These days I'm playing the latest edition of the fifa football series, and EA sports really were kind to language learner football fans this time. That is, you can select languages for each of the two main areas of the game: for the menu and all written features of the game - such as news specific for your favourite team, or the requirements of your superiors at the club as a manager - and which is even more important you can select commentators for every match you play out of 5 languages, among them of course English, but also Czech, Polish, and even Hungarian.
This game can be really beneficial for learners who like football, because they are more or less familiar with the situations which occur in the game, and they can acquire the necessary vocabulary easily during playing a match.
2011. október 23., vasárnap
10 Key principles for designing video games
I found this article randomly online. A Singaporean researcher worked on it! (: The article's really long, so here is a rough breakdown so you don't really have to read it.
The paper argues for the use of games in language acquisition. Giving several examples of the use of games even in traditional language classrooms. In one example, she mentions the use of a role-playing game in a chinese classroom, called Family Reunion, where students can take on fictional identities and achieve tasks like constructing a family tree, planning activities etc using the Chinese language. That way, they would be able to pick up the nuances of the language such as family roles and etiquette.
Before choosing video games as a medium of language acquisition, the researchers qualify their stand with a few points:
- Gaming environments should not be conventional foreign language teaching classrooms in a digital gaming format
- Language is used as a resource that players can and need to utilize to carry out various social actions
- Focus on the 'utterance' in interactive contexts.
Her key principles are as follows:
1. Failures should be just as memorable as successes.
Given that it is likely for a learner to make more mistakes than to get it right on the first try, it is prudent to make use of these mistakes as learning opportunities to ensure that it sticks in their mind.
2.Instruction should first focus on meaning, then form
In the traditional classroom (form-focused instruction), educators work to draw the learner's attention to the ways in which various language elements (phrases, word order, etc.) are connected together to create meaning. In meaning-focused instruction, on the other hand, learners begin with meaning-rich content and then work to achieve goals that are not just linguistically based. For example, students may each be given clues to about a fictitious murder mystery in the target language, and then work to determine the killer. Most theorists agree that one cannot learn language with only one of the two; however, trying to make a game by focusing first on form dooms the game to be a boring one.
3. All elements of the game, particularly communication and input mechanisms, should have a playful spirit to them
This is to provide a visual and/or auditory references to the target information.
4. Metalinguistic descriptions and terminology should be presented through optional supporting material, not as part of the core gameplay.
Metalinguistic descriptions and technical terminology can intimidate and discourage a new language learner. These can be kept as optional extras to provide additional help to the player, instead of a requirement to complete the game.
5. Learning content should be organized around tasks, not presented in categories
Learning in categories (such as 'red' and 'green' being taught under 'colours') may not be the best way to produce lexical relations and understanding. From the text: ... our curriculum should start with the question "what are examples of some foreign-language dependent tasks we want the learner to be able to accomplish at the end of this game?" Perhaps we would chose "being able to purchase items from a store." The game designer might then incorporate a task in which the player needs to purchase a red potion from a shopkeeper in order to complete the mission.
6. New concepts should be introduced gradually together with other content before requiring difficult responses from players
Language acquisition, being a long and complex process, does not demand that you fully master a topic (say, past tense) in order to move on to another. One can still use the language even before full mastery of all its component parts.
7. Assessment should be discreet in-game, not presented in test format
Assessment often neglects the fact that mistakes are often signs of progress. For example, parents of children learning English know that they begin by using the word "went" correctly, but then later, start using "goed" instead, generalizing from the regular past participle formation. Some parents might be alarmed at this and try, unsuccessfully, to teach their kids to say "went" again. Most, however simply find it cute, and sure enough, without any specific intervention, the child will naturally resume using "went" correctly again.
8. Consider the full range of gaming platforms available
Different versions can accomplish different goals, as well as reach a wider range of audiences. Hybrid games might also be possible, further enhancing the use of this platform in language acquisition.
9. Games should allow students to spend extra time in activities they enjoy and to minimize time in ones they don’t.
Simply put, people learn better doing what they enjoy. Those who enjoy manga will be motivated to learn Japanese, and those who wish to play MMORPGs with an English-speaking guild will have to learn to communicate in the common language to achieve their goals.
