BADR: A Talking Face To Teach Arabic Vocabulary Under COVID-19

Abstract

We propose an Arabic talking face called Badr to teach the language vocabulary for young students under COVID-19 pandemic. Badr is built on the previous talking face Baldi (e.g., an American English talking face) with many enhancements in interaction and words pronunciation. It can complement the work of instructors who can get tired and bored when teaching online for long hours. It can pronounce standard Arabic vocabulary accurately and interact with learners in natural manner. Listening and observing Badr improve the learners' ability to understand speech in a noisy background. We tested Badr with Qatar University students, and we show its effectiveness and usefulness in introducing smoothly new vocabulary. Badr can act as an independent tutor for different categories of learners including those with learning difficulties, slow learners, and non-Arabic speaking learners.