We Speak! 

We Speak Kiingereza: Tanzania (May 2024)

Getting to understand the context.

I went to Tanzania and worked with teachers to create an English learning game to address language barriers: Swahili is the primary school language of instruction (LOI), and in secondary school it's English. But since these are the mother tongue of just 10% of Tanzanians, English is most people's third language. I aimed the game for the start of secondary school, when the LOI transition takes place - 1 in 17 students at this age drop out of school (Tanzanian President's Office).

Much of my visit was technology-focused, so I originally envisioned making a digital game. But spending time in schools and in town made me realize that an internet-based solution may not work.

Design Decision: Although the schools have wi-fi and computers, power and internet are unreliable. A board game provides an uninterrupted learning experience.

Continuing to Improve the Game Experience

We Speak! has since expanded into new classrooms in new contexts! My goal is to make sure it's as quick, easy, and affordable as possible to get the game in front of new students while still meeting each teacher's individual needs.

Design Decision: Minimize translation content to easily adapt to new languages.

Design Decision: Write content so that teaching is bidirectional. For example, once content is translated into Turkish, the game can teach both Turkish and English.

But, the question still remains on how teachers can best manage and present their content. From working with new partners in India, I saw that not all exercise types on cards (a design decision from Kenya) are a fit for every classroom. In May 2026, Chop Luk, Mar Turner, and Dr. Jennifer Olson went to Tanzania and explored methods from digital flashcards to Word templates to Python scripts. I also tried out the digital flashcards with Portuguese, Amharic, Turkish and English (ESL) instructors.

An exciting approach - hybrid analog and digital!

Going cardless for the exercises is a great way for teachers' content to be flexible and to reduce printing costs. The digital flashcard tools I tried out like Flippity, RemNote, and Quizlet all worked, but they weren't exactly what I was looking for.

In the ideal tool, there would be custom features specific for the game (like question categorization and game setup), easier media integration (images, audio, video), and a near-instant way to take materials teachers already have and turn it into flashcards. Plus, it should work offline so that teachers in places like Tanzania and Kenya can still have that uninterrupted learning experience.

So if the tool I'm looking for doesn't exist yet, why not make it? I'll be working with Imagine Software to do just that! Based on feedback from partner instructors, we'll create the ideal tool for the game. But why not push it even further? Why don't we create a play-based language learning community where people can come together to have fun learning languages through games?

Boosting the fun and the language learning!

While design and development of the digital tool is underway, I'm still working on optimizing the board game. In Tanzania and Kenya, students must speak English in the classroom. This means that even when they're not completing exercises, they're still speaking their target language.

But that wasn't the case in, for example, Portuguese (or other language classes) in the United States. People still speak throughout the game, but how can I get players both more involved and speaking their target language outside of their own turn? After all, per Michigan State University, 75 to 100% of a language class should take place in the target language.

To tackle this, meet the Bonus Cards! You pick these up each time you complete an exercise, and they incentivize paying attention and interacting outside of your own turn. They reward you with extra spaces for things like helping an opponent, asking for clarification, and more. I'm eager to try these out with my partners!

So, what (else) is next?

There are plenty of other big things in store for the future! First, I've begun working with the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs) at Michigan State to explore We Speak! in new languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Tajik, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

Throughout their year here, we'll play the game in their classes and incorporate curriculum they're putting together. In March 2027, supervisor Dr. Emily Heidrich Uebel and I will present at the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages to share the game and curriculum with other instructors!

These aren't the only new partners. I've started working with people from Ghana to teach English and Twi. This is a great opportunity to explore integrating culture into the game. To start, we'll incorporate the Adinkra Symbols onto the Mystery and Bonus Cards to simultaneously teach language and culture.

Keep an eye out for updates and even more new opportunities!