Proposal
Conventional language learning is not a one size fits all approach that allows anyone to approach the subject matter easily; Guava believes this opens the door to explore two major factors that affect language learners’ approach to language, their motivation to do so, [1] and the environment in which they learn [2].
To phrase it like an elevator pitch, our project aims to help understand how we can aid learners by providing an immersive environment to solidify their language skills. At the end of the semester, we hope our takeaways include, having explored the way people learn a new language, having a better understanding of what motivates (or even perhaps demotivates) their learning, and what effect we can have on their language learning by using immersion to change the process and environment of language learning.
Language learning can be extremely difficult to grasp, especially for people who haven’t had exposure to additional languages while young [1]. Learners may especially face trouble in understanding due to how class environments or assessments are structured as demonstrated in [3], meaning alternative environments that address language learning in unique ways may be the way of the future for many, by offering more specialised methods to do so [4].
For any learning opportunity, there are motivating and demotivating factors that serve to encourage and discourage language learners (henceforth referred to simply as learners) respectively [1]. Finding a personal motivating factor can be difficult, but in the absence of that, perhaps lies the opportunity for a system that can support learners. Many first time learners may find themselves in situations where they pick up a language, but get stuck, or don’t feel like they’re improving, even when factors causing this to be the case tend to be ones beyond their control as seen in [3]. Learners need something to reinforce what they have absorbed, and provide assurance that they have not stalled.
Further, there is also context - where and how they learn. Conventional classrooms can be tough, stressful places some individuals may perform better in alternative environments, where they are at ease [4]. Allowing language learners to surround and immerse themselves in the subject matter, without the concerns of the impression of others toward them, or the imposition of specific values while learning… in other words, we want to explore the possibilities that can promote the creation of a safe, comfortable environment that serves as a springboard for learners, bringing forward the lessons understood from [3]. Perhaps stronger mastery could be gained by introducing learners to safe, controlled environments that allow learners to be surrounded by their learned language in this way, but not overwhelmed [5]. While our initial research was framed as having immersion in a language through Virtual Reality (VR), the perspective in this proposal aims to highlight immersion as a deeper concept, within the context of immersing oneself in language and culture, instead.
Many learners may have already been exposed to some amount of a new language but are unconfident or need to solidify their understanding . Our design opportunity aims to address the motivation and environment of learners, providing an immersive environment that offers a safe and rewarding space to allow them to solidify their skills. Immersive learning offers an opportunity to do so, as there are arguments that only by surrounding oneself with a new language can it come to be properly appreciated and meaningfully understood [2].
One facet of our teams interest has pointed us in the direction of using food as motivation. Because food is in some ways universal, we thought this would provide an additional opportunity of using cooking to help immerse the learner in the language learning process. This comes with some major benefits, that cooking entails ingredients, and by attaching a visual ingredient to a specific word, learners can make the association between an ingredient (or action involved with preparing it) with a specific word in the language they’re learning, which may be an opportunity to help retain their language skills through the active use of the language [2] - whenever they think of the ingredients, they make the association to the image in their mind of it.
Additionally, using food also serves as an opportunity to immerse the learner in the background culture of the language they’re learning… because they could learn to cook a dish from that culture, they’re building connections with it and trying to understand it further than if their only exposure to it was through learning pronunciations. By completing a “dish” and learning a language while doing so, learners have a clear reward for learning, successfully following a ‘recipe’ to its end.
The actual nature of the “dish” and “cooking” is uncertain for now… as is, unfortunately the language we will be using in the prototype. This is a decision we will be making only after speaking to linguists to understand the different approachers learners use for specific branches of languages, if any.
One early idea was to use some form of Extended Reality to create a virtual cooking experience. However, we have since taken a step back from the technology (pending our further investigation into the domain involving actual users and the people around them - this will be a decision later) and come up with two competing sub-concepts on how the process of cooking food could be implemented.
