If you move here from another country, the best thing you can do is of course learn the language. Easier said than done? Not with POL, our personalized voicebot tailored to OKAN students. 

OKAN stands for ‘Onthaalklas voor anderstalige nieuwkomers’, or classes for non-native newcomers between ages 6 and 18 who have not yet mastered Dutch. The goal is to support them and make their learning experience more enjoyable. We partnered with D-Teach and KU Leuven’s Centrum voor Taal en Onderwijs to do that! Currently, we are in the testing phase of POL, and we would love to share you a little bit more about him. 

Meet POL

POL stands for Dutch Talking (Praten), Practicing (Oefenen) and Learning (Leren). His goal is to help OKAN students speak Dutch and to overcome speaking fear. Many non-native learners experience speaking fear due to a deep-rooted desire to communicate or write everything perfectly, which is also known as perfectionism and of course impossible when you are just starting. With the help of POL, students get access to valuable speaking opportunities in Dutch. And because he adapts to the language level of the students, they can practice in a safe environment. Isn’t that a dream come true? 

How does POL work?

POL really is our dreambot as he knows how to overcome difficulties in a fun way. How he gets it done? Well, to make it fun, we focused on engaging OKAN youth by considering the subjects they are interested in. And the icing on the cake: they can also upload pictures to engage the conversation with POL about their favorite topics. This way, they get the chance to practice their Dutch on topics they like. We believe that discussing topics they like makes practicing Dutch more enjoyable for them. That’s why POL proposes them different topics to talk about.

POL focuses on conversational speech and more specifically on recognizing the right sounds when building a sentence. He can explicitly point out and correct mistakes. POL provides hints, facts and tips. Don’t you just love that?! He really is a dreambo(a)t.  

And to make sure OKAN students like POL, we asked them what they would like their ideal voicebot to look like.   

POL, we’ve been thinking of you

Siri search for ‘Thinking of you’ by Katy Perry. Just kidding, back to business! So, you might ask yourself how POL became POL. Well, it’s been a long process and still is! 

We are thrilled by the level of engagement of everyone in this project. And in order for POL to become concrete, we have extensively brainstormed with teachers and students on what the ideal chatbot could look like. To get closer to the prototype we also visited different schools to ask students and teachers about POL. More about it here.

After all of this, we were ready to work out POL and test out a first prototype of him. Exciting!

POL, are you for real?

So, we recently introduced a prototype of POL to OKAN students in Mechelen for the first time. The students tested POL and provided us with valuable feedback. Their feedback was constructive and provided us with insights on how to enhance POL as a final product. Throughout the first ever testing, we saw smiles and laughter, which made us happy. Seeing students enjoy speaking Dutch is really what we go for. Curious about their feedback?

• Overall students had a great experience when using the application and repeatedly stated that they found POL funny. 
• They found the application an added value, as it allows them to practice speaking in particular, which is something they do not find in other applications. 
• The students liked the fact that they can say anything to POL. As a result, they dared to say and express everything in Dutch without fear of being judged. POL represented a safe environment for these students to practice in.
• They also gave us feedback on how we could make POL even more user-friendly. This showed that voice recordings, for example, are better stopped automatically rather than manually. 

As you can see, POL is increasingly going from an idea to something concrete. The next step?  Focusing on developing a new prototype to be ready by August to test it with learners in the earliest stage of literacy from OKAN classes. If you are an OKAN teacher with OKAN students in the earliest stage of literacy and interested in contributing to this project, please reach out to us. Also stay tuned for POL’s adventures and make sure to follow us on LinkedIn!