Phillip Kosetatino
The Samoan Language Toolkit
Partner: ĀKAU
Front View.
Right Side View.
Birds Eye view.

The Samoan language is mild and soft-spoken. The language is spoken in many islands, specifically western and American Samoa, and countries like Australia and New Zealand. However, it is facing a massive decline. This decline is clear in day-to-day interactions and statistics shown in New Zealand.

The Samoan language is the second most spoken language in Auckland and the third most spoken language overall in New Zealand. Nevertheless, although the language is used often, more than half of Samoans in New Zealand cannot speak their native tongue. This is due to many limiting factors within the educational systems surrounding the accessibility of the Samoan language.

This toolkit is a board game. The game has cards with Samoan phrases, boxes that light up and produce vowel sounds simultaneously, and letter pieces for players to use as visual cues. Players simply draw a card featuring a Samoan phrase. The phrase, however, has a word that has its vowels replaced by coloured circles. Players must then press the buttons on the boxes to mix and match the boxes' colours to the colours shown on the card. While the colour is found, the player must listen to the vowel sound from the box and then attempt to pronounce it with the consonant shown on the card. The letter pieces are optional and only offer a visual aid of the possible word the player may need to pronounce.

This board game provides a stable foundation for learning the Samoan language. As a result, it will create a system that removes barriers when Samoans decide to progress to higher levels of education, allowing them to indulge in learning fully.

Front View.