Content independent open-source language teaching framework

Language is a very powerful tool for mutual understanding between people. In the increasingly globalized society we live in, there is great importance and interest in learning languages other than one’s own mother tongue. Computer based teaching tools provide a potent medium through which such demand can be met conveniently. Shikshaka, a computer based teaching framework was developed for teaching languages using a dialogue-based andragogy and is aimed to fulfill the above requirement. Effective technological methodologies were used to develop the system as an interactive tool using the goal oriented approach developed by linguistic scholars. We have used the framework to implement two scenarios: to teach Tamil using Sinhala and to teach Sinhala using English. The learner’s language can be customized with little effort, while the framework is flexible enough to be customizable to teach other target languages as well with some pedagogical input.