Auslan Tutor

Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children

About this app

The NextSense Auslan Tutor is a video-based Australian Sign Language (Auslan) teaching application.

** Auslan Tutor 2 is now available.

Download it at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.org.nextsense.auslan.tutor

Please note that we will no longer be making updates and supporting Auslan Tutor 1. All updates and new features will be added to Auslan Tutor 2

The NextSense Auslan Tutor has been designed to assist families of young deaf children learn Auslan. More than 500 Auslan signs are included.

The NextSense Auslan Tutor moves beyond the basic premise of teaching individual signs by including five corresponding entries for each sign. These five entries are:
• a photo of the handshape used to form the sign
• a video clip demonstrating the single sign
• a video clip of the sign used in a phrase
• a video clip of the phrase used in a sentence
• a text note about Auslan grammar that is pertinent to the sign, phrase or sentence

These additional features help improve the users understanding and use of Auslan.

The portability of the NextSense Auslan Tutor allows for ongoing communication opportunities throughout the day.

Key features:
• Clear and easy to follow learning hierarchy
• Over 500 signs, each demonstrated multiple times in single signs, phrases and sentences
• Special Auslan grammar instruction for each sign
• Auslan Northern and Southern dialects
• Sign search
• Auslan alphabet
• Auslan numbers
• Categories
• Related signs

The NextSense Auslan Tutor was developed by staff at NextSense, in consultation with expert Auslan users.

With thanks to the Atlassian Foundation.

* photos/media/files permissions: the app has resources (images, videos) that it saves onto the device, and needs permission to access those resources.

To better understand our Android users, we have created a short survey which will assist planning our future app development in this area. Please click on the following link to complete the survey. https://tinyurl.com/y7xayx59

Ratings and reviews

On one hand, it's a million times less hassle than AusLan 2 with it making me relogin repeatedly, but on the other hand, the menu system is illogical, as pressing the back arrow on the screen takes you to the top menu instead of the last menu. It works well with flip phones.

As someone coming to auslang with no prior knowledge, this app is confusing. It has a words listed by category, which is useful for an intermediate learner, but a beginner needs more guidance. When I've studied other (spoken) languages, my tutor typically starts with basic sentences to get me familiar with the alphabet, the sounds, and the grammar. In this app, a section teaching the basic handshapes and grammar would be incredibly helpful. Even the existing videos in a new order would be great.

I think it needs a lot of improvement to make it a good learning app that people want to use. first of all, there should be a ui that facial expression is included in the language when you first open the app. I only found this out by reading the about sections which I'm guessing not many people are used to doing. Secondly, there should be an auto replay to the videos along with a slow motion function so people can learn better. It's hard to do so when everything goes so fast.

What's new

NextSense branding