The Tactical Language and Culture Training System (TLCTS) is a serious game designed to help learners quickly acquire basic communication skills in foreign languages and cultures, including Arabic, Chinese, Cherokee, Dari, and French.
Research Methodology:
Three evaluations of Tactical Iraqi were conducted to get the resources of further improvements both to the software architecture and to the curriculum.
Research Findings:
All three evaluation groups showed significant increases in knowledge of Iraqi Arabic language and culture, as measured by an independently constructed post-test focusing on the vocabulary and skills taught in Tactical Iraqi.
The evaluation group that received more training with Tactical Iraqi had the largest increase in knowledge. Although game-based learning offers the promise of motivating learners to gain knowledge on their own, in these studies at least the greatest learning gains were achieved by learners who used Tactical Iraqi under supervised conditions.
The learning environment that TLCTS provides is effective.
The subjects participating in the evaluation studies reported increased motivation to participate in future training opportunities.
The evidence of overall learning effect is incomplete.
Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) is a form of narrative often involving multiple media and gaming elements to tell a story that might be affected by participants’ actions.
Research Methodology:
Discusses the design, development and evaluation of an ARG aimed at increasing the motivations of secondary school level students across Europe in the learning of modern foreign languages.
Involves 6 project partners, 328 secondary school students and 95 language teachers from 17 European countries.
Uses an experimental design of pre-test / ARG intervention / post-test.
Research Findings:
Student attitudes towards the ARG were very positive with evidence suggesting that the ARG managed to deliver the motivational experience expected by the students.
The majority of students who completed the post-test either agreed or strongly agreed that they would be willing to play the game over a prolonged period of time as part of a foreign language course.
Students believed that they obtained skills relating to cooperation, collaboration and teamwork.
Chinese characters are composed of strokes, and it is challenging for learners to write each stroke in a proper order.
Introduction to the online vision-based motion game designed for learning the stroke order of Chinese characters: e.g. For each character, the screen displays the strokes one after another, and the learner, positioned in view of the webcam, responds to the correct stroke by tracing its pattern in the air with his or her hand. The webcam detects the direction of the user’s gestures and the program scores the answer.
Research Methodology:
Nine participants at Chinese language centres in Taipei, who had been studying Chinese for less than 3 months and were not familiar with most of the 24 characters used in the study
Recorded participants' process of practicing the order of strokes
Borrowing form Nielsen's concept of usability testing, the researcher interviewed participants' feeling about the program, including its interface and interactivity
Two surveys, one measured participants' attitude towards the program, while the other measured the frequency of the use of various language-learning strategies, including memory strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies.
Research Findings:
Most of the participants had above-neutral attitude levels towards the online program.
Memory strategies and affective strategies were used least by the nine participants
Most participants commented that the game-based learning experience was easy and that it might be best suited for a basic-level curriculum for beginners or children. However, in fact this program was originally designed for adult learners.
English Language Learning and Games
1. Green, P. J., Sha, M., & Liu, L. (2011). The U.S.-China E-Language Project: A Study of a Gaming Approach to English Language Learning for Middle School Students. RTI International. The U.S.-China E-Language Project.pdf
Background Information:
A game, The Forgotten World , was implemented as a supplementary activity in middle school classrooms in western China to teach the English language and American culture to eighth-grade students.
Research Methodology:
The evaluation was conducted in five treatment schools and five comparison schools during the 2009–10 school year and included approximately 3,500 students.
Reading and listening tests were administered at the beginning and end of the year to eighth-grade students in schools participating in the study.
Teacher and student questionnaires; teacher logs describing this gaming approach in each class session.
Research Findings:
Students in treatment schools with relatively low levels of initial proficiency, who scored in the bottom half of all students on the fall tests, evidenced larger gains in reading and listening than similar students in comparison schools. There were no differences in performance between treatment and comparison groups among students with higher levels of initial proficiency (those scoring in the upper half of all students on the fall test).
Students in the treatment group reported higher levels of motivation to learn English than students in the comparison schools.
95 percent of the teachers in the treatment schools who participated in the project reported that their use of The Forgotten World changed the way they think about teaching. The approach to language teaching and learning that forms the basis for The Forgotten World is learner-centered and interactive and presents students with problem-based tasks and immediate feedback.
The game "Parappa the Rapper 2" was used because of its authentic English language, its simultaneously presented oral and textual language, and its prototypical rhythm game elements.
Research Methodology:
This experimental study investigated to what degree, if at all, video game interactivity would help or hinder the noticing and recall of second language vocabulary.
Eighty randomly-selected Japanese university undergraduates were paired based on similar English language and game proficiencies. One subject played an English-language music video game for 20 minutes while the paired subject watched the game simultaneously on another monitor.
Following gameplay, a vocabulary recall test, a cognitive load measure, an experience questionnaire, and a two-week delayed vocabulary recall test were administered.
Research Findings:
The players recalled significantly less vocabulary than the watchers. This seems to be a result of the extraneous cognitive load induced by the interactivity of the game;
The players perceived the game and its language to be significantly more difficult than the watchers did. Players also reported difficulty simultaneously attending to gameplay and vocabulary.
Both players and watchers forgot significant amounts of vocabulary over the course of the study.
The participants of this study were 302 elementary students (5th and 6th graders) from five schools located in South Korea
A survey and five tests (i.e. English learning achievement test, motivation test, self-directed skill test, computer use ability test, and game skill test) were conducted to compare students’ achievement between the treatment group (MMORPG program) and the compare group (face-to-face instruction).
To test the equivalence of the groups, a pre-test of English learning achievement was performed.
Research Findings:
Students in treatment group showed higher scores in areas of listening, reading, and writing than those in comparison group, but minor difference in speaking
Prior knowledge, motivation for learning, and network speed were factors affecting achievement in English learning
Key findings: The analysis draws attention to the role played by learner training and indicates that for intermediate and advanced level English language
learners, MMORPGs offer a motivating context that elicits engagement in beneficial forms of target language interaction. Research further
suggests that learner participation in network-based gaming provides valuable opportunities for vocabulary acquisition and the development
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