Your Time, Your Language

There are always various computer or mobile platform based games and tools for language learning. We have dictionary and translator apps galore (albeit, we are often warned by professors against using such translators).  But sometimes these ready made lessons on the fly are all we have the time for.  There are stay-at-home parents, full time employees and busy adults everywhere who either don't have the time or simply don't have the confidence to enroll in a semester of language study.  So is there any truly viable alternative?

I recently encountered the mobile app and computer based program Duolingo via a CNET article on best Android language apps.  I thought it was all very interesting but the blurb was incredibly brief and I have an iphone rather than Android phone.  However this program was brought to my attention again another day. I work part time at a bookstore and was assisting a woman who was looking for Spanish workbooks to try and retrieve her previously fluent Spanish skills.  She was perhaps around 50 years of age, well spoken and certainly did not seem to be even considering registering for college courses.  I mentioned to her I had read about Duolingo, but that I found it under an article for Android.  She then laughed and pulled out her iphone, on which she had the app.  Thus, I discovered it is also available for Apple platforms and that this somewhat elderly woman actually ventured to use the program. She continued to explain she uses it on her computer as well and very much enjoyed the program.

After this encounter I decided to look a little more seriously at this app. It seems hard to believe that a little time clicking through a game would improve Spanish skills to any serious degree, and particularly I was curious about how it could help someone who used to be fluent.

According to the study conducted in 2012, testing a sample of exactly half men and women and whose average age was 34.9 years, such a program does indeed exist.  Not only did a great majority of the subjects report favorable interest in the program during their use, but there were significant gains in Spanish knowledge.  Their progress was tested by looking at pre- and post-test scores on WebCAPE (Web Based Computer Adaptive Placement Exam).  This is the same sort of test used to place students into the appropriate level of language course at the university level.

Over a period of eight weeks using this program, students showed an average of 8.1 pt improvement per one hour of study on Duolingo.  The conclusion was that through 26-49 hours of study, one could theoretically progress to a level equivalent to that of one semester of college language coursework.  Considering that 55.3% of the participants were full-time employees, this alternative is a great relief as compared to an in-person course, which often requires students to meet four days a week for at least an hour.  Adding in the driving and parking time for these classes, costs of gas, supplies, textbooks etc. the mobile app alternative would be much welcomed.  Another interesting factor that significantly affected the results was the reason for studying. Although the majority were using the app for personal interest, it was instead those who studied for travel that showed the highest improvement.

I suppose here my only questions would be how this translates into speaking ability as the tests did not include an assessment of spoken proficiency, and any in-person classwork would provide and enhance that aspect. I also wonder why such a large gap (26-49 hours) to cite an "average" time needed to equate to one semester class.  Over a testing period of only 8 weeks, it seems a large range to conclude with.  Finally, although not necessarily a question, I agree with the research conclusion that recommends Duolingo include a clock to record hours spent in a week/month/etc. of time studying. A user may not realize that any hiatus taken due to busy schedules may be as long as it has, and any language teacher would agree that below a certain time (in the case of this study, 2 hours a week) the study would not help improve skills in any way.

Overall, I would say between this study, CNET reviews, and the nice woman at the bookstore, we can conclude that there is an option for self study that amounts to actual language improvement and one of this options would include Duolingo.

Language on the Go

One of my primary motivations for studying education (particularly language in my case) and technology is to consider where it might go. I constantly have experienced and seen in others a complacency about language learning. This is especially true of English speakers, which has come to be accepted as a pretty much fact.  Combined with a rising tendency to multitask, often misconstrued by traditional educators as form of ADD in students, there is a growing population who have simply decided that language learning is not convenient and therefore not likely for them. And in a world that increasingly speaks English, many who become discouraged by the tediousness of language learning simply decide it isn't worth the effort.

I, however, believe we can use the tendency of people to multitask and the likelihood of them always having some sort of mobile tool on hand to our advantage.  Part of this is in the need to be working on something and/or entertain ourselves. How many with a smartphone would voluntarily sit waiting for a friend silently with the phone discretely put away? More likely you are scanning articles on BBC, checking emails, or even just playing Angry Birds. It doesn't really matter what you are doing, as long as you are doing something.

