier to understand the whole system and how each user was to relate to the new system. With this, I had the right tools and blue print together with the user requirements necessary for the project. Literature review Several literatures have been written on the use of online websites to learn new languages. These literatures have been instrumental in determining the various challenges that both the developer and the user face in the whole project. To understand the subject further and how much had been done in the field, a literature review was necessary. These literatures were mainly online articles that several authors had written regarding the use of online websites by second language learners. After searching for the literature in the internet through the Google search engine, several articles were presented and were selected based on the relevance to the topic of discussion and the date of publishing. After a thorough survey, I came up with ten articles that were to be used for the project (Fincher, 2001). The articles were not more than 10 years, and were closely related to the project. It was after the analysis of this literature that the user requirements were made. It also led to the realisation that I had to create a website that focussed much on the user than anything else; the interface had to be user friendly and faster. In short, I utilised the various challenges that these ten articles presented to make a website that minimised the challenges that they focused on. The literature was also important in knowing where we were currently concerning the subject matter. I had to know the current situation of the online language learning so that I could have a starting base and develop a more user friendly website. Each article examined insists that a good online language learning website has to have at least one native speaker of the language. In my case, the website has to have a native Arabic speaker who can understand and implement all the necessary tools needed for the new leaner to understand the language. Janet Swaffar ET all insists that without a native speaker for the language, the leaner is likely to miss a lot of concepts of the language if taught by a second speaker. This was one of the advantages that my website had since I am a native Arabic speaker. Janet also insists that for the realization of all the goals, the website should contain native spellings and wordings. This was one of the major challenges that most websites that taught Arabic and other second languages had (Adams, 1998). Most of the online language learning websites has non native speakers acting as the instructors and this is very ineffective to the learner. This therefore makes the website achieve less than what they are intended for. The authors therefore encourage that anyone with the idea of starting a website has to consider having a native speaker who understands both languages. On the same note, SALLY MORRISON insists that a good online language learning website has to consider having access to interpreted dictionaries of both languages. This would make it easier for the leaner to access the difficult words and understand them. This was a very important point to note and made it necessary to search for online databases for Arabic interpretation dictionaries. SALLY MORRISON also insists that an online language learning website has to be specific. This means that the learner has to have one interface that is meant specifically for one language. For example, it would not be professional to have the same interface for one learner seeking to learn English from Arabic and the other seeking to learn Arabic from English. This would cause confusion considering the fact that they both do not understand the other language. In the article, SALLY MORRISON maintains that having different interfaces for different languages is important if the two learners have to use the same website or the website can be dedicated to just a single language. On the same point of interfaces, SALLY says that most websites do not focus on user friendly prototypes. This is the major challenge faced by most online language websites. The website needs to have a user friendly interface that will provide a good environment for the learner to search, delete, and make appropriate insertions where necessary. This minimises the time that the leaner uses to search for important details in the website. In his article, learning and teaching a language online, Tuncer professional linguists affirms that any online website need to be updated constantly. This will ensure that it is up to date with relevant information about the wordings. For example, if a website was constructed in the early 80’s, and not updated, it would lack very many useful words. Therefore each website needs updates in order to succeed. There also need to be a general path that the leaner will use. This includes stages for different learners. Starters should have their own stage and not mixed with those who have been learning for some time. Testing the progress of the learner is also crucial and this needs to be done through appropriate online tests. The test should be simple and have reasonable pass marks that are realistic to the degree of knowledge that the leaner has on the topic. The literature review was very crucial to the completion of this project. After the analysis of the various challenges that the articles brought, it was necessary to mainly focus on these challenges in coming up with the user requirements. This was therefore a very crucial part of the report as well as the project as a whole. However, this part of the project brought a lot of challenges especially during the process of selecting the best articles to be used. Methodology After thorough research of different methodologies that are used in software construction, the waterfall methodology was chosen due to its efficiency in analysing steps. The name of this methodology is derived from the structure of the steps involved in the process. It is a structured methodology and follows strict steps that cannot be skipped. In this methodology, there are different task that depend on each other. The output of one task becomes the input of the next task and this together with the general layout of the whole methodology makes it one of the best methods of software development. Developing a website is a very complicated process especially when done individually, it therefore needs a list of reference to check out the progress that one has made and to ensure that there is nothing left out in during the building process. The