Effective Educational Game Design: An Analysis Of English Language Learning In Australian Primary Schools

Literature Review

Discuss about the Effective Educational Game Design.

The term ‘design’ can be defined broadly and specifically. According to Quintana et al, (2013), April), design is something that makes things better for the people. It is focused on human behavior and is for the better quality life. Design, as opined by…transforms an idea into a blueprint that is useful for making anything. The main thing is to translate the idea. Design has the ability to get to the idea. Designers can turn any idea into something that is not only useful but also desirable. As discussed by McKay (2016), commercial viability is another aspect of the design that a design keep in mind. However, there exist many wrong notions about the term “design”. It is not something that indicates style or fashion.

Designers may think of making their designers stylish yet it is not the only thing that is meant by design. It can be said that design has a fundamental aspect. McKay (2016) added that design involves many trails before it is applicable. At the first stage, the designers focus on keeping the customer’s requirements. The designer thinks both scientifically and philosophically before designing. According to Creswell (2013), designers use different methods to design a product. The methods include the combination of market research, prototyping, trend analysis and user testing. Design does not need to be anything new or fresh. It could be traditional, stereotype if it is the demand of the customers.

Perrotta et al (2013) said that children acquire knowledge easily through what they hear and see. Reading is a difficult task for the students of primary schools in different countries. Especially, while learning English language the task becomes more difficult in a country like Australia because of the cultural diversity existing in the country. Perrotta et al (2013) added that over the ages, the method of imparting education has changed due to the technological advancement. According to Perrotta et al (2013), now the teachers are acknowledging the importance of educational electronic games within the classroom for the benefit of the children. Electronic educational games have been a useful tool in the houses. The parents let their children imbibe knowledge through these games. Perrotta et al (2013) defined how this trend is now followed and practiced by the teachers in many primary schools of Australia. In this essay, the effectiveness of the design of these electronic educational games in the primary schools of Australia will be analyzed by throwing light on some of the major books based on this subject.     

Perspective in Game Design

On November 30, 2014, a report came out stating the changing scenario in Australia. The teachers give the children, who use video games in their houses for the purpose of education, the accessibility of using them inside the classroom (Jennings, 2014). However, resistance was there before it made it to the classroom. In the present situation, the teachers are recognizing the educational benefits of it for the children. Dourda et al (2014) opined that game design influences instructional design in following ways:

• Analysis of present movement that uses games and game design for the enhancement of learning and teaching
• It creates a situation for the analysis of the narrative, perspective and communication among the learners.

According to Dourda et al (2014), the game designers need to decide the perspective of the game. It means the game that they design should focus on satisfying the specific users. Perspective can be of different types. The early game design included Orthographic view. For example- Pac man, and asteroids. Dourda et al (2014) described the other types which are the following:

• The side-scrollers in the game indicated that some space is given in the outside of the window that one can see.
• The Isometric view suggested the two and a half dimension for the game.
• First person perspective gives importance to the player’s character
• Third person perspective

Dourda et al (2014) added that perspective matters when the game is designed for the educational purpose. The designers keep two things in mind. These are:

• Transformation of learners into a material
• Creation of problem and project based learning facility

Perrotta et al (2013) opined that Computer Assisted Language Learning( CALL) in recent times. They added that it is advantageous for many reasons. These are the following:

• Educational games encourage the learners to learn
• They are interesting and motivating
• They help the student to gain practical knowledge
• Incorporating the games into language learning accelerates the language learning process because interactivity, participation and socialization can be exercised through it.
• Electronic educational games ensure real- time feedback, which enhances the chance of improvement of the student.
• Students also develop decision-making capacity by playing those games.

All these are kept in mind while designing the games for English language learning too. According to Gee (2014), the game designers include the assessment and adaptation features into the game for the benefit of the primary school students in Australia. He added that apart from the CALL, there is Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) method that involves the usage of Tablet PCs, and smart phones and other portable gadgets. While setting the perspective for teaching English, all the countries maintain the objective of the national education policy.

