Mingle Lingo is a student-run initiative in which students teach each other languages. The goal is to empower students in an increasingly internationalised world, using a hybrid of in-person and virtual sessions. MingleLingo will develop an ever-evolving structure for any students to be teachers in their online bilingual pairing. There will be four main modules to follow, which cover language basics, culture, daily life and academics.Our summer goal is to develop a sustainable language exchange sessions’ framework, with student participants primarily based in Hong Kong.

After the matching process, learners will be given the Manual, which are guidelines for the lessons according to the syllabus the student is following. The section on Basics will cover the alphabet, numbers, basic grammar/conjugation, colours; The section on Daily Life would go through common words/phrases, food, weather, transportation. The third integral component of this programme would be to encourage Cultural Exchange, where both students could talk about social issues, current events in their respective countries, slang, pop culture and all types of media. Lastly, the programme will offer Test Preparation / Academic Support, where students will be given a set of instructions beforehand to better prepare them to teach the other’s upcoming tests in a particular syllabus.\r\n\r\nLesson plans are entirely flexible with a student’s needs and progress. The manual is designed to be highly adaptable in accommodating the proficiency level of the learner. All students will also have to read and follow the teachers’ manual given at the beginning of the course to ensure quality education.\r\n\r\nTo abide by current (as of late July 2020 in HK) laws to protect the community from COVID-19, all activities will be held online. Students will get to message their study buddy for tips, or have a simple conversation in the language they want to learn. As the COVID-19 situation improves, social events, such as fundraisers, will be hosted to allow study buddies to meet each other in person. This will allow both parties to broaden their horizons and socialise as they talk about current issues in person. \r\n\r\nQuality Control \r\n\r\nSimple 5-minute feedback forms will be sent to students to make sure they are pleased with whom they are paired with at certain checkpoints.

The website will be used to promote activities of the programme, and collect information about volunteers and participants. As this is a pilot run, personal networks will be contacted to ensure that volunteers are all of high quality and that they are personally invested in this programme. \r\n\r\nIn the English department, there will be around 10 students who are interested in learning other languages. In the Chinese department, there will be around 15-20 students who have the same need to learn languages such as English, etc. Other language departments such as French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean and German will have 1-2 teachers each to facilitate the potential need, which should be small at the beginning.\r\n\r\nOnce the initiative gains momentum and grows bigger, the Manual / Structure for Teaching Pairings will continue to be developed, a completely integrated platform will be created to facilitate communication and allow the programme to be more accessible and hopefully we will have built a community so be so robust that any student can learn any language at any level.\r\n\r\nIt is expected that based on a positive loop of continuous feedback, the scalability of the program will increase due to increased user friendliness and growing size of community

In our pilot run, principal outreach will be our website, Schools, tutorial centres, personal networks may be approached to grow the number of students participating in the Summer 2020 pilot.\r\n\r\nStudents and Teachers - Structure and Coordination\r\n\r\nFrom intake, the sign-up form which will be used to match students together. Students can voluntarily sign up to be a ‘study buddy’ and be matched with one. For example, a native Chinese speaker who wants to learn French will be matched up with a native French speaker wanting to learn Chinese. \r\n\r\nIn the sign-up forms, information such as the current education, age, year, language(s) they want to teach, language(s) they want to learn, and additional information (reasons for learning, experience, test curricula, etc.). This will make sure matching processes run smoothly. [The information provided will be stored in a database to match students manually, a process which will be automated once the project gets big enough.] Scheduling confirmation will be done by administration to ensure that the lesson times are fairly decided upon by both parties. \r\n\r\nStudents will be matched based on their age, year group and the languages they are learning, so that the programme is mutually beneficial for both parties. It is mandatory for all participants to read the language teacher’s manual, so each student can prepare to best help their partner learn.\r\n\r\nEach 45-minute lesson will be in accordance with the pre-set lesson plans. Students who do not have the need for certain lessons may skip them after letting us know, which will require both learners’ agreements. Lesson plans will incorporate necessary exam preparation and give both learners the right resources (ie past papers). \r\n\r\nIn the pilot, we will have students work from all four different sections of the manual, to trial the materials. Ultimately, students can decide easily for themselves where in the manual they want to work.

ITS Education, Global Citizen Capital, Better Together Foundation