10. Where possible, multiplayer games should provide players with meaningful and distinct roles
Often, when put in the shoes of someone who needs to do something with their ability, the game takes on a whole new 'personal' touch, thus increasing the gamer's enthusiasm for the game.
------
Some other research on the positive influences the use of video games have had on language students:
"Mylene Catel (2008), a college French teacher, reports how incorporating characters from her French literature class into the game Sims 2, students go beyond the existing literary world and begin to author their own creative expansions of the narrative. German teacher Todd Bryant (2007) gets his students conversing with other German players inside the online game World of Warcraft. Rather than brief dialogs fabricated specifically for the purpose of language exchange, his students engage in meaningful dialogs with non-classroom peers in order to accomplish the tasks that arise from playing the game."
The paper argues for the use of games in language acquisition. Giving several examples of the use of games even in traditional language classrooms. In one example, she mentions the use of a role-playing game in a chinese classroom, called Family Reunion, where students can take on fictional identities and achieve tasks like constructing a family tree, planning activities etc using the Chinese language. That way, they would be able to pick up the nuances of the language such as family roles and etiquette.
Before choosing video games as a medium of language acquisition, the researchers qualify their stand with a few points:
- Gaming environments should not be conventional foreign language teaching classrooms in a digital gaming format
- Language is used as a resource that players can and need to utilize to carry out various social actions
- Focus on the 'utterance' in interactive contexts.
Her key principles are as follows:
1. Failures should be just as memorable as successes.
Given that it is likely for a learner to make more mistakes than to get it right on the first try, it is prudent to make use of these mistakes as learning opportunities to ensure that it sticks in their mind.
2.Instruction should first focus on meaning, then form
In the traditional classroom (form-focused instruction), educators work to draw the learner's attention to the ways in which various language elements (phrases, word order, etc.) are connected together to create meaning. In meaning-focused instruction, on the other hand, learners begin with meaning-rich content and then work to achieve goals that are not just linguistically based. For example, students may each be given clues to about a fictitious murder mystery in the target language, and then work to determine the killer. Most theorists agree that one cannot learn language with only one of the two; however, trying to make a game by focusing first on form dooms the game to be a boring one.
3. All elements of the game, particularly communication and input mechanisms, should have a playful spirit to them
This is to provide a visual and/or auditory references to the target information.
4. Metalinguistic descriptions and terminology should be presented through optional supporting material, not as part of the core gameplay.
Metalinguistic descriptions and technical terminology can intimidate and discourage a new language learner. These can be kept as optional extras to provide additional help to the player, instead of a requirement to complete the game.
5. Learning content should be organized around tasks, not presented in categories
Learning in categories (such as 'red' and 'green' being taught under 'colours') may not be the best way to produce lexical relations and understanding. From the text: ... our curriculum should start with the question "what are examples of some foreign-language dependent tasks we want the learner to be able to accomplish at the end of this game?" Perhaps we would chose "being able to purchase items from a store." The game designer might then incorporate a task in which the player needs to purchase a red potion from a shopkeeper in order to complete the mission.
6. New concepts should be introduced gradually together with other content before requiring difficult responses from players
Language acquisition, being a long and complex process, does not demand that you fully master a topic (say, past tense) in order to move on to another. One can still use the language even before full mastery of all its component parts.
7. Assessment should be discreet in-game, not presented in test format
Assessment often neglects the fact that mistakes are often signs of progress. For example, parents of children learning English know that they begin by using the word "went" correctly, but then later, start using "goed" instead, generalizing from the regular past participle formation. Some parents might be alarmed at this and try, unsuccessfully, to teach their kids to say "went" again. Most, however simply find it cute, and sure enough, without any specific intervention, the child will naturally resume using "went" correctly again.
8. Consider the full range of gaming platforms available
Different versions can accomplish different goals, as well as reach a wider range of audiences. Hybrid games might also be possible, further enhancing the use of this platform in language acquisition.
9. Games should allow students to spend extra time in activities they enjoy and to minimize time in ones they don’t.
Simply put, people learn better doing what they enjoy. Those who enjoy manga will be motivated to learn Japanese, and those who wish to play MMORPGs with an English-speaking guild will have to learn to communicate in the common language to achieve their goals.
