Samenvatting

Hutong School is one of the leading Chinese language schools in Beijing and Shanghai under international management. Next to providing intensive Chinese courses along with additional amenities, the institution also places students to suitable internships. These students also attend Chinese classes with Hutong School during their stay. To standardize the course concepts and learning processes, Hutong School recently published its first corporate study book and it is anticipated that further books and publications will follow. To make learning more convenient and modern, Hutong School desires to have a mobile app to be used as study material.
This report deals with the research that has been made about the topic of language study apps and provides first insight into the requirements for a future Hutong School study app.
In a first stage, the researcher defined the exact research topic and scope. He focused on teaching concepts about studying Chinese, but also on methodological principles existing language apps are built on. In an initial stage of literature review, important aspects about the Chinese language structure, the methodologies of teaching Chinese, but also other languages, the purpose and development of language studies apps and its appliance by students (users), followed by a spotlight on further digital tools like communication, testing and assessment tools have been analysed.
In a second stage, several practical research instruments have been applied. First, an online survey with current Hutong School students has been conducted to find out their opinion about such a tool and their wishes and demands since this is the group that will use the app. In addition to that, the researcher conducted an interview with the education manager of Hutong School to find out more about the methodologies applied by Hutong School and its current course concepts. Building up on this interview, further interviews with Hutong School teachers have been conducted to investigate if teachers would make use of such an app and for what kind of functions such an app could be useful.
In a third stage, the researcher contacted several app publishers and also tested existing Chinese language learning apps and reported observations he made from these apps to obtain an overview of typical structures and functions of such language learning tools.
The results have been summarized and compared to the theories and concepts that have been already elaborated in the literature studies to discuss to what extend the findings can be applied to Hutong School.
Finally, Hutong School receives a recommendation containing a requirements list for its future app. This requirements lists is divided by front end and back end development processes. While this research project answers the questions of the requirements of the planned Hutong School representing all stakeholders, the students, the teachers, the education department of Hutong School and app developers, it leaves room for more research, especially about further insight into app development and budgeting. The requirements list can be used as the basis for such continuative studies.