Image from Tip Tap Tones - referenced below

It is this market of time in a person's day that some developers have chosen to utilize.  The designers of an app called "Tip Tap Tones" have created a mobile "microtraining" game that can be utilized during fragments of free time throughout the day.

Researchers cite one of the most difficult aspects of learning Mandarin to be the perception of tones. Often the first year or two of university level language study is dedicated to understanding this complex and often entirely novel sound system.  Anyone familiar with the Critical Period Hypothesis knows that many believe part of our ability to learn a language fully is due to exposure. We do not even need to know what a sound means, but the fact we have heard it makes it likely to be learned in the future. On the other hand, lack of exposure before puberty results in a near impossibility to fully acquire given phonetic distinctions.  Relating to a child's first language acquisition, infants show signs of understanding the words, voice, and tone of a parent figure before they can speak.  This is due to the fact that they are able to hear and begin to perceive sounds even while still in the womb.  Much of our difficulty as English speakers with a language such as Mandarin is that this language is tonal. It heavily relies on tone and inflection for basic meaning distinctions rather than simply an expressive tool.  We may know that a rising inflection is a question, but even then we play around with the tone in our own speech, without our meaning being misconstrued in any way. In Mandarin Chinese however, the case is very different. As English speakers, most of us having never encountered a tonal language, our ears are simply not experienced to distinguish between tones because in our language it is of little importance.  Therefore, in learning a language such as this, the first thing to focus on is mere exposure and exercises in perception. We cannot be expected to reproduce differences we cannot hear.

The idea presented by Tip Tap Tones is a level based game that steadily increases in difficulty as the learner-player accumulates points.  In this way, they have managed to take one of the most complex and time consuming aspects of learning a given foreign language, and provided a simple, fun way for learners to practice  and learn without the feeling they have to make any heavy investment on time.  The results showed an average of 25% increase in ability to correctly identify tones in around 71 minutes of gameplay, spread over only three weeks. I'd certainly invest in having access to that app over mindlessly launching birds from a slingshot any day.

They concluded, "we have shown how our design of mobile microtraining has transformed a slow-paced, low-feedback drill into a fast-paced, high-feedback, learner-driven game playable abywhere."
*This app is available as a free Microsoft Research application on the Windows Phone marketplace.

This sort of quick, on the go access to language learning is the sort of concept that I have always been interested in. Is it possible to take a task that previously required years and years of classroom hours and homework drills, listening to a single voice for days upon days repeating information and transform it into something versatile, quick, and fun?  Why yes it certainly is. Given the variety of environments we now have access to, the fact that the classroom is no longer confined to an actual classroom, and the digital world allows a connection to unlimited voices and speakers we can transform this task quite easily with the help of applications such as Tip Tap Tones. Tones may be the aspect of beginning Mandarin that requires the most time and focus, but now that time can be spread out and easily completed throughout the user's normal day.  Focused classroom time or interaction can now be spent on vocabulary or other lessons, allowing the student to always be moving forward.  As we open our minds to possibilities such as mobile microtraining we can redefine the language curriculum and credit the learner with individualized training at their own discretion, which often gives learners more motivation and confidence to continue.

Reference: Tip Tap Tones: Mobile Microtraining of Mandarin Sounds.  (2012).

 MobileHCI’12, September 21–24, 2012, San Francisco, CA, USA. 

Learner Motivation in MMORPGs - Research Review

I had the wonderful opportunity this week to read an article by a fellow serious game advocate that will be published.  What was nearly as interesting as the article itself, was the timing of being able to read this just after my previous posting. I feel his research was actually very relevant to the concept of game attitudes and refocusing our attention on the needs they meet and the benefits provided by games toward learning.  Min Lun Wu's article is intriguing in several ways to a field of research that is still relatively new and emerging.  He and his team chose to study casual and non-gamers interests rather than the opinions of students who play regularly.  In looking at MMORPGs which often have a high learning curve and are intimidating to non-players, this is a step in the right direction toward understanding real-world implications of implementing these games.  Additionally, rather than jumping the gun and looking at vocabulary increases or actual effects of the game, it questions the very basis of why we should use them and attempts to empiricize the factors associated with this issue.  While effects are very important, I believe we have to fully explore the basic principles and reasoning involved in using games in order to work toward a truly digital learning environment in a world where traditional lessons still rule.

