Alexa, open Palabras Británicas

🏆 Award 🏆 Best Multimodal Experience (Spain Store Skills) in the Alexa Skills Challenge: Multimodal

Conversational interfaces, a great support for education

Voice interfaces like Alexa aren’t just for games: applying this technology directly to education makes them a great support for learning. In this case, we used them to help people learn a language whose pronunciation differs from its spelling, such as English.

Today we’re introducing Palabras Británicas (“British words”), a multimodal Amazon Alexa skill adapted for devices with a screen. You can enable it in the Amazon store or say to your device:

Alexa, lanza palabras británicas

This Alexa skill helps Spanish speakers learn English words pronounced with a British accent. And thanks to the visual design for screens and touch interaction built with APL (Alexa Presentation Language)¹, you get visual support, just like a flashcard.

As a complement to native-speaker teachers, the skill helps learners pick up new words naturally. Besides hearing them in a British accent, you can ask Alexa for the following during the conversation:

Alexa spells a word for you if you say “deletrea” (“spell it”); if you didn’t catch it, you can ask her to repeat it with “repite”, or even skip to another word with “no lo sé” (“I don’t know”).
You can switch players by saying “cambia a jugador rojo” (“switch to red player”).
You can change level by saying “cambiar a nivel intermedio” (“switch to intermediate level”).
If you’re unsure, you can always ask for help by saying “ayuda”.
To quit, you can say “salir” or “parar”.

And thanks to its multimodal design with APL (Alexa Presentation Language), you get visual support for each word (just like a real flashcard) and can tap the screen to choose your player, level and so on. Just remember that when you tap the screen, Alexa stops talking for that turn.

Why this skill?

Learning a language is a challenge when it comes to learning new words. Vocabulary is the key to becoming proficient in any language, but memorizing it isn’t a good method for everyone. And that’s not the only challenge: in some languages, the way words are pronounced differs from the way they’re written.

Based on the flashcard method for learning concepts ², this Alexa skill helps Spanish speakers learn English words by listening to them (and seeing them, if you have a device with a screen like an Echo Spot or Echo Show).

How does it work?

If you’re a new player, Alexa assigns you a color when you start (for next time you come back). First you choose your English level (basic or intermediate), and then it’s your turn to listen to the words and translate them from English into Spanish. Alexa will spell them, repeat them or give you more information depending on the level you chose. After your turn, Alexa tells you whether you got it right.

If you choose the basic level (around B1-B2), the words are less advanced, Alexa gives you more information and always spells the words when she introduces them. If you choose intermediate (C1-C2), the words have more specialized meanings and she won’t spell anything (except words with fewer than 4 letters, which are harder to catch the first time).

The words are grouped into 4 game rounds of 5 words. After each round, Alexa asks whether you want to keep going with more words.

Every day, Alexa says 20 new words in a British accent and you have to answer how they’re said in Spanish. We call this the new words mode. That’s 4 rounds of 5 words in total.

If you miss a word, in any mode, Alexa will ask it again later (after the 20-word challenge, or the next day) until you learn how to say it in Spanish.

Watch out for parts of speech! The words can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs… Remember: if your translation isn’t exactly the part of speech you were asked for, it won’t count as correct, and Alexa will tell you ¡casi! (“almost!”).

In review mode:

Every day you come back, Alexa starts with a review round (5 words) and then moves on to rounds of new words.
If you come back on the same day you did your 20 new daily words, Alexa asks the words you missed until there are none left, and then continues with any word she’s asked you before (infinite mode).

Up to 5 players can play per account.

NOTE: All vocabulary information comes from Oxford Dictionaries.

How do I start using it?

The skill has been live in the Amazon store in Spain since February 6, 2019, and works with Alexa in Spanish.

You can read reviews of Palabras Británicas here: bit.ly/palbrit-skill

To use Palabras Británicas you need a device that works with Alexa in Spanish, such as:

Without a screen: Echo Dot, Echo, Echo Plus.
With a screen: Echo Spot, Echo Show.
A smartphone with the Amazon Alexa app installed (download it for Android or for iOS).

After enabling the skill on its page, just say “Alexa, lanza palabras británicas”.

Want to know more about how we built this Alexa skill?

Take a look at the case study in our portfolio.

Help us improve

We’ll be adding features and new words little by little. If you have any suggestions or feedback, write to palabrasbritanicas@monoceros.xyz and we’ll do our best to include them in future versions of the skill.

And if you enjoyed the game, rate us on Amazon. It helps us keep building quality conversational experiences!