The new Tichý jazyk (in translation Silent Language) application will help social workers, educators and other participants in sign language courses to simplify their studies. The application, a collaboration between FIT and the non-profit organization Tichý svět (in translation Silent World), contains over 3,700 short videos with words and sentences in sign language and an alphabetized Video Dictionary. The application is directly linked to the existing e-learning system.
Graduate of FIT Ing. Jindřich Žák followed up with his master thesis on a prototype prepared as part of the bachelor thesis of FIT student Bc. Alžběta Gogoláková and the result is the application Tichý jazyk. The application is used primarily as a support tool for learning sign language for students of attendance or online courses organized by Tichý svět. With the application, students can practice and repeat signs and entire sentences at any time.
"Although I believe that learning with a "live" lecturer is not very well replaceable, the advantage of the application is that the student can play the video with the sign or sign sentence repeatedly and can practice it at home before the next lesson in the Tichý svět," adds the author Ing. Jindřich Žák
The application consists of learning modules, each module contains 10-20 lessons with specific topics (e.g. weather, seasons, family, age). As students kow more, more modules become available to sign language learners. The base of each lesson is a set of short videos where the lecturer shows a given word or sentence in sign language. The Videos showing a complete sentence are often accompanied by a short text description of the individual signs that form the sentence. For example, the sentence "I couldn't bake a cake, I'll throw it away." consists of the characters "I + cake + bake + failed + throw away." The application is directly related to sign language courses of Tichý svět. The possibilities for further use are discussed.
"I am very pleased that we are cooperating with the Faculty of Information Technology of the Czech Technical University in Prague, where a useful tool is being created as part of the master thesis and is being used further. It helps the non-profit sector and, in this case, our students to orient themselves in learning sign language," says Leoš Mačák, director of the non-profit organization Tichý svět - chráněná pracoviště, o. p. s.
The application Tichý jazyk is available for download on Google Play or AppStore as a benefit for students of sign language courses.