Ryu (2013) discussed that Australia has allowed and maintained the multi cultural diversity with open arms. As discussed by him, the national policy on languages in Australia that was amended in 1987 provides the immigrants with English language education without any payment. The country always tries to maintain the high standards of the English Language teachers by assessing them through examinations and time-to-time evaluation.

Their concern for English language besides the native languages encourages the game developers to focus on the current needs. Undoubtedly, for a multi-cultural country like Australia both the natives and the various immigrants need to acquire the language to be able to work properly.

As discussed by Chik (2014), the independent learning process through the video games is the reason behind its growing popularity Chik (2014) added that language acquisition needs interest and concentration from the part of the learners.

The Effectiveness of Educational Game Design

It is more difficult when the learners are children. Here is the utility of educational video games lies. Ryu (2013) opined something similar to Chik (2014) and stated that language acquisition needs high degree of involvement into the task. The children, who love to play video games, learn faster than reading due to their high degree of involvement. It is because most of the video games contain both the aural and the textual languages. As pointed out by Dourda et al (2014), through video games the children become able to decode and analyze the language. They decode various input channels by using one input channel. The players control the games through various in-game choices such as- pause the game; repeat the game, converse from one thing to another. Dourda et al (2014) said that video games increase the motivation to learn the language. Another study conducted by Chik (2014), it is a difficult job of the teachers to balance the motivation between playing the games and learning a new language. Not every child can utilize the benefits because of their low cognitive ability. Yet it cannot be denied that language acquisition through video games is a useful tool.

An interesting study by Ryu (2013) described that the video games contain natural repetitions. For example, in role-playing games it require constant setting up of the mini-battles, and in simulation games and virtual pet the gamers have to use the interactive menus frequently. The difference between the other mediums such as books, movies and the video games, as discussed by Ryu (2013), is that the former ones do not use repetitive vocabulary making the language acquisition slow and difficult. However, what Perrotta et al (2013) opined is very interesting. It reveals the fact that video games enable the gamers to act physically while making a move. They learn the language easily due to the connection of grammar and vocabulary with the Total Physical Response (TPR) activities involved in the game. (Jennings, 2014).Video games such as Minecraft allow the learners to create a new world of their own within the game. At present time, students of many Victorian schools are developing different video games. Recently in 2014, The Australian Council of Education Research Foundation conducted its first STEM video game contest for the secondary school students. However, many primary schools are taking initiatives to encourage language acquisition through educational video games. (Jennings, 2014)

Conclusion

Educational video games are encouraging and useful. The recent statistics have brought it to the notice that the parents, the teachers and the game developers have understood the advantages of incorporating video games into the regular curriculum within the classrooms. Time has changed since people have learned to take technological support for their benefit. Replacement of books and movies with interactive and educational video games prove this point. The government initiatives are also trying to acknowledge this new trend. As a result, the primary school students in Australia are learning English language by using different video games.

Reference

Chik, A. (2014). Digital gaming and language learning: Autonomy and community. Language Learning & Technology, 18(2), 85-100.

Dourda, K., Bratitsis, T., Griva, E., & Papadopoulou, P. (2014). Content and Language Integrated Learning through an Online Game in Primary School: A Case Study. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 12(3), 243-258.    

Gee, J. P. (2014). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Macmillan.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/education/teachers-reevaluate-value-of-video-games-20141110-11jw0i.html         

Perrotta, C., Featherstone, G., Aston, H., & Houghton, E. (2013). Game-based learning: Latest evidence and future directions. Slough: NFER.    

Ryu, D. (2013). Play to learn, learn to play: Language learning through gaming culture. ReCALL, 25(02), 286-301. 

Quintana, C., Krajcik, J., Soloway, E., Fishman, L. C. D. I. B., & O’Connor-Divelbiss, S. (2013, April). Exploring a structured definition for learner-centered design. In Fourth international conference of the learning sciences(pp. 256-263).

McKay, A., Stiny, G. N., & de Pennington, A. (2016). Principles for the definition of design structures. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 29(3), 237-250.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.