Taalbubbl: A Social App for Learning Dutch faster
This capstone project addresses a challenge familiar to many international students in the Netherlands: the gap between learning Dutch and actually using it. Classroom instruction builds vocabulary and grammar, but the leap to real-life conversation is rarely automatic, especially in a city like Amsterdam where English is always available as a fallback. The team identified that what most language learners need is not more input but more structured, low-stakes opportunities to practise Dutch in genuine social situations. Drawing on behaviour-change theory and social learning principles, they set out to design a tool that could bridge that gap in everyday life.
The result is a mobile learning app that encourages international students to practise Dutch through real social interactions rather than isolated exercises. The app combines task-based learning with reward mechanisms and social constructs to motivate consistent engagement, and was later expanded to include a variety of learning tasks and voice input to better reflect the messiness of real spoken Dutch. Crucially, the team tested the app with an experimental study and also used it themselves for a week, generating firsthand insight that directly informed further improvements. The project demonstrates that the most effective language learning tools are not those that simulate real life, but those that push learners into it.