Understandably when working through potential issues with
making a serious game system, there is a need to refine and attempt to focus in
on the capabilities that can be made from a game concept. Last week, I
attempted to construct a game system that would help with learning Japanese, and
at the time, the system was very raw, and had not taken into consideration many
factors. Going into the concept I knew that I wanted to try to expand on
Japanese language learning, being a topic I spent a lot of time in, at the same
time I had not taken in the entirety of the situation.
When trying to design a system one has to focus on what exactly
is the goal of your system. The background for my idea comes directly from my
personal experience and observation of my peers. Japanese language learning is
not an easy feat, and often it is trying to give the person motivation beyond
the kind of structure provided in a traditional learning environment. The
addition of game like elements with scores and activities could provide some
motivation, at least as an alternate approach to other styles of learning, but
that alone could not guarantee increased involvement and motivation. While the
previously thought of quiz and flashcard method can be used to verify the
acquired knowledge, there needs to be more of a push to try to motivate.
Originally, I had conceptualized the idea of giving possible
suggestion for activities a user could do to increase their exposure to the
language. This idea while good at providing alternative methods of learning,
does not impart itself into the system in any way. In order to try to give them
credit for exploring alternative activities I would want to suggest possible activities
that users could take part in with rewards for participation. Based on where
the system is run, one could give local events which could add to the learning opportunities
and get users more actively involved in situations involving Japanese language
and culture. For Hawaii, examples could include going to events like the
Honolulu Festival, or watching a Japanese film that is screening at the
Honolulu Film Festival. These events could be conducted similar to the Kukui
Cup's system where someone will award codes for them, or could use trivia that
occurs at the events to help them. In addition events could include making
arrangements to converse with a Japanese language speaker in the language and
providing awards for possibly either the interaction and/or conducting a kind
of interview in Japanese and understanding the responses.
Additionally in order to appeal to users of the game who are
less than adventurous but still need motivation to practice, learn, and apply
their Japanese, I would also like to create or allow the use of friendly
translation exercises. While this idea is limited by the ability to try to
cheat the system, I believe there is potential in allowing for activities where
a user can select an item for translation and provide both the Japanese and a
translation and glossary of grammatical points and vocabulary which could be
submitted for points. The submission would need to be assessed for points in
some manner (as genre, length, difficulty, and style would vary). By requiring
a grammatical point glossary the use of copy and pasting internet translations
could be averted and would increase a user's research and translation skills. This
probably would be the most difficult to assess as it not only would require
setting qualifications of quality in several ways such as length of entry,
accuracy of translation, smooth transition into English, difficulty of entry,
etc., but it would also need to have several different rubrics for the
different types of possible items to translate. With the potential to translate
several different items like video clips, radio shows, book excerpts, song
lyrics, comics, etc. students would be able to try to apply their knowledge
directly to whatever media interests them and gain some kind of feedback from
it. I could possibly be the most difficult item to assess, but would create a
good opportunity for a user wanting to learn or sharpen their knowledge of Japanese
as a language to go beyond the learning tools and examples given in books and
begin to see how the language is used in real world situations.
Potential awards could involve adding a story to the event,
similar to the Serious Games like World Without Oil which could allow students to be taken in by story, and their efforts to learn
the language could help them progress. This could also be tied into the event
portion, as events they go to could have an active involvement in the story and
lead them to feel more involved.
By including more active participation, the system would
require someone running the game to be very experienced with the language to
provide feedback. Initially developing the system I had thought to try to
develop a system that would not require as much human assessment, but in
designing something that is expansive and motivating there is need for
adaptability beyond creating lessons and the ability to let user's of the
system grow at their own pace. By providing both an adventurous, outgoing idea
of attending events and the free, self-influenced idea of letting a student
pick something to translate of their own level of award, there are more
attempts to add depth and opportunity at the same time. Though this does fit
closely to a Kukui Cup system, I am continuing to search for more active ways
to involve elements users would initially be interested in that could open more
opportunities for them to gain motivation in their learning of Japanese as a
language.
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