TangiLetter: An Interactive Vocabulary System for Children to Learn Words About Wild Animals

Word-learning is a vital process for children to form language, and it is the fundamentals of people interacting with each other. However, few studies focus on children’s experiences during the learning process, and most of them are passive learning. Because of the development of multi-sensory technology and intelligent hardware, we can create TangiLetter, a word-learning system that combines abstract language with the physical world. Through our research on children, we find that children at the age of 3–6 are curious about living things, and they are developing a native framework for them. Inspired by this, we propose TangiLetter, an interactive vocabulary system for children to learn wild animal words. By combining children’s language ability, motor ability, and observation ability to balance the physical and digital worlds, children learn wild animal words more intuitively. Children can pronounce the animal’s name and find the corresponding letter balls to get a related audiobook as a reward. It creates intriguing experiences when children are learning. In this paper, we detail the system design of TangiLetter and present the design principles of the word-learning system. To explore our system’s usability, we conducted studies. The result showed that TangiLetter could facilitate children to learn wild animal words, and there is a high level of engagement and willingness with the system.