Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Celebration Kolkata/Submissions/Language exchange activities using Wikimedia projects

This is an accepted submission for Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Conference. It has been accepted as a poster and the presentation time is Saturday, 10th January, 14:00 - 16:00 hours in front of Dr. K.P. Basu Memorial Hall

Submission no.

Title of the submission: Language exchange activities using Wikimedia projects

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop): discussion

Author of the submission: Anupama Srinivas

E-mail address: anupama.2312.bmsit@gmail.com

Username: #Anupama Srinivas (talk) 04:33, 6 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Country of origin: India

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal): One of the gaps existing in Wikipedia is that of the difference in quantity of content available in English Wikipedia and any other language Wikipedias. Russian Wikipedia, with the second highest number of articles itself trails by more than 34 lakh articles as of date. If there is a means to exchange knowledge of languages among Wikipedia users using the various types of sources available in Wikimedia projects, there would be an increase in content in the different languages that Wikimedia projects are available. If knowledge exchange happened through creation of articles in the desired language and reading of articles with the remote guidance of a person fluent in the same, incentive for creation and editing of articles would be more as would exploring the content of other Wikimedia projects in the language being learned. Images available on Wikimedia Commons could be used as teaching tools as could Wikibooks and Wikiquote, in addition to uploading material to these projects. The drawback of this approach if implemented successfully is that the number of articles in a given language could not be used to determine the number of native speakers of that language creating Wikipedia articles and hence Wikipedia's reach. One way to reduce confusion could be to tag articles created in such a fashion as non-native.For example, I, an editor of the English Wikipedia could team up with a French editor who wants to enhance her skills in English. Using French versions of English articles and vice versa we could exchange our respective skills. Wikimedia commons could be used to upload videos of the alphabet and simple words. The images available could also be used for pictorial learning. Our skills could be tested through article creation in sandbox and then in the respective language once the articles have been reviewed. A feature to edit articles in sandbox and make the edited version visible only to the reviewer, merely for the purpose of review would make it easier to practice the language in smaller steps.

Track: WikiCulture & Community

Language of Track: English

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long): 10-20 minutes

Will you attend Conference at Kolkata with own cost if your submission is not accepted?: No

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Anupama Srinivas (talk) 04:33, 6 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]