E-Balikas: English to Ilocano Language Mobile Translator Application

Abstract

The tourism sector relies primarily on communication. Both industry practitioners and tourists must be able to communicate using a medium that both parties can understand. The purpose of this study is to create a mobile application that provides an English to Ilocano language guide for tourists visiting Ilocos Norte. The e-Balikas mobile application delivers interactive Ilocano translations for popular English words such as essential expressions, directions and places, and emergency and safety needs. The descriptive-developmental approach was used in the study, which also embraced the concepts and practices of SCRUM as a framework for building the application. Usability testing was also carried out utilizing the USE tool to assess the application's usability and acceptability among identified tourists to Ilocos Norte via random sampling. The application enables responders to search and translate frequently used terms and phrases related to essential expressions, directions and places, and emergency and safety needs. Additional features include a visual of the word or phrase, along with the pronunciation, and audio playing to allow the user to hear the actual native speaker pronunciation. The respondents agreed that the objectives are met in terms of user friendliness, functionality, and portability. With an average mean of 4.53, it is assumed that the majority of respondents were "Very Satisfied" with the application. The e-Balikas application meets the respondents' needs for English to Ilocano translations and also improves the English to Ilocano language guides, and they were grateful for the benefit of information technology. Furthermore, the application performs as intended, with a high level of dependability and security. It is also adaptable enough to be readily installed and set on a wide range of devices and it adheres to established portability criteria.