Video Game for Learning English

Originally Posted by A.Russell

I'm not sure what you are trying to say. The players should make the rules? No, that just results in anarchy. The rules are set by the creators or by mutual agreement between the players and then must be adhered to. Certainly there are rules for standard English as well. By sticking to them, you'll be sure to speak well, and by playing well to a games rules you'll be sure to win.

If you want to make a game just for youself, by your own rules, where you win all the time, then it won't be much fun because you'll have to play it alone.

Now that i think about it...you're right. How could one invent a video game to teach English? They have puzzle books you can but which lets you learn while you are trying to answer the puzzle questions. Is it possibel to create a video game which lets you select any language say german and then find the other language you want to learn say English and as you (maybe as a puzzle) relate your language to that of English, that way you would be learnig another language by video game, just a thought. EMAIL REMOVED - Send PM to This User Instead

[Jessicaly]

I have read many articles about using videogames to teach or as a learning tool. However, for learning English I don't see that this make sense. The language user use when they chat are short forms ro some informal English. How can this make sense that learners can use videogames to learn English ?

JJessicaly

[Jessicaly]

Is anyone here have ideas to use commercial off the shelf videogames for learning English? Some researcherrs say that the content in games are authentic and good for learners to expose to the target language. But how can this be used in class?

JL

[A.Russell]

This was many about developing games specifically for learning English, but certainly you can find ways to use a lot of games for English study. I used to keep a news site with articles releated to this, but it kept getting hacked. Anyway, just searching now, here are a few links:

This teacher uses games to study narative:
wcco.com - Teacher Uses Video Games In English Class

Using games to teach in general, and why it is important:
Grand Haven Tribune - Michigan Newspapers News for West Michigan, Grand Haven, Spring Lake, Holland, Ferrysburg

I don't have more right now, but you can probably find more on Google or by shopping at Amazon

[Johansen]

Originally Posted by Jessicaly

Is anyone here have ideas to use commercial off the shelf videogames for learning English? Some researcherrs say that the content in games are authentic and good for learners to expose to the target language. But how can this be used in class?

JL

If I may?

Cruz - Video Games and the ESL Classroom (I-TESL-J)

The activities mentioned here can be done either with a game system in the school grounds and having the students play the game during one class period a week, or when the students have the games in their homes you could do the activities as special projects. One relatively cheap way of incorporating games into a school would be by writing a proposal asking the school to purchase the systems. I'd advice in favor of the PS2, since it is the most cost effective, has a good library of classroom-safe commercial games, and is backwards compatible with the PSOne, which also has a nice list of classroom-safe games.

[A.Russell]

There is, however, one genre of video games that is ideal for the ESL classroom: Role Playing Games.

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#.

[Johansen]

Originally Posted by A.Russell

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#.

You are right in saying that the X-Box has the largest range of titles amongst the next-gen systems and that it would be ideal to teach students how to program games. If I would have had that in my youth I would probably be a game developer instead of an ESL professor. However, my main concern (since I live in a place where English is the second language only by legislation but people see it more as a foreign language) is to expose the students to language in a fun way (meaning not Mark Twain, as great of a writer as he is it I think he should be used only in universities), make them think, and make them react. If I can expose them to a story or two, then all the better. With that in mind, I think that while the Next-Gen consoles have great potential, I don't think that any of the three are quite ripe yet, either as gaming consoles or as classroom tools. I have never seen a gaming store that carries more than 15 Wii games at a time, and the only RPG that the Wii currently has is Twighlight Princess, with a Dragon Warrior title and a Final Fantasy title on the works. The 360 seems to focus more on FPS, 3rd person action-adventure games, and sports. The only RPG I have seen for this system is Phantasy Star Universe (also available for other consoles). The PS3 is backwards compatible with PS2 games, but only with 80% of the games. I don't know the full list of games, but I have heard that it is not compatible with any of the Final Fantasies (PS1 or 2) or with the Xenosaga games. That is why I have not gotten one for myself yet. Also, most of the PS3 games I have seen seem to be remakes of the Dynasty Warriors games, although the prommise of a Beowulf game and Final Fantasy 13, as well as Oblivion make it seem like the console with most RPGs. Although all three are great systems with great potential, I would be hesitant to recommend them to any school, at least for ESL purposes. I do think that the Wii with Trauma Center would be a great adition for ESP students who are going into medicine or nursing, but that's the extent of it. Before recomending one of those, I'll wait another year or tweo and see what developers have in store for us. Besides, the PS2 is not entirely outdated yet. Its graphics and sound actually surpass those of the Wii (although nothing is as fun as four grown men and their wives playing Wario Ware) its titles are more appealing than those currently in existence for the PS3 and the 360 (perhaps with a few exeptions from the 360) and I honestly doubt that there is a gamer out there who has experienced all the games that the PS2 has to offer. I have every RPG published stateside for the PS2 and I've only played about 40 of them. (about half). That's about 80 RPGs total for the PS2 (not counting the ones from PS1). None of the next gen systems have 80 games total, that's why I vote PS2.

[jubin antony]

video games are more useful for learning english. if we have the mind to enjoy it then we enter in to the better way of communication.

[penelope87]

I vote at number 1 option.
I learned a lot of English playing video game, mainly through RPG games, beucause there are a lot of dialogues and histories in the game.
I was 10 years old when I played Zelda on Super Nintendo. I badly speak Portuguese and I've already wanted to know English. I looked for the translation in the dicionary and tried to deduce the history.
That was good because it developed my interest about another languages.
And I think RPG are very good games to develop the imagination and the logic in children.
Of corse, always respecting the kid age. I won't give Diablo for a 10 years kid, for example.

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by jubin antony

video games are more useful for learning english.

Say:

Video games are useful for learning English.

Originally Posted by jubin antony

if we have the mind to enjoy it then we enter in to the better way of communication.