I worked on the French Grammar with Professor Humbert during the summer of 2018. This project was a continuation of a project from the previous summer. I assisted Professor Humbert from the Middlebury French Department in creating a French grammar website on Canvas for beginner and intermediate French speakers. This website focuses on not only providing guidelines for the different French grammar structures, but also aims to provide exercises for the users to practice utilizing the different grammar structures.
One chapter, ‘Subjontifs’, has already been started in the past summer, and my main task was to edit and polish the chapter. I was mainly tasked with formatting the different pages and quizzes and to organize the site to make navigating the site easier. I also experimented with different tools to create interactive games and exercises on the website for the users to practice the grammar.
The project took around 2 months. First, I worked on formatting the different pages and quizzes to match the PDF documents that Professor Humbert created for the site. These PDF documents are also made available to download on the site. I also worked to organize the site under ‘Pages’, ‘Modules’ and ‘Table des Matières’ (Table of Contents) so that all of the page titles match and that the method of organization is consistent throughout the site. A lot of time was spent on experimenting with tools to create interactive games for the site. I used Microsoft Sway to create 2 games for the users: one with two stacks of cards (one stack for subjects, the other for verbs), in which the users can click through and try to conjugate the verbs in respect to the subjects; one with various sliders, each with a subject and a verb, in which the user can conjugate the verb, and check the answer by using the slider.
I met with Professor Humbert in the middle of the summer to discuss the progress of the site and the different problems I faced while using the site (eg. inability to organize quizzes on the ‘Quiz’ page, requiring a video feedback page, uploading audio recordings, etc.). I received feedback on the progress and was able to discuss the different potential solutions to the problems. After the meeting, I stayed in contact with Professor Humbert to regularly update her with the progress. I realized that creating a website required a lot of attention to details, as we’re supposed to pick up on the slightest glitches or problems that could hinder the user’s experience. A lot of the times, it was speculating the different problems someone could face while using the website in order to prevent that from happening.
This project is still ongoing. I was able to complete one chapter of the many chapters that are left to be created in the future. I will be working with Professor Humbert in the next academic year to work on the remaining chapters.
