Grasp is a digital tool that uses artificial intelligence to give scaffolding to students who speak English as a second language. It operates in the space between listening and comprehension, providing the structure a student needs to engage with high-level academic content.

Multilingual learners spend significantly more time completing coursework and struggle to engage with textbooks, lectures, and assignments to their fullest extent.

Research has shown that immigrants with at least a bachelor's degree earn nearly $20,000 more annually than those with no education beyond high school (Center for Immigration Studies). Improving educational access therefore has positive economic and social implications.

The purpose of this project is to explore ways that academic institutions can support English language learners using AI without encouraging academic dependency.

The solution to this is Grasp. Grasp integrates language support as academic scaffolding directly into a student's coursework, rather than functioning as a separate language learning tool.

The primary user is an intermediate English learner who is studying through a community college or university. Because this tool is free to use, the system operates on a nonprofit business model.

The primary audience is institutional decision makers such as ESL program directors and student success offices.

Research for this work combines secondary sources and primary interviews. Academic literature highlighted the "post-K-12 language support gap," where structural resources for multilingual learners decrease after secondary education.

Speaking with educators and students alike reinforced this insight. One student I spoke to reported spending six to seven hours completing reading assignments that took her classmates two hours. She specifically highlighted this issue's prominence in advanced subjects with niche vocabulary.

Overall, my findings revealed that multilingual students do not benefit from being held in remedial-level classes. Instead, they need better language assistance embedded within their preexisting coursework.

My proposed communication strategy draws from framing theory. It is key that this project emphasizes academic support and learner agency instead of the technology itself. This framing comes from the observation that the importance of the tool becomes diluted when technology is placed at the forefront of the pitch.

Messaging will highlight educational equity, student confidence, and academic independence to avoid the association of technology preventing students from thinking.

Brand tone will be friendly but matter-of-fact, using straightforward language to build credibility while simultaneously reducing learner anxiety.

Key capabilities of Grasp include live lecture translation, dual-immersion tutoring, textbook translation, and presentation practice.

Instead of pulling information from the internet, Grasp will primarily pull from class materials to ensure relevance and quality of materials. As this tool is student-tested, these capabilities are subject to evolution.

Media planning will focus on institutional adoption through outreach to organizations responsible for multilingual student success. These channels include communication with ESL program directors and international student organizations.

This may extend to presentations at academic conferences such as TESOL and NAFSA. These channels allow the project to reach the source of multilingual educational services, creating pathways into broader multilingual student communities.

Product effectiveness will be evaluated through a pilot study comparing students who use the tool with those who receive standard academic support.

KPIs include reading completion time, lecture comprehension, assignment performance, self-reported student confidence, and usage rates of the tool beyond the pilot timeline. These measures will allow institutions to determine whether the system provides meaningful academic benefits.

By reframing language learning as academic scaffolding embedded within coursework, this project proposes an approach to reducing the barriers multilingual learners face in higher education.