While my own work focused on sociocultural theory, his research isolated the motivations for games and how that may relate to learning.  This research is framed in self-determination theory and Yee's 10 subcomponents of motivation.  Both of these formats identify a need for autonomy, challenge, and socialization.  Upon concluding the findings of which aspects of motivation were provided by the game, Min Lun Wu's article also investigated what benefits toward language acquisition were actually perceived by the players.  The overlapping factor was the aspect of socialization and teamwork, and this is wherein lies the strongest benefit of games to learning, and especially in language learning. I have also identified a strong correlation between the social communities of games and the scaffolding effect required by sociocultural theory for learning. This is one of the major necessities for language learning, a need often unmet by traditional classrooms with an instructor-audience dynamic. Of course teachers attempt to provide an environment for interaction but in the real world, students are shy, nervous, anxious about their skills or how they will be perceived, and in all honesty they are only able to spend time practicing with other students of the language who may not even be able to provide the correction and feedback that is needed.

Games provide access to an entire world of native speakers of the target language, which is something that traditional classes will most likely never be able to provide.  This article will provide essential foundation to the world of serious games by empiriczing the issues often brought up only as theory. Of course research students as myself can say that theoretically, games have the assets that are deemed necessary by researchers and theorists on education. However, to utilize more than one framework on motivation, including those that have been applied to fields outside of education and allow non-gamers the opportunity to personally identify where they see benefit and value in games both as it relates to motivation theories as well as how they believe it does via open-ended questions allows us a very different sort of insight into the role games can play.

But: here are some questions as food for thought that I keep coming back to in reading any research on the matter.

1. What are the issues related to balancing the main benefit of MMORPGs, to me the huge player base which provides the scaffolding opportunities, with the extreme lack of player base in any language other than English?  Of course this is beneficial for ESL, but can it ever be extended to a large group of American language learners- students trying to meet foreign language requirements or learning languages for careers?

2. What is the true availability of these games?  Many such as World of Warcraft actually have a pretty steep expense of $15 a month after the first few levels, which for non-players may be just enough to discourage learners.

3. Is there room and is it worth it to customize content in the form of an MMORPG?  In addition to customizing for language or availability - what about the language that students actually encounter?  Many issues, as identified by Min Lun Wu, include archaic language (many of these games have a medieval theme and include archaic English terms), topics that are rather isolated to the game world (guild, ogre, warlock, etc.), and the issue of players avoiding communicative opportunities.  Sometimes due to an underdeveloped confidence in ability to play the game and complete quests, a player may avoid combat or competition in game and thus lose the opportunity to practice this sort of communication and the need to work in a team to accomplish said goals. While players often appreciate the ability to discover their world, walking around a forest and shooting at the wildlife for gold coins and increased mana will not provide the quality interaction that is necessary for language development. How do we ensure that the gameplay provides language content that is actually relevant for use outside the gaming realm?

4. Lastly there is the recurring issue of time.  Given the learning curve, character customization, load time - how valuable is game play as a learning tool? How do we contrast "one hour of game time" with the actual amount of time spent on interaction and thus time toward learning development?  What exactly is it we are testing these games for: use in the classroom, use in place of the classroom (in this case, where will game play occur and when?) or lastly, possibly only as a supplement to traditional classroom learning?  This will determine how beneficial/detrimental the use of games as it pertains to time will be and this is a question that is often avoided.

Overall, this article has definitely provided some very interesting facts and a new perspective on the use of games in language learning and I am very interested to see where it goes.  However, as all great research does, we are left with more questions to answer and I await the response to this call for future research.

Shifting our View of Games

I would like to take a moment to step back from reviews on current technology related issues.  A friend stayed with us this weekend and the topic of games came up.  We met in my MA program, and she is certainly one of the brightest people I know, always favoring books in favor of media. She has an interesting aversion to games, particularly of the video sort. I had to ask, what contributed to her exceptionally negative perception?

