Games as Authentic Language Tools

Immediately after looking at this week's gaming assignment, I asked myself, "How can any of these games be called learning tools, especially for learning English?" I knew I was completely missing something, so I read the article Playing to learn: a qualitative analysis of bilingual pupil-pupil talk during board game play, available in the 'Resources' tab. 

According to the article, one helpful application of any unfamiliar interactive game is to allow teachers of bilingual students observe metacognitive talk and scaffolding in peer groups. The students will, of course, negotiate the rules, interpersonal roles, and game play. This strategy can be used to assess the communicative abilities and scaffolding needs of any bilingual students, but especial of timid students. The author/researcher, Heather Smith, specifically designed a board game that incorporates asking and answering questions during a player's turn.

Having an understanding of a possible learning goal for this week did not, unfortunately, help with the online games. I felt it was too much of a stretch to try any of the card games because I wanted to try something like Heather Smith described in her article. 

I first clicked on Agricola, which really got me thinking. I did not play Agricola at all…not at all. The entire page of game interface was Greek to me. There was no button that said, "play." Just a chat window, some pictures, and some seemingly random letters and numbers, like "markiohk 1 playing-4er-R13." 

After eyeballing the screen for a while, I saw and clicked "Game Interface How To." No help at all. Although there were several paragraphs of descriptions and rules, I could not actually do any of them. For example, "All objects can be dragged around with the mouse." Ok, what objects? All I saw is a background and a chat window. Imagine how hard it must be for English language learners to negotiate the interactional tasks that we take for granted!

I gave up on that frustration and wanted to try something more familiar: Monopoly. Unfortuately, that wouldn't start up, which only increased my frustration. This is just not my week, I guess.

Finally, I got Chess to work. The good news was that my game partner was a Japanese person named Haruki. The bad news was that Haruki is a lot better at chess than I am. Not that I am a sore loser, but it would have been nice to have some opportunity to examine Haruki's meta-talk. 

Instead, Haruki and I chatted as much as we could. Haruki's English is limited, but I don't speak a word of Japanese. During our typed conversation, Haruki asked, "are you american."

I answered that I am, and he gave me a nice compliment: "i am easy to talk with you my english class have many student." 

I replied, "I have heard that English classes in Japan have too many students and not enough chances to practice." I might not have simplified that sentence sufficiently, as Haruki took some time to respond. (However, that did not stop him from ripping through my pieces and hacking down my King for the third time). 

Haruki then typed, "we have lab class practicing conversations but my english is poor."

What else could I say to that but, "Not it isn't! Your English is much better than my Japanese!"

"you can speak japanese???!!! ;-)"

"No. Not even a little."

"lol orz"

When our conversation ended, I decided that I agree with Heather Smith. Games have the power to help timid learners open up, forget about correctness, and just use a new language. I am not Haruki's teacher, but I think had a more authentic and helpful conversation during our chess game than he could have had in his English lab.

Game Components: Digital Chess vs. Traditional Chess

Traditional chess allows players to sit in the same room and engage in authentic conversations. Therefore, it is probably better suited to classroom use than virtual chess. However, virtual chess allows players from around the world to engage in authentic written conversations without fear of judgement. 

The elements of text-based chat and anonymity can be advantageous to language learners and their teaches. Anonymity may encourage bilingual people to use their language skills freely and without fear of evaluation. If an opponent does turn out to be verbally abusive, any player can end the game any time at any time she wants. In non-anonymous contexts, the teacher can print out informal texted dialogue with students for analysis of speech patterns that would be harder to identify in only spoken and formally written formats.

Interaction: Digital Chess vs. Traditional Chess

Communication among players of traditional chess is often limited to unrelated conversations and brief cues (e.g. check; check mate) because much can be communicated through gestures. Meta-talk is much more important in virtual chess because the players cannot 'show' each other anything except the current positions of the pieces. Any hints, prompts, or explanations must be delivered in writing, and cannot consist of facial expressions and gestures.

Also, the face-to-face interaction in traditional chess can quickly become extremely competitive and personal. For example, my older sister and I stopped playing chess together in our teens because it was so personal and competitive that we would frequently become angry at each other. In contrast, I did not mind that Haruki mopped the floor with me. For all I know, he might be Bobby Fisher's long-lost twin, so no hard feelings. I was less engaged with or motivated by the game and more interested in our conversation. Is that such a bad thing?