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There is, however, one genre of video games that is ideal for the ESL classroom: Role Playing Games.
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I'm so happy when people agree with me! Thanks for that link. Though RPGs are aimed at native speakers, so the students need to already be at a level where they can at least get by with the language.
For our own effort, we are grading the language at each level. Recently I have been working with Dr. Robert Waring at Notre Dame university to develop a text processor for creating graded
ESL learning materials. This will be useful for developing parameters for the lannguage used in the stories and dialogues.
[Edit] The PS2 is an excellent consul with a large library of titles, but it is outdated. The PS3 is certainly not cost effective though, and of the "next-gen" consuls you might look at the Nintendo Wii or X-Box. The Wii is about the price that the PS2 was and can be used with a regular controller or the motion sensing gizmo. The X-Box has the largest range of titles, and as an extra bonus for schools they can even be used to teach young people how to make games with the XNA sdk and C#.