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From Research to Case Study: Presenting the Project and gathering Feedback.

Lindsay Final Major Project, FMP: Phase 2, Self Reflection, Work-In-Progress 0 Comments

The final deliverable for this second phase was to put together a case study and present it to a number of designers working in various creative fields. Like I said in previous posts, I bounced off slightly between target audiences, reason being that I was looking for that audience that is narrow enough to focus but at the same time, it can substantiate my project enough. Hence why I went for expatriate families.

The task at hand was relatively straight forward. My problem was how to present the information in a way that is concise and understandable. I had been reading numerous articles, and very often when it came to language learning, the article discussed specific teaching methods and/or how teaching languages has evolved. Separately, I was also looking at data relation to population growth, education surveys and even population distribution to get a clearer picture of how Malta’s demographic was changing as well as articles and data related to language evolution and diminishing languages.

As it turned out, I was not the only one with this issue in my cohort. In fact, we had a discussion on how we are going to present our case studies in one of our peer meetings, and by the end of it, we came up with a framework that we can use. That session had helped me a lot in putting my presentation together.

Putting Together the Presentation

Below you can find the complete presentation of my case study. You can also read more about it here. In a nutshell, I wanted to show the research I did so far, including language learning benefits, the aims, objective, as well as some numbers to help in consolidating what I was saying in my presentation.

Following the proposal submission and feedback, i revised the title to target more expatriate families and focus more on the Maltese language.
As Malta has a very small population, the Maltese language has similar traits to that of a minority language, so even though it is spoken very actively in the country, there is still an underlying risk of it diminishing. In addition, the expatriate population has increased exponentially in the last five years or so, making the Island more linguistically diverse. Apart from that, I also find that language learning is beneficial, and would like to see more expats engaging with the Maltese language.
This project was inspired by a conversation I had with a colleague who is an expatriate and a mother of a six-year-old. I remember the conversation being about how her son was learning Maltese and some issues that he came across as he was still learning and she did not know the language...
From the research i did so far I have learned that the EU recommends that every EU citizen should learn two other languages, besides their mother tongue. Benefits of this include more employable opportunities and socual inclusion. In addition to this, learning a lnaguage preserve also the culture of that languages.
I have also looked at some numbers. I was surprised to see that the percentage of expat children is quite high in comparison to the total child population of Malta. In addition, although not as high as expected, there is a small number percentage of population that are willing to learn more even after finishing school. On a different note, as already mentioned, Malta is becoming more linguistically diverse: in fact there are 5 languages that are spoken by at least 1000 people at different degrees. These are Maltese, English, Italian, French and Arabic.
It is also worth noting that Malta has two official languages. Some languages are also more dominant than in others, for various factors (certain expats settling in specific areas etc), and as I mentioned already, Malta is becoming very linguistically diverse.
The idea is to create a tool that promotes the Maltese language to expatriate families. It is primarly aimed towards the parents, but it is something to be used with the children. So it can be said that the tool is to be used by the whole family unit.
The objective of this project is to in fact come up with an innovative solution that will make expats more interested in the Maltese language. Ideally it would instil a will to learn it, however, if the end product gets them to engage more, it is already a success. As collaboration and knowledge sharing have proven to benefit language learning in the classroom, the same concept can be tailored to fit the home environment.
I concluded this presentation with this quote, as we are living in the most linguistically diverse continent. In fact, Europe makes up only 7% of the world's population, yet 3% of the world's languages are found in this continent alone.

The Feedback

I was pleased with the response I got from the panel. The question they posed to me was how I bring it back to my practice i.e. Graphic Design. It was something that I was expecting to be fair, as it stands to reason that I would have an idea of what the outcome will be, which is something that I need to decide. The idea of starting off with the children as they learn the language quicker was welcomed and the panel agreed with that statement. Also, one of the designers in the panel mention YOTO – it is a toy where is it a story-telling speaker for children.

Others suggested that I would reflect also on the culture and define what makes the language special. I was not planning to include the cultural aspect in the research, as that was my initial research question before I was asked to narrow it down even more. However, I think that exploring the cultural and historical elements that directly impact the language, I think it is a good way to go.

Joining the Dots

The challenged I faced these past weeks was to ‘connect the dots’ – combining the research I did so far and build an argument. This presentation helped in framing better my research question. However, I still have to sit and write that literature review. I have the themes sorted (you can read more here), now I just need to start chipping away and build my argument.