Playing the Game in an ESL class: Heart of Tota

     Involving games in a language class could be considered as an effective and interesting way to help students learn a language better, especially some digital games which are available online. Through these games, students are able to raise their interests in participating and practicing.

     I tried an online game names Heart of Tota. This is an adventure game which could lead students to keep exploring on an island to look for a rare artifact, "Heart of Tota".

     I played this game for twice. During playing this game, I felt that this game is easy to control since I just need to use my mouse to click on items to collect and directions to go. Through this games, students will be able to learn some new vocabulary and phrases since they are required to collect items such as tools to help them during their exploration. In addition, students will gain the ability of giving directions with the assistance of their teachers.

     During playing the game, it would be reasonable to consider the teacher as an instructor and monitor. Firstly, teachers could go through the instruction with the whole class, for example, asking students to read the instruction together, and provide more details to students if they are confused. This is a good opportunity for students to practice their reading and speaking skills as well as their comprehension competence. Also, teachers could show an example of how to play this game before letting students play by themselves to make sure that students are on the right track. In order to make sure that all students are actively involved, it may be better if teachers could divide students into teams and ask them to compete with each other by counting times they spend and checking times that they click until they find the "Heart of Tota". In order to assess if the learning objectives have been met, teachers could prepare a small quiz which includes vocabulary appears in this game. Additionally, teachers could ask each team to write down their own walkthroughs, and then check the provided walkthroughs with students together, especially the learning objectives are related to vocabulary and giving directions.

     From my own experience, I would like to say that having games in class is a good method to not only raise students' interests but also help students develop their own learning abilities through letting students explore by themselves.

Performance Indicator-ESL.E.2-4.1.1.3
Students select information appropriate to the purpose of the investigation, and relate ideas from one written or spoken source to another.

Games Inspire Learning

     Gamification is a concept which involves games in teaching and learning, and its goal is to help language learners to develop their abilities and skills in language learning when they are engaged in games. Compared to traditional language teaching, involving games in language education becomes more and more popular, even in higher education. As the article 7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning notes that "the interactive dynamic of games has the potential to benefit teaching and learning". Since during classroom-based games, students are able to develop their own abilities and language skills while they are engaged in games. Involving various games in language class not only aims to have something for fun but also to encourage students to actively participate and practice what they have learned and to provide feedback which will be helpful for students' future learning. Another significant feature of involving games in language teaching could be motivation. Motivation plays an important role in learning, especially in language learning; with motivation, students will be able to hold a positive attitude and keep exploring their own potential abilities on language learning. Moreover, students who have motivation in learning usually learn better and behave more effective than students who lack motivations. Therefore, through games, students are able to gain more interest in learning, to know what they have learned, and more importantly--to realize what they need to improve. The more they are encouraged and inspired, the better they learn.

     A number of games which are regarded as effective games could be considered by language educators. One of the types which is typical and popular in our modern society might be the digital games which requires the use of technology while teaching. In the article "Just Playing Games? A Look at the Use of Digital Games for Language Learning", five key elements--goals, interaction, feedback, context, and motivation, which are meaningful in language learning have been emphasized. Especially the key feature of context, it serves an effective function in language learning since authenticity is considered importantly in language teaching. Digital games could provide multi-dimension contexts which are powerful to develop communicative competences to language learners; therefore, through digital games, students can gain more opportunities to practice how to use language in a real world.

     This point of view was also mentioned by Tom Chatfield in his speech Tom Chatfield: 7 Ways Games Reward the Brain. And he brought up with another important feature of games-- rewards. As Tom said, rewards encourages development. The more rewards a learner gains, the more participation he/she wants to produce. Therefore, this process becomes a circulation which encourages the learner to participate more, practice more, and receive more feedback. Through games with rewards, learners will develop clear goals in order to complete the games and gain rewards, and they will try their best during the process of games. All these will benefit the learner for better language learning.