In a recent article by Neville, Shelton and McInnis in CALl Journal (vol 22, no 5, 409-424), the authors make a game designed to teach German vocabulary, reading, and cultural skills to beginning university students available for free. The game can be found here.
Here is a description of the game:
Game Introduction
Karin Moller is an American foreign exchange student living in Freiburg im Breisgau and studying computer science and German at the Albert-Ludwigs University . On a free Saturday she decides to take a sightseeing trip to Munich. Before she can depart by train, however, she must first park her bicycle, buy a train ticket, get something to eat and drink, find a book to read, and locate the correct train platform. And what what will she do about the mysterious homeless man that everybody is talking about at the train station?
Game Research
The constructivist learning environments afforded by digital games provide students with personally-tailored and highly motivational instruction, enhance student responsibility for learning, and promote student free inquiry and exploration. Included within a second language acquisition program, digital games possibly can increase knowledge retention and transfer rates. In Fall Semester 2007 Ausflug am Wochenende nach München was used to teach German vocabulary and culture to beginning university students. Included within the experiment scope was a measurement of the cognitive load imposed by the IF game, the sense of presence provided by the game, analysis of the knowledge retention and transfer rates, and the role of player sex in game interaction. You are free to use the game for your own research purposes.
