UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #934

Overall Research Project Description Title of the study in progress: Students’ perceptions of Duolingo engagement, gains and transfer to the L2 classroom
Mobile technology, specifically app-based learning has been increasingly acknowledged as a reliable learning support specifically in informal out-of-class settings. However, whether and how students bridge app-based and classroom learning remains largely unexplored. Compounding insights from several theoretical and conceptual frameworks (e.g., complexity theory, student engagement, and proactive language learning theory), this study seeks to answer the question of how Duolingo-based out-of-class engagement transfers to the classroom via learners’ proactive behaviors. Building on the existing scholarship on the transfer of learning, I extend the conceptualization of transfer as adaptive, and I seek to explore nature of engagement, gains and transfer to language classroom settings. Recruited participants are college students who use Duolingo weekly and take a college course in the same language and at the same level to satisfy their language requirements. I plan to collect and analyze multiple quantitative and qualitative data sources in three time-points over one semester. First, I conduct non-intrusive classroom observations of the focal participants. Second, the participants complete a brief experience sampling survey during or immediately after each of the three observed L2 classes. Lastly, semi-structured in-depth interviews capture forms of engagement across the app and the classroom setting. Conceptual and methodological complexity theory tools (e.g., time trajectories) and grounded theory (e.g., constant comparative analysis) are used for data analyses. In the way of a hypothesis for this study, I expect to capture the participants’ interpretations of experiences and key behaviors with the Duolingo app and classroom learning regarding their proactive engagement (cognitive, affective, behavioral, agentic).