Design of a web application for teaching the Kichwa language

Abstract

The era of globalization brought with it the increase in urbanization, and this in turn the demotivation of the traditional knowledge, science and knowledge of the indigenous peoples and nationalities of Ecuador, such is the case of the Kichwa language. However, the use of new information and communication technologies stimulated the teaching-learning process, adopting different formal and constitutive elements of the graphic message, which helped the aesthetics and functionality of a web product, to prevent and strengthen culture and acceptance of the teaching of an ancestral language. The University of Otavalo is located in the Otavalo canton, called the Intercultural Capital of Ecuador, for its cultural and historical richness, and for being the place of origin of the Kichwa Otavalo people. Taking into account the socio-cultural and ethnographic population context of the town where the institution is located, the objective of this research was to design a web application for the unified teaching-learning process of the Kichwa language, with a series of multimedia resources that allowed its visualization and listening, supported by the Educational Model of the University of Otavalo, providing an online pedagogical tool that provides the teacher with the motivation to teach and the student with the interest in learning, reaching acceptance of the teaching of an ancestral language, which identifies a nationality. The methodological bases of the study correspond to a non-experimental descriptive research, where surveys were applied to a sample of 70 students from the University of Otavalo, out of a population of 98, who study Kichwa I and Kichwa II. It was convenient for this study to use a reliability of 95% to calculate the percentile corresponding to the normal distribution, with a maximum permissible error equal to 0.05, while the estimated sample proportion, as there was no previous research that allowed to preset this value, was considered 50%, which also guarantees the maximum sample size. The reliability of the survey measured through Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient was 0.798, so it can be considered high. Thus, the result was the design of a web application to contribute to the achievement of a basic education in a clear and enjoyable way of the Kichwa language, taking into account that there are not enough studies of institutional scope on its learning and its teaching aids valuing the language and awakening the interest of students, as well as satisfying the demand for hours in the curriculum, according to the criteria of the university teachers.