Motivating Senior Native Spanish Speakers learning English through an Educational Game
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Date
2021-02-01
Department
University of Baltimore. Division of Science, Information Arts, and Technologies
Program
University of Baltimore. Master of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture
Citation of Original Publication
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Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States
This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by the University of Baltimore for non-commercial research and educational purposes.
This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by the University of Baltimore for non-commercial research and educational purposes.
Abstract
Many people believe that the younger you are, the easier it is to learn a second language.
This project explores methods for motivating senior native Spanish speakers learning
English. Current literature was surveyed with a concentration in language acquisition and
literacy, cognition, cultural and motivational factors, and sensory-motor
characteristics for older adults. The majority of existing literature focuses on younger
populations, so further research into older generations learning English as a foreign
language is needed. Moreoever, with regard to basic literacy research, the focus has been
on people in their native languages, not English as a second language (Bigelow, &
Schwarz, 2010). I sought to test the theory that senior native Spanish speakers would be
more motivated to learn English through narrative-based learning as opposed to standard
translation learning. I tested both education methods as used in Duolingo, a languagelearning
app, on my sample of participants and gauged their satisfaction and motivation
rates. I learned that subjects were more satisfied with the narrative-based lessons than the
standard translation lessons. Higher satisfaction levels are likely to correlate with the
participants likelihood to continue using Duolingo. Repeated and regular involvement in
language learning activities has been shown by other researchers to increase retention and
may ultimately lead to a higher likelihood of learning English as a second
language. Roughly 6% of the U.S. population, or 18.5 million people, are Spanish
speakers who assess their English proficiency as inadequate. As the baby boomer
generation grows exponentially each year, there is a growing market for second language
education geared toward older adults, and current free tools can be optimized for this
specific audience.