Game
playing & English language learning software
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Game playing is
certainly an essential ingredient in motivating young
(language) learners
and, as might be expected, it is commonly adopted within
multimedia English language learning software designed specifically for children.
Depending on the specific program, game playing may be marginal,
secondary, complementary or central to language learning goals, but it
is almost always present in one form or another. Indeed many children's English language
programs are effectively a collection of games, while others are actually presented as games
themselves.
In any case, almost
all the exercises proposed in software of this kind are designed at
least to appear to the young learner as games: this sense is usually
conveyed through a lively graphical interface and a mode of interaction
that emphasises movement and action, challenge and competitiveness,
sometimes within a well-known game format. That said, the way that
the game playing element is integrated varies from activity to activity:
it may be limited to a mainly "decorative" role within the
exercise or may even represent the principle focus of attention. To
get a general idea of the different forms game playing takes in these
programs, see Integration
of Games in
English language Software.
The
most common types of game proposed in the sample of English language software
titles considered are:
Although these activities
can vary considerably from program to program, they do
share some common
features and characteristics
in the way they are structured and presented to
the learner. As teachers well know, children react to
different learning situations in very different ways,
and this is also true of game playing; for a discussion
of the factors that may effect learner response, see
Games
& the Individual Language Learner.
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