Game-Centered Language Learning based on Tasks, Dialogs and Cheating

The combination of gaming and language learning is not new, but it has not been applied in open education adventure games. Although it is known that especially young people aim to play games, their combination with learning is mainly limited to simulations. This does not have a high impact on intrinsic motivation. This paper provides an engine to create adventure games with a virtual world based on images and a dialog-based storyline. Learners interact with virtual entities in plausible contexts using the foreign language only. If learners are unaware of a word’s meaning, cheating is possible, enhancing the user model. Based on that, learning material can be generated to practice unknown vocab by regularly interrupting the game. The generated micro-course needs to be finished before the game continues. We tested a game created using the engine and got wide acceptance.