PRE2017 3 Groep9 - Game Concept
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Concepts behind the game
A big part of our concept is that it will be a real game, meaning that even if the learning aspects would be removed it still functions as a game that people will want to play. This is what sets our concept apart from most other existing “Games” for language learning. However to still achieve the learning we will make use of the following methods, which are very compatible with a game:
Studies have shown that it’s much easier to link an image to a word, than another word. Most schools and traditional language courses teach would teach you words like this:
However the brain memorizes it a lot easier if you would do it like this instead:
Not only does this connect the word to the actual concept, but also is it actually easier for the brain to remember the word. Our game will make heavy use of not only this image connection to learn the word, but also to learn other aspects of it like gender and conjugation groups. This will be done via so called “Mnemonics”, they are basically little scenarios you make in your mind to remember something.
These “Mnemonics” are one of the fundamental methods of game based learning, since games are always based around learning in scenarios and through experience. Another fundamental concept of game-based learning is that of using the thing you want to learn as a tool, not as the end goal. This way you can give meaning to the thing that you are trying to learn.
As can be seen, our game will make use of the fundamentals of game-based learning and apply them in a more specific way to the learning of words. This is a general method in which most educational games work.
The Game
Our game will revolve around learning words in Italian. In the demo we are going to build we are teaching the player at least 15 words, with every word being reasonably difficult to learn. For every word there is a small game. To show how the game works we go through the example word “Torta” meaning pie in italian. First the word is shown on screen while an audio clip of someone pronouncing the word is played too.
After this 6 images come on the screen, 1 of these is the correct image, an image of a pie, the player has to click on the correct image, there is also a choice below for what the correct gender of the word is.
This test might also occur in the opposite direction, where an image and the english word will be shown, and the user has to choose out of a set of italian translations.
After this little test. A “micro game” starts, which is a mini game of about 1-5s long. In the micro game for “Torta” we play out the pie-smashing scenario, the player controls a foot and when they press a button the foot smashes what is below it. Since there are both blue and pink pies the player has to only smash the pink pies to succeed in this micro game. After playing this game they will not only remember the word better, because of this peculiar game, but also will they remember the gender because of the mnemonic.
The game will let the player go through this process for every word, in a random order, before repeating it again for every word in a different order. The short duration of every minigame and test will allow for a lot of repetition, which is always needed during learning.
Game Requirements
The following is a list of requirements that our game has to fulfill.
- The game has to link each word to an image, this has to be done in 2 ways:
(1) Linking the right image to a word
(2) Linking the right word to an image
- The game has to link each word to a mini game.
- The mini games should be at most 5 seconds long.
- The game has to play an audio file of a word being pronounced by a native speaker
- The word list needs to consists of at least 15 words, which are not too easy to learn
- The game needs to be fun to play
- The game needs to use the native language (English for the concept) as little as possible (only for game explanation, or clarification)
- If wrong image is chosen the user will get less time during the minigame.
- Every minigame must appear once in random order, before the same minigame will appear again, unless…
- If the wrong image is chosen the minigame needs to stay in the current rotation and randomly appear again, before the start of the next rotation.
Tool specifications
The game will be run on a computer, which is the robotic device at the core of our research. The fact that it is specifically a computer and not a smartphone, which we consider to be a similar robotic device, it because we do not have the expertise to create it for a smartphone. However given knowledge about programming for smartphone devices it could easily be made to word on a smartphone, or any other similar robotic device.