At E3 a couple of weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled its latest gaming product, due for release this autumn (fall really, as Europe is scheduled for early 2011 release). Xbox Kinect, as its called, takes the Nintendo Wii’s interactivity one step further; you don’t need a controller at all. By using multiple cameras Kinect recognises who you are and registers your movements. In this way it directs you to dance, jump, wave or do yoga poses and matches these against the game and against other players. This is pretty cool and could be a real fun way to get beginner learners (maybe especially kids but I’m sure adults too) get to grips with basic action verbs in the target language. By coupling it with a speech recognition engine you’d have a very friendly and entertaining learning environment. Will this herald the return of Total Physical Response?
I am very excited to call for papers for an edited book on Computer Games in Language Learning and Teaching. If you are working in this area I encourage you to contribute!
Recent years have seen a growing interest in the pedagogical benefits of computer games. Gee (2003), for example, identified 36 learning principles in the games he investigated. It is clear that computer games have the potential to engage learners and to encourage interaction in the target language. Immersive environments offer learners opportunities for situated learning and the adaptive qualities of most games ensure that learners are motivated to persist in their learning, thus increasing the chance of further exposure to target language input, and opportunities for output. The use of computer games in language education is based on the premise that successful learning is integrated into the sociocultural context of learners’ lives and encourages collaboration and lifelong learning (Lamb & Reinders, 2005). The use of new technologies, and in particular computer games, thus facilitates the bridging of learning within and outside the language classroom.
The potential of computer games, however, has not been investigated much from a second language learning and teaching perspective. Do games really motivate learners? Do they actually encourage more use of the target language? Do they offer opportunities for negotiation of meaning, or focus on form? Do they result in greater uptake and acquisition? Although some recent studies have started to address these questions (for example deHaan, Reed and Kuwada 2010, Piirainen-Marsh 2009, and Zheng, Young, Brewer and Wagner 2009), there is currently no dedicated collection of papers to bring together the state-of-the-art in research into game-based learning.
Similarly, for language educators it is not easy to identify the best way to include game-based learning into the curriculum (either as part of classroom or online instruction, or as a self-study complement to such instruction). There has not been much exchange of best practice in this area. Through the presentation of action research and case studies, it is hoped this volume will better inform language teaching practice about the potential role of computer games.
You can download more information about the book and how to submit a proposal here.
Just came across an interesting article that investigates the effects of game play on the experience of learning a skill (programming, in this study). There are a lot of comments plastered all over the internet, including some of my own, about the potential of games to increase motivation, but how this actually works in practice is unclear. This study attempts to make a start on describing the effects of gaming on the learning experience.
Here is the abstract: Learning to program is difficult for novices, even for those undergraduates who have majored in computer science. The study described in this paper has investigated the effects of game strategy and preference-matching on novice learners’ flow experience and performance in learning to program using an experiential gaming activity. One hundred and fifteen novices participated in the experimental activity. Two types of game strategy were employed: the matching-challenging strategy and the challenging strategy. Participants were categorised into one or other of the two groups based on individual preferences. The results of the study showed that: (1) the challenging group had higher flow experiences than the matching-challenging group; (2) participants’ performance was enhanced with the use of the matching strategy; and (3) a compensation effect existed among the preference-mismatched learners who performed better in the challenging game-play.
In this free issue of
I came across an article titled ‘lessons learned about signing augmented Realities’ in the freely available inaugural issue of the International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations. In it the authors talk about augmented reality and a project in which they provided middle and high school students with handheld devices equiped with GPS. In the words of the authors: ‘As the students move around a physical location, such as their school playground or sports felds (Figure 2), a map on their handheld displays digital objects and virtual people who exist in an AR world superimposed on real space (Figure 3). When students come within approximately 30 feet of these digital artifacts, the AR and GPS software triggers video, audio, and text fles, which provide narrative, navigation, and collaboration cues as well as academic challenges. In Alien Contact! the students are presented with the following scenario: Aliens have landed on Earth and seem to be preparing for a number of actions, including peaceful contact, invasion, plundering, or simply returning to their home planet, among other possibilities. Working in teams (four pupils per team), the students must explore the augmented reality world, interviewing virtual characters, collecting digital items, and solving mathematics and literacy puzzles to determine why the aliens have landed. Each team has four roles: chemist, cryptologist, computer hacker, and FBI agent. Depending upon his or her role, each student will see different pieces of evidence. In order to successfully navigate the augmented reality environment and solve various puzzles, the students must share information and collaborate with the other members of their team’ (pp 4-5).
This is very neat indeed. I tried doing something similar before by using podquests, but these did not have inbuilt GPS so obviously were limited compared to this project. This is an excellent use of technology to encourage - and support - out-of-class learning.
The International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations was recently launched and its first issue is available for free online. One of the articles by Steinkuehler and Johnson talks about the need for ‘computational literacy’: ‘ Based on our analysis, we argue for reconsideration of computer literacy as computational literacy, authorship as collaborative and negotiated rather than individually achieved, and digital media literacy
practice as one involving design and production, not merely passive or critical consumption.’
I very much like this idea of ‘literacy’ as a dynamic, and social capacity. Although Steinkuehler and Johnson do relate this to language learning, I do see overlap with for example the use of technology-mediated tasks (as attested in the book I recently edited with Michael Thomas). How can we involve learners in language production that is grounded in meaningful, social interaction, and that involves ‘building’ something (either an online character or a network or a strategy) in a game environment with language?
I was just reading Steinkuehler’s 2007 article about research on MMORPGS (multiplayer online games) in which he quotes a study by the economist Castronova (2001) who found that the economy of Norrath, the virtual world of the game Everquest, was the 77th largest in the world, placing it somewhere between Bulgaria and Russia at the time. Unbelievable!
Castronova, E. (2001). Virtual worlds: A first-hand account of market and society on the cyberian frontier. CESifo Working Paper Series No. 618.
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.
The Wireless Ready conference in Nagoya and in Second Life is approaching fast (more information here). This looks set to be a fabulous event - try and see if you can join us, if not in Real Life, then maybe in Second Life!
I have now submitted the abstract for my plenary, which you can find below.
Keynote title
Do computer games really contribute to language learning?
Abstract
In recent years there has been a lot of interest in the potential role of computer games in education. Playing games is said to be motivating to students and to benefit the development of social skills such as collaboration and metacognitive skills such as planning and organisation. Also in the language classroom computer games are becoming increasingly popular. In Japan, for example, portable gaming devices such as the Nintendo DS have been used for the delivery of word games and in the UK and in Thailand several projects have developed language games for use on mobile phones. However, the pedagogical approach underlying such games is often not clear. In the case of the Japanese classes, the games were intended to develop fluency but in fact offer only simple spelling exercises with right-wrong answers. In addition to pedagogic issues, there is very little research to support the claims made for using computer games in language education. In this presentation I will first present these claims before reviewing a number of current language games. Next, I will report on an empirical research project designed to investigate the effects of a an online multiplayer gaming environment on L2 use and acquisition. I will show that computer games can indeed affect L2 interaction patterns and contribute to L2 acquisition, but that this depends, like in all other teaching and learning environments, on careful pedagogic planning of the activity.
