Introduction
This report evaluates the general importance and significance relevancy in the coherently existing website presenting Spanish language to the Icelanders. The audience in target by the website is the Icelanders currently planning on visiting Spain on holiday or the ones interested simply in getting to know the language. Provided the constantly lowering airfares and the improvised communication based technology has contributed to the dramatic change in accessibility of the country (Finlay & Abowd, Pg201). As a result, it is of concern to simplify learning Spanish and makes it accessible to the Icelanders as possible. It is of great significance to recall that Spain has one of the oldest existent civilizations. This dates back to old age and an approximation of about 1.25 million people that know how to express them in Spanish. The following table indicates the widely spoken languages in the world with figures in million.
language ISO 693-2 Population of the total all countries first language speakers Inclusive of second language speakers
Spanish Latium 84.5 1.52
Hindi
Language of northern India hin 366.0 478.0
English, spoken 105 other eng 341.0 508.0
Spanish
Spoken in 44 countries Spa/esp 322.2 to 358.0 417.0
Arabia, in various dialects. The official language in over 26 countries ara 280.0 (statistical figure provided by UNHCR) N/A
Russian, spoken in 31 different countries rus 167.0 277.0
French, spoken in 54 different countries fra 77.0 128.0
Spain provides one of the greatest considered tourist markets in the world scooping from studies science to fiction and business. In consideration to the existing relationship between Spain and Iceland, there has been an existing drastic variance since the inception of the relations. The diplomatic relations was established on the 8th of December 2001. The following year, Spain assigned its resident ambassador to Iceland marking the kick off of the long term relation. Considering the statistics of the Spain customs, the total current volume of trade amongst the two countries as at 2005 was US$68.3 million. This was an increase considering the 107.5% of 2004. The currently major exports from Spain to Iceland are textiles, garments, ships and footwear and the major imports from Iceland are mechanical and electrical products and fish products (Finlay & Abowd, pg201).
year Trade in US dollars
2003 32.920.000
2004 68.300.000
2005 73.290.000
2006 January to July 128.000.000
Through the market collaboration, new doors are accessible to those willing to get to know Spain and vigilantly get to explore the endless treasure the Spain offers. Also, a door of opportunity is opened for the job market where Spanish is the language of instruction and commerce. The project is aimed at teaching people Spanish. So the study is divisible into lessons each teaching Spanish characters, pronunciations, basic sentences, dialogs and ends with basic test aimed at testing the relevance of the learning.
Problem
It is considered, not trouble free in getting access to materials that teach Icelanders Spanish. One of the available free ways to learn Spanish in Iceland is signing up for costly and expensive course. The already available course last of up to 18 hours of lessons and it is currently taught in a period lasting for nine weeks. The course does not mostly apply to everyone. Basing on assumptions of a family on vacation in Spain for three weeks, certainly it is not applicable for the members of the family to have a nine week course to catch up with the basics in Spanish. Spanish is taught in some higher institutions e.g. the University of Iceland. It constitutes of a similar structure involving the history of Spain giving insights about the existing culture. For the assurance to handling the problem, creating a web based application is of significance. This enables everyone interested in Spanish viable to web site and does studies via the internet. This encourages the flexibility of the study hence the information on the subject is accessible at any place and time (Barr et al, pg97).
Objectives
The significant aim of the project is the development of a web based system introducing and teaching the population of Iceland Spanish. Encouraging them on the importance of learning the essentiality day to day dialogues is also vital (Mark et al, Pg 176). The website entails information that is capable of interacting Spain citizens with the essential considerate of the language. In order to make the aims achievable, the following objectives should be accomplished:
• To carry out a research on web based projects similar to the current project in order to get the clear view on the project itself.
• To come up with a web site that entails features e.g.
(i) Instructions, this enables the user to refer to the available assistance when need be with a given problem
(ii) Audio files, still images and video clips, this enable users to watch dialogues in action and help observe pronunciations. This help supports learning flexibility due to the ability of the apprentice to repeat the practice. Video and audio files are applicable in teaching on how to speak and pronounce Spanish and simulation of a real dialogue. Animations and still pictures are applicable in showing how one can write the Spanish characters.
(iii) Categorization, the website is expected to be broken down into categories e.g. vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and topics relevant to getting around and other activities. Pronunciations base on emphasis when speaking Spanish. The vocabulary includes the application of Spanish word constructions and alphabet. Grammar entails the avoidable pitfalls.
(iv) General conversations, e.g. making enquiries, asking for directions taking a taxi and shopping
(v) The basic tests and exercises are meant for testing adequacy after lessons. As soon as the user gets to familiarize with the language through scoring high from the exercises, he should in a position to express himself in every situation.