figure below represents the general layout of the waterfall methodology. Table 1 (Devries, 2002) To start the whole process, below are the steps that were followed to come up with the language learning website Feasibility study The first step before starting the project is to look at the feasibility. Is the project a possibility? Or just a dream, this should be the main question to that one should ask themselves before starting the project. To start with, I searched for laws that govern the use of online learning. I had to ensure that by constructing this website, I was not breaching any law that could put me and the website in trouble. This ensured that the project was feasible with internet laws. The major challenge here was that there were different laws within different boundaries and this website had to conform to all of them. The next feasibility study was economic feasibility study. Building a website especially a dynamic website requires web hosting. I therefore needed to look for this amount to ensure that my final product would be able to be hosted. I confirmed with my parents about the web hosting money and ensured that I would be able to host the website. Requirement analysis The project is the construction of an online Arabic language learning website. This would mean that by the end of the project, the user should be able to log into an account and learn Arabic language based on the tools that are available in the website. With this in mind it is easy to come up with the user needs which will serve as the system requirements. The first user requirement that is necessary is security. The website has to be available, confidential and should provide integrity. With all these, the website would be considered as being secure. Attaining all this would mean that during the building stages, data confidentiality is put into consideration to ensure that a user has only access to their account. The second user requirement that was necessary for considerations were the technology. The project had to use the latest available technology to ensure that the user had the best product based on current technology (Tucker, 2004). User requirements as well as the implementation requirements followed suit after the two requirements had been recorded. Below is the table that represents the system requirements that were identified. Table 2 (Cunningham, 1991) System design Design is the process of coming out with a blue print of how the system will work. During the system design, there are various tools that are very crucial to ensure that all the important details of the system are captured in the system. The use of UML is very crucial in this step. Use cases show the relationship between different actuators with the system. It is one of the most convenient ways to represent any design. In the website, use cases are used to show how the system will work and the various roles that the system administrator, the system itself and the users will have. After identifying the different roles played with the different people, it is time to draw the use cases to represent the actual relationship between the system and the different actuators (Tucker, 2004). Coding This is the step that involves the actual building of the project. After the end of this step, the website should be able to run and show early stages of completion. However there are still some important steps that would remain. For coding to be possible, it is necessary to select the best programming language to use. However, it is advisable to conduct this step with the use of the programming language that can be compiled by many browsers. A good example is JavaScript. This together with HTML provides a good environment for creating the project. During the coding process, the design is very useful, the code has to ensure that it follows the exact way that the project was designed. This would make the system to follow the exact system requirements without skipping any step. The interface to be used is also a major factor to look at here. During the coding step, the colour of the interface should be able to rhyme with all the details of the website (Gleick, 1992). Testing This is the next step that follows after the coding process. This step is done to ensure that all the user requirements are captured in the project. There are two types of tests that are done. The first test is the white box testing that the developer does after completing the coding. This is because of the knowledge of the way the system work and the general layout of the codes. White box testing is done by one volunteer who acts as a user and do the test. Testing always reveal that there are some few problems in the system which are later rectified (Gleick, 1992). Implementation Implementing the project into the real world is not a major challenge. This is only possible after ensuring that all the user specifications have been met. This is one of the last steps before maintenance which is an ongoing process. The website has to be hosted, and made available for users who can create their accounts and start using the service. In case of any trouble experienced during the implementation process, it should be reported for correction (Can, 2006). Summary Building an online Arabic language learning website can be challenging without following the right steps. It requires a clear and deep understanding of system analysis and design as well as an object oriented approach to analysis and design. These tools would enable the developer to capture all the user requirements before the actual building takes place. For this particular project, deep knowledge of tools together with a clear knowledge of Arabic language is necessary. The project was very instrumental in bringing out the essential tools that are needed in IT projects. The waterfall methodology is a well structured methodology that provides the developer with a step by step summary of all the steps needed to construct the website. The user requirements that are necessary in any online language learning website were also instrumental in ensuring that research was successful. The research also found out that for any project, it is necessary to always do a feasibility study to ensure that the project can be a success. For the project, the major challenge that still exists is the diverse knowledge of JavaScript that is needed to complete the project. Diagrams were also important in the research to help show the design as well as explain some basic concepts that are necessary to capture requirements. 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