What’s your driving question, problem, issue, or need?

My topic is foreign and second language learning/acquisition, particularly the speaking skills.

I guess my most general HMW question would be: “How might we make language learning more efficient and less frustrating?”. There are many other issues I can’t stop wondering about, such as:

  • What makes it so hard for most people to learn another language?
  • Why do adults usually learn foreign/second languages with accents?
  • How can polyglots/hyperglots learn languages so easily? What about children?
  • Is living abroad the most effective way of learning a foreign language?
  • Is language learning biologically linked to age (see critical period hypothesis)?
  • How could a digital media help people develop such social/personal capacities?

Who are your target users / participants? What’s the context?

Maybe immigrants that live in New York, but don’t speak English fluently?

I’m mostly interested in targeting adult learners. That’s because there are many adults that really want to learn another language, that understand the reasons and purposes for learning it, that are able to invest time and money into doing it, but cannot succeed in it.

I’d love to investigate why this happens so often and how to help them achieve their goals. Also, I would like to work with adults who consider themselves “not good with languages” because of an unsuccessful and frustrating past experience with language learning they might have had.

Preferably, I’d like to target adults with minimal formal education. Speaking any language does not require knowing its rules and formalities, as I believe. On the contrary, grammar, verb conjugation charts, and vocabulary lists can make learners bored/less motivated.

Finally, I believe adult learners are likely to be too shy to go beyond their own phonetic repertoire, therefore it’s very challenging for them to mimic accents and pronunciation in foreign languages.

What solution do you think you’ll propose? What type of thesis project do you think this will be (designed media, research study, etc.)?

Because I’m asking too many questions, maybe a Research Study or a Scholarly Critical Inquiry Paper would suit best my needs. But I’m honestly getting tired of pure theory, so I’d rather focus on building something, hence I’ll definitely go for a Design & Development of Media for Learning.

I’m thinking about using Metacognition and Growth Mindset to rethink language learning.

When polyglots explain how to learn languages efficiently, they usually refer much less to practical matters (the methods, exercises, drills, and sequences of learning), and much more to the attitude one should have towards language learning (see: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], and [9]).

Is language learning a matter setting up the right attitude? If so, how can we teach such attitude?

As of now, I think my project could be a set of language learning exercises that shifts focus to the learner’s emotions (shyness, frustration), motivation, and self-belief, as opposed to all the purely behaviourist, mechanical software that is available out there (Rosetta-Stone, Duolingo, …).

What tools, platforms, resources, or other materials are you considering?

Interviews with language learners and teachers could be very useful in this process. NYC is the most linguistically diverse city in the world (as many as 800 languages are spoken here), which means there’s plenty of interesting people that I could possibly interview.

I could also study some alternative methods of learning languages, since they can provide insights on how to deal with learners’ emotions. I have studied The Mimic Method in-depth, for example, whose approach is definitely different than anything else I had seen.

It’d be nice to check out as many language learning Apps and services as possible, to know their strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, in Speech Pathology, there might be other services and apps that are both encouraging and precise in phonetic training.

What challenges do you anticipate encountering? What kind of help do you think you’ll need?

Focus: it’s going to be hard to narrow down my project to work within its length/budget constraints.

Megalomania: I must always remind myself that my solution will be simple and won’t be perfect.

Divergence: language learning involves a huge number of opposed theories, methods and beliefs.