Multilingual Monty
Context
Missions with Monty is currently funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, focusing on research initiatives that support multilingual learners' reading comprehension and science learning.
About 10% of students across the US are multilingual learners, totaling to about 5 million students. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data demonstrates that multilingual learners perform significantly below native-English speakers on tests of reading comprehension and science. Missions with Monty seeks to address this inequity with an engaging GBLE that addresses the needs of multilingual learners.
Project Goals:
1. Examine how to best support 5th grade multilingual learners' comprehension skills and science learning within a game-based environment.
2. Develop an engaging technology that best addresses the needs of multilingual learners for reading comprehension and science learning.
Research Questions
Throughout the process of developing the project, we keep multiple research questions in mind to stay on track and examine how to best support 5th grade Spanish-speaking multilingual learners
1. How do language scaffolds impact ML students' reading comprehension skills?
2. How to effectively provide language scaffolds across MLs with varying language profiles?
3. What moderators (e.g. prior knowledge, language program, etc.) impact students performance?
4. How do enhanced language scaffolds impact MLs performance relative to non-MLs?
Key Multilingual Features
English Glossary
The English Glossary provides a key feature for providing context to certain keywords used in the science text. This along with translations can help provide Spanish support to students who may struggle to understand some words.
Preliminary Findings
We have been working with two schools in North Carolina, USA with 28 5th grade participants (age 10-11), 18 of which were multilingual learners.
Findings:
- Most students believed the game improved science reading skills
- 73% of students preferred learning the game over traditional instruction
- Students enjoyed exploring and solving in-game scientific challenges
- Mixed response on the need for Spanish translation, as some students wanted translation to support their Spanish reading while others felt English-only gameplay was somewhat sufficient.