She recited anecdotes of boys she knew who would waste their lives away in front of the TV screen, always vying for the latest console.  Sometimes this obsession would continue to the point of causing failed grades and divorces.  I could not deny that at times this is what happens.  But in support of my entire research interests and passion for the idea of migrating learning to the technological field, I had to spend some time contemplating this issue.

I believe what this comes to is an issue of context. We have spent so long separating games from learning.  Children were raised believing that games can only be accessed after learning is done, after lessons are learned.  TV time is rewarded after school and homework and then taken away when grades fall.  Children learn the game is something to be mitigated by authority and relish in the freedom to enjoy themselves when that authority is relinquished in adulthood, causing grown people to often neglect responsibilities and relationships in favor of the ever-denied video game.

So here I propose that one of the first steps as a culture that we need to take in creating serious games and working toward the implementation of learning through technology is to reframe our interpretation of games.  They should no longer be so harshly separated from learning and intellectual goals.  We have some positive aspects in this direction as it is, and parents would do well to focus on the tools currently available. I am talking about those grade level supplemental computer games that children can play and practice vocabulary, memorization, and math at their current school grade level.


Additionally some games marketed solely for entertainment are adding elements of intellect.  A thought recently occurred to me about the promising effect of games such as Assassin's creed, where developers brought together researchers to help contribute to the factual story line.  It's fascinating after having studied abroad in Rome and staying for a weekend in Florence to see the city accurately come alive and to walk the same streets (virtually) in medieval times.  The game also provides options throughout the game at given checkpoints to read bios on the characters incorporated into the game's story who truly existed and places you visit of historical importance including the Medici family, the duomo, and even an explanation about the role of doctors during the time period including commentary on their unique masks.

I believe that in creating an environment for children to experience that games do not conflict with learning, but contribute to it, the two worlds will cease to be at odds.  By encouraging reading, history, math and science into the games they are already playing we can create a world where games are simply another viable option toward an end beneficial to both child and parent.

Self-organized learning: School in the Cloud

Mitra Sugata provided an excellent proposition for a concept he termed "school in the cloud." I was recommended to watch his presentation on TED by a friend. Not only entertaining, he presented some amazing ideas he discovered while doing a test on the potential and learning ability of children in rural India. His results called into question the nature of our educational system, but contextualized it as an issue with being outdated rather than broken.  While we all tend to agree on issues of the system, particularly the (over)use of standardized testing, our attention is directed to find the solution in a change of focus from the problem of the system to remembering what purpose the system was intended to serve.  This, my friends, is the key. We need to put education back in the hands of the people and this can be done by designing the digital classroom.

Children using Hole-in-the-Wall computer

The issue with the system is not what we have or don't have, but the purpose it's meant to serve.  We teach math, history and science and train children to regurgitate facts they may or may not ever need again so they can pass the same tests nationwide for years and years. But for what?  What happens after school ends and we are left with a generation of identical copies?  Of course children sit in class and sleep and stare when given monotonous information for no apparent reason.  How many times did we ask/hear in class "but when will I EVER use this?"  A kid may wonder, why do I need to know 2+2=4?  But come lunch time and that cookie is $4 and he or she has $2, he or she will certainly realize...oh hey, I need $2 and I could sneak a cookie in for lunch without mom knowing.  We often see examples of the ingenuity of our children and wonder, how did they learn that? They don't need to be taught, at least not in the way we have come to understand it.  The problem is not in the facts, it's in the learning itself.  People make it through the system, learn to look to the teacher for the lessons and the assignments but find themselves in the real world where the "teacher" figure is no longer at their disposal.  Oh my, how do I learn now?

Sugata's tests showed that provided a computer and nothing else, Indian children managed to teach themselves to use the machine, the language (English) of the computer, and even nuero-biology.  Learning is not about the level of the student, but the desire to find a solution.  Without the threat of exams and tests and only the measure of "did I succeed in finding my answer?" as the measurement of learning, they will learn.  Through this scope we can see talking in class as self-organization and the growth of interpersonal skills toward a shared goal rather than chaos in need of control and the disciplinarian teacher.

