Paul Seedhouse and Rob Comber (School of Computing Science) recently received an Erasmus Plus grant of €323,886 for the Linguacuisine project, starting on September 1 2016.
Here is a summary of their new project, which brings together language learning, technology and cooking:
Whereas our previous EU-funded Lancook or European Digital Kitchen project produced sensorised digital kitchen equipment, we will create for the new Linguacuisine project free downloadable smartphone and tablet apps (android and Apple). These will enable users to be guided through cooking a range of recipes in 6 different European languages. The phone or tablet will speak to the users in the foreign language and offer multimedia help to users in terms of photos and videos. Users will be able to access different levels of help to support their language learning depending on their levels of competence. As no sensors are involved, users will let the phone or tablet know when they are ready to move to the next step.
The main aim is to create a sustainable model for the production and use of multimedia materials for learning languages, cuisines and cultures based on user-generated content in support of a community of practice in those areas. Working with Newcastle organisations Action Foundation and the Workers Educational Association, we will take 20 digitally marginalized participants with little or no digital experience, including migrant and refugees. We firstly provide them with digital, transferable and language skills. We will co-design the app and authoring tool with them, thus ensuring that the apps will be usable by most social groups in the EU. Then we enable them to use the authoring tool to author a multimedia social recipe for language learning. We will develop of online communities of practice in 6 EU languages which bring people together in sharing and cooking the recipes. Dissemination activities will ensure that people across the EU will share and author social recipes themselves.
The project’s official objectives are:
- To produce a downloadable tablet and smartphone app (android and iphone) which will enable users to be guided through cooking a recipe in 6 official EU languages. Further languages can easily be added using the authoring tool.
- To create an online community of practice with access via the apps.
- Participants will learn aspects of a foreign languages, cuisines and cultures by using the apps.
- To develop a certification system for the digital competence which participants develop.
The needs addressed are: improving basic skills, specifically digital competence, and engaging digitally marginalized groups (including refugees and migrants) with technology; certifying and assessing levels of digital competence; learning foreign languages, cultures and cuisines.
Information on the project and (from 2018) the free downloadable Linguacuisine app will become available on The Linguacuisine website (forthcoming).