BUILDING A BETTER LANGUAGE APP IN SWIFT Natasha Nazari @natasha_nazari

Why are you here? You don’t got milk. Info via Understanding Cultural & Human Geography on Great Courses Plus

AN ANALOGY FOR LANGUAGE APPS ➤ Good intentions + bad, incomplete, or outdated information = ➤ Three dangerous assumptions: 1. The more cutting-edge or technical something is, the more effective it is. 2. One size fits all 3. Culture & context is a side-issue ➤ Design aesthetics ➤ Bonding with friends, humor, negotiation, flirting — all context-dependent & culture-specific

QUICK CASE STUDY: WORD ORDER

EXAMPLE 1: RUSSIAN I play basketball every day. каждый день я баскетболом занимаюсь Screenshot from Russian Accelerator

Key questions: ❌ Will users actually remember the alternatives? (memory) ❌ Is it a good idea to present alternatives so early in the game? (confidence) ❌ Do users actually need to produce the alternatives right now? (production versus awareness, speaking versus listening) A COMMON SOLUTION: POP-UP FEEDBACK молодец! You can also say… я занимаюсь баскетболом каждый день I play basketball every day.

Listen & read the following dialogue. Pay attention to word order. Ты занимаешься баскетболом? Да. Я каждый день занимаюсь баскетболом. A BETTER SOLUTION: DIALOGUES

An app that teaches English speakers Chinese ➤ Problem: Chinese word order is very different from English (Who, when, where, what) & pronunciation is difficult ➤ Solution: Use English to teach word order ➤ Example: “I at 8:30 eat breakfast” (我⼋點半吃早飯） EXAMPLE 2: CHINESE Rewrite the sentence, using Chinese word order. I eat breakfast at 8:30. return space 123 m n b v c x z l k j h g f d s a p o i u y t r e w q

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1. Content & Method 2. Features 3. Flow 4. Test (Is this actually an effective learning tool?) 5. Fix? 6. Code 7. Test (Does the app work?) 8. Fix? 9. Release 1. Method (It’s Science!) 2. Features 3. Flow 4. Content (ish) 5. Code 6. Test 7. Fix? 8. Release COMMON APPROACH OUR APPROACH

EXPERIMENT #1 CHONGQING

EXPERIMENT #2 PRAGUE

EXPERIMENT #3 TAIPEI

EXPERIMENT #4 ONLINE

MOST COMMON STUDENT COMPLAINTS 1. The language doesn’t meet their needs. 2. No (or not enough) feedback 3. No activities that target pronunciation or listening 4. Repetitive practice 5. No guide on how to improve language skills 6. They don’t learn anything about culture 7. Impersonal WHAT GOOD TEACHERS DO 1. Take a functional approach to teaching & design content based on extremes 2. Give precise & varied feedback 3. Prioritize pronunciation & listening 4. Vary exercises 5. Train students by alternating between inductive & deductive methods, and linking skills 6. Cap off lessons with cultural readings 7. Build trust by being accurate & guiding users 8. Personalize content based on basic user information & include real people (5- minute rule)

TAKE A FUNCTIONAL APPROACH TO TEACHING

➤ Think in terms of situations, not individual words & sentences WHAT DOES FUNCTIONAL TEACHING MEAN? Developing content: Topic. Dialogue. Words & Phrases (8-10). Pronunciation points. Glue activity. Introducing content: Topic. Words & Phrases (8-10). Pronunciation points. Dialogue (Listening). Follow-up Activity (Writing). Glue activity.

GETTING & ORGANIZING CONTENT COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES - SELF-ASSESSMENT GRID

EXAMPLE: KANJI CIRCLE ➤ The app only meets the needs of people who are traveling to Japan ➤ It only tests character recognition — travelers don’t need to know how to write characters, or understand all of the nuances of Japanese grammar

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Literal Translation English Translation Здравствуйте! Меня зовут… Meet & Greet Formal Как Вас зовут? Russian Q&A You’ve just arrived at a tea room в Москве, after a long flight. You’re here for a Meetup. Let’s make some друзья.