This opportunity aims to guide the learner through the focused process of creating a meal by getting them to ‘cook’, guiding them through each step until they complete a meal. As the learner ‘prepares’ the food, there will be brief pauses in the process where the companion (be it a device or application) introduces a new word for each ingredient or cooking ‘action’. The learner repeats the name, and matches what is displayed on the companion to what they are ‘holding’.
We hope that this portion would allow them to build an association - the visual, auditory and verbal description of the ingredient gets linked to each other as the learner encounters them together. Because the learner isn’t being held up to a specific standard and limit as seen in [3], they aren’t being pressured into having to understand immediately, and allowing the learner to pace themselves means they aren’t discouraged as their peers move on.
The goal is to allow the learner to dedicate five to twenty minutes a day of time to focus on their language learning. Short teaching sessions can be better for learning, because even if the learner has a short attention span, they’re not forced to push themselves to pay attention [6]. Having the learner complete a recipe a day, they’re consistently thinking of the language and how they can improve at it. Further, this approach would hopefully allow for the learner to be consistently motivated, always expecting the next recipe. Over time, they should become familiar with the language through repetition and refinement, as opposed to “hitting the books” and cramming knowledge expecting quick improvements.
The potential most interesting part of this direction is the ability to involve multiple participants, because the learning is being done in an allocated space and time. Further research is required before deciding if this possibility comfortably aligns with our goals however.
This system would focus on immersing the learner in the language over a period of time, as opposed to dedicated ‘cooking time’. Rather than a singular activity, the learner sets times they will be free throughout the day, at which point they receive prompts while they’re unoccupied and relaxed.
These prompts consist of several (one to three) sentences long pieces of background information on a dish. Through the day, there’s a sort of anticipation build up, as the learner finds out more about the dish, why it is popular, and how it has been approached differently, they learn more about the culture that led to the dish being created. The actual cooking process has less detailed prompts as a result… the user focuses on putting together the ‘meal’, so they can finally see what they have been hearing about.
This approach allows for the learner to be exposed to language more than simply through words attached to the dishes, but also the context in which the meals they make came to be, which is useful for developing a further, personal appreciation of the language and its origin [6]. Prompting the user multiple times a day instead of just once during the process offers the opportunity to build the learning process into the routine of the user, the immersive element here comes from making learning a normal part of their schedule, as opposed to encouraging them to allot a single block of time to do so.
The motivational part comes from users seeing that they’re slowly picking up things as the day goes by, so that at the end of the day, there is a feeling of satisfaction for having learned a specific amount of new phrases, words and sentences. Compared to reading a paragraph in a new language, they’ve absorbed the same amount of information, but in a way where they could come up with a story to describe what they learned, rather than forcing themselves to understand the entirety of the content in one sitting as they would in a classroom [3].
Language learning applications:
Duolingo
The estimated number of users is at 300 million with 90 different courses in 22 languages available on the application. This application gamifies the process of learning a language by offering coins as rewards, Experience Points and a leaderboard. In addition, the Duolingo Owl prompts and reminders users to keep using the app through push notifications. This has become unintentionally problematic with users feeling threatened by the owl. In addition, the delivery of content is mainly text-based and not as easily applicable for users to use their skills in other contexts at first.
Memrise
This application depicts progress of the user through the metaphor of planting a tree. Memrise has 35 million registered users with official courses in 16 different languages. The main technique that memrise uses is spaced repetition by cycling through flashcards with an increased interval between revision of certain words. This has been proven to be an effective method to help retain knowledge, so it is a useful consideration for our problem space.
A limitation of memrise is that the courses are also text-based only, meaning that users could advance their way through learning a language without ever having to speak it aloud. The problem of poor pronunciation also arises because there is no connection to real world application such as connecting the user with a native speaker, or getting the user to test their speaking skills.
