top of page

REPORTING a THEFT:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​​

REHEARSE for an INTERVIEW ABROAD:

VR Tavel​

How might we make learning any new language a meaningful experience through cultural connections?

 

 

Introduction:

 

In our first milestone, our team defined the language learning problem we wanted to design for, and the types of approaches people are presently using to answer the problem. The audience we wanted to approach with this concept is young adults, but the concept could also extend to older adults due to our focus on those with developed brains. The concept will be applied in a comfortable setting, so users can feel relaxed while learning.

 

Questions we still have to answer when developing the concept further:

 

  • How thorough will we be when approaching languages?

    • Will we include the teaching of dialects?

    • Will we include the teaching of body language?

  • How will approach the testing of a user's lesson comprehension?

    • How will we inform the user of their mistakes?

  • How much personalization can we include when developing the experience? 

  • How will we incorporate the cultural connections within teaching a language?

  • And any questions that can arise in the future...

 

We were able to begin our initial research by interviewing individuals with multicultural backgrounds. With the research, we were able to gain some insight into how people have dealt with learning to speak a new language.


Within the start of this milestone, we will continue our research to get more knowledge about the language learning process plus retention practices. Then, we will move on to developing a more detailed design concept.

 

 

Study Design:

 

Initial Plans

We are planning to interview a few more professors at UTD, but this time in the Brain Sciences Department to get a gauge for memory and learning within the brain. We will be creating a survey to send to students school-wide within the parameters of language learning. Lastly, we will be conducting research about the short term/ long term memory, as well as language understanding and perception through online methods and academic resources, especially in Virtual Reality.

 

Executed Research

 

Interview 01:

Phone Interview with Professor Maguire


Interview 02:

*please be mindful of the informal quality of interview

Audio File - Interview with Professor Rojas

 

5 Techniques to Speak Any Language | TEDTalk

​

Milestone 2:
Formative Study and Revised Concept

Ayni

Another language learning system focused with finding conversing partners.

​

Study Results:

​​

From Interview 01:

*these are key phrases picked out from the interview documentation

  • Adults brains won’t allow them to learn like a child’s.

  • Most tools forget to teach grammar and sentences.

  • You may learn an entire language in the wrong manner.

    • Culture is important, but incorporate it without it being a distraction

  • Children learn so quickly due to proper correction

  • Memorization isn't natural

 

From Interview 02:

*these are key points talked about by Professor Rojas

  • Two key situations people will learn a language:

    • Voluntary

    • Pure necessity 

  • There are two parts to knowing a language:

    • perceiving language: internal language understanding

    • expressive language: external usage of the language (speaking)

  • A thing to take note of is that languages don't have the same phonetic sounds.

    • When trying to express the language, a person might have trouble speaking correctly because they can't comprehend the phonetics (it's not part of their language database)

  • The learning process and retention process are two very different things

    • Learning process starts with making sure the learner builds their language database

    • Retention keeps the user familiar with recalling from this "language database"

 

From TEDTalk Video:

  1. Make mistakes - learn how to make a sound structure you aren't familiar with

  2. Scrap the foreign alphabet - the alphabet doesn't teach you how to speak it

  3. Find a stickler - find someone that will correct you and encourage you to get things wrong

  4. Shower conversations - have a conversation from both ends with yourself

  5. Buddy formula - best [secret] language in common is the target language

 

Study Summary

We need to have our concept effectively allow the learner to build their target language's database. We need to create an atmosphere comfortable enough to allow mistakes, but make sure that corrections leave a powerful impact.  When incorporating culture, make sure it doesn't become a distraction but elicits conversation. And when working on incorporating retention practices, conversation is key.

 

 

Ideation & Selection:

 

Our ideation process considered mostly of brainstorming scenarios users would encounter when communication/language comprehension is required. These scenarios would then be translated into lesson plans for the immersive VR environment.

 

Scenarios brainstormed:

  • Grocery Store Trip

  • Directions on a street

  • Coffee shop or interacting with a cashier

  • Restaurant speech

  • Entertainment (movies, songs, tv shows)

  • School conversations

  • Small Talk at social gatherings

  • Phone conversations

  • Children’s stories/ talking to kids

  • Currency/ Price shopping values

  • Interview within a job/ business setting

  • Asking someone on a date or dating scenarios

  • Police or emergency situations

  • Introductions in front of an audience

  • Speaking with professor/ teacher/ landlord

  • Small talk with coworkers/ potential networking

  • Responding to an email

  • Creating a resume

 

We then tried to brainstorm other ways the lesson plans could be delivered in the immersive VR environment.

 

Delivery ideas:

  • Physical matching/ recognition

  • Conversational to establish relations

  • Responding back to a coach through voice

  • Reading something out loud

  • Writing over given examples

  • Cultural exposure through visual images

  • Music and dance

 

Reviewing Criteria:

The general categories that emerged from the scenario brainstorming:

  • Social

  • Business

  • School

  • Dating

  • Emergency

  • Writing

 

And each can then be commonly be filtered as an informal or formal setting...

  • Social = informal

  • Business = formal

  • School = formal

  • Dating = informal

  • Emergency = formal

  • Writing = informal/formal

 

We then selected three scenarios that varied between general categories and formalities.
(And we kept in mind if the scenario could apply practice in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.)

 

The three chosen:

  1. Responding to a text message (writing; informal)

  2. Prepare for an interview abroad (business; formal)

  3. Reporting a theft (emergency; formal)

 

 

Refined Scope & Concepts:

 

RESPONDING to a TEXT:

Refined Scope:

  • Target: Adults with developed brains

  • Environment: Transporting the user to unfamiliar settings while in a comfortable space

  • Activities: the learning of reading, writing, speaking, and listening target languages through the VR platform

 

Problems or Opportunities?:

  • How to accurately access a user's prior knowledge of the language in question?

  • What's the proper way to build a personalized lesson from a user's prior knowledge and needs?

  • What's the most effective way to acknowledge a user's mistakes and present feedback to them?

  • Where can we successfully insert cultural connections into the lessons?

 

 

Conclusion:

 

At the end of this milestone, we have learned how people see new languages, and how they go about to learn it.

When people know a language, they have a "database" for that language. Our goal is to build this database through the immersive scenarios/lessons that we develop. We know who we want to target with this concept and the general how, but detailed design decisions are still undecided. Though we have decided on a platform, we have yet to develop the specific appearance/interface of these lesson plans. The next step our team needs to take is addressing these design decisions along with answer our question to create a more memorable experience.

Concept Map

​​

©2017 by LangLang Learning. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page