With the help of instant knowledge found on our computers and smart phones, we no longer need to focus on memorization of facts.  As Sugata pointed out, knowledge in itself has become obsolete and as teachers and educators we can turn our attention instead to teaching an understanding of the process.  A thought occurred to me as he was explaining this and showing clips of village children on the street teaching themselves and each other high school level science. I believe that with the help of technology, learning anything can be treated as learning a first language.  The type of learning that happens by chance by simply moving from day to day and interacting with peers.

Recent research in SLA has shown that traditional grammar drills in language classes have little to no effect.  It is simply the desire to communicate and association of form to meaning that results in language acquisition.  Mirroring this goal-orientated (communication in the case of language) method to learning, we can develop curriculum that provide the form (shared knowledge base as found on the internet) and allow students to discover the meaning as a process toward resolution. Given the tools and a relevant task, students will teach themselves.  Our aim in the new work force is no longer on identical human knowledge bases.  It is creative minds with the ability to use any given tool at their disposal to solve problems and innovate.  With that in mind, it is even more important to give students of today the tools they will use in the future and train them to learn, understand, use and change along with the tools. Jobs are no longer static across platforms. The more we use technology in work, the faster it changes.  There is no way to expect students to learn something at 10 that will be the same when they enter the work force.  Change is the name of the game, and focus should be on teaching children to change and grow as needed.  Learning is no longer about knowledge, but about the process.  And measurement of success will be measurement of ability to use and develop the individual thought process.

To prepare for today's growing needs, one only needs the technology and a mentality to return to an age reminiscent of the education provided by Socrates in group work and communication. Ancient meets contemporary in order to bring us back to the former glory we hope to achieve.  Let's recreate this ability to work together, taking the class from the forum to the clouds.  The sky is the limit.

Xbox One and UCI: University-Centered-Interface

I was procrastinating planning to teach my first ESL (English as a Second Language) group of kids by picking up a recent issue of Game Informer.  Amidst much debate over the new console release between Xbox and PS4, I was drawn to read up on the infamous Xbox One.  I have the PS3 and had no immediate desire to update, but my brother uses the Xbox currently and even he had some doubts about the Xbox One after a press conference on G4.

I was curious what the big commotion must be as ultimately they are just game consoles.  Yes, the apps have been adding up, but it is a game console nonetheless.  It seems, however, that Microsoft has been focusing on some pretty amazing things for their new console. These features seem to be an attempt to break from the confines of the game console market and instead become a sort of home entertainment managing system.  Unfortunately for them, it seemed users weren't entirely ready for that, but last I heard most of those issues were resolved after some careful listening by the developers.

But I digress.  One of my woes in prep for my ESL course was that, contrary to choosing activities from a text book as I anticipated, the director actually indicated this is a group of children in a summer program who may not be inclined to succeed in academic tasks. Instead I was referred to bring some games to the classroom. I agree, having fun is a great way to learn. But, board games? I don't have those anymore... now if there were a TV and I could bring Mario Kart, that would be a different story.  I could see it now, children throwing banana peels and turtle shells, laughing while learning colors, numbers, and the cardinals to indicate their places. I would have to do some more digging into what games would actually encourage speaking and learning the items, but it could be very good.  Problems with that however were clearly that this place isn't currently set up for that (but hopefully with blogs like mine to help get the word out, that can change), as well as the idea of lugging in a system, various games for that system, acquiring more as the kids develop and grow, and making sure that other instructors or employees/students of the facility don't steal my games.

Don Mattrick and the XBOX One

Here we come back to the article on Xbox live as presented in the July 2013 issue of Game Informer magazine.  I couldn't help but notice the features of this newest version of kinect and the ability to easily recognize users then log them into their corresponding Xbox live accounts.  I began to fantasize what it would be like if a facility such as this language center set up stations in each room with the consoles and created accounts for the teachers.  An instructor could walk into a room, instantly turn on the console and be signed into their account without wasting class time fumbling to get something set up.  We could verbally instruct the system to start a game of the student's choice.  No more lugging in giant boxes of games (as I will be doing tomorrow morning, apparently).  Everything will be ready and stored digitally and efficiently. Student scores can be logged in their user names per game.  They can practice speech on their own, but taking turns making the verbal commands to the system.  If the system cannot react, then possibly their accent needs work and they will know that without harsh feedback from us that might offend.

