Barcelona, Spain | September 3, 2018 MobileHCI 2018 Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects of Text Entry
Native Language Text Entry Can
Decrease Global Illiteracy
Tamanna Motahar
North South University Abstract
Dhak a, Bangladesh To improve literacy rate worldwide, research on mobile
tam anna.motahar@northsouth.edu text entry in different languages is considerably
important. In this position statement, a socio-technical
aspect is proposed in favor of native language text entry
which can bridge the gap between connectivity and
communication.
Author Keywords
Text Input; Mobile HCI; Native Language; Global
Illiteracy; Global Connectivity.
ACM Classification Keywords
H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g.,
HCI): Miscellaneous.
Introduction
Among all economic and demographic challenges, global
illiteracy is one of the major difficulty for people to
embrace technology and communicate worldwide [1]. To
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or
classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed make illiterate individuals comfortable in using
for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation
technology, text entry needs to be accurate, effective
on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored.
For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). and easy to learn. Especially, enabling text entry in
Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
MobileHCI, 2018 Barcelona, Spain.
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Barcelona, Spain | September 3, 2018 MobileHCI 2018 Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects of Text Entry
someone’s native language can make them available, people will be more intuitive and connected
communicate better. with other communities too.
Proposed Scenario Perspective of Elderly People
Low-Income Community Elderly people whose native language is not English are
People with low income and from less educated usually not willing to learn new languages or
communities do not use expensive and latest devices for technologies. Mostly, they get disconnected due to lack
communication [2]. Other than making phone calls, text of technical knowledge. Still, they can communicate in
entry and text messaging is the only way of their native languages if the option is available [6].
communication for them [3]. The ability to use their
Figure 1: A 4 ye ars old native alphabet to input text on budget phones may Child Education
Bangladeshi boy is le arning his make it easier to express their thoughts. Moreover, once C hildren of non-native English speaking community are
native Bangla alphabet through
they get comfortable inputting texts, they may start forced to use different learning applications designed in
m obile le arning application
exploring other features of texting which will convince English, can also learn in their native languages using
them to learn by themselves. the similar application if text entry in their native
language is supported.
Different Regional Aspect
“Knowing your language can be so important in Disappearing Languages
developing a cultural identity,” says Maggie MacDonnell, In every two weeks, a language dies [7]. “When
a $1 million Global Teacher Prize winner for her work on humanity loses a language, we also lose the potential for
underprivileged community [4]. But to communicate greater diversity in art, music, literature, and oral
with people from the different cultural region who have traditions,” said Bogre Udell, a bilingual personnel who
no common language, they must have the native is working on a project to make the first public archive
alphabets for text entry with auto-translator. of every language in the world. As many remote
languages are disappearing, having more research on
Effect of Social Media text entry in different languages can eventually save
Social media has enabled people to constantly update those [8].
and share their lives and experiences with their own
community [5]. People with different educational and Conclusion
cultural background can cross the boundaries through In this position statement, the necessity of research on
these social networking platforms, such as Facebook, text entry in native languages has been depicted. For
Twitter, and LinkedIn. If different language text entry is improving global literacy rate, mobile text entry in the
native language can have extraordinary impact.
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Barcelona, Spain | September 3, 2018 MobileHCI 2018 Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects of Text Entry
Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion, DSAI
References 2013
[7] “The Race to Save the World's Disappearing
[1] "The Global Literacy C hallenge: A profile of y outh Languages”,
and adult literacy at the mid-point of the United https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/04/
Nations Literacy Decade 2003-2012", United saving-dying-disappearing-languages-wikitongues-
Nations Educational, Scientific and C ultural culture/ last accessed on May, 2018
Organization, [8] Julia Sallabank, “Language Endangerment:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0016/001631/ Problems and Solutions”, eSharp, Special Issue:
C ommunicating C hange: Representing Self and
163170e.pdf, last accessed on May, 2018
C ommunity in a Technological World,pp. 50-87,
[2] Ahmed Sabbir Arif, Sarah Fardeen, Ali Mazalek, 2010
“Mobile Text Entry C hallenges among Low-Income
Users in a Developing C ountry” in Proceedings of Biography
the 2017 IEEE International C onference On Tamanna Motahar is a lecturer of the Electrical and
Systems, Man, and C ybernetics (SMC '17). IEEE, C omputer Engineering (EC E) department of North South
Washington, DC , USA, 624-629, 2017. University. She C ompleted her Masters in Electrical
[3] Victoria Rideout and Vikki S. Katz, “Opportunity for Engineering from the University of Alberta, C anada.
Before that, she obtained another Master’s in
all? Technology and learning in lower-income
Telecommunication Engineering form North South
families”, a report of the Families and Media University, Bangladesh. She graduated summa cum
Project. New York:The Joan Ganz C ooney C enter at laude in B.Sc. in C omputer Engineering from the
Sesame Workshop, 2016 American International University Bangladesh (AIUB).
[4] “The surprising reason why you should learn a local Her interdisciplinary research works are based on Human
dialect instead of a global language”, C omputer Interaction (HC I), Internet of Things (IOT)
and IC T4D. She teaches programming languages (C,
https://qz.com/1086796/technology-
C ++), data structure and algorithm courses and Junior
can-now- translate-languages-for-us-but-it-
Design classes of C SE students in North South
misses-the-most-important-point/, last accessed University. She is also mentoring several groups for their
May, 2018 technical projects.
[5] “6 Ways Social Media C hanged the Way We
C ommunicate”, Related past/ current work
http://circaedu.com/hemj/how-social- media- 1. Participated in: “A summer school on Research
Methods and Approaches to Text Entry and Oher
changed-the-way-we-communicate/, last accessed
Interaction Techniques”, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India,
on May, 2018
May 21 – 25, 2018
[6] José-Manuel Díaz-Bossini and Lourdes Moreno,
“Accessibility to mobile interfaces for older 2. Project: “Bornomala AR: A Bengali Alphabet Learning
people”, 5th International C onference on Software Experience using Augmented Reality”
Development and Technologies for Enhancing It is a Bengali Language Learning Augmented Reality
Application for the android OS that aims to provide a
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Barcelona, Spain | September 3, 2018 MobileHCI 2018 Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects of Text Entry
better and easy way to learn Bengali alphabet. This
application was created targeting the children of age 3
to 5 of Bangladesh, to make them more familiar with
their native language.
3. Ongoing Project: “Typing error rate changes with
the contrast of keyboard while walking”
It is a quantative research on how typing error rate
changes with the change of contrast of the keyboard
while walking
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