Thesis Research: Foreign Language Learning & Video Games

[Darus Grey]

Kinda really late to this, but I would not invest a great deal of time into this if you're looking to create single user/small user games.

Us linguists have studied this for decades, and the harsh reality of language acquisition is that there is no substitute for human contact. Absolutely none. Even anecdotally notice that all the video game success stories were from MMOs for the most part, where people got to interact with native speakers.

If you're interested in this field your basically limited to MMOish type stuff...the moment you remove the human element from a language learning enviroment, you lose at the minimum 95% of it's effectiveness.

[Loryne]

This is the very issue I addressed in my thesis work. For the most part, commercially-designed games for language learning essentially ignore what we know about second language acquisition (SLA) and are only somewhat effective in boosting short-term memorization that would aid in written testing environments. Like you said, due to the nature of language, any effective game is limited to a genre or play style whose primary focus is interpersonal communication.

While a few studies have been done on using pre-existing MMOs as foreign language classrooms, practically nothing has looked at creating an MMO that is designed from the ground up to teach language. The only case I know of is the University of Michigan's Zon which, in spite of its flaws, has a lot of potential. I actually play tested Zon with about 50 of my students and got a lot of interesting commentary.

Much of what I've learned (from primary and secondary research, student play testing, etc.) I've been able to apply to my own game design. The software that I'm currently working with allows for the creation of social network-based MMOs, with the potential for expansion to mobile devices through app support. Based on task-based language learning and other recent SLA theories as well as current game industry trends, this seems to be the most plausible synergy of the two fields.

Yes, my resources and knowledge are limited - I am but a lowly grad student - but I hope that with my work I can inspire the further exploration of this type of game by those in a position to more fully back it.

[Ace-o-fire]

Alright slightly off topic. But i have a light knowledge of french. what method do you to teach/learn french. and what would you say that would be most effective?

[Elesirdur]

Good luck with your research, it sounds pretty interesting.

Just a note about the survey but on the page where you indicate how much time you spend playing on different platforms, you must select an answer for "Other". Depending on how you gather and analyse your data, that's something to be aware of.

[sruon]

Filled this a bit late, very interesting.

[firewing]

Interesting indeed. Wish I would have seen this sooner. I would have suggested talking to the people at Alelo. It's a company in California that makes '3D' games to teach various languages.