The rapid pace at which digital and interactive gaming technologies have advanced in recent years has strong implications for the future of pedagogical approaches to language learning. The above video article features collaboration between forward-thinking designers and educators who wish to embrace new gaming technology and harness its potential as an effective teaching tool.
“RezWorld” is a fully immersive video game designed to teach languages to young learners using the task-based teaching methodology commonly adhered to in modern language teaching (Ellis, 2000). The game was primarily designed to teach, and therefore preserve the language of the native Cherokee Indians, but since then it has been adapted to other languages, and has, for example, been 3rd party tested on over 25,000 learners of Arabic. Users are immersed in a virtual 3D world where they must interact with characters exclusively in the target language. As Dr Johnson points out in the video, the strength of the game in relation to task-based learning is that players can take part in a variety of realistic tasks that would be unrealistic or impossible to complete in a classroom context.
In spite of the successful rates of learning and positive reviews received from those who participated in the piloting program for the software, the full version is still yet to see the light of day due to a lack of investors. The developer attributes this to the current financial climate; however, in my opinion this lack of support could also reflect the slow rate at which many educators are accepting new digital media and the need for an understanding of current youth cultures.
A lack of teacher knowledge regarding media education (Jenkins et al., 2006) could well result in a resistance to the implementation of a variety of digital media in education, including games. Nevertheless, at the very least this video demonstrates the existence of a belief among certain educators who are beginning to recognise the need to adapt pedagogies to meet the needs of youth and changing culture.
References:
Ellis, R. (2000). Task-based research and language pedagogy. Language Teaching Research, 4 (3), 193−220.
Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., and Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century: The MacArthur Foundation.
(Posted by Josh)
Joshua I love the concept of this game for teaching not just the language of a culture but also the protocols of a culture. Here in Australia perhaps it would be more difficult to use gaming for the teaching of the indigenous language as there are so many dialects within the native tongue. However, this game could be adapted to cover the multitude of languages taught to the students within our education system today. I believe a video game such as this one could certainly alter the path of students learning another language. Of course it could not replace a teacher of another language but it could definitely provide greater depth and reality for the students. As Valente says in this You Tube clip it provides opportunities for the students to learn a language within the context which it is used. The reality situations which a game such as this provides cannot always be achieved within the four walls of a classroom. It does seem like such a shame that even after the trialling of this game and the positive feedback the participators gave it that it has not received enough investor interest to enable it to be developed beyond the pilot version. Perhaps as the economic climate improves things could change for these program designers.
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