ENACT is a free web app https://enacteuropa.com/ developed at Newcastle University, co-funded by the European Commission. Released in February 2021, the app enables people to learn aspects of foreign languages while performing a meaningful real-world task which enables them to experience the culture of the foreign language. With the ENACT interactive player, you can learn a foreign language through the foreign culture by carrying out a cultural activity. Learn Italian while you’re making a Venetian carnival mask ! Your device will guide you through the stages of doing the activity through structured interactive content, using photos, text, audio and video to help you. Use the ENACT Author to create your own favourite cultural activity in your language so that anyone else round the world can use it to learn your language and culture.

In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the project aims and partners, introduce the task-based language teaching and online interactive material design principles underlying the app design, and briefly demonstrate the key features of the ENACT app: the interactive player, the author, and the community. During the Q&A, we can explore ideas and opportunities for the implementation of the ENACT app in different contexts.

We co-designed the app with local communities of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, using EU grants. We explain the rationale for working with these communities, how we organized co-design workshops and the challenges and outcomes involved.

The app is now in use by language/cultural communities globally in that it has been used in over 150 countries. Moreover, the materials on the apps are crowd-sourced in that anyone anywhere in the world can upload materials in their own language and culture to tell the rest of the world about them. The app provides a free universal infrastructure with the aim of giving all languages and cultures an equal voice.

We demonstrate how the app works, explain the principles of app design, discuss the research we have done/ are doing in relation to the project and how we are tracking/recording impact.

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Abstract Summary
ENACT is a free web app https://enacteuropa.com/ which enables people to learn aspects of foreign languages while performing a meaningful real-world task which enables them to experience the culture of the foreign language. With the ENACT interactive player, you can learn a foreign language through the foreign culture by carrying out a cultural activity. Your device will guide you through the stages of doing the activity through structured interactive content, using photos, text, audio and video to help you. Use the ENACT Author to create your own favourite cultural activity in your language so that anyone else round the world can use it to learn your language and culture.

We demonstrate how the app works, explain the principles of app design, discuss the research we have done/ are doing in relation to the project and how we are tracking/recording impact.

Authors:
Paul Seedhouse, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Muge Satar, Newcastle University, United Kingdom

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Paul Seedhouse is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at Newcastle University in United Kingdom

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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