Hardware Prototyping Of A Yoruba Language Tutor For Kids

ABSTRACT

Yoruba is a dialect continuum of West Africa with over 50 million speakers. The

indigenous is less spoken in our society because of the various trans-national

structural revolutions going on in the world today in the name of globalization.

Parents want their children to speak and learn English right from infancy and as a

result, many aspects of the Yoruba language have been watered down. Many Yoruba

words have virtually disappeared, and taken over by English loan words. Given to the

globalization of our society, it is becoming increasingly important for people to speak

indigenous languages. The aim of this project work is to develop Yoruba language

tutor for kids which can aid their speaking and learning of the language.

The design of the project is divided into four modules which are the power supply,

control, display and audio output. In this system, the 220-240V AC supply was

stepped down and converted to DC (5V) by the power supply unit for use by all other

units. Control unit coordinates of what the display unit will show based on the input of

the user and then gives necessary audio signal. The system is designed by categorizing

the basics of Yoruba language into different levels as lesson. Lessons levels are

converted into audio waveform using FL studio. A questionnaire was design to

evaluate the system performance and given to thirty one (3 1) users.

Hardware implementation was carried by coupling the power unit, the control unit, the

display unit, and a full wave rectifier circuit was design using four diodes (IN4001),

Micro controller (A TMega328) was connected with 28pins IC socket to avoid direct

soldering of IC on the board. The buttons was connected to the analogue pin of the

microcontroller from AO-A5. Power indicator LEDs was connected to 5V from the

voltage regulator with 220ohms resistor to reduce current flowing into the LED, The

implementation of the system was carried out using C- programming language to

program the micro controller. Based on the questionnaire 48% users rate the system

functionality very good while 44% rate the device good based on reliability, while

34% user rated the device excellent based on ease of use, while 49% rated it fair based

on audio clarity.

The project work has developed a prototype for kids to learn Yoruba language.

The prototype can be redesigned into a robotic toy, with moving parts to encourage and attracts the kids.