Tigris

2016 • Thesis project • Wuppertal

A solution for providing language learning tools to people in a new language enviroment.

What does digital translation offer?

When I began my thesis research, I wanted to look at how
digital translation can be used for new solutions in translation,
and learn what challenges or advantages it might pose.

Research

First steps

After starting my research with different aspects of digital translaton,
I discovered that people who use translation because they are
living in a new country, have not been primarily served by any
solution so far. This helped me to establish these invidiuals
as the target group for the project.

Immersion

Immersion is a concept to describe the phenomenon of being completly
surrounded by something. People who learn a new languge while
being surrounded by it face both opportunities and challenges.

Target group

232 million people currently live outside of their home
countries, that number was 175 million in the year 2000.
One of the main challenges for migrants is acquiring a new
language they often have little to no prior knowledge of.

Survey

139 people who were living in countries with a new language
participated in the survey. Originally coming from 43 different
coutries and now living in 12 new countries. Most participants
had been living in their new country for under a year.

Most people use Google translate to understand a new vocabulary

People learn new words when using machine translation and use their enviroment as a didactic basis

Most people don´t use the words they translate via machine translation

Individualized learning

In my research I found various academic sources that empazised the importance of individualised language learning. At the same time my survey found that people were frustrated with apps like Duolingo and Babel as they felt like it did´t reflect the topics and vocabulary they wanted to learn. Participants wrote statements like "They don‘t emulate real life situations." and "The programs can‘t prepare you for many daily interactions you may have.“

"A connection between the learning material and the personal life of the student
is indispensable."

- Klaus-Börge Boeckmann, University of Vienna -

Another insight was that participants were divided in the way they learn grammar. Half said their following a prefixed structure and the other half said they look up grammar they're interested in at the moment.

Surroundings as a base for learning

Users that learn a languge in immersion are surrounded by potential learing material, intergrating this fact into the eventual solution was very important.

 Challenge

Development of a system that helps a user in lingustic immersion to understand
the enviroment and to support them in learning a new language.

Ideation

The System

Tigris’ functionality lies in the cooperation of it’s three primary features, the translation engine, an
archive of user collected translation results for personalized learning, and a fixed lesson structure.
Each component of this system complements the others for optimized learning. Every translation can
be collected and used to generate a personalized lesson plan for the user. When working through the
generated lessons, if the user finds themselves stuck on a word, the translation tool can be used to
assist without stopping the lesson. If Tigris recognizes something the user has translated, or something
in the user’s personal archive that is covered in Tigris’ fixed lesson structure, it will provide the user with
a link to that particular lesson.

Scenarios

To better understand my concept and to communicate
it to others I created different scenarios with a storyboard.

Later I made a short video to explain
the concept on an abstract level.

Final Design

Water as a symbol of immersion

During my research process the use of  water as analogy, from the concept of immersion, to other methaphors  used when speaking about language learning experiences, was consistent. So I then decided to use water as a visual motif for inspiration.

Feedback

Based on this idea, the feedback in the App is stated on one level by lessons filling with water as the user learns more, on a second more subtle level the feedback is established through a gradual change in the background color. The user starts with a dark blue and step by step the color lightens up, representing a journey from the depths of a body of water to the surface.

Overview of the functions

Single words or sentences can be translated. Once translated, they then can be collected in personal folders.

Personal folders can be named individually, progress is reflected in the amount of water in each folder.

Folders can open up to personalised lessons.
Lessons are generated based on the words and sentences collected in the folder.

The user has the option of being taken directly to that lesson. If there is a relevant lesson in the fixed lesson structure it will be suggested to the user.

Translate

A single word entry allows the user to navigate between synonyms and
different parts of speech.

Tigris also shows the different forms of the word and it's definitions.

The user can see an example by selecting different forms of the word. Each word
is linked to an explanation and a matching exercise. The user has the option of adding a personal description for the word.

When a sentence is translated the
user can select a single word to be
translated individually.

Collect

The 'Collected' section provides a personalised learning profile that the user
can then use to generate their very own exercises from collected words.
Lessons can be generated as a text-based, audio, or call and response lesson.

Words and sentences from the folder are used to build quick exercises at the user’s learning level

Learn

The fixed lesson structure quides the user through main grammar and
context topics