Desenvolvimento de um jogo sério para pronúncia de palavras da língua portuguesa: um estudo de caso a estudantes com deficiência intelectual

Abstract

Serious games, in addition to providing entertainment, primarily aim to engage students in the learning process of a specific subject. However, few serious games in the literature incorporate speech recognition. Speech recognition is a significant tool in rehabilitation, as it allows individuals to improve their pronunciation skills in a particular language. Due to the limited number of serious games utilizing speech recognition, this study developed a serious game, SpeakSneak, aimed at teaching the pronunciation of Portuguese words. The adopted methodology included requirements gathering, game creation, development environment testing, game application, and result analysis. The game features three themes related to Sustainability, Financial Education, and Healthy Eating. For each theme, fifteen words classified as either easy or difficult were defined. The validation of a word’s classification was performed by teachers from the institution where the game was implemented. The educational institution caters to students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities, and twenty-five students with such disabilities participated in the experiment. The results demonstrated that the application succeeded not only in promoting digital and educational inclusion but also in training the pronunciation of some words for both literate and illiterate students. Although the majority of the pronounced words and speech attempts were made by literate students, illiterate students also actively participated, accounting for 43.9% of the spoken words and 40.4% of the attempts, thanks to multimedia elements such as images and voice synthesis.