multilanguage glossary

multilanguage glossary

by Steve Trumble -
Number of replies: 7

Hi all,

I need to create an online multilingual dictionary / glossary for my school.

 

The languages will include English (main) and supporting languages: Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and maybe some others later.

 

Is Moodle up to the task of creating a dictionary where one English word 'apple' could be accessible in all the above languages. I dont want to have 4 or 5 separate glossaries.

 

I was thinking of using mediawiki or some other CMS but I was hoping to use moodle if possible.

 

Please assist.

 

Thanks all in advance,

 

Steve

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In reply to Steve Trumble

Re: multilanguage glossary

by Stuart Mealor -

As a simple solution you could add the Glossary definition in English, and use the keywords in the different languages to point to the same entry.

I guess this might be awkward if you have the same word in two languages that means something different?

If you wanted to use a Wiki (not sure how you see this comparing with using a Glossary?) you could use the Moodle Wiki anyway.  Stu.

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In reply to Stuart Mealor

Re: multilanguage glossary

by Steve Trumble -

At our school we have three major language groups: Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. All of them are trying to learn English.

So we'd like the dictionary to be:

English --> Chinese

English --> Korean

English --> Vietnamese

and vice versa.

any suggestions appreciated.

or would it be easier to use something like DRUPAL?

the reason I mentioned using say mediawiki is that wiktionary runs on it.

 

thanks

 

Steve

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In reply to Steve Trumble

Re: multilanguage glossary

by Yulia I -
I've prepared a presentation on this subject. Hope it helps
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In reply to Yulia I

Re: multilanguage glossary

by Steve Trumble -

Hi Yulia,

 

thanks for the slideshow. I can see some advantages to using the database. The difficulty though is that the interface is not as attractive as the glossary. I cannot see any options to create a skin (interface) that will have a glossary FRONT for the database I create.

 

At the moment I have setup a dictionary using glossary and then when I add each new word, in the KEYWORDS section I add a translation in Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese. Now when I search a word, I can search by any language.

 

THe problem though is that all languages show up at the same time (no button to select the language I want) and English is ALWAYS the main language. I'd like Chinese learners, for example, to be able to access the dictionary in Chinese and then get an English translation of the word.

I could set up an excel file in each language and then import into 3 or 4 different glossaries. The students could then select which glossary they would like to access. It would be nice though if I could link all of the glossaries together.

 

Any suggestions?

 

thanks

Steve

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In reply to Stuart Mealor

Re: multilanguage glossary

by Steve Trumble -

hi Stuart, thanks for your reply.

 

can you please give me an example of how to do this?

 

sorry I am new to moodle!

cheers,

steve

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In reply to Steve Trumble

Re: multilanguage glossary

by Yulia I -

I think you should create database. It may work as glossary but you cancreate additional fields. In your case it will be 1 for English term and others for languages you want to add. It also allows to import entries using csv

 

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In reply to Steve Trumble

Re: multilanguage glossary

by Joseph Rézeau -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Hi Steve,

The Glossary activity in Moodle is more than a list of entries and definitions. It offers the powerful feature to automatically generate autolinks to the entries in many of the various resources and activities on a moodle course.

If you need to retain the autolink feature, then you would need to enter your "dictionary" into a glossary. But... buidling a glossary or dictionary is a tough task, it is really a job for professional lexicographers. On top of that you want your glossary to be multilingual, which will stretch things even further.

If, on the other hand, you do not need the autolink feature and all you want is to provide your students with an online multilingual dictionary, the simplest solution is to provide in your courses a link (or links) to one or more online dictionaries - there are plenty available, in all the languages you need.

Joseph

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