Mario and Luigi, aka the Super Mario Brothers, from Nintendo, have stood as beloved game characters for decades and still are the central characters to many new Mario games.  In almost every Mario game, the goal is to jump through obstacles, defeat enemies, and solve puzzles to save the Princess (and sometimes the whole galaxy).  There are single player and multiplayer games, as well as various iterations of the same game.  Take, for example, Super Mario 1, 2 and 3.  Yet, there is very little language involved in the actual playing of most Mario games and we wouldn’t suggest them as good choices for target language practice.

So, why even mention the game series?  What can we as language educators learn from Super Mario Brothers?  While not directly related to the actual use of digital games, I would like to use this post to suggest three lessons we can take to heart from this time honored game tradition.

(1) ‘Death’ is not the end of the world and everyone should have the opportunity for unlimited lives, even if it means having to go back and re-do some levels for additional practice.

In Super Mario Brothers, there are numerous attempts to earn additional lives and keep playing until one is successful.  Even if one loses all of his or her lives, the player only starts at the beginning of the world, and is not deemed a failed player.  The same should be true of second language learning.  Encouraging failure (similar to what “kills” you in Mario) as an essential component of learning (e.g., negotiation of meaning and communication strategies) and providing the opportunity to continue trying until the skills are mastered has the potential to be very powerful.  As we design learning experiences (in mediated or non-mediated contexts), providing opportunities for failure with a learning purpose allows learners to move at their own pace and learn from their own mistakes.

(2) The Power Jump Paradox or…you must learn to master things at your own level or you will be unsuccessful in future levels.

One component of digital games that we find to be especially compelling for L2 learning is the way that feedback is delivered.  Super Mario Brothers is especially successful at providing scaffolded, meaningful feedback.  For example, an  important skill to be mastered is the power jump (i.e., the ability to jump extra high or over long distances).  When learning to power jump, the player first encounters the skill in a practice space where failure is annoying, but does not inhibit gameplay.  However, as the game progresses, the power jump becomes more and more critical until it is impossible to move forward without it.  In this way, the player receives continuous feedback on the success (or failure) of the power jump until it is impossible to survive without it.  Language learning feedback would also benefit from this type of gradual, scaffolded feedback in both foreign and second language contexts.  Learners should be given multiple opportunities to use the material being learned and then be assessed on their ability to apply it in a high stakes situation.   This stands in stark contrast to learning something one day and then being tested on it at the end of a chapter or unit.

(3) Tricks, tools, and resources are invaluable in saving the princess.

It would be impossible to save the princess without the help of Toad, Yoshi, and multiple other in-game characters and resources.  They guide the player and assist in difficult tasks.  As language educators, we should encourage the proper use of resources as opposed to banning them from the classroom.  For example, an online translator, while often used improperly, might serve as an excellent catalyst for a discussion of lexical diversity or literal versus functional translations.  Instruction on how to best use translators and dictionaries could prove to be invaluable.

-J. Sykes

When thinking about game-enhanced L2 teaching, the first question that probably comes up is “which game should we play?”. A place to start is by becoming familiar with the distinctions among genres and types of the growing number of computer and video games that are commercially available. We think the genres with the most potential for L2TL are role-play, adventure, simulation, word, strategy, and action games. Genres like sports, dice, cards, music, and exercise games are perhaps less applicable, although they may not be out of the question if they involve language use. Role-play and adventure games tend to be more language-rich than other genres, notably for narrative and conversation, especially if they’re multiplayer. Adventure, simulation, and strategy games involve problem-solving and strategic decision-making, which can involve language use, and they often incorporate contextualized narratives for large amounts of vocabulary as well. Word games are probably relatively self-explanatory, although these games tend to be more traditional (e.g. scrabble or boggle) and have fewer narratives.

After choosing a game, the next step is to play the game and experience it from the dual perspective of the player-learner. Most every game has a tutorial setting you can go through at first, and usually in the first few levels of a game you are protected and supported with extra help and hints. Go through these tutorials slowly and reflectively. You will most likely notice that while you will use your L2 knowledge to figure out how to play the game, you will use also your knowledge of game playing to help you figure out some of the L2. In addition, you will notice differences in the L2 register of the rules, interface, and gameplay, and the L2 register of the narratives of the game content. The interaction of several kinds of knowledge are in operation here: your knowledge of how to play digital games and this genre of game in particular, domain knowledge about the fictional worlds of the game content, and the language registers involved in this knowledge, in your L1 and the L2. For example, let’s say you are learning Spanish and are going to play an adventure game called ‘Los Tesoros de la Isla del Misterio: Las Puertas del destino‘. You may be pretty good at action games, but have only a basic understanding of how to play adventure games, although you’re very familiar with stories about jungle explorers and anthropologists, since you’re an Indiana Jones fan. You’ve never played a video game in your L2, but have read some stories in your L2 set in jungle and museum settings. All of these will impact your experience playing and learning through the game.