DESIGN CONTENT BASED ON EXTREMES

WHY SHOULD YOU FOCUS ON LEARNING EXTREMES? Missing basics — or missing link b/w basics Wants simple & clear explanations Excellent study strategies Sometimes sloppy on details Wants variation “Worst” students “Best” students Solution: ➤ Start with details & gradually increase complexity, step-by-step ➤ Vary your exercises along the way ➤ Because it shows you how to structure the progression of content & skills

EXAMPLE Assume all of the vocabulary in this dialogue has already been taught. One of your students cannot understand it at all; another student understands it perfectly, and is ready to move on. A: Did you finish the project? B: No. I still got to work on it.

TRY! A: Did you finish the project? B: No. I still got to work on it. 1. Did you = /dɪdʒə/ ➤ you = /yə/ 2. got to = /gɒdə/ ➤ /t/ —> /d/ ➤ Examples: bottle, throttle, Italy, waited 1. Pick out words or phrases that are prone to pronunciation errors. 2. Pre-teach them. 3. Play the dialogue. Do a follow- up activity to check comprehension. 4. Give students more practice with the pronunciation points. (speaking activity, sound association activity, etc.) EXAMPLE

GIVE PRECISE & VARIED FEEDBACK (PRONUNCIATION)

我不喜歡⽜⾁ Tap on the characters in red for more practice. Possibilities for follow-up: 1. Show a video of a native Chinese speaker saying the character. Ask the user to repeat & record. 2. Let the user listen to the word or phrase. Ask them to repeat & record it 3 times. Grade each one. 3. Build sound associations. ➤ 不喜歡， 不要， 不會

VARY YOUR EXERCISES (LISTENING)

聽起來不錯啊。。 我餓死了! You’re going to hear a short conversation. Fill- in the missing words. 吃午飯吧？ ෱ᷧ You just heard a short conversation. What were they talking about? ܌ᷧ ภᷧ EXAMPLE: LISTENING FOR DETAIL, LISTENING FOR GIST

VARIED EXERCISES (READING)

౯ 我 ౯ CASE STUDY: CHINESE CHARACTERS

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ALTERNATE BETWEEN INDUCTIVE & DEDUCTIVE TEACHING

EXAMPLE: INDUCTIVE TEACHING Listen to the following sentences. What’s the pattern? мне нравится курица. Chicken is pleasing to me. (I like chicken). Я хочу курицу. I want chicken. мне нравится Москва. Moscow is pleasing to me. (I like Moscow). Я люблю Москв___. I love Moscow.

EXAMPLE: DEDUCTIVE TEACHING In Russian, feminine nouns like «курица» change when placed after action verbs. Я люблю курицу. I love chicken. Я хочу курицу. I want chicken. Я покупаю курицу. I buy (am buying) chicken.

LINK LANGUAGE & CULTURE

Чайная высота — Дом чая и мороженого Адрес: улица Покровка, дом 27, в арке без номера, Москва, 105062 Телефон:+7 495 225-59-96 Часы работы: Open today · 11:00 AM – 12:00 AM Are you a любитель чая? Do you love мороженное? If да, then Чайная высота is the place for you. This cozy лофт and кафе is hidden along a quiet, unassuming side-street в Москве. You can sample a wide сорт чая—three hundred- and-thirty-three to be exact—and an equally diverse range of мороженное flavors, the most popular being pomegranate, green tea, and pistachio. Their collection comes в all over the world— Италии, Китае, Японии — and as such, attracts internationals & international-minded locals. Russian Q&A

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER 1. What does your culture (or the culture of your target language) value? 2. How does it feel about… ➤ negativity? ➤ showing emotions? ➤ money? ➤ gender? religion? sexuality? age? 3. How does it define… ➤ success? ➤ being educated? 4. How would you… ➤ negotiate? ➤ flirt? ➤ tell jokes? ➤ bond with friends & colleagues?

USE BASIC USER INFORMATION TO PERSONALIZE CONTENT

How I’d teach it *based on native language* ➤ True friends ➤ False friends ➤ Weird friends ➤ Between each section: ➤ Break: vocab ➤ Application: read a sign CASE STUDY: THE RUSSIAN CYRILLIC ALPHABET

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