There's also the matter of constantly running apps that can easily be switched.  When running into any miscommunication or at a random student curiosity, one can switch by verbal command to google and pull up internet searches, youtube, email, and anything else and promptly switch back to game.  As for the world of serious games, the use of eye tracking and facial recognition to monitor player interest in the games can help designers understand what parts and tasks in an educational game are interesting and which are just tolerated, which parts require a higher level of mental gymnastics and which are lacking behind the user's current level.

These were only a few of the thoughts I had briefly while skimming the recent article and trying to relate to my current situation. I'm sure that should there arise a group of developers who addressed specifically the classroom possibilities for this system, a plethora of ideas would quickly rise.  Rather than simply addressing the UCI (user centered interface), we can begin to investigate the same personalization on a greater level. The systems and accounts could be varied for elementary school, high school, university, and language center styles.  If anyone else has comments on this, they would be most welcome.

Serious games? Surely, you can't be serious

The stigma around educational games continues to linger for many.  Studies continue to trickle in, with more focus continued on what tone of voice best resonates with students in a classroom. But in the age of technology, a rising generation of ADD ridden personalities, and the essential American need to keep moving, the very notion of classroom may soon be questioned.  I have worked as a teaching assistant and watched as students (adult students, mind you) game and plan and schedule and chat during class. So much so, the very class I assisted was finally transformed into a fully online course by my final semester.  I helped convert quizzes and assignments into formats compatible with delivery through the school's learning portal. I lamented with teachers about the "entitlement" felt by students. The lack of respect for the teacher, the inability to sit and focus or listen.  We just knew that students would all but forget entirely to submit their assignments without the pressure of attendance and professors and assistants watching over them. But the funny thing is, the grades actually rose.

Yes, we saw more assignments submitted, more log ins, more thoughtful contributions to the online discussions.  We were spending less "time" with the students but getting more results.  It seems with such limited time and interaction, they actually felt pressured to produce better results, to prove themselves.  In a faceless virtual world, they knew they needed to fully commit to assignments in order to be allotted the good grades they wanted.

It's a limited few at this point in time who can see and act witness to these sorts of changes and results.  I've seen the before and after. But many civilians and private sector members of society would still want "credible" proof.  Sure, myself a young recent grad may sound pro-technology, it's expected.  But people still want to hear from higher ups and those of higher authority about the matter.

Well, rest assured I have news for those lingering doubters.  We've all seen the movies. Where do the secret weapons, innovative research and seemingly doubtful processes that somehow produce outstanding results come from?  The results stretching beyond imagination and providing foundation for most commercial projects that soon take over the nature of our daily lives emerges from those lucky researchers with the benefit of being government funded.  Premise established, I would like to introduce the topic of video games used for second language acquisition.

We have numerous military agents hired into our armed forces and sent off to other countries.  But when we spend four years at university, with countless hours of homework in futile hopes of becoming half-way proficient in a foreign language, how do these hundreds of American men and women, often with families at home, have the time to defend our country, learn technologies and protocols, and still become fluent enough to help citizens of another country who often don't speak English?  The answer, my friend, lies in video games.

Tactical Iraqi: Language and Culture Training System
This program was reviewed by SWA Consulting in 2007.  The report was designed to review the efficacy of Tactical Iraqi, a computer based training and video game system.  While agreeing the program is in early stages and could certainly use ongoing improvements over time concurrent with future studies, the conclusion makes some interesting statements.

This report is one of the first I had read that explicitly make the assertion that "videogames are training tools, just as lectures, group discussions, and role plays." We have no problems accepting all the other methods as appropriate for lessons, classrooms, and various sorts of training. Somehow, we only recently are beginning to accept games (specifically video games) as just as appropriate.  The conclusion also brings some important notes to light, that the issues some may have with video games should not be focused on the games themselves. Videogames are simply a tool.  Ongoing research should focus on how we use this tool.  With further exploration on how the audience interacts with the games will dictate what sort of quests, missions, and objectives will be most effective.  It is this sort of matter that I would like to explore further in later posts.

Reference:
Surface, Ward and Associates.  Special Operations Language Training Software Measurement of Effectiveness Study (2007)