Cooking applications/services:
Cooking Mama (Mobile App)
This application lets users do all the steps of a recipe to create a meal with the guidance of Cooking Mama, a bright and cheerful chef that encourages the user by rewarding with a rating out of three stars when each step is completed. With food as the motivating factor, Cooking Mama allows for the "cooked" recipes to be served at a restaurant. This allows users to enjoy cooking the same recipe repeatedly without feeling like their efforts are going to waste. This strategy might be useful for our concept since repeating a recipe and increasing the difficulty of the language aspect would help users better. Cooking Mama also has fairly detailed sound design which adds to the encouragement factor of the game.
Despite the application's educational aspect of teaching real life recipes, it does not provide enough detail for users to apply the recipe to real life. For example, a step that involves mixing ingredients does not specify the amount requires. This is largely due to the focus on the user to complete the action such as mixing, more than being concerned with the ratio of certain ingredients. Another limitation is that users are not given detailed information about the recipes such as cooking time, history of the recipe or justification of ingredients or techniques.The team’s current idea of how we could progress through the project on-time.
Who we are.
I’d say I work well in a team, feel more motivation to complete work when other people are involved rather than when I work alone. My motivation and commitment grows as my level of interest increases, so more interesting things get more of my attention.
There is such a thing as juggling too many interesting things however, I c an break under stress when extremely overwhelmed.
With this project I hope to develop and advance my design process, and understand the ethics and legalities of the research and development process.
I work well under deadlines and under the premise of having deliverables, and further, am multilingual with experience in learning a foreign language successfully and unsuccessfully. This will be good for seeing some pitfalls we could avoid ahead of time. Further, I have experience in doing work with other languages (Shawi, Gurindji Kriol) as a Research Assistant in School of Languages and Cultures. I’m also great at organising meetings with user groups and conducting user research!
For downsides, I’m easily intimidated by coding / programming software, and can easily get distracted by design / aesthetics, making things look nice over working well…
I hope to improve skills in prototyping with new form factors, there might be a chance here to make something really weird. Also, it would be good to have more experience with designing in the field of linguistics.
I’d say I can adapt to working on any form of technology. I really like to try out new things, and to learn new technology or even prototyping methods to see what I can end up with the next round.
Unfortunately, I lack motivation for writing reports, documentation is not for everyone. Aside from that, I have trouble communicating ideas sometimes, finding the right way to present something interesting can take time, and in that hesitation the conversation can move on.
Since I’ve worked often with software until now, I hope to improve my skills in evaluation methods for different types of solutions (compared to apps on screens) and prototype building, really getting into actually creating something I can hold for instance.
I have a background in psychology and some experience freelancing, meaning having minor experience with a lot of different fields. More recently I’ve had the opportunity to engage with UX Design, and look forward to pursue it further, to make cool stuff.
I’ve often been the only designer on teams I’ve worked with, which betrays a rather disgusting level of mediocrity in most of non-design skills. While I have some experience in development, even the most common software development patterns completely escape me. Even with design, I’ve learned to work around my (usually software engineering) teammates decisions until now - situations where they ask me to find justification for their outcomes after the fact are the standard I’ve come to expect as the baseline, expecting any and all design work I do to be thrown away once the group collectively votes it isn’t important otherwise. I don’t consider much of the work I do to be valid as a result, just varying levels of complete garbage. This is my own fault and issue, but is an impedance in team situations where trust and confidence in the work we’re doing is necessary to move forward, there’s a need to approach situations with an open mind and willingness to collaborate.
The difference between being in a group (a collection of people) and a team (a gathering of collaborators) is night and day, so I look forward to seeing how this courses open structure facilitates guava becoming one of those. I’d like to try to work on more tangible deliverables through this course (maybe even including making a physical device or robot companion?) rather than exclusively on background research and documentation.
