Supporting International Students’ Global Citizenship Education with Mobile-Assisted Language Learning(MALL): A Case Study of Duolingo Users in Southern California

• In Event: Online Spaces of Language Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

Proposal

Introduction
One of the primary ways that people practice Global Citizenship Education is by becoming proficient in multiple languages.With the rapid development of digital technology, Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) has become increasingly popular among language learners in recent years. A growing body of research suggests that these applications of MALL can be helpful for developing language learners’ language competency because of the gamification education inventions (Zainud-din et. al.,2020; Realinfluencer,2019).
Among the applications of MALL, Duolingo, for example, has been a worldwide language learning application since it was launched in 2012. It is freely available worldwide and accessible via the internet or installation on digital devices, currently providing users with 23 different languages to learn. Previous research shed light on the effectiveness of diverse language literacy or gamification education inventions (Loewen et al.,2019; Rachels & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2018, Kessler, 2021). However, little research has examined the definite effect of gamification from such MALL apps to help users gain transcultural fluency and social emotional learning that form the basis of global citizenship education.

Moreover, research exploring this connection, particularly among international students learning English or different languages, remains limited. These students face unique challenges of linguistic differences, cultural communication disparities, and learning style transitions(Ching et al.,2017). Specifically, the vast majority of international graduate students who pursue their academic degrees in the US are bilingual/multilingual learners. Nearly 500,000 international students from East Asian countries, such as China and South Korea, are enrolled as graduate students in the US universities (IIE, 2023). In spite of their strong presence, little research has been focused on their language learning experiences because most prior studies have focused on research that emphasizes international undergraduate students (Watson et al., 2020).

Given the research gaps, this study explores how international graduate students from East Asian countries, considered to be part of the Global South, use Duolingo to learn foreign languages to gain transcultural literacy and social emotional learning. To delve more into Duolingo users’ learning experiences, the study employs Narrative Inquiry (NI) to explore how the MALL app, Duolingo, supports the development of international graduate students’ global citizenship to gain transcultural literacy and social emotional learning. Additionally, California is a popular destination for international graduate students because of its cultural diversity. Thus, this study also aims to explore international graduate students’ experiences enrolled at an university in California.
In this study, the research questions are address as follows:
How does Duolingo support East Asian international graduate students enrolled at a Southern California university to learn transcultural literacy from Duolingo?
How does Duolingo support East Asian international graduate students enrolled at a Southern California university to gain social emotional learning from Duolingo?

Theoretical Framework
Based on the theoretical framework of Global Citizenship Education (GCE),
aiming to develop citizens with the knowledge and understanding, skills, values and attitudes, and behavior and enable them to live responsibly in a globalized world(Oxfam, 2006), this study develops and envisions how GCE can be sustained and developed within the application of MALL, such as Duolingo.

Methods
We use Narrative Inquiry (NI) as our primary method for examining the research questions. Narrative Inquiry can provide highly detailed micro-examinations of multilingual/multicultural practices and also try to analyze what is the “hegemonic narrative/big stories” while the “testimonio/counter story-telling” is a genre to be seen as “a response to larger discourse” (Cruz, 2012). Therefore, I plan to use first-person testimonio from East Asian international graduate school students to delve more deeply into their insights about learning experiences with Duolingo. As for the data sources, this study plans to interview 4 East Asian international graduate students enrolled at a Southern California university. All of them have been learning foreign languages with Duolingo for more than 6 months. Through interviews(1-1.5 hours each), observations as they use Duolingo in daily life and field notes, we can gain more insight into their experiences of how they learn transcultural literacy and gain social emotional learning from their self-narratives.

Findings
The purpose of the study is to (1) understand how Duolingo supports East Asian International Graduate students to learn transcultural literacy and (2) explore how Duolingo supports East Asian International Graduate students to gain social emotional learning within the framework of GCE. Findings from the Narrative Inquiry of interview data can help answer how Duolingo supports East Asian international graduate students enrolled at a Southern California university about how they learn cultural understanding and social emotional learning beyond language literacy to be a global citizen. Furthermore, we hope to understand how MALL works via Duolingo to promote international graduate students as potential global citizens to promote their cultural and social emotional understandings in detail to bridge the current research gaps.This study’s findings will enrich our understanding of how the MALL app, Duolingo, helps expand the limited sense of language learning to the diverse learning outcomes from different cultures and social-emotion building. Moreover, this study also grants East Asian international graduate students an opportunity to speak up for their great potential to be future leaders of global citizens based on their language learning experiences via Duolingo.

All in all, this study is essential to us because few studies focus on the relationship between language learning applications and GCE. That is, this study sheds light on how international graduate students from the global south learn from the MALL app, Duolingo, beyond language literacy and become global citizens with solid identity.

Authors

• Kathy Li, UCLA

• Nancy Xu, UCLA