Inspiration
This skill helps German language learners with one very powerful self-learning technique - the preaching technique. Developed by Michael Schmitz, the creator of https://smartergerman.com, the preaching technique is an efficient way to learn grammatical structures by repeating them over and over, until, as Michael puts it, "you and all those around you believe you(rself)".
The Voice User Interface (VUI) helps language learners greatly by teaching them grammar, helping them correct themselves and also by participating with them in dialog-like verbal interactions.
While listening is good enough for some language learners, very often people also benefit from involving their visual sense to grasp new information. This is where the visual elements of the Alexa Skill and APL come into play.
What it does
APL and the visual display greatly enhances the smarterGerman skill in multiple ways:
- Alexa always shows the current preaching pattern - until now users were using a separate tool/notepad to keep track of the pattern
- Alexa always shows the current trigger - A trigger can be as simple as a single noun and as complex as the combination of a noun, an adjective, a verb and a preposition. This can be hard to remember, so we decided to display it.
- We can now show what Alexa has heard - although this is something we emphasize even in the VUI after a user's sentence, it still nice to display it, so that one can better understand one's mistakes.
- Implicitly (re)introduce users to the "Superhero" technique. Another learning technique by Michael that aids users with learning the genders of German nouns. As there are no definitive rules on the gender of German nouns, with this technique learners learn to link the noun of every trigger with an illustration of a Pirate, a Princess or a big German Baby to illustrate/substitute the rather abstract masculine, feminine and neuter gender. Combining these two techniques with a learner’s imagination, can greatly aid with into remembering the gender of a given noun.
How I built it
I myself am a German learner, inspired by both the preaching and superhero technique, I decided to optimize their workflow by creating an Alexa skill. I built it while trying to figure out how you can do speaking and grammar exercises while doing house chores, while walking around or doing exercises, hands free. This is where the Echo speaker and display fit in.
The skill is built entirely in German, with little tips and hints in English. One hard constraint that we had was, that in order for Alexa to be able to receive German input, its language settings hat to be set to German. But even with this limitation, we were able to publish the skill in Germany, all English speaking countries, as well as Spain and Mexico.
Challenges I ran into
Obviously the biggest challenge was to get to know APL. Coming with an HTML background, the APL seemed very similar, and even easier on the layout. I would've liked to be able to add more dynamics, like controlling when and how something appears on the screen. But I also do understand the needs to apply some boundaries to such devices.
Another challenge I ran intro was some differences in rendering between the simulator and an actual device. I have prepared a list of bugs/feature requests that I will publish through other channels.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
The way the visual side of the skill was implemented is like a progressive enhancement. Users can still experience the skill to its maximum using only voice and a speaker.
What I learned
APL is slick and designing for multiple devices is easy.
What's next for smarterGerman
The voice only Alexa skill so far has helped so many German learners with their language learning that many have become Alexa/Echo users only because of this. Using Echo's ecosystem, we are trying to make language self-learning more efficient, fun and interactive.
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