On the perceived usefulness of the localization of compilers in African indigenous languages

Abstract

There are thousands of languages worldwide but only some of them are flourishing while many face extinction. This leads to a situation where computer graphical interfaces are mostly presented in English even for users from other indigenous languages. This presents a challenge for non-English natives, hence the need for software localization, defined as the presentation of computer graphical user interfaces in non-English languages. The aim of this study was to examine the perceived usefulness of the localization of programming compilers in African indigenous languages. Users’ perspectives were examined in this study through a questionnaire based survey of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) students from universities in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. These perspectives were analysed in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, and it was found that localizing compilers in African languages is perceived as very useful by users, irrespective of demographic, cultural, language, and programming proficiency factors. The contribution of this research resides in the provision of new evidence on the usability of localized software.