The best way to gain an understanding of these phenomena is to experience them by playing various games and developing your own experiential insight. For the Games to Teach Project we will soon be producing a guide to game evaluation for game-enhanced L2TL using some of the insights that our own and others’ research provides on these issues.

– J. Reinhardt

Why use digital games in L2 instruction? First, learning is involved, and language learning can be part of it. Learning to play requires figuring out the rules, strategizing, and solving the puzzles and problems built into the game. Usually this requires reading, exploring, hypothesis testing, and interacting with other players, all of which can involve the meaningful use of language. Also, they’re motivating, and not just because of the cool graphics. Most games, the successful ones anyway, have figured out how to balance just the right amount of challenge and reward to keep the players engaged. Players are given just what they need when they need it, and the reward for successful play is more and better resources. Games are designed to hook players and motivate them. If we use games, maybe some of this motivation can transfer to language learning.

There’s also the argument that digital games are hugely popular, and the best way to reach a learner is to use familiar means to do so. In the 19th century era of industrial schooling, teachers used chalkboards, students sat in immovable rows facing the teacher, and everyone was controlled by bells and schedules. If you buy the argument that this model served the needs of society for factory workers in the 1800’s, then you should realize that we don’t really need factory workers in the 2000’s anymore, so the model no longer works. The differences between how students are educated in school, and how they use technology and information outside of school is an ever-widening gap, and maybe, a reason why education is in crisis. In 2010, we need critical and creative thinkers who can use different languages in the ways that expert speakers of those languages use them, which means we need to think about literacy, learning, and teaching in new ways.

So digital games have potential. But how can games be used to teach what L2 learners need to learn? This is where teachers enter, in the form of ‘pedagogical mediation’. Ask a foreign language teacher if they’d use a movie or a non-scholastic/non-academic book in their classroom, and they’d answer “of course!”. Using realia like movies effectively, however, takes a lot of mediation by the teacher, for example, designing specific listening, writing, vocabulary, or grammar activities around the content and language of the movie. The same argument can be made for games, in that they are cultural products just like movies and books, and in the same way, they require pedagogic mediation. Yet games are different from movies, in that their strengths lie not necessarily in offering windows into the culture of study (although some do), but that they demand players interact and make choices about the game content, which, if mediated appropriately, can fit with learner needs and curricular objectives. They’re interactive in ways that books and movies are not, although this doesn’t guarantee learning. Playing just any game won’t necessarily teach you a foreign language, just as sitting in front of a TV and watching a show in that language wouldn’t do too much either, not unless it’s right for you, and you’re prepared.

It’s important to realize that all games are not created equal. There are literally thousands of commercially available digital games out there, of dozens of different genres, like first-person shooter, role play, real-time strategy, and simulation/management. Some are meant for solo play, others for multiplayer play. Some are very complex and take many hours to learn to play well, while others are easy to figure out. Some are rich in language and the use of story, and others are possible to play without any language use at all.  In some games, winning means beating the system in cooperation with other players, while in other games, winning means defeating an opponent. When deciding on which games to use for L2 teaching and learning, all of these features require  consideration.

The purpose of the Games To Teach project is to give L2 instructors the tools they need to effectively evaluate and mediate digital games. To do this, we’re comparing game design theory and theories of L2 learning and teaching, and coming up with frameworks and rubrics for designing game-enhanced L2 learning activities. We’ll make these frameworks available here, in the form of game reviews, downloadable manuals and materials, and white papers on related topics, for an audience of L2 instructors, researchers, and even game designers. We’re working with Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian, but the frameworks will be applicable to any game in any language. We hope that by becoming aware of these issues and utilizing these resources, the foreign/second language educator community can become active, rather than passive, participants in a digital game-based L2 teaching and learning future.

– J. Reinhardt