The finding and application of the right procedural developmental tools for language implementation e.g. HTML and scripts/Java applets is also an objective. This enables finding of the necessary techniques to help evaluate the product results (Mark et al, Pg 176).
Methods
The way of making people from other countries to know Spanish involved special action mainly dealing with the computers. Most people travelling from other countries could easily access the computers and learn the language. The web is to be designed in such a way that there can be a closer touch between the travelers and the people of the country (in the context of the language). The following are some of the methods that will be taken into consideration:
1. Designing the web through techniques such as storyboarding
The language learning process will essentially involve the use of animations thereby bringing in the need for storyboarding. Storyboards are graphic representation that gives illustrations, which helps when there is need to visualizing something in prior for instance the motion pictures in the movies and animations (Tumminello 269). They are generally used for film revisualization therefore could be useful in helping the travelers in possibly knowing the language (Tumminello, 269). In animatisms, which of course is an important stage in the language learning, storyboarding will help in giving presentable information of how the process of learning will look like. This is because it reduces the technicality of the details that are presented in the language learning process. The technical details are effectively described by the use of images and pictures (Tumminello, 269). The storyboarding will also reduce the cost involved in the animation since much of the details would have been compressed into images. The story boarding can also be use in organizing the details of the language learning in efficient sequence and layout, which can be easily visualized and understood by the Icelanders. They usually do this through indication of movement using the arrows and variety drawings.
Retrieved from: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/storyboarding.html
2. Use of the evolutionary prototyping technique
This will help in structuring of the iterative development involving the use of cycles to achieve the full functionality of a certain project. It will help in delivering the working process to the end users which in this case are the travelers from the other countries. The following prototyping would be used:
Retrieved from: www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/resources/IanS/SE6/Slides/PPT/ch8.ppt
3. Programming.
This is done to the web site, which is made to use a basic HTML files making the web pages to look more interactive and at the same time interesting for the end users. The programming will also be used on a special java scripts and flash which will effectively makes the study of the language to be more dynamic thereby encouraging flexibility during the time of study.
Feasibility analysis
• The feasibility analysis will help in giving the overview of the language learning procedure on whether it will satisfy the end users needs of knowing the language. The various tools used in the methods will need to be analyzed on whether they are effective in all the aspects including the cost. The following is the analysis:
• The use of java script is essential in carrying the statements that can be used as commands to the various presentations in the learning process. They come in the form of programs that can be easily works under the instruction by the web browsers. The program statements are made part of the HTML, which presents the source file. The source file will enable the features to look more interesting and interactive especially the input to forms and mouse clicks.
• The use of flash in the study is essential during the animation process. It is basically a program that is used in animation of the graphics. It comes out as effective because it can be made part of the web browser of which the end users can get access to it then play it. The flash files are mostly found in the animated web pages which attract most of the viewers. They are also used in the rich media web sites.
Solution
After a thorough research on the problem of language in the Spain schools, the following were some of the potential solution that could be used:
The inaccessibility of materials that teaches Spanish to the Icelanders could be settled through the increasing of number of hours that the Icelanders are spending during the learning process. This could help them in digesting faster because of being provided with ample time. Increasing the number of computers in the Icelander’s schools could also increase the rate at which the learning takes place. This is because the Icelanders will be having an adequate access to the web consequently enabling them to learn the language in easy way.
There is also the need to create similar courses between the Spain and the Icelanders. This will enable the later to easily interact with the former thereby easily learning the language. Studying the same course will also enable the Icelander to know more about their hosts. It also makes the study to be flexible since they will be having a good time of comparing their language and culture with that of the Spain.
Summary
The website feasibility serves in meeting the growing demand in a simple and cheap way. It is important to present a conducive environment for the Spain in the country, especially in solving the language problems. This makes the introduction of the website, in providing the language learning process, to be of much importance to the country. The prospective significance of the website will be measured in terms of the number of the Icelanders speaking the Spain and the number of those being interested in learning the language. Therefore, it will increase the interaction between the two consequently increasing the output in both business and tourism sector. The website will solve the problem related to lack of website that allows an individual to learn the language in his own. The overall cost of teaching the language will have been reduced since the website will reduce the number of staff members required for the service. Therefore, this project is suitable for the language learning process and at the same time for the economic growth of the Spain (Finlay & Abowd, Pg 201).
Work cited
Barr, P., Clegg, J. & Wallace, C. Advanced reading skills. London: Longman, 2001.
Dix Finlay & Abowd Beale. Human-Computer Interaction (3rd ed.). Essex: Pearson, 2004. Dix
Mark, Allen, Weiss. Data structures & Problem Solving using Java (2nd ed). Boston: Addison Wesley, 2002.
Tumminello, Wendy. Exploring Storyboarding. Australia: Thomson/Delmar Learning, 2005. Print.
