The Linguacuisine Project: A Cooking-Based Language Learning Application

In this article, the authors present the Linguacuisine app--a product of the Erasmus Plus-funded project 'Linguacuisine'. Linguacuisine is the third generation of digital technology they have produced, the first two being the French and European Digital Kitchens. Linguacuisine tackles the universal problem of classroom language teaching, namely that students are rehearsing using the language in classrooms, rather than actually using the language to carry out real-world actions. It also tackles the difficulty of bringing the foreign culture to life, and the issue of how to motivate people to learn languages. A significant challenge for nations worldwide is how to improve the foreign language proficiency of its workforce and students. In countries like the UK, the number of students gaining a qualification in a foreign language has decreased significantly, so the question is: how can people become engaged with language learning? At Newcastle University, a group of linguists and computing scientists have been working together for the last 10 years to design a solution that combines common interests of young people today: digital technology, overseas travel, global cuisine and cooking, and hands-on experiences. Because of the intimate connections between language, cuisine and culture, the inclusion of all five senses, and producing a tangible end product, cooking was selected as the basis for the language learning app described herein.