By Michael Hart, Campus Technology
In the game, which is intended to help students learn Japanese — although it is designed to teach other languages as well — players go on “quests” to learn new words by watching game characters talk to each other. For instance, as one character walks away, another that is left behind says, “Sayonara.” The hope is that the player understands “Sayonara” means “goodbye.” At that point, the player can drag the word from a speech balloon into an inventory of terms that can later be used to construct sentences. In one group, students were connected via a chat interface with another player who could, if they wanted, offer advice on how to play. The second group played a version of the game in which they were definitely required to collaborate on quests. The research group found the students in the second so-called “high-interdependence” group spent more time communicating and, as a consequence, learned more words.
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