- Experience from a variety of fields (software design, multimedia, linguistics, counsellings) with different approaches to learning
- Experience in learning a different language
- Deep connection / understanding of the learning process
- Commitment to the topic - everyone has an interest and motivation for at least one aspect of the topics exploration (cooking, potential tech, language or developing interactions)
- High level of support from surroundings ie. teaching staff
- Well travelled and culturally diverse
- Experience in a range of different games and their motivating factors
- Easy access to user groups through linguistic background
- Innovative new experience - unusual combination concept isn’t something one hears about every day
- No other existing attempts have the same group features - more room to explore and experiment as a result
- Wide range of audience (those learning a language to travel or live)
- Concept based on food - a common and typically passionate topic regardless of language
- Multidisciplinary backgrounds might yield a lack of commonality in perspective / approach
- Only one of us knows each language (more or less)
- Motivation versus time constraints
- Balancing workload from other subjects
- Potential workload spikes outside the project at intervals in the semester
- The lack of in person contact due to schedules and distance between members
- New product - hard to penetrate market
- New organisation - users have no brand trust
- Tough to pitch idea to users because many may want a short and sweet summary
- Limited access to all the resources as well as time constraints to make reasonably high fidelity prototype
- Difficulty of focusing prototype down to one chosen language
- Determining metrics to select one language over another
- Ensuring users have fun but also remain safe ie. don’t believe users to be experts in cooking thus bringing skills into real life
- If not on mobile, competing against the ease of access of mobile devices and the ability to use anytime, anywhere
- Opportunity to grow and learn a new language through doing the project
- Opportunity to learn new technologies e.g. Unity, a different form factor that we haven’t used before
- Target a new product - either hard to attain market share OR opportunity to penetrate the gap in the market
- Assist users learning a new language - either ease the transition into learning in an enjoyable manner OR could be intimidated by an immersive environment
- Similar competitors but not so much with a combination of gaming and learning aspects
- Ease of access for those who already have access to the technology but could deter those who don’t know/understand/own/realise the potential
- Can also assist with real life cooking but might be dangerous if users view their high score as real life skills
- Opportunity to gain extensive background/research knowledge to grow the basis of the technology or to complete numerous iterations through user testing methods to provide a highly interactive and immersive game
- Positive: Excited about being able to find an actual “place” to practice their new skills, the opportunity to use repetition to consolidate their knowledge is really valuable, people can have fun with the opportunity to learn how to cook,
- Negative: People might only be confident with certain words (nouns) but might struggle to construct a sentence, depending on the language it might not really help if the first language is too similar to second language, people might still struggle to retain knowledge (because it’s really up to the user on using it consistently)
- Doubtful: Users may find the game similar to those like Cooking Mama but with a twist of Duolingo. Trust would need to be gained for users to view as a legitimate learning tool that is providing accurate information.
[1] S. Course, “Motivation for Language Learning: After All We Have Been Studying These since Primary School,” Int. J. Lang. Educ. Teach., vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 496–513, Mar. 2018.
[2] I. Waragai, T. Ohta, M. Raindl, and S. Kurabayashi, “An Experience-Oriented Language Learning Environment Supporting Informal Learning Abroad,” Educ. Technol. Res., vol. 36, no. 1–2, pp. 179–189, 2013.
[3] Kristen Sullivan, “Reconsidering the Assessment of Self-Regulated Learning in Foreign Language Courses,” Stud. Self-Access Learn. J., vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 443–459, 2014.
[4] K. Schwienhorst, “The ‘third place’ – virtual reality applications for second language learning,” ReCALL, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 118–126, May 1998.
[5] S. Kavanagh, A. Luxton-Reilly, B. Wuensche, and B. Plimmer, “A Systematic Review of Virtual Reality in Education,” Themes Sci. Technol. Educ., vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 85–119, 2017.
[6] K. Csizér and P. J. Kormos, “The Relationship of Intercultural Contact and Language Learning Motivation among Hungarian Students of English and German,” J. Multiling. Multicult. Dev., vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 30–48, Jan. 2008.