Arabic Meets the Video Game: Virtual Gaming Scenarios Enhance Student Learning
[author:Shawn A. Mann Public time:Apr 11, 2007] |
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One of the greatest barriers to second language acquisition is “conversational anxiety.” Conversational anxiety is the nervousness which overwhelms a speaker as they attempt to conduct conversation in a new language. This nervousness, in layman’s terms “the fear of messing up,” can act as a barrier to a student’s ability to truly feel comfortable with a new language enough to internalize it, process it and successfully construct it freely into meaningful conversation.
Coastline Community College is leading the way in overcoming these barriers to learning through interactive gaming technology. Gaming programmers at the campus have been working with Arabic instructors to create a virtual Arabic Village.
Students move freely through a virtual Arabic Village and communicate with residents and soldiers at a checkpoint among many scenarios being created.
In this Arabic Village, a student can assume the role of either a male or female character, referred to as an Avatar. Valuable dialogue exchanges are programmed into the game like conversing with guards at a checkpoint, searching for the home of a local citizen and making a purchase from vendors.
Through the use of voice recognition software, a student “play-learning” through the game is able to determine the outcome of the game. If the student is looking for a local citizen, Rasheed, for instance, and he/she is not pronouncing correctly in the foreign language the phrase “Do you know where the home of Rasheed is?,” then the character they are talking to may grow frustrated with the student, give false information or simply walk away.
Also in the planning stages is a virtual boarding scenario where the student assumes the role of a member of a Coast Guard boarding party.
Students can brush up on their boarding skills and language skills without even touching the water. Also, instructors can act as characters in the same gaming scenario to add spontaneous learning events. Imagine an instructor on the West coast training Cadets on the East coast acting as a ship captain who refuses to be boarded.
"With the Coast Guard conducting 324 security and law enforcement boardings per day, we recognize a clear need for them to be able to have highly trained people, in both language and boarding procedures. Add to that the Iranian capturing the Briton boarding party in Iraqi waters, and the need for these types of gaming sceanrios is apparent," says Coastline's Dean of Distance Learning, Dr. Ted Boehler. “These gaming simulations offer students a never before realized level of interaction which goes way beyond a traditional classroom or traditional campus experience. They make learning fun and, most importantly, engaging.”
While still in the early phases, Coastline’s Virtual Gaming Scenarios will begin to be beta-tested this year. All games are designed to run on a standard PC. For more information download their newsletter: http://military.coastline.edu/newsletter/NewsletterVer1.pdf .
Otherinfo:Coastline Community College
11460 Warner Ave, Fountain Valley, CA 92708-2597
Web site homepage: http://military.coastline.edu
Printed From:http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200704/1176310843.html
Source:Free Press Release
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