It seems that learning a new language makes an appearance on every bucket list and in every New Year’s resolution. However, fluency is difficult – especially for second language English learners. Alissa Wolters, Ph.D. student at UC Irvine’s School of Education, observed this when her students at the American Language Institute at Cal State Long Beach struggled with English vocabulary.
“Using words in context is so hard, but vocabulary is directly connected to writing and reading proficiency and that’s what we need to function not only as a student in school, but also with our jobs, livelihoods and welfare,” said Wolters.
Wolters, CEO and founder of Maven, developed her startup company in 2016 as an app-based program that allows students and teachers to personalize language acquisition and collaborate on school assignments. Users upload documents to Maven and highlight vocabulary. From there, Maven generates various learning tools with automatic feedback – such as interactive flash cards and worksheets – to teach the user the vocabulary in context. Maven also automatically grades assignments so teachers can evaluate their students’ progress.
“There’s a lot of language learning apps out there that … are not developed by teachers or by researchers,” said Wolters. “A lot of times, when you’re using them, they aren’t teacher-friendly and they’re not focused on what has actually been found to be effective for learning vocabulary.”
Wolters’ expertise in linguistics and education showed her the importance of vocabulary acquisition and allowed her to support students without access to private tutors or intensive classes. She created Maven as a way for any determined pupil to successfully learn English regardless of their financial resources.
Maven joined the Wayfinder program in 2018 and credits UCI Beall Applied Innovation for its support and, specifically, Juan Felipe Vallejo, director of scalable venture incubation.
“Something that I’ve loved about the Cove has really been Juan Felipe because he has seen Maven and understood it,” said Wolters. “He’s a second language learner and, I think, just having his emotional support and having the monthly check-ins are wonderful because each time they kind of reinvigorate me.”
Through Vallejo’s expertise and network, Maven has connected with an incubator at the University of Southern California, has received monthly feedback to guide their business decisions and has been featured in newspaper articles.
In the future, Wolters hopes Maven will be accessible to all students, teachers and schools – even at the district level for public and charter education. Wolters also sees Maven as a resource for law, medical and engineering students who have to learn a lot of vocabulary in a short amount for time. Her team, all of whom are second language learners themselves, has also explored the possibility of adding more languages to Maven in the future.
Learn more about Maven.