The co-design of an educational launchpad for improving linguistic proficiency for students in French as a foreign language
This mixed-methods, design-based study examined the co-design of an educational launchpad for supporting transferable linguistic proficiency among adult university-affiliated learners of French as a Foreign Language (FLE). Grounded in Service Design and operationalised through Action Research cycles, the intervention treated language learning as a service journey in which learners functioned as co-design partners rather than passive recipients of instruction. Fifty-eight Egyptian adult FLE learners (N = 58; CEFR A2-B1) participated in an eight-week implementation organised around Discovery, Define/Ideate, Develop/Prototype, and Deliver/Evaluate phases. Pretest-posttest outcomes were assessed using a 25-point French proficiency performance test (FLE-PP) and an 8-item Self-Perceived Communication Competence scale (SPCC). Participants showed higher posttest scores on both outcomes, with FLE-PP means increasing from 10.22 to 18.36 and SPCC means increasing from 2.20 to 4.13. Because the study used a one-group pretest-posttest design, these gains are interpreted as changes associated with the launchpad implementation rather than as definitive causal effects. The qualitative sub-corpus of 18 paired participant accounts, user stories, and workshop artifacts showed a movement from a perceived linguistic wall toward artifact-based agency, with participants using scripts, visual maps, simulators, and peer support to navigate institutional encounters. The integrated interpretation suggests that co-designed artifacts and socially validated rehearsal may help learners convert classroom knowledge into usable communicative resources, although replication with a comparison condition and stronger measurement evidence is required.