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Vocabees

It simply works.

Build your vocabulary now!

Problem

User Story 1

Sally, a Vietnamese software engineer with limited proficiency in English, aims to pursue a Master's degree in Sydney. However, she must first pass an English exam. She has a year to prepare, but is strugglng to find effective ways to enhance her vocabulary.

User Story 2

Nam is preparing an application to pursue an MBA in the US and is studying for the GMAT with a goal of achieving a 700 out of 800. However, in his previous attempt, he only scored 600 due to poor performance in the Verbal reasoning. His limited vocabulary was one of the factors that contributed to his poor performance. He is currently seeking alternative methods to expand his vocabulary beyond the use of flashcards.

Research-backed vocabulary learning methods

  1. Contextual Learning: Research has shown that we learn words effectively when we encounter them in meaningful contexts.
  2. Mnemonics: This method involves associating new vocabulary with visual or audiotory cues to help with recall. This can be done through creating stories, images, or other memory aids.
  3. Word association: This method involves linking new vocabulary with words that are already known. For example, they could be similar or contrast.
  4. Word families: This method involves learning words that are related by their roots, prefixes or suffixes.

Solution

Vocabees is designed to help learners expand their vocabulary using research-based methods. With a focus on contextual learning, mnemonics, word association, and word families, Vocabees offers a comprehensive approach to vocabulary acquisition.

Features

  1. Word family building with roots, concepts and their associated concepts.

Example:

Word family for 'sleep' with the root 'sleep', with concepts like 'nap', 'slumber', 'rest', 'out like a light'. The concept 'nap' is similar to the concept 'catnap', which is called an associated concept of 'nap'.

  1. Support for mutiple families per concept.

Example: The concept 'out like a light' can be a part of families like 'sleep', 'light'

  1. Ability to associate one concept with multiple other words.

Example: The concept 'love' can be associated with other concepts like 'romance', 'affection', 'caring', etc.

  1. Search functionality for roots and concepts.
  2. User account features, including sign-up and sign-in.
  3. Users can only access their data once they are logged in.

Techstack

  • Ruby on Rails
  • PostgreSQL
  • Git

Challenges

  • Refine the core problem to solve from the original idea abouta language learning application.
  • Design database

For improvements

  • Improve UI to be mobile-friendly.
  • Support repetition learning method.

Acknowledgements

The major part of project was completed during the 6th week of the Software Engineering Immersive at General Assembly (Sydney) instructed by Dido and Chris (CJ), who are great instructors.

Learning journal