10. Where possible, multiplayer games should provide players with meaningful and distinct roles
Often, when put in the shoes of someone who needs to do something with their ability, the game takes on a whole new 'personal' touch, thus increasing the gamer's enthusiasm for the game.
------
Some other research on the positive influences the use of video games have had on language students:
"Mylene Catel (2008), a college French teacher, reports how incorporating characters from her French literature class into the game Sims 2, students go beyond the existing literary world and begin to author their own creative expansions of the narrative. German teacher Todd Bryant (2007) gets his students conversing with other German players inside the online game World of Warcraft. Rather than brief dialogs fabricated specifically for the purpose of language exchange, his students engage in meaningful dialogs with non-classroom peers in order to accomplish the tasks that arise from playing the game."
2011. október 22., szombat
Finalizing our topic
Hi guys,
I thought it's high time we decided on the main topic of our project and how to work on it, so here are the questions we noted down 2 weeks ago:
Who will profit more, students or teachers?
What schools are using games for language learning?
How practical is this technique?
Why is it better than the traditional method?
What games are used for this technique?
Do you think these questions are okay or shall we change/omit some and add new perspectives perhaps? Here is Graham Stanley's gaming blog again, which might help us in our work. I also mentioned during our last class that maybe we should each try a game of a specific genre and present its language learning possibilities in our project. Have you been looking around for games? What titles do you have in mind? If you have troubles finding ideas, here's the list of video game genres you can choose from.
Please let me know what you think in the comments. :)
I thought it's high time we decided on the main topic of our project and how to work on it, so here are the questions we noted down 2 weeks ago:
Who will profit more, students or teachers?
What schools are using games for language learning?
How practical is this technique?
Why is it better than the traditional method?
What games are used for this technique?
Do you think these questions are okay or shall we change/omit some and add new perspectives perhaps? Here is Graham Stanley's gaming blog again, which might help us in our work. I also mentioned during our last class that maybe we should each try a game of a specific genre and present its language learning possibilities in our project. Have you been looking around for games? What titles do you have in mind? If you have troubles finding ideas, here's the list of video game genres you can choose from.
Please let me know what you think in the comments. :)
2011. október 17., hétfő
WoW as an effective language-learning tool
I've found an article on the advantages of using MMORPGs as foreign language-learning tools. Among the points stated, these are perhaps the most important for our project:
- In a language classroom, teachers have used role-playing as a means to utilize the new language for practice. MMOs are simply a virtual way of role-playing and communicating in the foreign language.
- Learning language in a social context (pragmatics vs semantics), as traditional learning often does not prepare us enough for how the language is actually used by its speakers.
- Student motivation. It is far easier to convince a student to play an MMORPG for an assignment rather than to memorize information for a test!
- The presence of native speakers. This provides a 'model' as well as a group of interlocutors who will (hopefully) correct their errors. There is still the issue of the language spoken by natives being less than perfect, but regardless, they are people who use the language often.
You will be able to find the article here:
http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/bryant-MMORPGs-for-SLA
Charmaine
- In a language classroom, teachers have used role-playing as a means to utilize the new language for practice. MMOs are simply a virtual way of role-playing and communicating in the foreign language.
- Learning language in a social context (pragmatics vs semantics), as traditional learning often does not prepare us enough for how the language is actually used by its speakers.
- Student motivation. It is far easier to convince a student to play an MMORPG for an assignment rather than to memorize information for a test!
- The presence of native speakers. This provides a 'model' as well as a group of interlocutors who will (hopefully) correct their errors. There is still the issue of the language spoken by natives being less than perfect, but regardless, they are people who use the language often.
You will be able to find the article here:
http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/bryant-MMORPGs-for-SLA
Charmaine
2011. október 15., szombat
Article
This is the article which I printed for the last class, it's really useful for our research! It helps to focus on the most important aspects, and contains some original ideas as well which can guide us in the first steps.
http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume11/ej44/ej44a5/?wscr
http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume11/ej44/ej44a5/?wscr
2011. október 3., hétfő
First entry
I have found an interesting article about Graham Stanley and gaming: http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume11/ej44/ej44a5/?wscr
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