Name That Language

Name: Name That Language
Author: University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

DOCUMENTED

Published in academic literature

For:General Public & Enthusiasts

Free

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App Summary

'Name That Language' is a citizen science game that allows players to test their ability to identify spoken languages from short audio clips, contributing to linguistic data collection in the process. The associated research describes this tool as part of a project designed to leverage gamification and novel incentives to crowdsource valuable language resources from the public. The authors conclude that this approach helps improve the scale, variety, and quality of data available for education, research, and technology development.

App Screenshots

Detailed Description

Functionality & Mechanism

Developed by the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC), Name That Language is a gamified assessment tool. The system presents short, spoken-language audio clips to the user. For each clip, the interface provides three multiple-choice options for language identification. Input is captured through user selection within a scored, game-based framework. Sessions are structured into rounds, challenging the user to correctly identify languages from aural stimuli to achieve a high score before exhausting a set number of attempts.

Evidence & Research Context

The associated research describes the app as an instrument within the LDC's Novel Incentives and Workflows (NIEUW) project for developing language resources.
The project, supported by the National Science Foundation, leverages gamification to elicit linguistic data from a wide variety of contributors, including citizen scientists.
The app functions as a data collection tool, contributing to a larger corpus of language resources utilized for research, education, and technology development.
Its design employs novel incentives to engage game players in generating and annotating linguistic data through the LingoBoingo web portal.

Intended Use & Scope

This tool is designed for the general public and citizen scientists as an engaging interface for linguistic data collection. Its primary utility is to gather language identification data for research purposes. The app is not a comprehensive pedagogical tool for language acquisition nor a validated measure of auditory processing or linguistic aptitude. Users seeking formal language instruction should consult dedicated educational resources.

Studies & Publications

1 publication

Peer-reviewed research associated with this app.

Development/Design Paper

The NIEUW Project: Developing Language Resources Through Novel Incentives

Fiumara et al. (2022) · Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Novel Incentives in Data Collection from People

Describes the research-driven development of this app

This paper provides an overview and update on the Linguistic Data Consortium's (LDC) NIEUW (Novel Incentives and Workflows) project supported by the National Science Foundation and part of LDC's larger goal of improving the cost, variety, scale, and quality of language resources available for education, research, and technology development. NIEUW leverages the power of novel incentives to elicit linguistic data and annotations from a wide variety of contributors including citizen scientists, game players, and language students and professionals. In order to align appropriate incentives with the various contributors, LDC has created three distinct web portals to bring together researchers and other language professionals with participants best suited to their project needs. These portals include LanguageARC designed for citizen scientists, Machina Pro Linguistica designed for students and language professionals, and LingoBoingo designed for game players. The design, interface, and underlying tools for each web portal were developed to appeal to the different incentives and motivations of their respective target audiences.