For Educators in the Philippines:

Tagalog as a Learning Tool for Artificial Intelligence

Introduction
Tagalog has a unique resource in today’s world of technology because it has the use of
Focus/Attention. Attention is presently being in artificial intelligence for application in
translation written text as a well for applications in image analysis. A very basic example of how
a computer can read by means of attention is presented and how it ties into attention in
Tagalog. In terms of early learning, a student may gain an appreciation of reading in terms of
how computers are attempting to do what people are already capable of doing. Most of all, it
can allow teachers to introduce computer science in a way that encourages language arts skills
plus presents to students that existing communication skills in Tagalog a resource for learning
about new technology.

How can a computer read a book?

To summarize the state of the art of technology addressing this technology, one approach is
by finding the key words in a sentence that give the main idea of the sentence. Essentially, the
approach is attention to key words. With word order, a sentence is not necessarily a sequence
of words where word for word translation gives the exact meaning of the sentence. However,
key words can give the main idea even if the words are not in a specific sequence.

There are languages that have been in use for ages where this approach is already in use in
terms of the construction of a sentence. The use of Attention or Focus is found in Tagalog of the
Philippines as well in Formosa found in Taiwan. Despite the word order, the grammatical
markers give the information of the key words and their functionality. An example in terms of a
machine reading sentence could the following made up sentence:

Caught The Man Fish.

With the Focus/Attention mechanism in Tagalog, a marker is added which allows the focus of
the subject to be understood, allowing a machine to read it as:

The man caught the fish.