An artificial tutor for teaching portuguese using the method of João de Deus

Abstract

Over the past few years we have been witnessing to an unprecedented integration of software applications in various domains. From simple applications in retail systems to highly sophisticated products installed on personal devices, we recognize the usefulness of these products in the daily lives of people, giving them support into their most mundane activities or providing simple means of entertainment and fun in their spare time. Similarly, numerous software products also invaded the education area, being so many and so diversified that fulfil almost the needs of a student. In a slightly more timid way, another type of software products has been appearing sporadically in some specific areas. In this strand, we included artificial tutors, which are very sophisticated programs that have the ability to behave like a conventional teacher. Other initiatives have included also artificial tutors technology in teaching activities, covering a very diverse range of degrees and levels of education. Younger students in preschool age were not forgotten in cases like these. Today, they can already select specific software products to help them in their education, assisting themselves studying or helping them in some particular topic. In this paper, we present an artificial tutor especially designed and developed for helping teaching the Portuguese language to children aged 4 to 5 years. Our basic goal was to provide to these very special students an intuitive way to learn to read and write Portuguese, following the method of ‘João de Deus’, through the use of a sophisticated computational tool. The tool intends to provide the most basic learning materials, as well the necessary knowledge and expertize that these students need to complement the education they receive when studying Portuguese, during a regular learning session in the school.