What is my project about?

Broken English is a web-based platform that presents an ethnographic research about the lives of ESL (English as a Second Language) students and teachers in English Schools in New York City, emphasizing the challenges they faced during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. This research will be presented to users through a narrative that is developed in two parts:

Part 1: ESL school challenges during the Pandemic

Users will start understanding English as a Second Language (ESL) programs and the challenges that their communities (students, teachers and staff) faced during the Pandemic. Texts, images, maps, and short stories in the form of videos will be presented in order to provide users a deep understanding of the problem through different lenses.

Part 2: ESL reimagined

Based on the participants’ suggestions of the ethnographic research, users will have access to a toolkit with different methods and activities that can be developed in online, in-person, and hybrid ESL classes.

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How do I plan to do it?

I intend to develop this platform in two phases:

Phase 1: Pilot research, prototype, and testing

Estimated time: 2 months

I will start this work by doing a pilot research interviewing between 8 to 12 people, including students and teachers of two ESL schools based in NYC: New York Language Center and ZONI, which are both institutions that I have easy access to.

After that, I will create a prototype and present it to the participants to collect feedback. I should also do the work by myself to avoid unnecessary expenses.

The prototype should use two web applications: Story Maps, which is a free platform to present interactive and multimodal stories through the use of maps, videos, and other sorts of media; and Kumu, also a free application that helps you create system visualizations.

Phase 2: Complete research and platform evolution

Estimated time: 4 months

Based on the learnings of Phase 1, Phase 2 is the process of evolving the platform, including more research with communities of more English Schools in NYC. Updates of the application and constant testing should be developed throughout the process. This phase should also involve the work of a dedicated team composed of myself and three other specialists in the fields of Digital Humanities, Design, and Education. I may use the same web applications used on the Phase 1.

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Why did I choose this idea?

I have three reasons why I want to develop this project:

1 – As I was an international English student in an ESL School in NYC, I can use my personal experience and network to access participants to my research;

2 – It gives me the possibility of analyzing the problems and opportunities of the phenomena through the lenses of Educommunication, a field of studies and practices that I studied during my first Master’s in Communication and Education at the University of São Paulo. For those unfamiliar with this term, Educommunication is a field of study and practices related to planning, implementing, and evaluating processes, programs, and products that create and strengthen communicative ecosystems in educational contexts. It was founded by the Latin American theoretical currents of liberating pedagogy, popular communication, and cultural studies.

3 – I want to help ESL communities rethink their practices by providing visibility for the challenges they faced during the Pandemic and accessible resources for successful educational experiences.