LING 4980/5980: Sim-Gaming for Lang. Learning (Fall 2009)
In LING 4980/5980: Sim-Gaming for Language Learning, students will learn how simulation and simulation-gaming can be used to make language learning not only engaging, but exciting, and directly relevant to real-world situations.
The course will cover not only sim-game design and use, but will also show how to select and adapt existing sim-games, including ones designed for purposes other than language learning (such as board-game style role plays, computer adventure games, and virtual environments such as Second Life). Simulation-games not only motivate students more than traditional instruction, they allow participants to actually communicate in the language they are learning. With sim-gaming, people learn how to communicate by communicating, not by hearing someone explain about it.
This class will focus both on computer and so-called “paper-and-pencil” simulation-games (the latter using documents, physical props, and so on). In-class activities will include discussion of readings, demonstration of simulation techniques (with students taking part in actual simulations), and simulation-design/use workshops. Grading will be based on class participation, written preparation for in-class work, and a course project.
The professor has been a user and designer of simulations for language learning (and teacher training) since the 1980’s. Quite a few of these have been computer-based simulations, the others, of the so-called “paper-and-pencil” variety. He has given presentations on simulation and language learning at local, state, national, and international conferences, and has published numerous articles on the subject, in periodicals such System, CAELL Journal, LACUS Forum, the SAGSET Journal, CALL, and Simulation & Gaming, as well as having published chapters in various books. He is currently a member of the editorial board of Simulation & Gaming, a journal which he has also guest-edited on a few occasions.
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ENGL 5980 fulfills an options requirement for the MA in English — ESL.