Before starting my MA TESOL program at PSU, I was a product manager, whose job was to collaborate with software engineers and business people to build software products. Although being a product manager, I still had a burning desire for English linguistics. I wanted to learn English linguistics, learn how to teach the language effectively, and research how to do that through a mobile application (app). That is the main reason why I applied to this program.
Currently, there are millions of people who learn languages using mobile applications. According to their 2020 report, Duolingo, one of the most popular language learning apps in the world, had 500 million users in total and around 40 million monthly active users. Along with Duolingo, there are also other language learning apps such as Babbel (10 million subscriptions sold), Busuu (100 million users), Memrise (60 million users) and so on. However, “the effectiveness of these commercial apps for L2 learning has received little attention from ISLA researchers” (Loewen et al., 2020, p.211). As far as I am concerned, there is no published research on the impact of those apps on Vietnamese, particularly those learning English. This raises two questions: (1) How do language learning applications help Vietnamese people to improve their English skills? (2) Based on the result of the first question, how can we build the most effective application to teach English to Vietnamese? With the knowledge and research experience I have been gaining and will gain in my MA TESOL program, I hope to conduct research to answer those questions.
I am extremely grateful to be granted the James Nattinger Scholarship this year. The scholarship has eased my financial burden and motivated me to follow my research interest. This is not only an opportunity, an experience, but also an honor that I will forever be thankful for.